The Nature of Deviance

• Deviance refers to behaviour that departs from societal or group norms

• Negative Deviance vs. Positive Deviance

• Some Examples:

• Dirtbag vs. Cleanfreak

• Neglectful Parent vs. Helicopter Parent

• Obese vs. anorexic

Degrees of Deviance

• Deviance on a continuum

• Primary Deviance – isolated acts of deviance (youthful mischief)

• Secondary Deviance – when a person’s life and identity are organized around deviance (career criminals)

Negative Effects of Deviance

• Can be harmful to others

• Erodes trust

• Deviance can stimulate more deviance

• Costs money to police and law enforcement

Social Functions of Deviance• Durkheim stated that deviance was a normal and

necessary part of social organization

1. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms. Any definition of virtue rests on an opposing idea of vice: There can be no good without evil and no justice without crime

2. Deviance defines moral boundaries, people learn right from wrong by defining people as deviant.

3. A serious form of deviance forces people to come together and react in the same way against it.

4. Deviance pushes society's moral boundaries which, in turn leads to social change.

Theories on Deviance

• Deviance exists in every society, but why?

• Theories attempting to explain deviance can be classified into one of the 3 major perspectives

Functionalist Theories on Deviance

April 30th, 2018

Strain Theory

• Emile Durkheim & Robert Merton

• Anomie - a social condition in which norms are weak, conflicting or absent

• Strain Theory – Deviance is more likely to occur when a gap (caused by anomie) exists between cultural goals and the ability to achieve these goals legitimately

Responses to Strain

• Consider a commonly accepted social goal and the means considered appropriate to achieve

• Conformity – non-deviant behaviour

1. Innovation – goals are accepted, achieved illegally

2. Ritualism – goals are rejected but legitimate means are used. “going through the motions”

3. Retreatism – goals are rejected, no attempt to achieve them

4. Rebellion – goals are rejected, new goals are substituted

Control Theory

• Developed by Travis Hirschi

• Compliance with social norms requires strong social bonds between individuals and society

• If bonds are weak, anomie is present, deviance occurs

• Put simply:

– Strong social bonds = less deviance

– Weak social bonds = more deivance

Hirschi’s four components of social bonds

• Strength of social bonds depends on the following four factors among individuals in a group (see pg. 212)

1. Attachment

2. Commitment

3. Involvement

4. Belief

Symbolic Interactionism & Deviance

Symbolic Interactionism & Deviance

Differential Association Theory

• Deviance is transmitted through socialization

• Differential association is affected by

– Ratio of deviants to non-deviant individuals

– Whether significant others are deviant

– Age of exposure to deviant behaviour

Labeling Theory

• Other theories explain deviance, labeling theory explain why deviance is relative

• Eg. Two people break a norm, only one of them is labeled deviant

• A consequence of labeling is stigma – anundesirable label that is used to characterize an individual

Conflict Theory & Deviance

Conflict Theory & Deviance

Consideration of status and power• The powerful members in a society determine

who is “deviant”• Any behavior that threatens the interests of the

powerful is considered deviant• The powerful decide how deviants should be

punished/controlled• Sociologist Steven Spitzer proposed 5 ways

industrialized society defines and defends itself against deviants

Spitzer (1980)

1. Critics of industrial society are deviant. Their beliefs challenge economic, political and social basis.

2. Industrial Society requires workers, those who refuse work are deviants

3. Those who threaten private property are deviants

4. Those who question or disrespect authority5. Certain activities normally considered deviant

(violence)are encouraged depending how they fit within society (death penalty)

White Collar Crime

• Financially motivate, non-violent crime committed by government/business professionals

• Term was first used in 1939 “A crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation"– Price fixing– Insider trading– fraud– Embezzlement– Bribery– Toxic pollution– Tax Evasion

Bernie Madoff

White Collar Criminals

• Examples

– Martha Stewart

– Bernie Ebbers

– Conrad Black

– Bernard Madoff

Punishment

• Often treated more leniently than other criminals

• Sentences often involve

– Probation

– Shorter-than-average sentences

– “country club” prisons

Victim Discounting

• Crimes are treated less seriously depending on who the victim is

• Impetus for the MMIW inquiry

1992 – Los Angeles Riots

• $1 Billion in property damage

• 2,400 people injured

• 12,000 arrested

• What theories on deviance help explain the riots?