Deviance: More than an Act

October 30, 2015

“Submitted for extra credit for SOC 1101”

Kierra King

Kking85@uncc.edu
 Deviance, defined as, “the recognized violation of cultural norms”, is more than

it’s definition (8). It has many components that contribute to its existence. Those traits

included genetic, personality, and environmental factors (8). There is no specific ethnicity

or gender is centered in the realm of defiance. A lot of external factors go into a deviant

and why they behave the way they do. Those environmental factors include the defined

cultural norms, specified labels, and how society sets social norms. Eventually, defiance

makes its contribution to the realm crime. However, some sociological theorists, like

Durkheim, saw deviance as a social function; posing the question, can deviance be a good

agent of society (8)?

Society makes its own definition of deviance. Some behaviors are socially

acceptable; meanwhile, in other societies they are not (8). For example, in some parts of

the country, recreational use of marijuana is accepted (8). Then, some people have the

tendency to label people as deviant because they do not meet their criteria or level of

prestige (8). The more a person is labeled as a deviant, the more likely they will believe

in that label (8). Laws also play an intricate part in the foundation of a deviant.

Lawmakers have the tendency to create laws that favor them, rather than the population

as a whole. Once the population gains knowledge of this and fights the irrational law

process, they are labeled defiant due to their inability to comply with the law (8). In

today’s society, standing up for certain pressing issues is considered as a defiant act rather

than a valiant contribution to change for a better society (8).

Based on the Structural-Functional theory, deviance is key to defining the moral

values that are necessary to society. It holds that deviance is evident in all societies.

Theorists like Durkheim, have taken a different approach to the topic of defiance. He
believed that defiance served four basic functions in society. Those functions were to

define cultural values and beliefs, establishing right and wrong, bringing people together

to establish awareness to certain deviant crimes, and encouraging societal change.

Durkheim chose to see deviance as a positive agent for society. However, Robert Merton

chose to see deviance as a negative agent of society. He thought that society was starting

to encourage too much deviant activity. Merton’s argument was that based on society’s

emphasis on wealth and prestige, those in poverty-stricken environments are more likely

to not play by the rules and find their wealth in street crime such as drug dealing and

theft. The population in poverty feels as if they are incapable of making the larger strides

such as those people in well off environments, which encourages more deviant behaviors

in order to achieve their desired lifestyle (8).

When there is opportunity from an illegitimate source that is unreachable by

poverty-stricken and belittled societies, criminal subcultures start to emerge. There are

two types of deviant groups. Those groups are conflict subcultures and retreatist

subcultures, which emerge when there are no legal or illegal opportunities. Conflict

subcultures are armed street gangs that use violence to instill fear and to gain respect.

Then, the retreatist subcultures drop out and become acclimated with drugs and alcohol.

These groups are mostly composed of those with lesser opportunities than those well off.

Both subcultures are characterized by toughness, trouble, intelligence, need for

excitement, belief in fate, and a need of freedom from authority (8).

The symbolic-interaction theory holds a concentration on how people define

defiance in certain situations. This theory shows the inconsistency between an act and

person being labeled a deviant. Accompanying this notion, there is the labeling theory.
The labeling theory states that deviance and conformity result from how people respond

rather than the act itself. People define certain acts in different ways. There are two

different categorizations of the term deviance. There is primary and secondary deviance.

Primary deviance provokes a minimal reaction from others and doesn’t alter the person’s

self-concept. Meanwhile, secondary deviance has a substantial reaction from others and

drastically changes a person’s self-concept. This type of deviance could ignite a stigma

and change a person’s identity as a whole (8). This stigma serves as the main status of the

person, and the stigma alone could leave the person in a state of isolation. Once the

person is stigmatized, he or she goes through a process of retrospective labeling.

Retrospective labeling serves to make people rethink all other past occurrences in view of

the present deviance that has taken place. This process gradually turns into projective

labeling. Projective labeling is when people predict continuous bad behavior as a result of

the deviant act (8).

Nowadays, differences in how a person behaves are quickly interpreted as a

mental illness. Trying to find the root of the deviant behavior, society has a tendency to

classify a person as sick or mentally ill. Sometimes the diagnosis can be fitting for certain

situations, however, when it is automatically assumed as the main issue, there is a fear

that the diagnosis may illegitimately used (8). This can cause problems in our legal

systems because if a person is diagnosed as mentally ill, they might see the sentence to go

to a mentally help center as an easy verdict and still continue to behave as they had

before (8).

In terms of the social-conflict theory, it places a substantial emphasis on social

inequality (8). The power struggle between the rich and poor adds to the likelihood that
those in low to middle class are likely to be labeled deviant (10). The label of

delinquency depends on the specified group of people who hold the power in that distinct

society (8). It is apparent that most of the established norms in society are perceived to

reflect the interests of the dominant and wealthy (8). Then, the behaviors that society

deems deviant seem to not apply to those in a higher up position (8). Most often than not

you will never see a person such as a mayor, governor, or president labeled delinquent.

