Download Approaches to Defining Deviance

Approaches to Defining Deviance
4 Primary Approaches:
1) Absolutist:
Deviant behavior constitutes actions that are in
violation of a universal morality.
By morality sociologists mean a belief system
for distinguishing right/good from wrong/bad.
Fails to take into account situational or
contextual factors (cultural differences; historical
factors)
Western Judeo-Christian Absolutism
Ten Commandments (Exodus)
• Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
• Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image …
• Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy God in vain
• Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy
• Honor thy father and thy mother
• Thou shalt not kill
• Thou shalt not commit adultery
• Thou shalt not steal
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, Etc.
Approaches to Defining Deviance
2)
Statistical:
Deviant behavior constitutes actions that are a numerical
minority. Conformity is defined by majority behavior.
Majority rule, minority deviance
Criticism: What may be otherwise thought of (using a
normative approach) as deviant behavior is from the
statistical view “normative” because a numerical majority
engages in the behavior in question
(e.g. pre-marital sex; minor delinquency; speeding; underage drinking)
Approaches to Defining Deviance
3) Reactivist:
Deviance is any behavior which produces
a reaction. This puts the focus on those
reacting rather than the “deviant”.
Highly situational/contextual (subjectivist).
Criticism: A norm violation is necessary
before any reaction to deviance takes
place.
Approaches to Defining Deviance
4) Normative (objective):
Deviance is defined by violation of a social norm. Social
norms can be identified in an objective way.
Contextual, but less so than the Reactivist approach
Deviance hinges on a group notion of:
a)
b)
what “ought” to be (Prescriptions)
What “should” not be (Proscriptions)
Norms require an undetermined but significant level of group
Consensus
(indicating a shared or agreed upon view of the behavior)
Issues to be Aware of in Defining Deviance
• Individual properties relevant to a deviant status
• Attitudes, Beliefs
• Behavior
• Conditional characteristics
– Ascribed characteristics
– Achieved
– Choices or “agency”
• Structural influences on deviance
• Structural differences in life chances
• Power differences in defining deviance
• Cultural frameworks, which provide meaning
• We will examine both levels and try to make
connections (Structuration – Giddens)
How Distinct is Deviance?
Deviance
Immorality
Crime
Ch 2 (Tittle & Paternoster) makes this point.
They focus on middle class norms because society is too fractured from their view to
hold a single set of norms applicable to all members of society.
Do you agree?
Reading Homework
• Read Chapter 2, “A Typology of Deviance Based
on Middle Class Norms.”
www.socqrl.niu.edu\miller\courses\soci380.html
• 1. Do you agree with Tittle & Paternoster’s
typology? WHY?
• 2. What other values are missing from their list?
• 3. What are the three most important
values/norms in your life and why.
More on Norms
Sumner’s three dimensions of social norms:
1) Folkways - concerned with minor,
everyday conventions of behavior:
etiquette, tradition, etc.
2) Mores - based upon larger societal level
standards of morality.
3) Laws – strongest set of norms: formally
codified, sanctioned, etc.
Folkways, Mores, and Law
Emile Durkheim on Deviance: Part Reactivist, part Normative
(Like Heckert & Heckert – Ch. 3)
What distinguishes different behaviors from one another?
Crime: Acts that violate collective sentiments
Collective Sentiments:
Beliefs shared by social groups; all social groups can be thought of as
cultural communities
Culture: the distinctive way of life for a group of people
Altruistic Sentiment: Respect for that which is another’s
Durkheim’s Assumptions about Human Nature
Durkheim on Deviance/Crime
Defining characteristic of crime is punishment that
follows a criminal act.
The defining element is the social reaction to the
act, especially the intensity of reaction.
So crime (or deviance) is defined not by the
properties of the behavior per se, but by the
social response to the behavior.
A social response communicates a morality lesson
to the person and to the group
Altruistic Sentiment Scale
Durkheim wants
to know “What
distinguishes
crime from poor
taste?”
Poor taste
low
Robbery
High
Moral boundaries
Formal Negative Sanctions are applied when a threshold of
collective sentiments is violated
Notes on Moral Boundaries
• Variable according to changes in collective
sentiments
– Definitions change over time
– Change over social space (audiences vary)
• Amount of deviance, however, is relatively stable
– Across time and place
• Subculture:
A group with a distinctive way of life that maintains some
ties to larger the society/culture
• Sanctions:
Positive & Negative
Formal & Informal
Sanctions are social devices used to communicate
a group morality & produce conformity
Is deviance all that bad?
Functions of Deviance:
(from Durkheim via Erikson Ch. 1)
-Boundary maintenance
Defines how we should & shouldn’t act
“Morality and immorality meet at the public scaffold”
Significance of commitment ceremonies (punishment rituals)
-Produces social cohesion
Makes us feel like we are a part of the group
-Creates jobs
Police, DEA, Counselors, Therapists, Doctors, Professors
-Visionaries, Revolutionaries, and Innovators
Jesus, Galileo, Jefferson, Darwin, Abolitionists, Suffragists,
MLK
What about “Positive” Deviance?
• Heckert & Heckert (Ch. 3)
– 2 Dimensions to Consider:
• Norm violation? (Too much vs. Too little)
• Reaction of an audience? (Positive vs. Negative)
Non-conformity
Over-conformity
Negative
Reaction:
Negative
Deviance*
Rate-busting
Positive
Reaction:
Deviance
Admiration
Positive Deviance
Whether (non) conformity is received positively or negatively is a question of
Power & Self-interest.