Devian Behavior

DEVIAN BEHAVIOR
In a sociological context, Deviance describes actions or behaviors that violate

social norms, e.g., crime, as well as informal violations of social norms (e.g.,
rejecting folkways and mores).
 Deviance as a violation of social norms: They vary from class to class,
and in the generational "gap." They are, in other words, contextual.
DEVIANCE AS REACTIVE CONSTRUCTION:
 Criminal behavior, such as theft, can be deviant, but other crimes attract
little or no social reaction, and cannot be considered deviant (e.g.,
violating copyright laws by downloading music on the internet).
 Some beliefs in society will attract negative reaction, such as racism, but
that depends on the society. People may have a condition or disease
which causes others to treat them badly, such as having HIV, dwarfism,
facial deformities, or obesity.
 Deviance is relative to time and place because what is considered
deviant in one social context may be non-deviant in another (e.g.,
fighting during a hockey game vs. fighting in a nursing home). Killing
another human is considered wrong except when governments permit it
during warfare or for self-defense.
Theories
 There are three broad sociological classes describing deviant behavior,
namely structural functionalism, symbolic interaction and conflict theory
Structural-Functionalism
 Those who are very integrated fall under the category of "altruism“(self
less, self sacrificing) and those who are not very integrated fall under
"egoism”.
 Durkheim's strain theory attributes social deviance to extremes of the
dimensions of the social bond. Altruistic suicide (death for the good of
the group), egoistic suicide (death for the removal of the self-due to or
justified by the lack of ties to others), and anomic suicide (death due to
the confounding of self-interest and societal norms) are the three forms
of suicide that can happen due to extremes.
Durkheim's Basic Insight
 Durkheim(1858-1915) claimed that deviance was in fact a normal and
necessary part of social organization. When he studied deviance he
stated there are four important functions of deviance.
1. "Deviance affirms cultural values and norms. Any definition of virtue
rests on an opposing idea of vice: There can be no good without evil and
no justice without crime".
2. Deviance defines moral boundaries, people learn right from wrong by
defining people as deviant.
3. A serious form of deviance forces people to come together and react in
the same way against it.
4. Deviance pushes society's moral boundaries which, in turn leads to
social change.
Merton's strain theory
 collective action as motivated by strain, stress, or frustration in a body of
individuals that arises from a disconnection between the society's goals
and the popularly used means to achieve those goals. Often, non-routine
collective behavior is said to map onto economic explanations and
causes by way of strain.
Explanation of Merton's strain theory
 1. Innovation is a response due to the strain generated by our culture's
emphasis on wealth and the lack of opportunities to get rich, which
causes people to be "innovators" by engaging in stealing and selling
drugs. Innovators accept society's goals, but reject socially acceptable
means of achieving them. (e.g.: monetary success is gained through
crime).
 2. Conformists accept society's goals and the socially acceptable means
of achieving them (e.g.: monetary success is gained through hard work).
mostly middle class people in middle class jobs who have been able to
access the opportunities in society such as a better education to achieve
monetary success through hard work.
 3. Ritualism refers to the inability to reach a cultural goal thus
embracing the rules to the point where they lose sight of their larger
goals in order to feel respectable. Ritualists reject society's goals, but
accept society's institutionalised means. Ritualists are most commonly
found in dead-end, repetitive jobs, where they are unable to achieve
society's goals but still adhere to society's means of achievement and
social norms.
 4. Retreatism is a response that shows the inability of a person to reject
both the cultural goals and means letting the person "drop out".
Retreatists reject the society's goals and the legitimate means to achieve
them. true deviants, as they commit acts of deviance to achieve things
that do not always go along with society's values.
 5. Rebellion is somehow similar to retreatism, because rebellions also
reject both the cultural goals and means but they go one step further
and a "counterculture" that supports other social orders that already
exist (rule breaking). Rebels reject society's goals and legitimate means
to achieve them, and instead create new goals and means to replace
those of society, creating not only new goals to achieve but also new
ways to achieve these goals that other rebels will find acceptable.
Symbolic interaction
 examines how shared meanings and social patterns are developed in the
course of social interactions.
 Learning in interaction using communication within intimate personal
groups.
 Techniques, motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes are all
learned.
 Excess of definitions favorable to deviation.
 Legitimate and illegitimate behaviors both express the same general
needs and essential values.
 One example of this would be gang activity in inner city communities.
Primary And Secondary Deviation
 what causes people to become harder criminals.
 Primary deviance is the time when the person is labeled deviant through
confession or reporting.
 Secondary deviance is deviance after the primary deviance.
 Retrospective labeling happens when the deviant recognizes his acts as
deviant prior to the primary deviance.
 prospective labeling is when the deviant recognizes future acts as
deviant.
Conflict theory:
 Wealth or status comes into conflict with the individual. The legal rights
of poor folks might be ignored, middle class are also accept; they side
with the elites rather than the poor, thinking they might rise to the top
by supporting the status. Conflict theory is based upon the view that the
fundamental causes of crime are the social and economic forces
operating within society. However, it explains white-collar crime less
well.
 This theory also states that the powerful define crime. This raises the
question: for whom is this theory functional? In this theory, laws are
instruments of oppression: tough on the powerless and less tough on
the powerful.
Rehabilitative
 Rehabilitation is a more permanent fix in deterring crime. Rehabilitation
through community supervision can have a more lasting effect on
individuals and deter them from committing future crime if they learn
how to adapt in society by gaining academic or trade skills. These
programs can help offenders find employment and secure an important
role in the community and give them a sense of being.

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DEVIAN BEHAVIOR

In a sociological context, Deviance describes actions or behaviors that violate

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