deviance & defiance

deviance & defiance

Deviance is characterized by behaviors and beliefs that violate social expectations and attract negative sanctions. It’s socially constructed, therefore there are social reasons for deviant behavior. Two theories to explain deviance: structural functionalism and conflict theory. Structural functionalism says that society is constructed by synchronized parts that work together to create social stability. Conflict theory describes how society is made up of competing interests. Research on deviance can be done via historical sociology and surveys. Howard Becker, a sociologist who studied deviance, placed emphasis on jazz and marijuana. His research proved that deviance was socialized, not a biological or psychological inferiority. Deviance can be social, defying norms, or criminal, defying laws. These two don’t always overlap, but they have a lot in common. To understand deviance we must examine both the individual and the society in which they live. Additionally, societies can be shaped by deviance because collective responses can create or destroy bonds and force change.

the social construction of deviance

Before sociology, deviance was either defined biologically or psychologically. Sociologists originated the idea that society determined the deviance of an individual. Stigmatization, criminalization, and medicalization define things and people as deviant by socially devaluing them, classifying them as criminal, or diagnosing them as unhealthy or ill. Only one of these processes must be present to classify deviance. Deviance is defined through interaction and those definitions vary throughout culture and history. Deviant acts, attitudes, or appearances become that way through stigmatization, criminalization, or medicalization. The principles of symbolic interaction act on deviance in that different circumstances render different things deviant. Significantly deviant behavior has the capability of becoming ordinary and vice versa.

how societies shape deviance

Mark Schkolnick claimed deviance was caused by strain. When faced with strain one can respond with rule following: conformity, earnestly obeying social sanctions, or ritualism, cynically obeying social sanctions. One may also respond with deviance: innovation, accepting valued goals and doing something socially or criminally deviant to attain them, retreatism, opting out and embracing an alternative lifestyle, or rebellion, abandoning the existing goal then working to convince others it’s not valuable as a valued goal. Strain theory says that ultimately, the cause of deviance is outside forces not the individual. Edwin Sutherland coined differential association theory in his studies on social networks as a cause of deviance. He said one must be recruited into and taught deviance. Once we’re influenced by someone we know, we’re socialized into deviant behavior the same way we’re socialized into rule following. Differential association explains how we learn to engage in deviant behavior when experiencing strain, and why those who aren’t experiencing strain do deviant acts. William Julius Wilson studied the influence of neighborhoods on deviant behavior. Social disorganization theory says deviant behavior is more likely in dysfunctional neighborhoods. When good jobs leave an area only the poor stay, creating concentrated poverty. These neighborhoods don’t offer resources needed to follow social rules. This abnormal situation creates a tendency toward deviant behavior in otherwise normal individuals. Gresham Sykes and David Matza studied guilt in criminals and originated neutralization theory, which says deviance is facilitated by the development of culturally resonant rationales for rule breaking. Justifications, denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of the victim, condemnation of the condemners, and appeals to higher loyalties, allow us to neutralize resistance to deviant behavior. These rationales are learned via our social ties, and they must make sense to both the rule breaker and others. Howard Becker coined labeling theory, which states that labels influence our behavior. Labels may cause someone to face discrimination for life, such as the Felon label. It can be a self-fulfilling prophecy due to the looking glasses surrounding us. Labels can be a cause of deviance, primary deviance, or an effect, secondary deviance. All in all, deviance are socially constructed behaviors dependent on culture and history and are subject to the rules of symbolic interactionism. Deviant actions go beyond the individual and have more to do with an individuals interaction with society.

functions of deviance

Structural functionalism is Durkheim’s theory that society is a system of necessary, synchronized parts that work together to create social stability. If any of these structures falls apart, society does as well. Structural functionalism upholds social rules and facts. Deviance, because of this, is an important agent of social change since it shows that social rules can change. It also keeps societies healthy by nurturing the collective conscience. It gives people a chance to join together and condemn a deviant, creating collective effervescence. Without this collective condemnation society would come to anomie, widespread normlessness or a weakening of or alienation from social rules. With anomie comes amorality which is what breaks down societies. It causes collective confusion, weakened social cohesion, and possible functional breakdown of structures. When we want to collect data about levels of anomie, or other facts, in a population, we use surveys. Survey research involves inviting individuals to complete a close-ended questionnaire designed to collect analyzable data. Researchers select a sample to collect generalizable data on. Responses are analyzed via statistics, which can give facts about a population and tell us how these facts correlate.

deviance, conflict, and change

Structural functionalism couldn’t explain how some people are consistently deprived by society, or how it can be good for society. Women, people of color, and other minorities did sociology outside of academia and focused on conflict rather than cooperation in society. Conflict theory is the idea that society is defined largely by competing interests, not shared ones. It says that social rules were created by those in power in order to favor them, and those who cannot uphold those rules are often medicalized, criminalized, or stigmatized. In conflict theory, social stability is a sign that marginalized peoples have become too weak to fight back. Here, social inequality is present favoring those with less stigmatized identities. When the oppressed fight back it’s defiance as well as deviance that works to change the collective conscience. Deviance isn’t functional, but it is necessary because it’s one of the only way s that marginalized and oppressed people can fight back against an unfair society. When researching events that inform conflict theory, such as the civil rights movement, sociologists utilize historical sociology, a research method involving collecting and analyzing data that reveals facts about past events in order to enhance sociological theory. Historical sociologists use media from the era being studied, as well as interviews with living persons. The data collected crafts an argument about the meaning of past events in relation to contemporary sociological thinking.