Managing a Deviant Identity

1
Managing a Deviant Identity

• Attempts at Normalizing primary deviance in the
  Labeling process
• When people are judged as deviant, they are
  expected to explain their behavior (primary
  deviance)
• Often accomplished by the use of Vocabularies of
  Motive
• Provides a strategy for the individual to
  create/maintain distance between the deviance
  and their own self concept
• Common Assumptions about Vocabularies of Motive
• Rely upon consensus about conventional norms
• - Those labeled deviant feel the sting of
  stigma and moral judgment it implies
• - Deviants admire respect those with some
  claim to conventional status

2
Vocabularies of Motive The Sociology of
Mitigating Stigma

• Vocabulary of Motive (C. Wright Mills)
• An attempt to present an act that produces a
  negative reaction in terms that are culturally
  acceptable
• 2 Frameworks that identify types of Vocabularies
  of Motive
• Techniques of Neutralization (Matza and Sykes
  1957)
• Accounts (Scott and Lyman 1968)

3
Negotiating a Deviant Identity

• Techniques of Neutralization
• People labeled deviant employ rationalizations
  to free them from social bonds (constrained
  acts). Employed prior to act.
• Sometimes associated with Control theory
  (Hirschi). How come?
• Denial of Responsibility (Social forces caused
  individual action)
• Denial of Injury (No real harm was caused no
  blood no foul)
• Denial of Victim (Victim deserved harm)
• Condemnation of Condemners (Shift focus to
  actions of social control agents)
• Appeal to Higher Loyalties (Subcultural values -
  associations take precedence over conventional
  value systems)

4
Influence of Situational Cheating Among College
Students (Reserve 5 - McCabe)

• Analysis of Techniques of Neutralization used by
  students.
• Data Source?
• Extent of Cheating?
• Review of Neutralization Techniques
• Most common techniques used? Examples?

5
Vocabularies of Motive

• Accounts
• Linguistic tools that attempt to remove some of
  the blame or responsibility for an act judged as
  deviant after it has been committed.
• Socially approved vocabularies effectively
  neutralize the act or its consequences for the
  actors self concept
• Note that this is one important difference b/t
  Accounts and Techniques of Neutralization (which
  Matza and Sykes claim must occur before the
  (deviant) act).

6
Vocabularies of Motive

• Accounts
• 2 Types
• Excuses
• Justifications
• Both entail 2 elements
• Stance on the moral judgment of the act
• Stance on the culpability of the (deviant) actor

7
Vocabularies of Motive

• Excuses
• Admit the act is bad (agree with social judgment
  of the act)
• Does not accept full responsibility
• Justifications
• Deny social judgment of the act as wrong (in
  conflict with social norms)
• Justifications suggest that the act was
  appropriate in light of the circumstances
• Accepts responsibility for the act (logical -
  since the act is not conceived of as morally
  wrong)

8
Rapists Vocabulary of Motive (Scully and Marolla,
Ch 24)

• Data Source?
• Breakdown of Rapists Linguistic Strategies
• Admitters
• Deniers
• Excuses
• Use of Alcohol and Drugs (denial of
  responsibility)
• Rapist vs. Victim Patterns
• Emotional Problems (denial of responsibility)
• Nice Guy Image
• Social Capital of Rapist

9
Rapists Vocabulary of Motive (Scully and Marolla,
Ch 24)

• Justifications
• Broadly available in contemporary American
  society - ? as commodities
• Available to both Rapists/Victims and Society as
  a whole
• Women as Seductresses (sexually aggressive)
• No really means Yes (denial of injury)
• Most relax and enjoy it (denial of injury)
• Nice girls dont get raped (Sexual reputation of
  victim, A/D use, appearance denial of victim)
• Guilty of a minor wrong (denial of injury)
• What strategy was being employed by Kobe Bryants
  defense team?
• Conclusions about the Medical Model (rape as a
  psychiatric pathology)? Perhaps, but most rapists
  are NOT sick though they may use that as an
  excuse in the active use of cultural scripts to
  disavow their rapes

10
Priests Pedophilia (Ch. 25) Thomson, Marolla
and Bromley

• Extension of the Accounting for Deviance Model
• Accounts include Justifications and Excuses (like
  Ch. 24)
• Justifications -Denial of Injury most common
  (consensual behavior)
• Excuses -Accident (redeems church)
• -Scapegoating (focus on motives of the
  accuser(s)
• -Defeasibility (fallibility of priests as
  human)
• Identify a new type of Account Disclaimer
• Disclaimers precede the act of deviance (more
  consistent with Techniques of Neutralization)
• Disclaimer a verbal device employed to ward off
  and defeat in advance doubts and negative
  typifications.
• Function to Cushion anticipated reaction

11
Priests Pedophilia (Ch. 25) Thomson, Marolla
and Bromley

• 5 types of disclaimers used by pedophilic
  priests
• Hedging
• Uncertain about response to anticipated action
• Credentialing
• Most common among priests use of authority to
  approve behavior
• Sin license
• Usual rules are contextually suspended to allow
  action
• Cognitive
• Intended to forge agreement about appropriate
  action in light of the facts of the situation
• Appeals for the suspension of judgment
• Wait to pass judgment until the meaning of the
  behavior is clarified