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DEVIANCE
Downes and Rock (1988)
“… deviance may be considered as banned or controlled behavior which is likely to
attract punishment and disapproval. “
Haralambos(1999)
“Deviance consists of those acts which do not follow the norms and expectations of a
particular society.”
Macionis (2002)
“Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms.”
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Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms.
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Therefore, bank-robber, suicides, adulterers, gays, feminists, murderers are
deviant as they indulge in behavior which the rest of the society or groups thinks
socially different, odd and undesirable.
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What all deviant actions or attitudes have in common is some element of
difference that causes us to regard another person as an “outsider"
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Deviance is Relative
There is no fixed standard. It varies from culture to culture, from time to time.
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Deviance is a cultural universal
This means deviance can be found in every society. (Durkheim 1897/1964)
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Deviance has societal rather than individual roots because it varies according to
cultural norms, is socially defined and reflects patterns of social power.
FORMS OF DEVIANCE
 Secret and private vs. open and public deviance
 Individual vs. collective deviance
Individual: personal
Collective such as gang
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DEVIANCE
SOCIAL DEVIANCE & CRIME
DEFINITION OF CRIME
 A crime is a violation of a formal statue enacted by a legitimate government.
 The nature of crime changes in different periods of time and in different
countries…
 What determines an act that is criminal or not is law, and the creation of it is
deeply influenced by different cultural elements.
 One category of deviance is crime, the violation of a society’s formally enacted
criminal law.
THE RELATIONSHIP BEWTEEN DEVIANCE & CRIME
EXAMPLE
 Deviant but not Criminal---Mental illness
 Criminal but not Deviant---Underage smoking
 Both Deviant and Criminal---Murder
THE BEHAVIOR SYSTEM IN CRIME
e.g., violent personal crime, Occasional property crime,
Organized robbery &gang theft, White collar & corporate crime
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DEVIANCE
THEORIES OF DEVIANCE
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Biological Theories
Psychological Theories
Sociological Theories
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Biological Theories
 Scholars of biological theories were the very first to attempt to give
“scientific” explanations for deviant and criminal behavior.
 These theories stress heavily on the importance of inherited factors and
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downplay the significance of environmental and social influence.
Deviants are born and not made.
Works of Lombroso
 His studies took place in Italian jails dissecting dead prisoners
 He came to the conclusion that certain criminal types could be identified by their
head size, facial characteristics (size and shape of nose, eyes…)
 Criticisms: Biased simple, other scholars pointed out perfectly normal looking
people have criminal violent crime.
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Biological research, from Lombroso’s 19-century observations of convicts to
recent genetic studies, has yet to offer much insight into cause of deviance.
Works of Sheldon
 His work involved the measuring of thousands of human bodies, with the aim to
determine whether there is any association between personality traits and
particular body type.
 Sheldon found that body shape is related to the behavior.
(Mesomorphic (ruggedly muscular) were more likely to become delinquents that
were boys with other shapes of body. )
Critical evaluation
 At best, biological theories offer a very limited explanation of crime.
 A Biological approach looks at the individual , it offers no insight as to how
some kinds of behaviors come to be defined as deviant in the first place.
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DEVIANCE
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Psychological Theories of Deviance
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Psychologists downplay biological factors and put heavy stress on the
role of parents and early childhood experiences in making deviant
behavior
Although both psychological and sociological theories think
environment influences important, there is significant difference
between psychological and sociological explanations of deviance.
Psychological orientations assume the seeds of deviance are planted in
childhood and adult behavior is a manifestation of early experiences.
Some psychological theorists link deviant individuals are
psychologically “sick” as they have experienced emotional deprivation
or damage during childhood.
There are different approaches within the psychological perspective of
deviance.
One learns to be a thief in the same way that one learns to be a police.
Social Learning theorists claim that children learn how to act by
observing the kinds of behaviors that are rewarded. If deviance is
positively reinforced, whether in real life or in the media, it is likely to
be imitated.
Psychological study links deviance to abnormal personality resulting
from either biological or environmental causes. Psychological theories
help explain some kinds of deviance.
Critical Evaluation: Psychologists have shown that personality patterns
bear some connection to deviance. However, the fact is that people
whose psychological profiles are normal also commit most serious
crimes.
