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Theories of Deviance
Differentiation & Deviance
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differentiation refers to the myriad variations among
people based on selected social characteristics
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e.g., age, sex, race, educational attainment, occupational
status, etc.
Early sociologists like Durkheim saw social
differentiation as a master process of modernization
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modernization: the transformation from traditional to complex,
modern society
Conditions that promote differentiation also promote
deviance
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They also likely boost the degree and range of social
stratification by increasing the # of criteria for comparing people
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Theoretical perspectives on
deviance – two basic types
 Structural theories
 emphasize the relationship of deviance to certain structural
conditions within a society
 focus on epidemiology, or the distribution of deviance in time and
place
 are typically macro-level and are considered general theories
 e.g., functionalism and conflict theory
 Process/Interaction theories
 describe the processes by which individuals come to commit
deviant acts
 focus on etiology, or the origins and development of deviance
 are typically micro-level theories
 e.g., labeling theory, control theory, and learning or socialization
theories
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Moral Entrepreneurs: The
Creation & Enforcement of
Deviant Categories
Ch. 3, Howard S. Becker
Moral entrepreneurs
 moral entrepreneurs are people who seek
to influence a group to adopt or maintain a
norm
 they may create “moral panics” around
perceived urgent problems, e.g.,
 drinking alcohol or sexual psychopathy
 moral entrepreneurs can be divided into:
 rule creators
 rule enforcers
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Eighteenth Amendment
 The 18th Amendment of the US Constitution (ratified in
1919), along with the Volstead Act, established
Prohibition (of "intoxicating liquors,“ except those used
for religious purposes) in the US.
 Demand for liquor continued, with the following results:
 criminalization of producers, suppliers, transporters and
consumers
 police, courts and prisons were overwhelmed with new cases
 organized crime increased in power
 corruption extended among law enforcement officials
 The amendment was repealed in 1933 by ratification of
the 21st Amendment, the only instance in US history of
repeal of a constitutional amendment
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Rule creators
 Rule creators: “moral crusaders,” fervent, righteous, often
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self-righteous
Mission is to promote their sense of morality - thereby
defining and combating deviance - for the presumed good of
others
Chief concern is the ends - persuasion of others - not the
means by which persuasion is achieved
Successful moral crusades are generally dominated by
those in the upper social strata of society
They must build public awareness of a problem, and have
power, public support, and a clear and acceptable solution
to the problem
  tend to have “strange bedfellows,” e.g.,
 overlap & cooperation among Temperance, Abolitionist, Women’s
Rights, and anti-Child Labor movements in the late-19th, early 20th
centuries
 alliance formation among conservative Christian activists and Feminists
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in antitrafficking campaigns
Rule enforcers
 Successful crusades produce new sets of rules &
enforcement agents/agencies, thus institutionalizing the
crusade
 Rule enforcers, e.g., police, are compelled by two drives:
 the need to justify their own role
 the need to win respect in interactions
 They are in a bind: if they show too much effectiveness
one might say they are not needed, and if they show too
little effectiveness one might say they are failing
 Rule enforcers just feel the need to enforce the rule
because that is their job; they are not really concerned
with the content of the rule
 As rules are changed, something that was once
acceptable may now be punished and vice versa
 Such officials tend to take a pessimistic view of human nature
due to constant exposure to willful deviance
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Enforcement is selective
 a good deal of enforcement activity is
devoted not to the actual enforcement of
rules, but to coercing respect from the
people the enforcer deals with
 people may be labeled deviant not due to
breaking a rule but showing disrespect
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Enforcement is selective (cont’d)
 Whether a person who commits a deviant act is
in fact labeled a deviant depends on things
besides his actual behavior:
 whether official feels pressure at the time to justify
his/her position
 whether respect is shown to enforcer
 whether the “fix is in”
 amateurs tend to be caught, convicted, and labeled deviant
much more than professionals (who know the “fixer”)
 whether the kind of act committed is high on
enforcer’s priority list
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The Normal and the
Pathological
Ch. 7, Emile Durkheim
Crime is normal
 Crime is present in all societies of all types
 Its form changes
 acts thus characterized are not the same
everywhere but everywhere and always there
have been people whose behavior draws
punishment
 Crime is not only inevitable, it is necessary
- an integral part of all healthy societies
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What is crime?
 Crime consists of an act that offends
certain very strong collective sentiments
 It is not the intrinsic quality of a given act
that makes it a crime, but the definition
which the “collective conscience” of
society gives it
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Crime plays a useful role in social
evolution
 Where crime exists, collective sentiments are
sufficiently flexible to take on a new form, and
crime sometimes helps determine the form they
will take
 Socrates’ crime, independence of thought, provided a
service not only to humanity but to his country,
preparing the ground for a new morality & faith in
Athens, since traditions were no longer in harmony
with current conditions
 his violation was a crime, but it was useful as a prelude to
necessary reforms
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Beyond good & evil
 Crime must no longer be conceived as an
evil to be suppressed
 Instead, we should attempt to discern its
“social function,” the purpose it serves for
society
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On the Sociology of
Deviance
Ch. 8, Kai T. Erikson
Deviant behavior in “communities”
 communities: collectivities of people who share
a common sphere of experience, which gives
members a sense of belonging to a special
“kind” and living in a special “place”
 communities are “boundary-maintaining”: each
community has a specific territory in the world,
occupying a defined region of geographical and
cultural space
 both dimensions of group space – geographical &
cultural – set the community apart and provide a point
of reference for members
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Boundary drawing
 Q: How do people know about boundaries
and how do they convey it to future
generations?
 A: By participating in the confrontations
which occur when persons venture out to
the edges of the group are met by policing
agents whose job it is to guard the cultural
integrity of the community
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Confrontations between deviant
offenders & social control agents
 Confrontations - criminal trials, excommunication
hearings, courts-martial, psychiatric case conferences act as boundary-maintaining devices in that they
demonstrate where the line is drawn b/w behavior that is
acceptable in the community and behavior that is not
 Each time the community moves to censure some act of
deviation and convenes a formal ceremony to deal with
the responsible offender, it sharpens the authority of the
violated norm and restates group boundaries
 Still, community boundaries are never fixed but are subject to
change - as the nature & location of confrontations change
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Deviance, in controlled quantities,
may help preserve social stability
 Deviant behavior, by marking the outer
edges of group life, provides a framework
within which members develop a sense of
their own cultural identity
 “…the agencies built by society for
preventing deviance are often so poorly
equipped for the task that we might well
ask why this is regarded as their ‘real’
function in the first place” (98)
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Commitment ceremonies:
self-fulfilling prophecies?
 The community’s decision to bring deviant
sanctions against a member is a “rite of
transition,” moving the person out of an ordinary
place in society into a special deviant position
 commitment ceremonies: highly public &
dramatic events set up to judge whether or not
someone is deviant, mark this change of status
 the criminal trial is the most obvious example
 importantly, in our culture, they are almost
irreversible, and might be called “self-fulfilling
prophecies”
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Conclusion
 Two separate yet often competing currents are
found in any society:
 forces which promote a high degree of conformity
among people of community so they know what to
expect from one another
 forces which encourage a certain degree of diversity
so that people can be deployed across the range of
group space to survey its potential, measure its
capacity, and patrol its boundaries for deviants
 Deviance is a natural product of group
differentiation and contributes to the survival of
the culture as a whole
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