Deviance Theories
Sociological Perspectives on Deviance
• Early explanations for behavior that deviated from societal expectations blamed supernatural causes and genetic factors (bad blood) or evolutionary throwbacks to primitive ancestors
○ Deviance based on physical appearance
○ History of social science emanated from natural science
§ Concept of evolution - evolution of society (social evolution)
○ Herbert Spencer - society evolves
§ Simple to complex
• By the 1800s, substantial research efforts were made to identify biological factors that lead deviance, and especially criminality
○ Biological - deviance since birth
○ Evolution of society from simple to complex
○ Theories of physical appearance as basis for human behavior
Biological Context
• Caesare Lombroso (1835-1909)
○ Criminals can be identified by physical traits (low foreheads, prominent jaws, and cheekbones, big ears, lots of body hair, unusually long arms)
§ Not an assurance that you will be a criminal
§ Association of criminality
• William Sheldon (1949)
○ Body shape predicted criminality
○ Criminality was common among boys with muscular, athletic builds
Deviance and Personality
Sheldon Glueck and Eleanor Glueck (1950)
• Power build does not necessarily cause criminality
• Parents tend to be somewhat distant from powerfully built sons, who, in turn, grow up to show less sensitivity towards others
• People who expect muscular boys act like bullies may provoke such aggressive behavior (self-fulfilling prophecy)
○ Symbolic interactionism
○ Deviance is not just purely biological or physical, it also involves other social processes such as assimilation,
○ acculturation, and socialization.
○ Concepts try to explain deviance in a sociological way.
Social Foundations of Deviance
• Deviance varies according to cultural norms
• People become deviant as others define them that way
• Both rule-making and rule breaking involve social power
○ Conflict theory - classes of people in society
□ Lower classes get less resources
Structural-Functional Analysis
The Functions of Deviance (Emile Durkheim)
• Just like the biological body, the institutions are important for the society to function.
○ For example, if the family is a failure, then it will be a problem for the society.
• Durkheim theorized that deviance from institutions is negative.
• Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
○ It becomes an instrument to affirm existing norms in the society.
○ Because of deviance, you will have a stronger cognizance of the society.
• Responding deviance clarifies moral boundaries
○ Dictates which is right and wrong
○ If the reactions is negative, it is prohibited; beyond the norms
§ Heavily depends on the reaction
○ Becomes clear after the deviant act to what is acceptable and not
• Responding deviance promotes social unity
○ US is a cultural melting pot
§ Regardless of everything, you become a part of the social unity
§ Individuals express their own sentiments against terrorists
• Deviance encourages social change
○ Deviance can be a catalyst for social change.
○ If we do not have deviant individuals, social change will not be possible
The Normal and Pathological
• Durkheim argues the inevitability of deviance in all societies
• Deviance is normal rather than pathological serving a positive function in society
• However, society needs a manageable amount of deviance to achieve maximum benefit
Anomie
• Loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective
• A state of normlessness that typically occurs during a period of profound change and disorder
• Since there is much less agreement on what constitutes proper behavior, conformity and obedience become less significant as social forces also become much more difficult to state exactly what constitutes deviance.
○ There is no clear concept of what is right or wrong
○ Feudal system has a different set of norms
§ Feudal > modern = problems
§ Nalilito ang tao
Social Strain Theory
Symbolic Interactionism
Cultural transmission (Edwin Sutherland, 1883-1950 and Susan A. Philips, 1999)
• Individual undergoes the same basic socialization process in learning conforming and deviant acts
○ Same way we learn norms, culture, we also learn deviance through socialization
§ Freud, Piaget, Bandura, Erikson, etc.
