Objectives:  Define deviance and explain why it is relative.  Why are norms necessary and why do we create a system of social control  Explain Positive and Negative Sanctions  Why do people violate norms

Deviance: the violation of rules or norms  can be minor (driving over speed limit)  can be serious (murdering someone)  ”It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant” (Howard Becker)  what is deviant to some is not deviant to others (Read Thinking Critically pg. 203) Crime: violation of norms written into law Stigma: “blemishes” that discredit a person’s claim to a “normal” identity

 Norms make social life possible by making behavior predictable  example pg. 201 (purchasing milk)  Norms prevent social chaos  Lay out basic guidelines for how we should play our roles and interact with others  social order: a group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend and on which they base their lives  Deviance undermines this order  humans develop social control: a formal or informal means of enforcing its norms

Negative Sanctions: expression of disapproval for breaking a norm  ranges from a mild, informal reaction (frown) to a formal reaction (prison sentence) Positive Sanctions: a reward or positive reaction for following norms  ranges from a smile to a prize  The severity of the sanction depends on your perspective

 Shaming is an example of a negative sanction  effective within a primary group  examples: Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter ; Arizona sheriff making inmates wear pink underwear  Degradation Ceremony: an attempt to remake the self by stripping away an individual’s self- identity and stamping a new identity in its place  perp walks; shaving head for military

Biological  look for answer within the individual  something in the individual’s makeup leads him/her to be deviant  Genetic Predispositions: inborn tendencies (to commit deviant acts)  biological explanations: 1) intelligence— low intelligence  crime 2) “XYY”—extra Y chromosome in males  crime 3) body type—people with “squarish/muscular” bodies more likely to commit street crime like mugging, rape, burglary  These explanations don’t hold up very well

Psychological  Look for answer within the individual  Personality disorders: the view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms  subconscious motives drive people to deviance  like: suppressed anger, suffocating mothers, absent fathers  no inevitable outcome of any childhood experience; deviance is not associated with any particular personality

Sociological  Search for factors outside of individual  look for social influences that “recruit” people to break norms  ie: socialization, group membership, subcultures, social class  Explain deviance using the 3 sociological perspectives (Symbolic Interactionism, Fuctionalism, and Conflict)

Due Friday: (either hand in or by ) --see examples: improv everywhere (frozen grand central station) Gather 1 example of deviance in the news or on the internet. This can be a newspaper article/magazine story/news video/youtube video Write a paragraph explaining the act of deviance you have discovered and why it is a deviant act.