Sociological Perspectives on Deviance

This chapter looks at what sociologists think about deviance, which means behaviors and beliefs that go against what society expects and often lead to negative reactions.
It shows how deviance is socially constructed, meaning society decides what is deviant, using real examples.
It discusses why people act deviantly, highlighting that a person's social environment is a key reason, not just their individual traits.
It explores the reasons and results of deviant behavior.
It presents two main ways sociologists view deviance:
- Structural Functionalism: This idea, from Émile Durkheim, says society works like a system where all parts cooperate to keep things stable.
- Conflict Theory: This view suggests societies are full of groups with competing interests. Many early sociologists who used this approach were ignored because of their race, gender, or political beliefs.
It introduces two ways sociologists do research:
- Historical Sociology: This involves gathering and studying old records and sources to see how society has changed over time.
- Surveys: This involves asking people to fill out questionnaires to collect data.

Howard Becker's story:
- At age twelve, Becker learned piano. By fifteen, he played jazz at a Chicago strip club. Jazz was seen as deviant back then because its rhythms were different from traditional military music.
- Jazz also helped bring Black and White people together, promoting racial integration.
Becker's work:
- His experiences helped him understand deviance, especially through his article "Becoming a Marihuana User" (1953).
- He suggested that using marijuana is something people learn through social interaction and culture, not because they are somehow morally bad.
- He identified three steps to becoming a marijuana user:
1. Socialization: Learning how to smoke by watching experienced users.
2. Recognizing effects: Learning to notice the physical changes that happen as they use it more.
3. Learning enjoyment: Getting past the first uncomfortable feelings (like dizziness) with help from experienced users, to enjoy the drug.

Older theories mainly used biological and psychological reasons to explain deviance, calling deviant people sick or morally flawed (like Cesare Lombroso and E. A. Hooten).
Becker argued against this, saying that marijuana users were usually normal people who enjoyed social interactions.

Social Deviance: Goes against society's general rules and expectations (like manners, customs, or very strong taboos).
Criminal Deviance: Involves breaking actual laws. The chapter notes that some actions are illegal yet not always seen as deviant (like jaywalking), while some are criminal but also socially accepted (e.g., tattoos, which used to be seen as deviant but are now common).
The chapter stresses that to understand deviance, we must look at how society affects individuals.

This section explains how societies react together to deviance, which helps form social connections and causes society to change.
It highlights that deviance is something society creates, and it changes depending on the culture and time period.

The story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 shows how deviance is socially constructed in extreme situations:
- Pilots made a mistake, and the plane crashed in the Andes. To survive, people made tough choices, including cannibalism (eating human flesh).
- The survivors made sense of eating human flesh by linking it to religious communion, seeing it as an act of survival and faith.
- This situation clearly demonstrates how quickly and deeply the social environment can change what is considered deviant.

Symbolic Interaction Theory: This theory says that the meanings we give to things and our social behaviors change based on the situation we are in.
The cannibalism on Flight 571 eventually became normal for the survivors. This challenges earlier ideas of deviance, showing how cultural views of humanity can shift in extreme conditions.
Philosophical Implications: Eating human flesh can seem acceptable when people are fighting for survival, and this example also shows how society's rules can change in very harsh situations.

The survivors' story combines ideas of collective survival and changing morality.
It shows that deviant acts can actually change social rules. What was once completely forbidden became necessary to survive extreme hunger.
It suggests that how society reacts to deviance can either bring people closer together or push them further apart.

Deviance: Behaviors and beliefs that violate social expectations resulting in negative sanctions.
Strain Theory: The idea that deviance arises from the tension between socially accepted goals and the means to achieve them.
Differential Association Theory: The proposition that deviance is learned through interactions and associations.
Social Disorganization Theory: A theory that explains higher deviance rates in dysfunctional neighborhoods.
Neutralization Theory: The idea that individuals develop justifications to neutralize guilt about deviant acts.
Labeling: Assigning a deviant identity to individuals.
Labeling Theory: Examines how being labeled can influence an individual's self-perception and future behaviors.
Primary Deviance: The initial act of deviance that attracts a label.
Secondary Deviance: Subsequent deviant acts resulting from societal labeling.

Sociologists argue that explanations for deviance have moved away from individual traits and now focus on social situations. They emphasize that deviance is something that society creates, based on culture and history.