Understanding Social Deviance

The Concept of Social Deviance

• Deviance has definitions from statistical, legal, pathological, and sociological perspectives.
• Societies create and enforce rules that determine appropriate and acceptable behaviors.
• Deviant behavior violates important social rules and meets with strong disapproval.

The Statistical Perspective

• Deviant behavior is any conduct varying from the average or acceptable norm, viewed as an abnormal act by the majority as per Abotchie (2017).
• Conformity is defined by the majority's behavior.
• A prevalent behavior cannot violate standard norms of conduct.

Criticisms of the Statistical Perspective

• The statistical perspective is overly inclusive, potentially labeling everyone as deviant.
• The minority's actions labeled as deviant could be law-abiding.

The Legal Perspective

• Deviance constitutes any act that violates laws, becoming a crime, either through actions or omissions against criminal legislation (Abotchie, 2017).
• Actions prohibited by law are deviant, whereas those permitted by law align with conduct standards and are conforming.

Criticism of the Legal Perspective

• The legal perspective is narrow, with the criminal code only forming a small part of societal norms, including folkways and mores.
• Laws are sometimes viewed as tools used by the powerful to maintain elite positions.
• Some acts, though legally permitted, are still considered deviant by society.

The Pathological (Medical) Perspective

• Pathology studies the causes and effects of illness.
• Abnormal acts are seen as manifestations of illness within the individual, viewed as the source of deviance.
• Claiming diminished responsibility could be a criticism, especially from criminals.

Sociological Perspective

• According to Emile Durkheim, deviance is an inevitable aspect of society that functions by laying the foundation for change and innovation and by clarifying social norms.
• Durkheim views deviance as clarifying norms, increasing conformity, leading to positive social change, and strengthening bonds among those reacting to the deviant.
• People engage in deviant acts due to societal anomie, which stems from the absence of clear social norms and values.
• Deviance offends collective consciousness, evoking punishment via society on criminals (Abotchie, 2017).
• Punishment involves a loss administered by legal authority for breaking a law (Brooks, 2012).
• Robert Merton sees deviant behavior as departing from norms for social statuses.
• Deviance is relative to place, time, and circumstances.
• What was once deviant may not be today.
• Acceptable behavior in one society may be deviant in another.
• An act deviant under one circumstance may not be under another (Abotchie, 2017; 2013).
• Deviance can be functional (advantageous) or dysfunctional (disadvantageous).
• Deviance can be dysfunctional by disorganizing society, being costly in various aspects, inspiring negative sentiments, and affecting law abiders' morale.
• Crime/deviance can be functional by preventing stagnation, clarifying unclear rules, relieving disturbances, creating solidarity, and allowing conformists to appreciate conformity.

Social Control

• Norms, rules, structures, and laws regulate behavior, ensuring order and conformity.
• Without social control, chaos ensues.
• Socialization, from birth, teaches acceptable norms and behaviors (Cole, 2019).

Types of Social Control

• Two types: formal and informal.
• Formal control is enforced by state officials for crimes.
• Informal control is enforced by family, teachers, peers, and caregivers, often for folkways and mores.

Mechanisms of Social Control

• Persuasion is operated through sanctions, which are the penalty attached to violating norms (Abotchie, 2017).
• Rewards and punishment are two aspects of sanctions, with rewards for conformity (prizes, honors, praise), and tangible or intangible coercion.
• Tangible coercion includes the use of physical force by law enforcement.
• Intangible coercion includes withdrawing privileges to ensure conformity.
• Informal controls, such as taboos, ostracism, and ridicule, compel conformity (Abotchie, 2017).

Delinquency

• Delinquency applies to children involved in illegal and harmful acts.
• Juveniles are children who have not reached the maturity age in the law.
• Juvenile delinquency is an unwelcomed behavior or omission or moral behavior not socially permitted in a society.

Theories of Crime and Deviance

• There is no single answer to what causes crime.
• Theories may apply to certain crimes but not others.
• Theories are categorized into biological and sociological theories.

Biological Positivism Theory of Crime

• Biological Positivism locates crime's cause in the individual, suggesting identifiable differences between criminals and non-criminals.
• Behavior is determined by factors beyond individual control.
• Character may be determined by physical characteristics.
• Individual traits and genetic dispositions cause crime.
• Such traits were considered physiognomy/physical traits and genetic/hereditary traits.

Physical Trait (Physiognomy)

• Personality or character involves evaluating outward physical appearance with facial characteristics used to judge nature.
• Giambattista della Porta's 'On Physiognomy' (1586) linked appearance and character.
• Johann Lavater in 1783 suggested criminal behavior could be detected by facial examinations.
• Cesare Lombroso, known as the father of criminology, published 'The Criminal Man' in 1876 and concluded that some people are "born criminals".
• Physical characteristics or abnormalities distinguish born criminals and Cesare Lombroso called them 'atavistic characteristics'.
• Offenders are products of early human evolution, with primitive physical and mental characteristics (degeneration) causing crime through biological abnormalities.
• Kretschmer's ‘Physique and Character' (1925), linked crime with observable differences and body/personality types.
• His initial work involved the link between body types and mental disorders.
• Work was later extended to crime and deviance.
• Cyclothemic personalities exhibit heavy, soft bodies, lacking spontaneity and sophistication, and engaging more in property crimes.
• Schizothymic personalities exhibit athletic body types and commit violent offenses.
• Displastics are highly emotional and commit sexual offenses/crimes of passion.