To conclude, psychological theorists focus on the interaction among
personal and cognitive factors, environment and behavior.
Works of Freud
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Freud’s work : The ID , the Superego and the Ego is the center of the analysis of
the making of deviance.
The psychoanalytic approach , holds that criminals typically suffer from weak or
damaged egos or from inadequate superegos that are unable to restrain the
aggressive and often antisocial drives of ID.
The approach was criticized as the concepts are too abstract and vague and
cannot be tested.
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DEVIANCE
Sociological Theories of Deviance
Works of Durkheim (Anomie Theory)
Works of Merton
(Conformity,Innovation,Ritualism,Retreatism,Rebellion)
Works of Sutherland (Differential Association)
Works of Becker (Labeling Theory)
Works of Lemert (Primary & Secondary Deviance)
Works of Quinney (Capitalist justice)
Works of Southerland (White collar crime)
Functionalism
Symbolic
Interactionism
Conflict theory
Sociologists have always been keen on explaining why deviance occurs in society.
FUNCTIONALISM
Durkheim’s Anomie Theory
 Definition of Anomie : the feeling of some persons that their culture no longer
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gives them adequate guidelines for behavior, a condition of “normlessness” in
which values and norms have little impact.
Individuals in Hong Kong fell disoriented, uneasy, alone and frightened.
Durkheim coined the term “Anomie” describe this condition of “normlessness”.
Deviance occurs more frequently under such social conditions. The deviant he
studies was suicide.
Anomie is a social condition in which the norms governing social behavior are
weak, conflicting, r absent, creating normative confusion.
Under these conditions, social sanctions are ineffective, and existing rules and
values fail to control people’s behavior. People either do not know what the
norms are, or they are not motivated to obey them even if the norms are
understood,
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DEVIANCE
Merton Strain Theory
Institutionalized Means
Accept
Reject
Accept
Cultural Goals
Reject
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Retreatlism
Rebellion
Some deviance may be necessary for a society to function, but Robert Merton argued
that excessive deviance arises particular social arrangements. Specially, the extent and
kind of deviance depends on a society provides the means such as schooling and job
opportunities to achieve cultural goals such as financial success.
Yet Robert Merton formulated another theory of deviance within the general
framework of anomie theorizing. According to Merton, some rules of society are
contradictory, and some goals set by society are impossible to achieve. Both situations
result in a state of anomie. Merton suggests that in every society there is an emphasis
upon the attainment of certain culturally shard goals. Anomie occurs when there is a
discrepancy between the emphasis placed in the attainment culturally valued goals
and opportunities for the achievement of these goals via institutionalized means
(socially acceptable ways). Under such conditions, strong pressures are exerted upon
individuals to attain these goals via illegitimate (deviant) means.
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Conformity is someone who acquires wealth and prestige via talent, schooling
and hard work.
The most common mode of adaptation, according to Meron, is conformity,
pursuing culturally approved goals via legitimate means. Regardless of whether
or not a person objectively has an opportunity to achieve culturally approved
goals via legitimate means, most individuals continue to accept the goals and
abide by the rules of attainment.
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Ritualism is the person who rejects the importance of success once they realize
they will never achieve it and instead concentrates on the following and
enforcing rules more precisely than ever was intended.
Ritualism is a mode of adaptation in which a person accepts the legitimacy of
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socially prescribed means, but has “given up” or rejected achieving the goals.
This is the person who appears to be most concerned with over-conforming to
the rules, like that of the bureaucrat just doing her/his job.
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Innovation is the use of unconventional means such as street crime to achieve a
culturally approved goal such as wealth.
Innovation results when persons accept the socially prescribed goals but reject
legitimate means that are not available to them. Under these conditions, Merton
argues, there is a tendency to “innovate”—to succeed by illegitimate means.
Similarly, women who see their chances of economic success limited by poorly
paid jobs may resort to prostitution as a means of getting ahead—an innovation
mode of adaptation.
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Retreatlism is the individual who have pulled back from society altogether and
who do not pursue culturally legitimate goals such as drug addicts.
Retreatlism is a mode of adaptation is simply to “drop out” from both the
culturally shared goals and institutionalized means.
