1. Chapter 7
Deviance

2. What is Deviance? The recognized violation of cultural norms
Biased towards the positive
Biased towards the negative
“Different” or “unexpected” are words often used to describe deviance from a sociological perspective
Distinct areas
Crime (laws)
Violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal law

3. Social Control
The attempts a society makes at regulating thought and behavior
Criminal justice system
A formal response by police, courts and prison officials to alleged violations of the law
Biological context Nature
Biological factors may have a real but modest effect on whether a person becomes a criminal
Personality factors Nurture
Deviance is viewed as unsuccessful “socialization”

4. Social Foundations of Deviance
Deviance varies according to cultural norms
No thought or action is inherently deviant
People become deviant because others define them as such
How other perceive and label us
Deviance involves social power
Rule-makers, rule-breakers, and rule-enforcers
Norms and applying them are linked to social position

5. Functionalism and Deviance: Emile Durkheim
Believed deviance performed certain functions in society:
Affirms cultural values
Clarifies moral boundaries
Promotes social unity
Encourages social change

6. Functionalism and Deviance: Robert Merton
Strain theory
The “strain” between our culture’s emphasis on wealth and the limited opportunity to get rich gives rise, especially among the poor, to theft, the sale of drugs, or other street crime.
Questions whether or not society provides the means (education, opportunity) to achieve cultural goals (financial success)

7. Robert Merton
Strain is the gap between what “ought to be” and “what is”; people generally react in one of these ways:
Conformity: Pursuing conventional goals through normal means (working hard at a legitimate job)
Innovation: Unconventional means to achieve approved goals (drug dealing)
Ritualism: Accept institutional means; Reject goals
Retreatism: Rejects both the goals and means (drops out of society)
Rebellion: Define new goals and means to achieve goals

8. Symbolic-Interaction and Labeling Theory
Labeling theory is the idea that deviance and conformity result, not so much from what people do, but from how others respond to what they do.
Primary and secondary deviance
Primary deviance refers to passing episodes of norm violation
Secondary deviance is when an individual repeatedly violates a norm and begins to take on a deviant identity (they begin to internalize the label that has been applied to them).

9. Labeling Theory
A stigma is a powerfully negative social label that radically changes a person’s self-concept and social identity, operating as a master status.
Stigmas are often attached in formal rituals called status degradation ceremonies (like going to court).
Stigmas are deepened by retrospective labeling, the interpretation of someone’s past consistent with present deviance (like saying “Once a criminal, always a criminal”).

10. Labeling Difference as Deviance
Thomas Szasz argues that “mentally ill” is a label we attach to people who are only different and concludes that we should abandon the concept of mental illness entirely
The medicalization of deviance is the transformation of moral and legal issues into a medical condition.
Whether deviance is defined morally or medically has three profound consequences
It affects who responds to deviance
It affects how people respond to deviance
It affects whether the deviant is regarded as being personally competent

11. Edwin Sutherland: Differential Association
Deviant behavior is learned in associations with deviant others
Frequency of association with deviant others is central to the development of deviant behavior
If friends are prone to norm violation, the person is more likely to take part in these acts
Conformity reaps rewards while lack of it reaps punishment

12. Travis Hirschi: Control Theory
Social control depends on imagining the consequences of one’s behavior
Conformity arises from four types of social controls:
Attachment
Commitment
Involvement
Belief

13. Conflict Theory and Deviance
Deviance and power
Norms or laws reflect interests of rich and powerful
Powerful have resources to resist deviant labels
Belief that norms and laws are natural and good masks political character