SOC 224 Deviance: Perceptions, Reactions + Power

Interpretive + Critical Theories

Don’t focus on the act; perceptions + reactions to the act

Influence of power in perceptions + reactions

Deviance is constructed through the social typing process: which some people come to be perceived as deviant + others as normal

Spoiled Identity

Goffman

• the experience of having a deeply discrediting attribute that prevents full social acceptance

Interpretive Theories

Emphasize: social interaction

• meanings, understandings, interpretations of deviance + normalness

Includes:

• symbolic interactionism

• Labelling theories

• Deviant career

Before Interactionist Theories

Ignored the role of observers: creation of ‘offences’, how some were considered to be deviants, ignored the social construction of deviance

Viewed deviance = process of social construction

• created/developed by society

• ‘Constructed through cultural or social practice

Mead’s “The I and the Me”

Social self composed of:

• active “I”: independent of particular situations

• Receptive “Me”: situated + responsive, composed by messaged from others

1. Accept situation

2. Attempt to change the messages; present new image to world

3. Challenge the reflection by questioning it’s accuracy

Symbolic Interactionism

Society is created through social interaction; affects subsequent events/behaviours

• constant communication with symbols: all is symbolic in nature

• Sources of all meaning

• Symbols are complex: mean different things to different people

Different interactions produce different perspectives

Deviance = human creation

INTERPRETATION + COMMUNICATION

Society isn’t a structure rather a process

Symbolic Interactionism Thoughts

Role taking: “what are other people’s experiences”

Looking glass self: “what do others think of me”; shapes how we look + act in the world

Significant others: “what would my family/friends say”

Generalized other: “what would ‘people’ say”

• results in varied meanings + interpretations of self/others

• Contributes to our understanding of society’s “rules”

Labelling Theory

Interested in:

• process of being labelled + consequences of that label

When people are labelled as ‘deviant’, they are treated differently

• changes their self identity + how they act

Labels = powerful, regardless of rightfully or not applied

Predicts future deviance; response to the label’s stigma

Tagging

Tannenbaum

• identify a specific act as evil → dramatization of evil

• Transition from ‘evil act’ to ‘evil person’

• Identity becomes built around the label (internalized + continue doing the act)

Labelling Theories + Lemert

Primary deviance: occasional rule breaking

Secondary deviance: deviant lifestyle + identity

• primary → getting caught → secondary

Labelling Theory + Kitsuse

Some deviants rebel against their labels

• attempt to re-affirm their self worth + lost social status

Tertiary deviants

Those that actively protest their labels

• ‘reject the rejection’

Labelling Theory + Becker

Deviance = a master status (core characteristic by which others identity a person)

• becomes an “outsider” (isolated + pushed into more deviant groups)

Affects how others treat you

• pushes you further into the margins of society

• Begin acting in ways consistent with that identity

Changes in identity + lifestyle

Labelling Theory + Goffman

Stigmatization = becoming an outsider

Dramaturgical approach

• front stage selves vs back stage selves

We try to control the message that we convey to different audiences

If we have a deviant identity no matter what we do others will still perceive us as deviant (spoiled identity + impression management)

Stigmatization

The social process of devaluing, labeling, and treating individuals or groups unfairly based on specific characteristics such as mental illness, physical disability or social status

Faced for the actions of others: courtesy stigma/ by association

Dramaturgical approach

Life is a stage where we take different roles

• we perform these roles to people on this stage, but play these roles differently depending on who our audience is

Front stage selves

Performing your role intentionally

• trying to achieve a particular goal

Back stage selves

The stage we perform when hanging out with those part of our private lives

• not playing a specific role + can be our true selves

Sign vehicles

The mechanisms we use to present ourselves to others

• social setting, appearance , manner of interacting

Effort to control or influence other people’s perceptions

• humour

• Education

• Defiance

• Cowering

• Passing

Deviant career

Becker

Progression through deviance = progression through a career

Stages of progression

• beginner, occasional, regular

The social process of involvement in activities considered deviant, where individuals move through stages

Career contingencies

Turning points

• moments in time that can influence if you become more deviant or stop it all together

Limitations of Interpretive Theorizing

Fails to address the social structure + its role in the processes surrounding deviance + normality

Don’t explain the precise mechanisms by which some people are more able than others to determine the direction that the “deviance dance” will take