• One learns criminal behavior by interacting with others. Such learning includes not only the techniques of lawbreaking but also the motives, drives, and rationalization process in learning conformity and deviance
Differential Association Theory (Edwin Sutherland 1883-1950)
• The process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to the violation of rules
○ Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are
• A person's tendency towards conformity and deviance depends on the amount of contact with others who encourage or reject conventional behavior
• While it is not a precise statement of the process through which one becomes a criminal, this theory does direct our attention to the paramount role of social interaction in increasing a person's motivation to engage in deviant behavior
Delinquency and Opportunity (Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin 1960)
• Deviant behavior depends on people's access to illegitimate opportunities
○ "kakainin ng sistema"
Factors for Illicit Opportunity
• Some neighborhoods are rife with more criminal opportunities, networks, and enterprises than others
• Some forms of illicit enterprise are dominated by people of particular racial or ethnic groups have an easier time rising to the top of these businesses / organizations
○ Race
○ Allocated 25% for black people in US companies
• The upper echelons of crime display a distinct glass ceiling for women, with men dominating the positions of decision-making, earning, and power
○ Gender
Social Disorganization Theory (Philip Zimbardo 2007)
• Describes the apparent disorganization that occurs as cities expand with rapid immigration and migration from rural areas (Clifford Shaw and Henry Mackay)
• Increases in crime and deviance can be attributed to the absence or breakdown of social institutions (family, school, church, local government)
Labelling Theory
• Attempts to explain why certain people are viewed deviants, delinquents, bad kids, losers, and criminals, while others whose behavior is similar are not seen in such harsh terms
• Asserts that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions
○ Ex.: Vaping with high tolerance to smoking = cool, pogi points
○ Depends on the society
• People may define behavior in any number of ways
• Deviance is nothing more than behavior that people define as deviant
• Societal-reaction approach - it is the response to an act, not the behavior itself that determines deviance
Stigma
• A powerfully negative label that greatly changes a person's self-concept and social identity
• Operates as a master status overpowering other aspects of social identity so that a person is discredited in the minds of others and becomes socially isolated
• Often a person gains stigma informally as others begin to see the individual in deviant terms
Types of Deviance
• Primary - norm violation provoking slight reaction from others and have little effect on a person's self-concept
• Secondary - person repeatedly violates a norm and begins to take on deviant identity
○ Ex. alcoholism, cigarettes, etc.
• Retrospective Labelling - interpreting someone’s past in light of some present deviance.
○ Ex. a smoker will be an addict soon because he is exposed to addictive behavior. Therefore, he will soon engage in criminality.
○ You try to project, predict.
• Projective Labelling - using a deviant identity to predict the future action.
Drift between Deviance and Legitimacy (David Matza,1964)
• Rather than just jumping immediately into deviance, they may drift between deviance and legitimacy, keeping one foot in each world.
○ Drift there is oscillation, you keep on changing your position and your behavior
• They simultaneously participating in both deviant and legitimate worlds, people can learn about and experience the nuances of the deviant world without having to abandon the advantages of their status within the legitimate world.
○ Beneficial if exposed to 2 worlds
§ Strong, clear moral boundaries if exposed to other realities
§ Psychologically speaking, some people can manage this
§ Ambivalence
Social Constructionist
• Deviant is a product of the culture that we live in.
• Focuses on the decision-making process that creates the deviant identity.
• They point out that “child abductors,” “date rapists,” “spree killers,” etc. have always been with us, but at times have become the major social concern of policymakers because of intensive media coverage (Messner, 1999; E.R. Wright et al. 2000).
○ There are no identical societies
§ Because of different experiences
§ How they hone their cultural partners
§ How they construct everything in the society
§ More on the process
§ Not on the statistical data; not on the questions “what”
§ Not what constitutes deviance but what constitutes the processes
□ Social dynamics of what is deviance
□ Focuses on the questions “how”
□ How deviance is cascaded to other societies
□ How deviance is formed and transmitted
□ Ex. a person who is misogynist
® If a murderer knows all this terms have been a concern of many policymakers and legislators as well as implementers, they are responsible of implementation of the law and hold accountable of who is violating it
Medicalization of Deviance
• The transformation of moral and legal deviance into a medical condition.
• Scientific objectivity of medicine passes no moral judgment, instead using clinical diagnosis such as “sick” or “well.”
○ Ex. drug addicts = it’s not really problematic
○ Approach to solution should be moral and legal
○ It would not be complete if it is not problematic
○ 230317 - Theories on Deviance 4
○ Incorporation of different acts
The Difference Labels Make (Moral and Medical)
• It affects who responds to deviance (community members or police vs. clinical specialists)
○ Ex. extrajudicial killings where many young men were killed because Duterte gave blanket authority
• It affects how people respond to deviance (punishment vs. treatment programs)
○ Drug addicts are subjected to treatment
• It affects the personal competence of the deviant person (responsible for own action vs. lack or control or against one’s will)
Control Theory (Travis Hirschi)
• Social control depends on imagining the consequences of one’s behavior.
