Deviance - sociology - sociologists

Emile Durkheim

functionalist perspective

function of deviance - to unify society in the face of this behaviour

anomie (loss of moral compass, upheaval of society)

Stanley Milgram

people engage in deviant behaviour in the face of authority due to obedience

did experiments to understand why people agreed to partake in the Holocaust

experiment - student, electric shocks

Robert Merton

functionalist perspective

those who don’t have the same means to reach goals use deviant behaviour

strain theory

What are Robert Merton’s deviance typology?

innovator - same goals, different means

ritualist - keep to rules and regulations, reject goals, accept means

retreatist - reject both goals and means, leave society

revel - reject both, but do not leave society

Edwin Sutherland

differential association theory - people learn criminal behaviour (reference groups, peer groups)

Howard Becker

Labelling theory - deviance is not an act, but a label society places on an individual

deviance as a career