Since they are higher up in wealth and class, they can easily slide under the radar of the

label delinquent (8). Society is unable to probe whether the laws being made are fair and

just because they are under they are following the common belief that all laws are made

for the betterment of society and its people (8). Studies and in depth research has shown

that people in lower classes are typically convicted of crimes more than the high-class

individuals (10). The power struggle sheds light on a potential political aspect of

deviance (8). People of the lower class are more likely to be labeled delinquent than those

of a higher class (10).

In society men typically dominate the scene (8). Women and minority groups

have less control over the factors that become apparent in their lives (8). When men

commit certain acts of delinquency, it is seen as characteristics of manly mystique,

meanwhile, for other minority groups the acts are seen as more obscene and unjust (8).

This theory puts emphasis on control. The dominant groups discredit the minority groups

in order to dominate the minority groups (8).

Inevitably once deviance has bee labeled and established, continued delinquency

leads to crime. There are many different classifications of crime. Those classifications

are white-collar crime, cooperate crime, and organized crime (8). White-collar crime is
typically crime that happened within the work place. Crimes such as embezzlement, bank

fraud and bribery are typically found in white-collar crimes (8). People who commit these

crimes tend to escape conviction, and are charged with paying a fine (8). Cooperate crime

is illegal actions of a company. The crimes typically involve selling faulty products or

endangering the environment (8). Organized crime is a low down business that supplies

illegal goods (8). For example, AL Capone during the prohibition years had an illegal

alcohol distributing company.

No one crime is designated to a specific gender, age or ethnicity. In 2013, about

6,663, 833 men were convicted of a crime, and 2,407, 159 women were convicted of a

crime (4,5). It was typical to see more convictions of non-white individuals rather than

white individuals (9). The crime rate for juveniles has declined by 8.4% (2). In reference

to men and women, 73% of arrest made we composed of men (2). There is a substantial

amount of diversity in the realm of crime and delinquency among society as a whole.

Globally, each country deals with a variety of different crimes, and the rate of

those crimes might be substantially different in some countries than others. The violent

and property crime rate in the United States in substantially higher than Europe’s rate

(1,8). Crime rates are typically high in cities with a higher population (8). Some crime

trades are more concentrated in some countries more than others (1,6). For example,

China is number one in the amount of heroin seized. Germany is a country that is very

involved in the sex trade (6). The U.S takes sex trafficking and prostitution as serious

offenses, meanwhile, countries such as Japan, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands do

not prosecute such offenses (6). Some countries place a certain amount of importance on

crimes, while others simply do not classify certain acts as crimes (6).
 When a crime has been committed, there are certain procedures that take place in

order to show that disobeying the law is not tolerated. Some countries have different

regimes than others (6,8). China executes more people than the world combined (8).

Sixty-seven countries do not participate in the death penalty (8). Those countries include

Australia, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Italy, and other various countries (8). There is more

of a specific system when dealing with crimes in the U.S. The United States has a

criminal justice system. In the U.S a person is innocent until proven guilty (8). The police

and courts come together to keep society safe and send a message that delinquency in the

form of crime will not be tolerated (8). The criminal justice system runs by due process

(8). As American citizens we are allotted specific rights (8). The courts decided whether a

person is innocent or guilty. The courts sometimes utilizes a jury to deem if a person is

indeed guilty (8). Sometimes the courts allow for the defendant to take a plea bargain

which is a negotiation set by the prosecution (8). The defendant can decline the plea

bargain, however, if the defendant is found guilty the judge can order jail time, probation,

or the death penalty (8). In some cases when a person is sent to prison, the judge might

grant them parole for good behavior (8). All of these institutions and punishments are

meant to send a message to society that unlawful acts are not tolerated and they want to

deter people from committing delinquent acts (8).

Delinquency stems from a majority of external and internal factors. Not one act

can define a person as a delinquent. Most often it is the society that deems a person

delinquent based on that persons role in society, and how they place in socioeconomic

standards. Delinquency can vary in gender, ethnicity, and age. Not one population is
dominant in the realm of delinquency. Society as a whole contributes consistently with

the constant presence of deviance.

Works Cited
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2015.
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2014/persons-arrested/main/persons-arrested.pdf>.
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Justice Statistics (BJS) - Crime Type. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

<http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tdtp&tid=3>.
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<https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-

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8. Macionis, John J. "Chapter 9 Deviance." Sociology. Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Prentice Hall, 2003. 238-69. Print.

9. Piquero, Alex R., and Robert W. Brame. "Assessing the Race–Crime and

Ethnicity–Crime Relationship in a Sample of Serious Adolescent Delinquents."

Crime and Delinquency. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 29 Oct.

2015. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782848/>.
10. Teilmann, Katherine. "Social Class and Crime in an Adoption Cohort." N.p., n.d.

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<http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

article=6363&context=jclc>.