Body Type and Criminal Behaviour

• Sheldon's (1949) theory linked body type to personality through observation and interviews, proposing three body/personality types or somatotypes.
• Ectomorphs are thin with small bone structure and anxious personalities who enjoy intellectual stimulation.
• Endomorphs exhibit round bodies and relaxed, sociable personalities.
• Mesomorphs have large bone structure, strong bodies, and adventurous demeanor potentially described as obnoxious.
• Sheldon (1949) found juvenile delinquents were primarily mesomorphs in physical proportions versus college students.
• Mesomorphs are quick to anger, have less restraint, and their body type reflects high levels of testosterone that can lead to aggression.

Genetics or Hereditary Characteristics

• Genetics or hereditary characteristics assumes traits are passed down from generation to generation.
• Francis Galton (1822-1911) studied ability heredity in prominent people, concluding abilities were inherited in 'Hereditary Genius' (1869).
• Richard Dugdale (1877) documented crime as a family trait in 'The Jukes: a study in crime, pauperism, disease and heredity', finding criminals among Ada Jukes' descendants.

Critique of Biological Theories

• Biological theories were rejected as biased/flawed, using unscientific methods, with many authors retracting conclusions.
• They were also promoters of eugenics, which was the breeding out of "undesirable" human characteristics.

Sociological Theories on Crime and Deviance

• Crime is shaped by external factors like neighborhood, peers, and family.
• Major theories include anomie/strain theory, differential association/social disorganization, and labeling theory.
• Theories complement each other, but none provide a holistic explanation for crime.

Anomie/Strain Theory (Durkheim, and Merton)

• Society consists of different components such as individuals, according to Durkheim.
• Society must control individuals to maintain its existence/stability.
• Durkheim believed internal limits to cravings did not exist.
• Society must restrict desires.
• Society plays a moderating role as the only moral power over individuals.
• Pre-modern society focused on common values, collective conscience, and solidarity per Durkheim.
• Individual aspirations becoming central to modern society leads to anomie per as per Durkheim.
• Anomie characterizes the breakdown and blurring of societal norms regulating conduct. -A state characterized by lack of purpose, emotional emptiness, and hopelessness.

Merton and Anomie

• Robert Merton used the term anomie to describe differences between socially accepted goals and legitimate means to achieve those goals.
• According to Merton, society has cultural and social structures.
• The cultural structure defines goals everyone should desire (e.g success) and then defines legitimate means of achieving them.
• The social structure determines the availability/distribution of established means to realistically achieve goals lawfully.
• Many individuals in society also share in the cultural goals for success.
• However, such people may have limited means due to a lack of job opportunities.
• People at the lower levels of society experience constraint.
• This translates into deviance.
• Anomie occurs because of imbalance between cultural goals and legitimate means.
• Since individuals have different socio-economic conditions, equality of opportunity can not be achieved.
• These differences often cause inequalities, different paths of success.

Adaptations to Anomie

• Merton defined five adaptations to anomie.
• Conformity: accepting cultural goals through legitimate means (non-deviant)
• Innovation includes attaining wealth/success through illegitimate means like theft.
• Ritualism involves abandoning goals of wealth but continuing legitimate living to make ends meet.
• Retreatism involves rejecting social norms, goals and means.
• Rebellion is attempting to change the system to their liking.

Critique of Strain Theory

• Strain theory focuses on materialism and does not explain non-material crimes like rape or murder.
• It overemphasizes the role of social class in crime as they struggle with resources.
• The theory best applies to lower classes and does not explain white collar crimes of the upper class.
• It assumes people are inherently good and are driven by social factors but control theory counteracts stating that people are inherently bad and will commit crime unless there is control factors in place.

Social Learning Theories

• Social disorganization theory – Shaw and McKay (1942) focuses on neighborhood ecological factors.
• Residential location influences the likelihood that a person will become involved in crime/deviance.
• Affluent areas offer social controls while low-affluence areas with diversity encourage delinquency.
• Shaw and McKay studied the association between juvenile delinquency and urban ecology.
• Population change, vacant/condemned housing, and proximity to industry are classified as physical status.
• Number of families receiving social assistance/median rental price of the area classified as economic status.
• The diversity of people living in an area leads to a higher rate of delinquency as a population status..
• A 1989 study by Sampson and Groves on social disorganization found that neighborhood levels of economic status, ethnic diversity, mobility, and family structure led to heightened crime rates.
• A 2010 book by Gaines and Miller, "Criminal Justice in Action" showed "crime is largely a product of unfavorable conditions in certain communities".

Differential Association Theory

• Differential association theory - Sutherland (1947) and Differential Association Reinforcement theory - (Burgess and Akers, 1966) refers to how people learn to engage in crime through association as they learn to be favorable/exposed to desirable criminal models.
• Individuals learn to engage in crime by three mechanisms: 1. differential reinforcement, beliefs, and modeling/imitation.

