SOC 224: What is Deviance

Deviance

A person, behaviour, or characteristic that is socially typed as deviant + subjected to measures of social control

• happens everywhere

• Centres around some violation of norms

• Deviating from an accepted norm

Conformity

Behaviour that is in accordance with social norms because of agreement with social values or fear of sanctions

Type of deviance: negative deviance

Violates situational expectations

Type of deviance: positive deviance

Intentional behaviours that depart from the norms of a referent group in honourable ways

• “praise-worthy”

• Must focus on actions with honourable intentions

Social Norms

Expectations of conduct in particular situations

• regulates our social relations + behaviours

• Norm violations usually result in reactions or sanctions (punishment/consequence)

• Vary significantly; location, social class + time

Proscriptive

What not to do

Prescriptive

What to do

Social role

Sets of expected behaviours, obligations, and norms attached to a specific status of position within a social group

• “how we expect you to behave”

Objectivism

Something inherent in a person, behaviour, or characteristic that makes it deviant

• “absolute moral order”

• Presence of certain/common characteristics defines deviance

Problems with Objectivism

Deviance labels are never purely objective

Deviance carries a negative moral evaluation

Label is applied to people on flimsy or fabricated basis

Determining deviance: Statistical Rarity?

Criteria for “rare”: ambiguous

Common things may unacceptable: ex. Speeding

Rare things may be acceptable

Hidden, but not rare? Ex. Cheating

Fails to correspond understanding towards behaviours that are strange, inappropriate + immortal

Determining deviance: harm?

Can be directed at a person, or society

• physical or emotional

• Towards the functioning of society: criminals

• Towards understandings of the world: religion (ontological)

Limitations of “harm”

Perceptions vary over time + subjective

Changing society(?)

Some types of deviance less harmful than non deviant behaviours; weed = alcohol

Perceptions largely exaggerated (by those who want to control it)

Defining deviance: societal reaction

Whose reactions count the most?

That society’s “masses” respond to with negative emotions like anger, fear, or distrust

People may still be “deviantized” when society reacts positively

Types of responses: Negative

When a behaviour elicits criticism or punishment

Types of responses: tolerant

When deviancy is considered reasonable

Types of responses: denial

Attempts to deny the deviance we see

• unwilling to accept that something is wrong + denial of reality of situation

Types of responses: romanticization or demonization

framed as heroic, noble, or a necessary rebellion against unfair structures

framed as evil, dangerous, and subhuman, often turning individuals into "folk devils"

Defining deviance: normative violation

Refers to people, behaviours, or characteristics that violate society’s norms

• today perceive norms as culturally specific rather than universal

Absolutist view of norms

Behaviour or characteristic is INHERENTLY + UNIVERSALLY deviant

• some norms should be followed in all cultures + at all times

• Absolute moral order: frequently based on religion

Culturally-specific view of norms

Norms = culturally specific

Not an absolute moral order: we are socialized into these norms

Folkways

Norms that govern everyday behaviour

• etiquette + how we dress

Might be considered odd or rude if violated

Mores

The standards often seen as the foundation or morality in a culture

• such as prohibitions against certain sexual practices

Violate: may be thought of as immoral

Law

Norms enshrined in the legal system

Consensus crimes

Widespread agreement that these are inherently wrong, harmful mandate severe response

• equality applied to all

Conflict crimes

These are illegal acts, but there’s vast disagreement about whether they should be illegal, how serious they + how we should respond

consensual view of law

Views the law as arising out of social consensus + then equally applied to all

• law creation = a political activity, wherein those norms embodied in law reflect the behavioural expectations of only some its citizens

Conflict view of laws

Claims that the law is a tool used by the ruling class to serve its own interests

• believe that it’s more likely to be applied to members of the powerless classes in society

Interactionist view of law

Suggest that society’s powerful define the law in response to interest groups that approach them to rectify a perceived social problem

• seen as emerging out of the interests of certain groups in society

Subjectivism

Deviance as a label

Focuses on the processes by which people, behaviours, or characteristics are perceived + labelled as deviant

• no common “objective” traits among deviants

• No singular trait or characteristic that is shared by all deviant people

• Have to be taught who ie deviant (socialization)

• Powerful people have deemed someone “deviant”; people can resist stigmatization

• Importance of dominant moral codes

Subjectivism + Dominant moral codes

Serves as the foundation for determining who or what is deviant in society

• multiple moral codes exist simultaneously, corresponding to the variety of social groups that constitute society at any given time

• Only certain attain positions of dominance in society

• Groups that hold some level of power are in the best position to have their own moral codes become dominant

Subjectivism + social construction of deviance

Deviance as a social construction

Dominant moral codes = socially constructed

Sociological significance isn’t the behaviour or characteristic itself, rather:

• its place in the social order

• Roles assigned to individuals who exhibit it

• The meanings attached to it

Strict constructionism

Claims that the world is characterized by endless relativism, that there’s no essential reality in the social world outside of peopel’s experience of it

Contextual constructionist

Emphasize the pathways by which certain social phenomena come to be perceived + reacted to in particular ways in a given society at a specific time in history

Levels of social construction

• individual; our own identity, perceptions of moral influences

• Interactional; interactions impacts how we see people

• Institutional: structures of our society affect social construction

• Sociocultural; broader beliefs + values

• Global: processes that create “tight global interconnections”

Moral entrepreneurs

Manufactures of public morality: bring a problem to public awareness + facilitate “moral conversion”

• politicians

• Scientists

• Religious institutions

• Media

• Commercial enterprise

Deviance dance

The interactions, negotiations and debates among groups with different perceptions of whether a behaviour or characteristic is deviant + needs to be socially controlled

• can take certain steps like creating a new law or legalizing a behaviour

The social typing process

Process by which some people come to be seen as deviant + others as normal

1st component: description: label placed on an individual from an observed or presumed behaviour/characteristic

2nd component: evaluation: occurs when a judgment is attached to the individual by virtue of the label

3rd component: prescription: processes of social control or regulation emerge; subjected to a range of social treatments designed to regulate or control their deviance