DV - Deviance Overview

Deviance Overview

Deviance Word Cloud Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart, popularized a new saying in 1964, not an act that most Supreme Court justices can claim on their resumes. Delivering his concurring opinion in the Jacobellis v. Ohio case involving the first amendment and obscene behavior, Justice Stewart wrote, "I shall not today attempt to further define the kinds of material to be embraced within the shorthand description ["obscenity"]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it…" It is the last part of the quote, "I know it when I see it", that took off in certain circles.

This saying is particularly useful in a discussion on social deviance. Deviance is an infraction of cultural norms. As what is considered to be a cultural norm changes over time, so does what is considered to be a violation of that norm. Relatively speaking, there are few cultural norms that don't transform over time and even fewer deviant behaviors not affected by change. What is deviant is often "in the eye of the beholder." For example, in the United States multiple states have changed their laws to allow marijuana use for medicinal purposes whereas the federal government has not. Thus raising the question, is the use of marijuana a deviant behavior? This module addresses cultural norms and deviance.

Essential Questions

What are cultural norms?
What is deviance?
Who determines deviance?
How do the major theoretical perspectives in sociology explain deviance?
What are the repercussions for deviance?

Key Terms

Alexander Liazos - Social-Conflict Theorist who challenged colleagues to notice that the people we commonly label as deviant are also relatively powerless; called for a new way of studying deviance
Anomie - a term used by Èmile Durkheim to describe a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals
Authority Figure - a person who has or represents authority in either specific circumstance or in general
Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay - American social scientists credited with the Social Disorganization Theory
"Collective Consciousness" - a term used by Emile Durkheim to describe a set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes that operate as a unifying force in society
Compliance - an individual's public conformity while, perhaps, retaining his or her own original beliefs privately; type of conformity
Conformity - the behavior that results from a desire to match the behaviors of the majority; doing what everybody else is doing to "fit in"
Control Theory - theory that claims when people imagine the consequences of deviant behavior they are discouraged from partaking in that behavior; Travis Hirschi
Conventional - conforming or adhering to accepted standards
Counter-Culture - a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture
Crime - a formal wrong-doing; a violation of a society's law
Crimes against Property - crimes that involve theft of property belonging to others; also known as property crimes
Crimes against the Person - crimes that direct violence or the threat of violence against others; also known as violent crimes
Criminal Deviance - violation of criminal laws
Criminal Justice System - the organizations- police, courts and prison officials- that respond to alleged crimes
Criminal Law - a system of law that identifies crime and is concerned with the punishment of those who commit crimes
Criminal Recidivism - later offenses by people previously convicted of crimes
Criminologist - social scientist who studies crime and criminals
Degradation Ceremony - an aspect of the socialization process in total institutions, in which people are subjected to humiliating rituals
Delinquency - minor crime; especially that committed by young people
Deterrence - the attempt to discourage deviance through the use of punishment
Deviance - the recognized violation of cultural norms; an infraction of cultural norms
Deviance Admiration - a type of deviance that is associated with under-conformity to cultural norms but that is evaluated positively
Deviant Career - commitment to deviant behavior identified during primary and secondary deviance ; occurs following secondary deviance; Erving Goffman
Edwin Lemert - American sociologist who expanded the Labeling Theory to include Secondary Deviance
Edwin Sutherland - (1883-1950) an American sociologist who studied deviance from the symbolic interactionist perspective and developed the Theory of Differential Association
Erving Goffman - (1922-1982) a Canadian sociologist who developed the term "dramaturgical approach" due to his belief that individuals "present" themselves in a certain way in public but act in another way when "hiding" from the "audience;" also credited with the term "Deviant Career" used within the Labeling Theory
Formal Sanctions - formal rewards and punishments used to regulate social behavior administered by a person of authority; the means of social control
Howard Becker - American sociologist who provided the foundations for the Labeling Theory
Identification - a conforming to someone who is liked and respected; usually this type of conformity is associated with a feeling of support, sympathy, understanding or belonging towards a person or thing who is liked and respected; type of conformity
