Deviance and Social Norms

Deviance

• Is a violation of established norms, whether contextual, cultural, or social, including folkways, mores, or codified law.
• Requires examination of group norms and reactions to behavior to define.
• Conformity is adhering to social norms.

Determinants of Deviance

• Culture is the most influential variable.
• Time influences what is considered fashionable.
• Place affects behavior, like whistling in church.
• Situation influences behavior, such as laughing at a funeral.
• Other variables include age, gender, and social class.

Range of Tolerance

• Over-conformity, conformity, and under-conformity exist within a range of tolerance.
• Deviance exists outside this range.

Social Control

• All societies use social control, the regulation and enforcement of norms.
• Goal is to maintain social order.
• Social order involves practices and behaviors on which society’s members base their daily lives.
• The means of enforcing rules are called sanctions.
• Positive sanctions are rewards for conforming to norms.
• Negative sanctions are punishments for violating norms.
• Informal sanctions emerge in face-to-face interactions.
• Formal sanctions are ways to officially recognize and enforce norm violations.

Variation of Deviance

• Deviant behavior violates the values and norms of a group, but is not inherently wrong.
• Much research focuses on crime and how different cultures define and punish behaviors.
• Imprisonment is the most serious punishment in the U.S., but other societies lack the resources for prisons and use shunning or corporal punishment.

Functionalist Perspective on Deviance

• According to Émile Durkheim, deviance has a positive social function by:
• Clarifying moral boundaries
• Promoting social cohesion
• Allowing for social change
• Providing safety valves

Theories of Deviance

• Merton’s structural strain theory argues that tension between socially approved goals and the ability to meet them through approved means leads to deviance.
• It happens when individuals reject goals or means.
• Robert Merton's strain theory includes:
• Conformity: Pursuing goals through socially accepted means.
• Innovation: Pursuing goals through criminal or deviant means.
• Ritualism: Lowering goals and focusing on conformity.
• Retreatism: Rejecting society's goals and means.
• Rebellion: Replacing society’s goals and means.

Social Disorganization Theory

• Asserts that crime is likely in communities with weak social ties and no social control.
• Individuals in poor neighborhoods with drug use, violence, teenage delinquency, and deprived parenting are more likely to become criminals.

Cultural Deviance Theory

• Conformity to lower-class cultural norms causes crime.
• Violence and crime were highest in the city center and decreased toward the suburbs.
• Socioeconomic status correlated with race and ethnicity results in higher crime rates due to differing ideas of deviance.

Conflict Theory

• Analyzes social and economic factors as causes of crime and deviance.

Karl Marx: An Unequal System

• Centralizing resources allows the bourgeoisie to control society and expand their power.

C. Wright Mills: The Power Elite

• The power elite is a small group of wealthy, influential people who hold power and resources.
• The rules of society favor the privileged.
• They decide what is criminal, affecting those with little power.

Techniques of Neutralization

• Denial of responsibility: Deviant act caused by an outside force.
• Denial of injury: Criminal act causes no harm.
• Denial of victim: Crime is revenge or punishment.
• Condemnation of the condemners: Negative image of opponents.
• Appeal to higher loyalties: Breaking laws to benefit a small group.

Social Control Theory

• Walter Reckless's inner versus outer controls:
• Inner containment: Self-concept.
• Outer containment: Social pressure from family to abide by rules.
• Social Bond Theor:
• The belief that humans are selfish and weigh the benefits and risks of criminal activity underlies.
• A typical delinquent lacks:
• Attachment: connections to others.
• Commitment: investments in the community.
• Involvement: participation in legitimate activities.
• Belief: agreement on common values.

Stigma and Deviant Identity

• Three main types of stigma:
• Physical (impairments)
• Moral (flawed character)
• Tribal (discredited group).
• Stigmatized people are seen as "not quite human" and hide attributes.
• Passing is when stigmatized individuals try to appear mainstream.

Crime

• Crime is a behavior that violates official law and is punishable.

Types of Crime

• Violent crimes: Use force or threat.
• Nonviolent crimes: Involve destruction or theft, but no force.
• Street crime: Offenses by ordinary people against others in public.
• Corporate crime: Crime by white-collar workers.

Criminal Justice System

• Enforces legal code.
• Branches in the U.S.:
• The police
• The courts (federal and state)
• The corrections system (supervises arrested, convicted, and sentenced individuals)
• Jails provide temporary confinement.
• Prisons are for sentences longer than a year.
• Parole is temporary release requiring supervision and consent.
• Probation and parole can follow imprisonment.
• Positive deviance is an act outside the norm that may be heroic.