deviance in sociology perspective

Violation of norms

Acts are not, in themselves, deviant

• Relative to culture

functionalist

• clarifies boundaries

promotes a sense of ‘‘we’’ or socail unity by defining outgroup

conflict

• deviance as reaction to social conditions

• defined to the advantage of the power elite or capitalist class

• law as instrument of repression benefiting interests of property-owning class

strain theory

• meyer skolnick

• deviance caused by tension between widely valued goals and people’s ability to attain them

neutralization

• denial of

• responsebility

• injury

• victim

• condemnation of condemners

• higher loyalty