CONFORMITY AND DEVIANCE

Conformity

➔ Behavior in accordance with socially \n accepted conventions or standards \n ➔ The anticipated behavior to follow.

Deviance

➔ “What is deviant to one group may not be considered deviant to another. \n ➔ Socially created

Cesare Lombroso

➔ Was an Italian criminologist and physician

➔ Founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology

➔ Often referred to as the father of criminology

2 Studies of Deviance

1. The study of why people violate laws and norms.
2. The study of how society reacts to this violation.

Theory of Anthropological \n Criminology

Stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone “born criminal” could be identified by physical (congenital ) defects, which confirmed a criminal as savage or atavistic

Criminals

➔ Less sensibility to pain and touch

➔ More acute sight

➔ Lack of moral sense, including an absence of remorse

➔ More vanity

➔ Impulsiveness

➔ Vindictiveness and cruelty

➔ Criminal argot

➔ Excessive use of tattooing

Structural Functionalism

Basic Assumption

* Deviance promotes unity, serves as a moral compass, and provides opportunities, where there are none.

Basis

* Deviance performs important functions in the overall operations of society.

Historical Conflict

Basic Assumption

* Deviance is a result of unequal distribution of social desirables and life chances.

Basis

* Deviance performs important functions in the overall operations of society.

Critical Imperativism

Basic Assumption

* Deviance is a result of the exercise of power. Symbols and ideas are manipulated by powerful people in society in order to protect their ecomic and political interest

Basis

* We are helping these entities maintain their privileged positions in society.

Robert Merton

➔ offered a “side-by-side” formulation of \n conformity and deviance \n ➔ developed the Structural Strain Theory

Strain

➔ Refers to the discrepancies between culturally \n defined goals and the institutionalized means \n available to achieve these goals.

Structural Strain Theory

➔ Traces the origins of deviance to the tensions that are caused by the gap between cultural goals and the means people have available to achieve \n those goals

Culture

establishes goals for people

Social structure

provides (or fails to provide) the means for the people to achieve those goals

Conformity

Accept approved goals, pursues them through approved means

Innovation

Accept approved goals, uses them through disapproved means

Ritualism

Abandons society’s goals, conforms to approved means.

Retreatism

Abandons approved goals and approved means.

Rebellion

Challenges approved goals and approved means.

CONFORMISTS

➔ A person who conforms to accepted behavior or established practices.

RITUALIST

➔ A person who do not believe in the established cultural goals of society, but they do believe in and abide by the means for attaining those goals.

INNOVATORS

➔ Are those individuals that accept the cultural goals of society but reject the conventional methods of attaining those goals

RETREATISTS

➔ Who reject both the cultural goals and the accepted means of attaining those goals

REBELS

➔ They do not only reject both the established cultural goals and the \n accepted means of attaining those goals \n ➔ They substitute new goals and new means of attaining these goals

Labeling Theory

➔ Explains why people’s behavior clashes with social norms \n ➔ Holds that deviance is not inherent to an act, but instead focuses on the \n tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as \n deviant from standard cultural norms \n ➔ Takes the view that people become criminals when labeled as such and \n when they accept the label as a personal identity

Social Control Theory

➔ Developed by Travis Hirschi \n ➔ People care about what others think of them and conform to social \n expectations because of their attachments to others and what others \n expect of them \n ➔ Suggests that most people probably feel some impulse towards deviant behavior at some time, but their attachment to social norms prevents \n them from actually participating in deviant behavior \n

Dignity

➔ Refers to the idea that a person has the innate right to be valued, \n respected, and treated well

Human Rights

➔ Legal, social and ethical principles that consider the human person as deserving of liberties and protection by virtue of his or her human \n being

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The pursuance of the common good should not be a cause for the violation of rights of individual…