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Rebellion likes Retreatlism. He rebels reject both the cultural definition of
success and the normative means if achieving it.
Those who reject both goals of what to them is a fair social order and the
institutionalized mean of achieving them. They purpose alternative societal goals
and institutions.
Here both socially prescribed goals and means are rejected in favor of overt
attempts to change the social system by substituting new goals in place of
existing ones and by restructuring the means of attaining them. For example,
revolutionaries and terrorists seek to change the social order via overtly dramatic
means.
DEVIANCE AS MODE OF ADAPTATION
Adaptation
mode
Cultural
goals
Prescribed
means
Conformity
+
+
Innovation
+
-
Ritualism
-
+
Retreatlism
-
-
+/-
+/-
Rebellion
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DEVIANCE
CRITICISMS OF MERTON”S APPROACH
1, Overemphasizes lower-class deviance
Merton’s view that deviance is a response to structural strains resulting from poor
means-ends alignment, just like social disorganization theory, overemphasizes
lower-class deviance. It is argued that poor people become deviant because of blocked
opportunity structures.
2, Oversimplifies the reason for deviance (e.g. use of drugs as religious ritual)
3, The role of deviant subcultures or groups influencing and supporting certain
activities is not considered (e.g. students cheat on exam is deviant and innovative, but
does not suffer from strain of a blocked opportunity structure. The student relies upon
a student culture and a support group in opting for this sort of deviant behavior.)
CONCLUSION
Anomie theories, including the social disorganization and social strain theories, depict
social deviance as a meaningful response to situations of weak or confused social
norms. These theories are most useful in explaining how lower-class deviance may be
understood as an innovative social response.
Using the structural-functional paradigm, Durkheim explained that deviance affirms
norms and values, clarifies moral boundaries, promotes social unity and encourages
social change.
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DEVIANCE
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALISM
Works of Sutherland
Sutherland’s Differential Association
 Learning any behavioral patterns is a social process that takes place in a group.
 Differential Association indicates that we learn to deviate or to conform to
society’s norms mostly by the different groups we associate with.
 Criminal’s deviant behavior are learned from those who are closed to them
What they learn included:
1, the techniques of committing crimes
2, other deviant acts
3, the attitudes and rationalizations the serves to justify such behavior.
*Socialization theories maintain that like normative behavior, deviance is something
taught and learned in primary group settings, as well as through secondary agents of
socialization like schools, per and work groups, and the media.
Differential Association theory emphasized the importance of the social structure and
interact ional processes involved in the learning of any behavior, deviant as well as
conforming.
Socialization theories including the theory of differential association, focus upon the
ways in which deviance, like normative behavior, is socially learned in both primary
and secondary group context. It is a useful perspective for explaining how persons
become involved in both criminal and non-criminal forms of social deviance
Works of Becker
Labeling Theory
 The assertion that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people
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do as from how others respond to those actions.
Deviance is not more than behavior that people define as deviant. +
Labeling theory stresses the relativity of deviance, meaning that people may
define the same behavior in any number of ways.
At a broader level, because “reality” depends on time and place, it is no surprise
that one society’s conformity may be another’s deviance.
Labeling theory maintains that they key feature of deviance in society is the
actual act by which some people label others as deviant. From this perspective,
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DEVIANCE
deviants are those to whom a label has been applied successfully.
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It focuses upon how definitions of deviance arise via social situation and the
reaction of a social audience that shape definitions of deviance.
The symbolic interaction paradigm is the basis of labeling theory, which holds that
deviance, lies in people’s reaction to a person’s behavior, not in the behavior itself.
Acquiring stigma of deviance can lead to secondary deviance and a deviant career.
*Stigma is a powerfully negative label that greatly changes a person’s self-concept
and social identity.
*Once a deviant label has been applied, it stigmatizes persons, and places them in a
socially devalued category.
*A stigma represents a “spoiled identity”, and is based upon a characteristic that
others find unusual, unpleasant, or morally offensive. The term stigma refers to any
attribute that is deeply discrediting, thus making persons different from others, and of
a less desirable kind.
Works of Lemert
Primary Deviance
 It refers to the original behavior that will not lead to the individuals being labeled
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deviant
The primary deviant is one who commits deviant acts, while continuing to
occupy a conventional status and role.
