Durkheims Basic Insight Theres nothing abnormal about deviance Emile Durkheim

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Durkheims Basic InsightTheres nothing
abnormal about deviance- Emile Durkheim

• Durkheim believed that deviance had some very
  positive effects upon society
• Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
• Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries
• Responding to deviance brings people together
• Deviance encourages social change

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Durkheims Basic Insight1. Deviance affirms
cultural values and norms

• Inevitably, people must choose / value some
  behaviours over others
• There can be no good without evil and no justice
  without crime
• Deviance is needed to define and sustain morality

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Durkheims Basic Insight2. Responding to
deviance clarifies moral boundaries

• By defining some people / behaviour as deviant,
  we draw a boundary between right and wrong
• (eg. Universities harsh consequences for
  students who plagiarize (expulsion) emphasize the
  importance of academic honesty)

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Durkheims Basic Insight3. Responding to
deviance brings people together

• People typically react to serious deviance with
  collective outrage (ie. they act / respond
  collectively as opposed to individually)
• In doing so, they reaffirm the moral and social
  ties that bind them together

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Durkheims Basic Insight4. Deviance encourages
social change

• Deviant people push a societys boundaries.
  This can result in either
• more fervent efforts to promote the norm (eg.
  the War on Drugs, drinking driving road
  blocks) or
• eventual acceptance of behaviour that was
  previously deemed unacceptable
• (eg. Rock n Roll 1950-Present)
• Regardless, change is sought and achieved.

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Mertons Strain Theory

• Merton believed that some deviance may be
  necessary for a society to function. The extent
  and the kind of deviance depends on whether a
  society provides the means to achieve cultural
  goals.

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Mertons Strain Theory

• Mertons explanation of why there is deviance
• Through socialization, society tells us which
  cultural goals we should value and strive for.
  (eg. wealth, material goods)
• It also tells us what are the acceptable ways of
  attaining these goals (eg. laws, norms, etc.)

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Mertons Strain Theory

• By striving for and attaining these goals (ie.
  making money, buying a house) in socially
  acceptable ways (ie. legally, ethically), we
  conform to societys values.
• However, society is not such that everyone has
  equal means to attain this goal. Therefore, not
  everyone can conform.
• Some people resort to methods that are not
  socially acceptable (ie. illegal, unethical) in
  order to attain the goals that (through
  socialization) they have been told to want or
  seek. In other words, they become deviant.

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Mertons Strain Theory

• Conformity lies in pursuing conventional goals
  through approved means. (ie. by trying to attain
  what other people say we should want, we are
  conforming).
• Our culture puts emphasis on wealth some level
  of wealth is necessary for us to conform.
  Unfortunately, our system is such that not
  everyone will get rich.
• This leads to deviance, especially among the poor

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Mertons Strain Theory

• When people are unable to succeed (ie. to attain
  the goals that society says they should achieve),
  they may respond in different ways. Merton
  describes four responses to the inability to
  succeed
• 1) Ritualism Many people believe that they can
  achieve only limited academic success, so
  they obsessively stick to the rules in order
  to at least feel respectable
• 2) Innovation The use of unconventional means
  (eg. cheating) to achieve a culturally
  approved goal (eg. good grades)

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Mertons Strain Theory

• 3) Retreatism Rejection of both cultural goals
  and acceptable means, so that one drops out
  of social reality (eg. alcoholics and drug
  addicts are retreatists)
• 4) Rebellion Rebels reject both the cultural
  definition of success and the normative means
  of achieving it. They assert their own
  agendas and acceptable means of achieving
  their goals (eg. terrorists)