Deviance Definition -Any behaviour that violates social or cultural norms -An act considered by public consensus or by the powerful at a given time and place to be a violation of some social rule Types of deviance -Formal/crime – violation of formally enacted laws -Informal – violation of informal social norms that have not been codified into law

Elements that determine deviance Time, place, public consensus Deviance vary from one place to the other, one culture to the other and from one group to another within a society. Reaction of the society and not the action that makes something deviant – Howard S. Becker Sociologists – all people are deviants because they break rules from time to time

Erving Goffman used the term “stigma” to attributes that blemish one’s claim to a normal identity. Determines one's master status To interactionists social groups develop norms together with a system of social control with formal and informal means of enforcing them. Norms are easily followed in tribal societies because of strong social bonds. In industrial societies, existence of competing groups create a need for techniques of social control.

To functionalists social control emerges as individuals and groups try to achieve a balance between competing interest groups. Imposing of social control falls on the government. To conflicts, an elite group (wealthy who control the government) uses social control to maintain power. To protect their interest, official deviance (a society’s statistics on lawbreaking, its measures of crime, victims, lawbreakers and the outcomes of criminal investigations and sentencing) shows their concern to protect their interest.

Social life possible with norms. To maintain norms social control is necessary. Sociologists contend that crime is a violation of norms. Society has its own set of laws to deal with certain unlawful behaviour. But sometimes due to social influences (e.g. socialization), people break the norms.

Theories of Deviance Symbolic Interaction Perspectives 1. Differential-association Theory -Coined by Edwin Sutherland. All about how people learn deviance. Environment plays a major role in deciding which norms people learn to break. People who associate with groups who are inclined towards deviant activities are easily influenced and thus engage themselves in deviant activities.

- Differential association is the learning of ideas and attitudes favorable or unfavorable to the law. Norms are also learnt from various socializing agents – parents, teachers, politicians, family members, friends, colleagues - criminal behaviour learnt from interactions with others especially with intimate groups. - This theory applies to many types of deviant actions. Young people becoming criminals after associating with juvenile gangs. Juvenile gangs

are countercultural who hail violence, retaliation and crime as means to achieving social standing. They follow a different set of norms. -This theory focuses on the developmental nature of criminality. Deviance is learnt from the people who deviate. -Interactionists stress that individuals help produce their own orientation to life and their choice of association helps to shape the self.

- Being labeled as deviant by society makes people become more deviant as they perceive themselves as one. 2. Control Theory - Everyone tempted to be deviant but refrain themselves from being deviant. 2 control systems prevent them from doing so namely inner controls (internalized morality, integrity, fear of being shamed, punishment) and outer controls (family, friends, police)

- Advocate of control theory, Travis Hirschi, more effective inner controls achieved with attachments to society, commitments, involvements and beliefs. 3.Labeling Theory -Labels people are given affect their own and others’ perception of them and thus determine whether to be deviant or conform.

- Gresham Sykes and David Matza use the term “techniques of neutralization” for the strategies used by deviants to overcome society’s labels. Strategies include -denial of responsibility -denial of injury -denial of a victim -condemnations of the condemners -appeal to higher loyalty

- Edwin Lemert identified primary deviance as acts of deviance that have little impact on the self-concept and secondary deviance as acts of deviance absorbed into one’s self-concept. Tertiary deviance is whereby deviant behaviour is relabeled nondeviant. -Many people hate being labeled but some take pride being given a deviant identity (motorcycle gangs)

- William A. Chambliss noted labels given to people affect how others perceive them and their perception of themselves. They change. They become deviants or they conform to society’s norms. This was based on a study carried out on the Saints ( problem boys from respectable middle class families) and the Roughnecks (boys from working class families who like to hang out).

The Functionalists Perspectives 1.Strain Theory - Developed by Merton to see the outcome when people are socialized to desire cultural goals (the legitimate objectives held out to members of a society) but denied the institutionalized means of achieving them - Used the term “anomie” for the stress and strain people experience if they are prevented from achieving such goals

- 4 types of deviant responses to prevent anomie namely: -innovation (using unlawful ways to achieve goals) -ritualism (give up achieving cultural goals) -retreatism (rejecting cultural goals) -rebellion (trying to change cultural goals - deviants are products of society.

2. Illegitimate Opportunity Theory - Style of crimes distinct and varies in different social classes because of differential access to institutionalized means (approved ways of achieving social goals) - Illegitimate opportunity structures are opportunities for crimes woven into the texture of life when legitimate structures fail.

- Opportunities to make money through unlawful ways (robbing, prostitution, drug dealing, gambling) common among urban poor. The one involved becomes a role model for others to follow. -Illegitimate opportunities structure exist among higher classes in the form of white-collar crimes (crimes committed by respectable and high class people while in service). These cause more harm and even death like unsafe working conditions. Even women are involved.

The Conflict Perspectives - Government’s social control measures provide for the interests of the wealthy and powerful. Laws and their enforcement determined by them to keep them in power and as self-protective measure. - Laws regarded as a means of repression, to keep the powerful in privileged positions and prevent the powerless from being rebellious. Criminal justice system used to trial offenders from the working class.

- Criminal justice system concentrates on violations of the law by working class. Disregards crimes of the privileged. Flagrant violations are prosecuted. This is the exploitative nature of capitalism. -Deviance is caused by a variety of factors including a combination of motivation, exposure to opportunities and individual self control.

How does society control deviance Social control – techniques and strategies. Formal and informal -Formal carried out by authorized agents such as police, judges, prisons, school administrators. Restrained by criminal justice system to prevent abuses. Must strike a balance. Street must be safe and people’s freedom not curtailed. -Informal – negative (frown, gossip, imprisonment, exile, capital punishment, degradation ceremonies) and positive sanctions (rewards for desired behaviour)

-Imprisonment – popular reaction to crime but inmates fail to stay away from crime. Recidivism ( the tendency to relapse into a previous undesirable type of behavior, especially crime) rate on the increase. -Imprisonment done for a number of reasons namely -retribution (making the offender suffer) -deterrence (causing fear of punishment) -rehabilitation (resocializing offenders) -incapacitation (removing offenders from -circulation)

- Death penalty – most severe and controversial measure. Combination of retribution, deterrence and incapacitation. Sometimes gender, social class, racial/ethnic, regional biases involved. - Medicalization of deviance – symptoms of underlying illness that needs treatment. Thomas Szasz argued that mental illness due to problem behaviours such as depression caused by chemical imbalance in the brain and responses to conditions which could not be coped.

Social experiences causes problem behaviours which in turn leads to other problems like being ignored or being chased out of the home. A state of insecurity arises leading to unusual and unacceptable way of thinking. Society labels them as having mental illness.

Major acts of deviance globally Homicide – likely to occur in poorer countries than in richer countries. Poverty the cause. Property crime higher in MIN due to availability of opportunities. Prostitution – fast growing global industry. Migration of many unemployed Russian women to Western Europe knowing and unknowingly trapped in the sex trade. Thailand and the Philippines dens for prostitution. Gender exploitation.

Suicide rate on the increase especially in modern than industrialized societies (Denmark, Finland, Austria, Japan) due to greater social inequality Organized crimes – crime organizations – loyalty strong. Strong support from legitimate businesses