Social Deviance
Constructing Difference
Have you ever…
• Stolen something—no matter how small?
• Consumed alcohol while under the legal age
(not in the company of your parents)?
• Hit another person?
Focus Questions
• What is deviance?
• How do people become deviant?
• Who gets to define what is and is not
deviant? (And why do some behaviors get
defined as deviant while others do not?)
• What are the consequences of being
identified as deviant by others?
©Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage
Publications, 2008.
Definition
• In the strictest sense,
deviance is behavior that
violates a norm.
• Deviance is behavior,
ideas, or attributes that
are perceived by others as
abnormal, wrong, or
offensive.
Two perspectives on deviance
Absolutism:
• Approach to defining deviance that rests on
the assumption that all human behavior can
be considered either inherently good or
inherently bad
• Deviant act comes to define the individual’s
character
• Frequently based on stereotypes
– Examples?
All Parents who Spank are Abusing
Their Children
All Muslims are Terrorists
=
Two perspectives on deviance
Relativism:
• Approach to defining deviance that rests on the
assumption that deviance is socially constructed
• The same act committed at different times, or under
different circumstances may or may not be
considered deviant
• What is considered deviant changes based on the
time and place, and across history and cultures.
– Examples? (Iowa City ped. mall)
Social Conflict Theory Approach to
Crime/Deviance
“If one individual inflicts a bodily injury upon another which leads
to the death of the person attacked we call it manslaughter; on the
other hand, if the attacker knows beforehand that the blow will be
fatal we call it murder. Murder has also been committed if society
places hundreds of workers in such a position that they inevitably
come to premature and unnatural ends. Their death is as violent as
if they had been stabbed or shot…Murder has been committed if
society knows perfectly well that thousands of workers cannot avoid
being sacrificed so long as these conditions are allowed to continue.
Murder of this sort is just as culpable as the murder committed by
an individual.”
Frederick Engels
The Conditions of the Working Class in England
Social Conflict Approach to
Crime/Deviance
• Crime is a function of class conflict between
the wealthy and powerful and those who
lack wealth and power.
– 1) Norms and laws along with the enforcement
of these laws reflect the interests of the rich and
powerful. Thus, the rich and powerful are less
likely to commit or be accused of committing a
crime
– 2) Even if the behavior of the rich and powerful
is called into question, (even if accused) they
have the means to resist the criminal label (i.e.
avoid punishment
Corporate/White Collar Crime
Savings and Loan Scandal (S & L)
• By 1982, cost to tax-payers via the FSLIC
was $2.4 billion
• 1986 FSLIC was insolvent
• In 1996 the Government Accounting Office
reported that the total cost to American
taxpayers of the S&L bailout was $480.9
billion
Corporate/White Collar Crime
Savings and Loan Scandal (S & L)
• The average loss per S&L offense was
$500,000 while the average loss per
property offense during the same time
period was $1,251
• The average prison sentence given to S&L
offenders was 36 months—compared to 56
months for burglary and 38 months for
convicted motor vehicle theft (1988-1992).
Corporate/White Collar Crime
The Ford Pinto Case
• Early crash-tests demonstrated problems
with the gas tank
• Cost-benefit analysis to
determine how to proceed.
Cost/Benefit Analysis Done by Ford
Executives
• Benefits
– Savings: 180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn injuries,
2,100 burned vehicles
– Unit Cost: $200,000 per death, $67,000 per injury, $700
per vehicle
– Total Benefit: 180 x ($200,000) + 180 x ($67,000) +
2,100 x ($700) = $49.5 Million
• Costs
– Sales: 11 million cars, 1.5 million light trucks
– Unit Cost: $11 per car, $11 per truck
– Total Cost: 11,000,000 x ($11) + 1,500,000 x ($11) =
$137 Million
Cost of White Collar/Corporate Crime
• 1997 estimate that WC crime cost $338.89
billion—far greater than the cost of street
crimes;
– FBI estimates that burglary and robbery costs
the nation $3.8 billion a year
– GAO estimates government alone is defrauded
out of $100 billion a year
Cost of White Collar/Corporate Crime
• Deaths from work-related incidents alone
(including violations of OSHA) are greater
than deaths from all the crime index crimes
reported to the Justice Department
combined (1997)
• According to your text, “Between 1982 and
2002, about 170,000 American workers died
on the job…[W]orkplace safety agencies
investigated 1,798 fatality cases in which
companies willfully violated workplace
safety laws” (p. 243).
Cost of White Collar/Corporate Crime
• December 23, 1984 – 5,000 killed instantly
and up to half a million are injured when
methyl isocynate gas leaks from a Union
Carbide factory
Punishment for White Collar/Corporate
Crime
• When white collar criminals are arrested,
studies indicate that they are:
– more likely to have their cases dismissed (40%
vs. 26%)
– more likely not to have to put up bail (13 % vs.
40 %)
– more likely to be given probation than a jail
term (54% vs. 40 %)
– more likely to be given a shorter sentence, if
sentenced to jail (29 months vs. 50 months)
Life at
“Club Fed”
Problems with Social Conflict Approach
• Assumes that laws and cultural norms are
created directly by the rich and powerful
• Conflict theorists only give one reason why
enforcement against white collar crimes is
less than street crimes (elite power)
– complex nature of white collar crimes (can’t
always tell if a crime has occurred)
Who gets to define what is deviant?
• Labeling Theory: States that deviance is the
consequence of the application of rules and
sanctions to an offender; a “deviant” is
individual who has been successfully labeled
as such
• One benefit of having power = ability to
resist label.
– Examples?