Topics

Introduction
Definitions
Nature
Relative phenomenon
Difference between deviance and crime
Deviance Introduction
Deviance is any behavior that violates cultural norms. Deviance is often divided into two
types of deviant activities. The first, crime is the violation of formally enacted laws and is
referred to as formal deviance. Examples of formal deviance would include: robbery,
theft, rape, murder, and assault, just to name a few. The second type of deviant behavior
refers to violations of informal social norms, norms that have not been codified into law,
and is referred to as informal deviance. Examples of informal deviance might
include: picking one's nose, belching loudly (in some cultures), or standing too close to
another unnecessarily (again, in some cultures).
As the last two examples in the preceding paragraph illustrate, deviance can vary quite
dramatically from culture to culture. Cultural norms are relative; this makes deviant
behavior relative as well. For instance, in general U.S. society it is uncommon for people
to restrict their speech to certain hours of the day. In the Christ Desert Monastery, there
are specific rules about when the residents can and cannot speak, including a specific ban
on speaking between 7:30 pm and 4:00 am. The norms and rules of the Christ Desert
Monastery are examples of how norms are relative to cultures.
Current research on deviance by sociologists takes many forms. For example, Dr. Karen
Halnon of Pennsylvania State University studies how some people exercise informal
deviance. Her research focuses on what she calls "deviance vacations," where people of
certain socioeconomic status descend to lower strata. For instance, heterosexual white
males may become drag queens on the weekend. It is a vacation because heterosexual
white males can afford to descend temporarily and then return to the advantages of their
true socioeconomic status. Other examples include white hip-hop acts
like Eminem and Nu-Metal bands like Limp Bizkit that mimic lower or middle class
people in order to use their socioeconomic credentials for profit, despite their true
socioeconomic status.
Sociological interest in deviance includes both interests in measuring formal deviance
(statistics of criminal behavior; see below) and a number of theories that try to explain
both the role of deviance in society and its origins. This chapter will cover the theories of
deviance used by sociologists and will also cover current crime statistics.
Definitions of Deviance
Deviance is behavior that some people in society find offensive and which excites, or
would excite, if it were discovered, disapproval, punishment, condemnation, or hostility.
Deviance is behavior that is likely to get you into trouble. Deviant behavior is outside the
bounds of the group or society (Goode, 1997:37).

Many times during a day we disagree with people, but we don't usually label those we
disagree with as deviant. Deviance is not simply behavior. It involves a moral judgment.
Deviance involves a judgment made by somebody. Actually, any act can be defined as
deviant (See Henslin, 1999:192).
Deviance as a violation of Social Norms
Norms are specific behavioral standards, ways in which people are supposed to act,
paradigms for predictable behavior in society. They are not necessarily moral, or even
grounded in morality; in fact, they are just as often pragmatic and, paradoxically,
irrational. (A great many of what we call manners, having no logical grounds, would
make for good examples here.) Norms are rules of conduct, not neutral or universal, but
ever changing; shifting as society shifts; mutable, emergent, loose, reflective of inherent
biases and interests, and highly selfish and one-sided. They vary from class to class, and
in the generational "gap." They are, in other words, contextual.
Deviance can be described as a violation of these norms. Deviance is a failure to conform
to culturally reinforced norms. This definition can be interpreted in many different ways.
Social norms are different in one culture as opposed to another. For example, a deviant
act can be committed in one society or culture that breaks a social norm there, but may be
considered normal for another culture and society. Some acts of deviance may be
criminal acts, but also, according to the society or culture, deviance can be strictly
breaking social norms that are intact.
Viewing deviance as a violation of social norms, sociologists have characterized it as
"any thought, feeling or action that members of a social group judge to be a violation of
their values or rules"; "violation of the norms of a society or group"; conduct that violates
definitions of appropriate and inappropriate conduct shared by the members of a social
system"; "the departure of certain types of behavior from the norms of a particular society
at a particular time" and "violation of certain types of group norms [... where] behavior is
in a disapproved direction and of sufficient degree to exceed the tolerance limit of the
community."
Deviance as reactive construction
Deviance is concerned with the process whereby actions, beliefs or conditions (ABC)
come to be viewed as deviant by others. Deviance can be observed by the negative,
stigmatizing social reaction of others towards these phenomena. Criminal behaviour, 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 in the internet).
Some beliefs in society will attract negative reaction, such as racism
and homonegativity or alternatively even race mixing or homosexuality, but that depends
on the society. People may have a condition, which makes them treated badly by others,
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
self-defense. The issue of social power cannot be divorced from a definition of deviance
because some groups in society can criminalize the actions of another group by using
their influence on legislators.
Types of Deviance
Taboo is a strong social form of behavior considered deviant by a majority. To speak of it
publicly is condemned, and therefore, almost entirely avoided. The term “taboo” comes
from the Tongan word “tapu” meaning "under prohibition", "not allowed", or
"forbidden". Some forms of taboo are prohibited under law and transgressions may lead
to severe penalties. Other forms of taboo result in shame, disrespect and humiliation.
Taboo is not universal but does occur in the majority of societies. Some of the examples
of include murder, rape, incest, or child molestation.
Howard Becker, a labeling theorist, touched basis with different types of deviant
behaviors. There are four different types of deviant behaviors falling into different
categories. One of the four is falsely accusing an individual, which falls under others
perceiving you to be obtaining obedient or deviant behaviors. Pure deviance, which falls
under perceiving one to participate in deviant and rule-breaking behavior, is also apart of
the four types of deviant behaviors listed above. Conforming, which falls under not being
perceived as deviant, but merely participating in the social norms that are distributed
within societies, can also be placed into the category with pure deviance and falsely
accused. Lastly is secret deviance that is when the individual is not perceived as deviant
or participating in any rule-breaking behaviors.
Functions of Deviance
Deviant acts can be assertions of individuality and identity, and thus as rebellions against
group norms
Deviance affirms cultural values and norms; it also clarifies moral boundaries, promotes
social unity by creating an us/them dichotomy, encourages social change, and provides
jobs to control deviance. Certain factors of personality are theoretically and empirically
related to workplace deviance, such as work environment, and individual differences.
Situated in the masculinity and deviance literature, this article examines a "deviant"
masculinity, that of the male sex worker, and presents the ways men who engage in sex
work cope with the job."
The Nature of Deviance
In all societies the behavior of some people at times goes beyond that permitted by the
norms. Social life is characterized not only by conformity but by deviance, behavior that
a considerable number of people view as reprehensible and beyond the limits of
tolerance.

