Deviance

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Chapter 7

• Deviance

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OVERVIEW

• What is Deviance?
• In-class exercise
• Theories on Deviance
• Symbolic Interactionism
• Labeling Theory
• Functionalism
• Conflict Theory
• Stigma and Deviant Identity
• Crime and Punishment

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• Society must have means of social control to
  establish and maintain social order
• Conformity to norms
• Laws, rules, guidelines and expectations
• Positive and negative sanctions
• Makes life remarkably predictable
• Is deviance just the opposite of conformity?

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• Human history began with an act of disobedience
• Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
• Violation of norms is widespread
• No one is completely conforming or deviant

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Who or what is deviant?
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In-Class ExerciseDefining Deviance

• Rate acts and attributes on scale 5
  strongly agree 1 strongly disagree
• Which three were most deviant and least
  deviant?
• Students discuss in groups
• What criteria did you use to determine the extent
  of deviance?

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1. Embezzling money
2. Having AIDS
3. Protesting against a war
4. Driving while intoxicated
5. Being a victim of date rape
6. Illegally dumping toxic waste
7. Having sex before the age of 18
8. Being devoutly religious
9. Robbing a bank
10. Selling an unsafe product
11. Being a racist
12. Engaging in sex in public
13. Ignoring a homeless person

1. Drinking under age
2. Using cocaine
3. Cohabitating (living together)
4. Being an atheist
5. Being gay or lesbian
6. Price fixing by a corporation
7. Forcing sex on someone
8. Cheating on a test
9. Dealing drugs
10. Being obese
11. Abusing a child
12. Torturing animals

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WHAT IS DEVIANCE?

• Normative and reactive
• A behavior, belief, or other characteristic that
  violates a norm
• And causes a negative reaction
• Deviance is relative
• Historically
• Culturally
• Situationally
• Interpretations depend upon context
• Is any act inherently deviant?

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Theories on Deviance

• Psychology
• Focuses on the individual and genetic
  predispositions or personality disorders
• Sociology
• Focuses on social conditions and the definition
  of deviance

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Theories on Deviance SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISMLab
eling Theory

• Howard Becker
• The meaning of deviance is created through the
  process of interaction
• Deviant labels are applied to some individuals by
  others
• The judgments of others are important
  determinants of self
• Cooleys Looking-glass self

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• Primary deviation
• An initial act of deviance
• Temporary, exploratory, easily concealed
• Do you know anyone who has engaged in
• Truancy
• Underage drinking
• Reckless driving
• Shoplifting
• Vandalism
• Illegal drug use
• Pilfering
• Illicit sexual behavior
• May lead to being labeled

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• Secondary deviation
• Occurs after someone is caught
• Leads to deviant identity or career
• The result of having been labeled
• Once labeled, an individual is more likely to
  continue to be deviant
• Labels are like reputations, gossip or innuendo
• Hard to live down or shake
• Label becomes a master status
• Society is then likely to treat these individuals
  as generally deviant

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SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISMLabeling Theory

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Thomas Theorem
• If people define situations as real, they are
  real in their consequences
• Robert Merton
• A prediction that causes itself to come true
• An inaccurate statement or belief which, by
  altering the situation, becomes accurate

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On Being Sane in Insane Places by David
Rosenhan

• Study of labeling in psychiatric hospitals
• 8 researchers admitted as patients
• Falsified names and occupations
• Complained of hearing voices
• Believed they would quickly be exposed as
  pseudo-patients
• Identified as not mentally ill
• Tasked with getting themselves discharged from
  hospital
• Behaved normally
• Tried to convince staff of their sanity
• Staff continued to address them as patients
  needing treatment
• Other patients could see that researchers were
  sane
• Finally discharged after 1-7 weeks
• Not because staff had seen through deception
• Pseudo-patients released with schizophrenia in
  remission

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Theories on Deviance

• SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
• Differential Association
• We learn to be deviant through associations with
  deviant peers
• CONFLICT THEORY
• Social inequality reflected in definitions of
  deviance
• The less powerful are more likely to be
  criminalized

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Theories on DevianceFUNCTIONALISM

• Functions of Deviance
• Clarifies moral boundaries
• Promotes social cohesion
• Structural Strain Theory (Robert Merton)
• Goals-means Gap Theory
• Tension (strain) between socially desirable goals
  and socially approved means of achieving them
• Leads to deviance
• When goals are rejected (success)
• When means are rejected (hard work, education)

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Stigma and Deviant Identity

• Stigma
• Erving Goffman
• Spoiled identity
• An attribute that devalues a person or group
• Physical (physical or mental impairments)
• Moral (signs of flawed character)
• Tribal (membership in a discredited or oppressed
  group)
• Managing Stigma
• Passing
• How individuals conceal stigmatized identity
• In-Group Orientation
• Reject mainstream values and propose new
  standards that support identity
• Deviance Avowal
• Outsiders who embrace deviant identity

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Studying Deviance

• Research has focused on obvious forms of deviance
• Bias favors norms of the powerful
• Criminals, mentally handicapped, sexual deviants
• David Matza Naturalism
• Set aside preconceptions and understand deviants
  on their own terms
• Appreciate diversity of social worlds
• Not as pathology in need of correction
• Jack Katz Emotional Attraction of Doing Bad
  Deeds
• Seductions of Crime
• Considers how deviants experience their acts
• Sneaky thrills or righteous slaughter
• The foreground (rather than background) of
  deviance

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Positive Deviance

• Actions once considered deviant within a given
  context
• Later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic

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Crime and Punishment

• Crime
• Violation of norm codified into law
• Types of Crime
• Violent crime
• Violence is either the objective or means to an
  end
• Property crime
• Non-violent
• White-collar crime
• Committed by a high status individual

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Prison PopulationPew Center Study

• More than 1 in every 100 American is incarcerated
• 2.3 million (Jan. 2008)
• 1 in 53 adults in their 20s
• 1 in 30 ages 20-34
• U.S. leads in and of citizens incarcerated
• China 1.5 million
• Russia 890,000

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Crime and Punishment

• Criminal Justice System
• Legislature, police, courts, and prisons
• Approaches to Punishment
• Deterrence
• Threaten harsh penalties to discourage criminals
• Incapacitation
• Protect society by imprisoning or executing
  criminals
• Retribution
• Retaliation or revenge for crimes
• Rehabilitation
• Attempts to reform criminals as part of their
  penalty