Secondary Deviance
 It refers to the deviant behavior that emerges as a result of having been labeled
deviant.
 The secondary deviant is someone who has become labeled as a deviant, and
through a series of individual adaptations made in response to this label, adopts a
deviant identity and role.
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Secondary deviance also requires changes in your main life roles. Labeled
deviants frequently lose their jobs, are forced to move, drop out of school and
may become estranged from their families.
*In contrast to primary deviance, in secondary deviance, the status if being deviant is
reinforced because the relationship between the person and the larger community
centers on the deviant label. In such cases, a self-fulfilling prophecy may emerge.
Persons modify their self-concept and future behavior in accordance with the deviant
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label. Moreover, as opportunities for socially legitimate actions decrease, such
persons may embark upon deviant careers. A deviant career exists when an
individual’s involvement in and identity with a deviant subculture becomes a
predominant focus of her/his lifestyle. Person may gravitate toward other similarly
defined and may participate in deviant subcultures that offer social support for the
deviant role.
*Labeling theory focuses upon the social processes through which deviant status is
assigned. By focusing on both the act of labeling persons deviant, and upon persons’
responses to that label, it shows how deviant identities are formed, and how deviant
careers are adopted.
CONFLICT THEORY
The social conflict paradigm links deviance to social inequality. That is, who or what
is labeled “deviant” depends on which categories of people hold power in a society.
Conflict theory focuses upon the political and power processes involved in social
definitions of deviance. The theory hinges on the fact that much social effort is
expended punishing high consensus deviance, in effect, is lower-class deviance. In
contrast, deviance by tiny population is less frequently and less severely punished.
Deviance and power
Social conflict theory explains this pattern in three ways.
1. All norms and especially the laws of any society generally reflect the interest of
the rich and powerful.
2. Even, if their behavior is called into question, the powerful have the resources to
resist deviant labels. (Like the Michael Jackson)
3. The wide spread belief that norms and laws are natural and good mask their
political character.
Works of Marxists
Petty Crime V.S. White-Collar Crime and Corporate Crime (Low consensus deviance)
Petty Crime= Street crime (High consensus deviance)
 Marx viewed society as being composed primarily of two competing strata with
incompatible economic interests. These two strata, the bourgeoisie (capitalists)
and the proletariat (workers), differ in terms of power and resources. According
to conflict theorists, societal definitions and the treatment of deviance,
particularly crime, are a consequence of these social inequalities.
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DEVIANCE
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Based on Marx’s ideas, social conflict theory holds that laws and other norms
reflect the interests of powerful members of society. Although white-collar
crimes and corporate crimes cause extensive social harm, offenders are rarely
branded as criminals.
Works of Southerland
White-Collar crime defined as crime committed by people of high social position in
the course of their occupation.
Corporate crime refers to the illegal actions of corporation or people acting on its
behalf.
*Indeed, some criminologists argued that most of what constitutes crime and the
penalties for criminal action are consequences of certain segments of society having
greater power to shape criminal policy than others (Quinney 1977)
*Legal system is a tool by which those who rule are able to exercise power over those
who are ruled. (Beirne and Quinney 1982)
*Capitalist justice is by capitalist class, for the capitalist class and against the working
class, (Quinney 1977)
*Because of social inequalities, we may condemn the unequal application of the law.
We give little thought to whether the laws themselves are inherently unfair.
(Quinney 1977)
Conflict theory makes a useful contribution to the study of deviance by emphasizing
the inconsistencies and contradictions in the making and enforcement of rules.
It also prompts an examination of different types of deviance common to different
social classes. It shows the ability of the powerful to influence what is considered
deviant.
However, it does not attempt to explain why individuals engage in nonconforming
activity in the first place.
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DEVIANCE
Theory
Deviance results from
Types of Deviance best
explained
Anomie
Weaken social norms
Lower class deviance
Strain
Means ends disjuncture
Lower class deviance
Socialization
(Differential association)
Learning alternative values Criminal behavior
and roles
Delinquent gang
Deviant subculture
Conflict
Structured inequalities in
societies
High-consensus deviance
(street crime)
Labeling
Social definitions and
reactions to them
Secondary deviance
Deviant careers
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