• Social Properties of Deviance.

Deviance is not a property inherent in certain forms of behavior; it is a property
conferred upon particular behaviors by social definitions. Definitions as to which
acts are deviant vary greatly from time to time, place to place, and group to group.
We typically find that norms are not so much a point or a line but a zone. Deviant
acts also can be redefined, as has happened in recent years in the United States.
Most societies can absorb a good deal of deviance without serious consequences,
but persistent and widespread deviance can be dysfunctional. But deviance may
also be functional by promoting social solidarity, clarifying norms, strengthening
group allegiances, and providing a catalyst for change.
• Social Control and Deviance.
Societies seek to ensure that their members conform with basic norms by means
ofsocial control. Three main types of social control processes operate within
social life: (1) those that lead us to internalize our society's normative
expectations(internalization), (2) those that structure our world of social
experience, and (3) those that employ various formal and informal social
sanctions.
Theories of Deviance

Other disciplines are concerned with deviance, particularly biology and psychology.
Sociologists focus on five main theories.

• Anomie Theory. Émile Durkheim contributed to our understanding of deviance

with his idea of anomie. Robert K. Merton built on Durkheim's ideas of anomie
and social cohesion. According to his theory of structural strain, deviance derives
from societal stresses.
• Cultural Transmission Theory.
A number of sociologists have emphasized the similarities between the way
deviant behavior is acquired and the way in which other behavior is acquired-the
cultural transmission theory. Edwin H. Sutherland elaborated on this notion in his
theory of differential association. He said that individuals become deviant to the
extent to which they participate in settings where deviant ideas, motivations, and
techniques are viewed favorably.
• Conflict Theory. Conflict theorists ask, "Which group will be able to translate its
values into the rules of a society and make these rules stick?" and "Who reaps the
lion's share of benefits from particular social arrangements?" Marxist sociologists
see crime as a product of capitalist laws.
• Labeling Theory. Labeling theorists study the processes whereby some
individuals come to be tagged as deviants, begin to think of themselves as
deviants, and enter deviant careers. Labeling theorists differentiate
between primary deviance and secondary deviance.
• Control Theory. Control theory attempts to explain not why people deviate but
why people do not deviate. Travis Hirsch argued that young people are more
likely to conform if their bond to society is strong. This bond has four parts:
attachment, involvement, commitment, and belief.

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority (via mechanisms
such as legal systems) can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies
may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime violates the law, not
every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of
other civil law may rank as "offences" or as "infractions". Modern societies generally
regard crimes as offences against the public or the state, as distinguished
from torts(offences against private parties that can give rise to a civil cause of action).
When informal relationships and sanctions prove insufficient to establish and maintain a
desired social order, a government or a state may impose more formalized or stricter
systems of social control. With institutional and legal machinery at their disposal, agents
of the State can compel populations to conform to codes, and can opt to punish or attempt
to reform those who do not conform.

Authorities employ various mechanisms to regulate (encouraging or discouraging) certain

behaviors in general. Governing or administering agencies may for example codify rules
into laws, police citizens and visitors to ensure that they comply with those laws, and
implement other policies and practices, which legislators or administrators have
prescribed with the aim of discouraging or preventing crime. In addition, authorities
provide remedies and sanctions, and collectively these constitute a criminal
justice system. Legal sanctions vary widely in their severity, they may include (for
example) incarceration of temporary character aimed at reforming the convict. Some
jurisdictions have penal codes written to inflict permanent harsh punishments:
legal mutilation, capital punishment or life without parole.

Difference Between Crime and Deviance

The difference between deviance and crime is that crime is a social deviance for which a
law has been passed to forbid it, and for the state to punish someone who breaks the
taboo. That difference is basically the difference between gemeinschaft and gesellschaft.
Not every law is fair or based upon the will or consensus of the whole population, and
some actions may be technically illegal yet accepted among the norms of the people.
Some laws are not removed long after they outlast their usefulness. It is still the law in
Vancouver that horses have the right of way over motor vehicles and pedestrians.
Punishment is the common legal response, but punishment is not a way to end crime,
even in the individual being punished.