Informal Sanctions - informal rewards and punishments used to regulate social behavior administered by a person without authority; the means of social control
Innovation - the behavior of a person who accepts cultural goals but reject conventional means; part of Merton's Strain Theory
Internalization - the accepting or internalizing of a cultural norm as one's own belief which leads to public and private conformity; type of conformity
Label - a short word or phrase descriptive of a person; within Labeling Theory usually based on negative deviant behavior
Labeling Theory - the idea that deviance and conformity result less from what people do than from how others respond to those actions; Howard Becker and Edwin Lemert
Language - the system of symbols that allows people to communicate with each other
Master Status - a status that affects other aspects of life and goes along with roles
Negative Deviance - deviance that is evaluated negatively
Obedience - form of social influence in which an individual yields to instructions or orders from a person of authority
Philip Zimbardo - American psychologist noted for his work in the Stanford Prison Experiment
Positive Deviance - intentional behavior that violates cultural norms in honorable ways
Primary Deviance - the first stage in the Labeling Theory and describes the initial act of deviance; Edwin Lemert
Projective Labeling - the prediction of future deviant behaviors of the stigmatized; part of the Labeling Theory
Rebellion - the behavior that comes from rejecting both cultural goals and conventional means but while creating alternative goals and means to replace the former; may result in a counterculture; part of Merton's Strain Theory
Rehabilitation - the process to restore an individual to a condition of good social health to prevent future deviant behaviors
Residential Mobility - frequent change of residents; as used in the Social Disorganization Theory
Retreatism - the behavior of a person rejecting both cultural goals and conventional means that usually results in the individual to "drop out" from society; part of Merton's Strain Theory
Retribution - societal vengeance against an offender of cultural norms or laws according to merits or deserts
Retrospective Labeling - the labeling of a person based on looking at the offender's history in the light of the new stigma; part of the Labeling Theory
Ritualism - the behavior that comes from rejecting cultural goals but accepting conventional means; part of Merton's Strain Theory
Robert Merton - (1910-2003) an American sociologist who worked within the Structural-Functionalist Theory and developed the concept of manifest and latent functions along with dysfunctions along with the Strain Theory used by criminologists
Sanctions - rewards and punishments used to regulate social behavior; the means of social control
Secondary Deviance - the second state of the Labeling Theory in which one internalizes a deviant identity by integrating it into their self-concept; Edwin Lemert
Social Change - the transformation of culture and social institutions over time
Social Control - the techniques and strategies for regulating human thoughts and behavior in any environment or society
Social Control Theory - a sociological theory that expands the Social Bonding Theory to explain why people conform or deviate: attachment, opportunity, involvement or beliefs within an individual's society or subgroup that lead the individual to conform to or deviate from cultural norms; Travis Hirschi
Social Disorganization Theory - sociological theory that claims ecological conditions specific to certain neighborhoods establish crime rates beyond the characteristics of the individual residents; developed by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay
Social Ecology - the branch of sociology concerned with the spacing and interdependence of people and institutions
Societal Protection - the removal of an offender from society either temporarily or permanently to prevent future offenses against society
Solomon Asch - (1907-1996) an American social psychologist noted for his experiments on conformity
Stanley Milgram - (1933-1984) an American social psychologist noted for his experiments on obedience
Status - a social position a person holds
Stigma - a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation; can affect person's self-concept and social identity
Strain theory - a theory that suggests when people are prevented from achieving culturally approved goals through institutional means, they experience strain or frustration that can lead to deviance; also known as Robert Merton's Theory of Deviance
Subculture - a group that is part of the dominant culture but that differs from it in some important aspects
Theory of Differential Association - theory that claims that deviance is a learned behavior—people learn it from the different groups with which they associate; counters arguments that deviant behavior is biological or due to personality; Edwin Sutherland
Total Institutions - institutions that regulate all aspects of a person's life under a single authority while keeping the individual separate from the rest of society; an example would include prisons
Travis Hirschi - (1935- ) an American criminologist who focused his study on juvenile delinquency and developed the Control Theory
Victimless Crimes - violations of law in which there are no obvious victims

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