SOCIAL DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL PART I

Without deviance from normality, there can be no progress.

Frank Zappa

SOCIAL NORMS

• Norms and values make up the moral code of a culture:

symbolic system in terms of which behavior takes on the

quality of being good or bad, right or wrong.

• Norms make behavior predictable.

• no norms = social chaos

• Deviant behavior is behavior that fails to conform to the

rules or norms of the group in question.

SOCIAL DEVIANCE

• ...variation from a set of norms or shared social

expectations

• It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that

make something socially deviant.

• Deviance is a nonjudgmental term.

• Deviance is relative.

• What is deviant to some is not

deviant to others.

SOCIAL DEVIANCE

• Some individuals either have not internalized certain

norms of their culture or have internalized but then

rejected them. They feel no great compulsion to conform.

• Who do we consider to be a deviant?

• Assume that an individual is physically healthy, tries to

pay his/her debts, loves his/her spouse and children,

believes in monogamy and fidelity, worships regularly, is

a patriotic citizen, etc. Assume that this person has been

a thief for over three years. Would you consider this

person a deviant? Why? Why not?

CONTEXT: IS ONE LESS DEVIANT THAN THE OTHER?

EXPECTATIONS: IS ONE LESS DEVIANT THAN THE OTHER?

DEGREE: IS ONE LESS DEVIANT THAN THE OTHER?

TYPES OF BEHAVIOR

• normative behavior: behavior relating to an ideal standard or model, or being based on what is considered to be the normal or correct way to behave

• deviant behavior: violation of rules or norms

• criminal behavior: violation of norms as laws

• All societies have laws to deal with the inevitable disputes that arise. However, laws and their focus vary significantly from culture to culture.

• stigma: blemishes on normal identity

NORMATIVE AND DEVIANT BEHAVIOR

NORMATIVE

BEHAVIOR DEVIANT

CRIMINAL

FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL DEVIANCE

• Prompts the group to organize in order to limit future deviant acts.

• promotes social unity

• Helps clarify for the group what it really does believe in.

• clarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms

• Teaches normal behavior by providing examples of rule violation.

• Tolerance of deviant behavior prevents more serious instances of nonconformity.

• promotes social change

DYSFUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL DEVIANCE

• threat to the social order because it makes social life unpredictable

• causes confusion about the norms and values of that society

• undermines trust

• When people’s actions become unpredictable, the social order is thrown into disarray.

• diverts valuable resources ... To control widespread deviance, resources must be shifted from other social needs.

EXPLANATIONS OF DEVIANCE

• sociobiology: looks for answers inside individuals ... genetic

predispositions

• psychology: focuses on abnormalities within individuals ...

personality disorders ... deviant personalities

• sociology: looks for answers outside individuals

• socialization

• membership in subcultures

• social class

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE

• control theory

• differential-association / cultural transmission theory

• labeling theory

• structured strain / anomie theory

• sub-cultural / deviant culture theory

• conflict perspective

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: CONTROL

• Reckless, Hirschi

• symbolic interactionist perspective

• assumes the disapproval of others plays a major role in preventing deviance

• Conformity occurs because of attachment, commitment, involvement, belief.

• inner controls: conscience, values, integrity, morality, belief that actions are morally wrong, etc

• outer controls: police, family, friends, religious authorities, attachments, commitments, etc

• Deviance occurs from lack of controls.

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: CONTROL

• People are free to violate norms without fear of social

disapproval if they lack intimate attachments.

• ways individuals bond to society

• attachment to others

• commitment to conformity

• involvement in conventional activities

• a belief in the moral validity of social rules

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: DIFFERENTIAL-ASSOCIATION

• Sutherland, Shaw and Kay

• symbolic interactionist perspective

• Deviance is learned through reference groups much as

normative behavior is learned.

• Individuals learn reasons for both obeying and violating

rules. An individual becomes deviant because of an excess

of definitions favorable to violating the law over definitions

unfavorable to violating the law.

• Differential associations vary in frequency, duration,

priority and intensity.

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: DIFFERENTIAL-ASSOCIATION

• The process of learning deviant behavior by association

with deviant and normative patterns involves the

mechanisms used in any other learning situation.

• The learning includes

• techniques: Individuals learn how to be deviant.

• attitudes: Individuals learn how to rationalize deviance ...

the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations,

attitudes

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: DIFFERENTIAL-ASSOCIATION

• rationalization

• denial of responsibility

• denying the injury

• denial of the victim

• condemnation of the authorities

• appealing to higher principles or authorities

• Criminal and noncriminal behavior are both expressions

of needs and values, but noncriminal behavior is not

explained by general needs and values.

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: LABELING

• William Chambliss

• symbolic interactionist perspective

• focuses on the significance and power of labels

• labels become part of self-concept

• propel toward or away from deviance

• negative labels: lower self image

• Who has the power to label?

• primary deviance, secondary deviance, deviant career

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: LABELING

• Behaviors are deviant only when society labels them as

deviant.

• response different from society: more likely to be deviant

or be labeled deviant

• rejecting labels

• condemnation of condemners

• appeal to higher loyalties

• embracing labels - outlaw bikers

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: LABELING

• factors that determine whether a person will be labeled deviant

• importance of the norms that are violated

• social identity of the individual who violates them

• social context of the behavior in question

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: STRUCTURED STRAIN/ANOMIE

• Robert Merton

• structural functional perspective

• The goal of financial success combined with the unequal

access to resources creates deviance.

• Individuals who occupy favorable positions in the class

structure have legitimate ways to achieve success.

• Those who occupy unfavorable positions lack such

means.

• Strain leads to anomie: lack of the usual social or ethical

standards in an individual or group.

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: STRUCTURED STRAIN/ANOMIE

• types of deviance

• innovators: accept the culturally validated goal of

success but find deviant ways of going about reaching it

... con artists, embezzlers, bank robbers, fraudulent

advertisers, drug dealers, corporate criminals, crooked

politicians

• ritualists: reject the importance of success once they

realize they will never achieve it ... remain within the

labor force but refuse to take risks that jeopardize their

job security ... often in large institutions such as

governmental bureaucracies or menial, repetitive jobs

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: STRUCTURED STRAIN/ANOMIE

• types of deviance

• retreatists: pull back from society ... drug addicts and

alcoholics who can no longer function, street people

• rebels: reject the goals of what to them is an unfair

social order and the means of achieving them

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: STRUCTURED STRAIN/ANOMIE

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: STRUCTURED STRAIN/ANOMIE

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: SUB-CULTURAL / DEVIANT CULTURE

• structural functional perspective

• People adopt or hold the values and concerns of the

groups in which they are embedded.

• illegitimate opportunity structures

• unequal access to institutional means to success

• southern subculture of violence (Marvin Wolfgang)

• lower class culture as a generating milieu of gang

delinquency (Walter Miller)

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: SUB-CULTURAL / DEVIANT CULTURE

• theory of delinquent subcultures (Albert Cohen, Cloward

and Ohlin)

• urban code of the streets (Elijah Anderson)

• culture conflict theory (Thorsten Sellin)

SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF DEVIANCE: CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

• power and inequality

• capitalist class

• working class

• marginal working class

• the law as an instrument of oppression

continued in

SOCIAL DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL

CONTROL PART II