Critical Theories + Theoretical

Look at the relationship between human struggles for power + how it impacts:

• construction

• De-construction

• Reconstruction of normative social boundaries

Critical Theories + Practical

Work towards social justice for society’s powerless

• want to make our society a bit more equitable

• Emancipatory in nature

Conflict Theories

Powerful groups makes the rules

Social rules emerge from conflict + serve the interests of the powerful

The rules reproduce the existing social order

The “powerful” = less likely to break the rules

The “powerless” = more likely to break the rules (due to oppression + alienation; their acts = deviant in the first place)

• origins attributed to Karl Marx

Karl Marx + class struggles

The most important relationship in industrial society is between the bourgeoisie + proletariat

• society has always been organized in a hierarchical fashion

The state reps the interests of those who own the means of production (protect ruling class)

Capitalism breeds egocentricity, greed + predatory behaviour (exploitation of workers)

Karl Marx

Society is not built on consensus

Definitions of deviance emerge from class conflict between powerful + powerless groups

• the laws legitimize the intervention by society control agents

• Revolution: only way for change

Instrumental Marxism

Institutionalized social rules are created by the powerful to serve the powerful

Direct reflection of the interests of the ruling/capitalist class

Law is equated with class rule

• controls formation of law

• State + legal system = instruments

Those who are poor are punished more; driven to commit crime due to frustrations

Structural Marxism

State institutions function in the LT interest of capitalism to reproduce a capitalist society

Bourgeoisie can be labelled as deviant

• if they go against fundamental principles of capitalism

Many laws don’t rep the immediate interests of capitalist class

• laws that benefit the less powerful reflect the need to develop a widespread consent for the existing social order

Pluralist conflict theory

Society consists of diverse, competing groups with shifting interests + power dynamic rather than a single dom class

• multiple axis of inequality make up the structure of society

• Based upon conflict from economic, religious, ethnic + political groups

Culture conflict theory

When societies have diverse cultural groups, their different norms will conflict with each other

Dom cultural groups can impose their cultural norms on other groups; can label the norms of other groups as deviant

Group conflict theory

Many groups are always trying to gain more power in society; clash with each other

Groups that are able to get authorities on their side have their norms or social rules legitimized

• when conflict happens, crime + deviance occurs

Ideology

Worldview held by the powerful

• based on the interests + needs of the powerful

Hegemony

The dominant way of seeing + understanding the world

False consciousness

When people see the dominant worldview as rational + acceptable

• don’t see that the laws are created to serve the powerful

Power-Reflexive theory/Poststructuralist

Michel Foucault

Multiple “discourses” exist in society

Proposed that all claims to knowledge or socially situated

• power determines which “discourses” are accepted as “truth”; always associated with resistance

• Engage in self surveillance

• Industrialization + bureaucratization = panoptical society; numerous mechanisms of social control thats’s presented as being for our own good

Feminist Theories

Women have been oppressed in society in the past, women continue to be oppressed; need to change this

Mainstream theories ignore(d) women + those who don’t fit into M/F binary

Social construction of deviance: gendered (different expectations_

Liberal feminism

Works within the structure of mainstream society to integrate women into it

• recognizes that women are disadvantaged

• Make society more responsive to women’s rights

Radial feminism

We need a complete overhaul of the patriarchal system

• patriarchy + sexism = most elemental factors in women’s oppression

Black Feminism

Sexism, class oppression, gender identity + racism are linked together through intersectionality

Marxist Feminism

Women’s oppression principally linked to the capitalist economic system

Postmodern theories

Based on rejection: theories of society , social categories, “truth”

Society = Commerical rather than industrial

People = consumers > citizens

This image = disjointed + constantly changing

• erosion of any dominant moral codes by which deviance can be judged

• Posit that people have become consumers rather than citizens

“End of the individual”

An individual is nothing more than style or image being pursued at that moment

Matrix of domination

Intersectionality at the Marco level:

• refers to the way that structured inequalities intersect to form overlapping systems of oppression

Skeptical postmodernism

Solipsistic, postulating that knowldge is not possible + that only chaos and meaninglessness

Affirmative postmodernism

Deconstructs master narratives, overarching theories, or “knowledge” and focuses analysis on the local + specific

• sometimes associated with social movements