Differential Reinforcement of Crime

• Differential reinforcement of crime explains how individuals learn to engage in crime through reinforcements/ punishments received.
• Reinforcements can be positive or negative, with the first being something good, second the removal of something bad, i.e. shame/acceptance.
• Crime is more likely when 1. is reinforced and infrequently punished, 2. provides a lot of reinforcement and little punishment, 3. is more reinforced than alternative behaviors.
• Favorable beliefs to crime is when the crime is internalized, crime values are learned through association, annd the favorable values toward crime lead to the likelihood of becoming engaged in crime.

The Imitation of Criminal Models

• People's behavior is influenced by others around them, becoming increasingly likely to do what they see others get rewarded for.
• Individuals often imitate or model after those who receive reinforcement.
• Behavior imitation is determined by the characteristics of the models, observed behavior and consequences (Akers and Sellers, 2004: 88).

Critique of Social Learning Theory

• Flawed premises show that increased associations with deviant pairs increase likelihood of individual to adapt values toward criminal conduct via reward/punishment as established before group contact (Akers and Sellers, 2004)
• Measuring Crime is impractical when associations with crime outweigh associations with conformity: How is this measured? (Matueda and Heimer, 1987)

Labeling Theory of Crime and Deviance

• Social reaction and societal responses cause behavior to be labelled "criminal" / "deviant".
• Howard Becker (1963) stated "Deviancy is not a quality of the act a person commits, but consequences of another people making sanctions on them".
• Powerful moral entrepreneurs create crime by labeling it as such as an act.
• Reactions to the same act depends on the context, such as in drug use or murder.
• Self concept is how we see ourselves. It is created by how others see us and label us.
• Labeling can lead to deviance amplification such as as primary/secondary deviance created by Lemert (1951).
• Master Label leads overshadows qualities of the person leads to blocked oppurtunities which leads to career criminal.
• Labeling has self-fulfilling prophecy - labeling people as criminal actually encourages them to be deviant through rejection.
• Naming and shaming shaming should be avoided - create an evil perception that leads to exclusion.
• John Braithwaite (1989) identifies positive role of labeling.
• Disintegrative shaming - not only crime criminal is bad, with exclusion from a criminal society, also a problem
• Reintegrative shaming - labeling the "act" not the "actor" i.e. "He is a bad person"
• Criticisms is that is deterministic of labeling, and it may be viewed that people accept and continue deviance
• It assumes that they've been victimized, ignoring actual victims.
• Structuralists reject crime is labeling & interaction related

Rational choice theory

• Founded in 1987 by Ronald Clarke and Derek Cornish.
• Core is rationality in human behaviour.
• The outcome of an individual thinking through possible rewards and downsides of a a criminal act.
• The theory emphasizes that people make a conscious choice to offend based on available information and a cost/benefit analysis of risk versus reward
• In becoming an offender - deliberate consideration the best choice that has to be made by calculation and rational choice

Criticisms of Rational Choice

• There is little attention to factors like emotion and impulsivity driven of irrational that times
• The theory does not account for non-self-serving criminal behaviour where here is a cost but not a reward

Theories of Social Control

• Social Control explains planned /unplanned processes to teach/ persuaded by individual to conform/value of groups
• It focus of techniques and strategies to regulate human behaviour/obiedence

The macro and microsocial controls

• Macrosocial= formal mechanism of control for solidarity/comformality.
• Micro social= informal for com formity/
• Micro-social theories focus on informal mechanisms that induce conformity
• Legal - police/laws for conformity
• Laws passed are carried out are enforcement needs authority/ or legitimate.
• Attaining one even resistance.

The microsocial controls theories

• Conatinment theory= Stops ppl from engaging in bad act.
• reckless previously not account for youths doing good.
• inner and outer control for.

Conatinment Theory.

• Interplay of inner and outer influence bad actions.
• Personal (self value)

Social Bonding Theory

• family ties (school, family, and society) will lower the deviance as more support increases and less illegal activities occur.
• Four social bonds
• Attachment (social sensitive)
• Commitment education vocation Involvement activities prevent crime Belief of fair/enforcement.
• Insulates individual from criminal Involve

Attachment

• Attachment to parents/school/peers
• Bond relationship and children deters crime Time of child spent with parents Intimacy,communication, and discussing private matter

Commitment

• Convention activities tie social code promotes for community.
• Educational/ excel or Vocational goals Avoid crime

Involvement

• Individual preoccupied personal interest with society.
• Conventional things to not allow time to be deviant

Beliefs

Value system of society for people to conform

Social Control in Ghana

• Maintains rules in conforming
• Legal or western (Traditional) weaken

Social control processed

• 3 main pro coded.
• Social.
• Persia
• Sanctions
• Family shames . chiefs have info setting, Religion African, Maintain order Taboods

Formal systems

• Parliament of low (order etc" ==

Explore the concept of social deviance from statistical, legal, and sociological perspectives. Learn how societies define and enforce rules, and how deviant behavior violates these norms. Understand the criticisms of the statistical perspective on deviance.