• Assumes that everyone finds at least some deviance tempting. But the thought of a ruined career keeps most people from breaking the rules, for some, just imagining the reactions of family and friend is enough.
Types of Social Control
• Attachment - strong social attachments encourage conformity.
○ Weak family, peer, and school relationship leave people freer to engage in deviance.
• Opportunity - the greater a person’s access to legitimate opportunity, the greater the advantages of conformity.
○ By contrast, someone with little confidence in future success is more likely to drift toward deviance.
• Involvement - extensive involvement in legitimate activities e.g. holding a job, going to school, or playing sports inhibits deviance (Langbein & Bess, 2002).
○ By contrast, people who simply “hang out” waiting for something to happen have time and energy to engage deviant activity.
• Belief - strong belief in conventional morality and respect for authority figures tendencies toward deviance.
○ People who have weak conscience (and who are left unsupervised) are more open to temptation (Stack, Wasserman, & Kern, 2004).
Social Conflict Analysis
• Norms and especially laws of any society generally reflect the interests of the rich and powerful.
• People who threaten the wealthy, are likely to be labeled deviant, either for taking people’s property (“common thieves”) or for advocating a more egalitarian society (“political radicals”). “Capitalist justice is by the capitalist class, for the capitalist class, and against the working class” (Richard Quinney, 1977).
Deviance and Power
• Laws and norms reflect the interest of powerful members of the society.
• Those who threaten the status quo generally are defined as deviant.
• Injury caused by powerful people is less likely to be considered criminal than is social injury caused by people who have little social power.
○ Ex. political dynasty: it is not feasible to have solutions to this because politicians will not permit it
○ activists viewed as terrorists
○ “Ang ating hustisya ay hindi balanse, nabibili.”
• Norms and especially laws of any society generally reflect the interests of the rich and powerful.
• People who threaten the wealthy, are likely to be labeled deviant, either for taking people’s property (”common thieves”) or for advocating a more egalitarian society (”political radicals”). “Capitalist justice is by the capitalist class, for the capitalist class, and against the working class” (Richard Quinney, 1977)
Conflict Theory of Crime (Richard Quinney)
• Views society as pluralistic, heterogenous, and conflictual rather than unified and consensual.
○ Members of the subordinate classes are compelled to commit those actions that have been defined as crimes because their poverty presses them to do so.
• Social conflict arises out of the incompatible interests of diverse groups in society, ie businesses vs. workers, conservatives vs. liberals, whites vs. blacks, and the rich vs. poor.
○ Conflicts in classes, groups, gender, etc.
○ The point is the norms are not unified and consensual but in conflicts
• Crimes exist because some behaviors conflict with the interests of the dominant class. These powerful members of the society create legal definitions of human conduct, casting those behaviors that threaten its interests as criminal.
• Then the dominant class enforces those laws onto the less powerful groups in society, through the police, the legal, and the criminal justice systems ensuring that their interests are protected.
• Members of the subordinate classes are compelled to commit those actions that have been defined as crimes because their poverty presses them to do so
• The dominant group can then create and disseminate their ideology of crime, which is that the most dangerous criminal elements in society can be found in the subordinate classes and that these groups deserve arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. Through class struggle and class conflict, crime is constructed, formulated, and applied so that less powerful group and more powerful groups are strengthened.
• Even if their behavior is called into question, the powerful have the resources to resist deviant labels. The majority of the executives involved in recent corporate scandals have yet to be arrested; only a few have gone to jail.
• Widespread belief that norms and laws are natural and good masks their political character. For this reason, although we may condemn the unequal application of the law, we give little thought to whether the laws are really fair or not.
Deviance and Capitalism
• Because capitalism is based on private control of wealth, people who threaten the property of others-especially the poor who steal from the rich-are prime candidates for being labeled deviant.
○ Privatized ownership and resources in the country
○ Class and status based on property
○ Deviance - threat to private ownership
○ Theft - deviance based on property ownership
• Because capitalism depends on productive labor, people who cannot or will not work risk being labeled deviant.
○ Overpopulation - nonproductive / nonperforming/ not contributing to the economy
○ Kanto boys, jobless, tambay, walang trabaho, pabigat, batugan - stigma attached to people who are not part of the formal economy
• Capitalism depends on respect for authority figures, causing people who resist authority to be labeled as deviant.
○ Hierarchical - different strata of society
§ Expect different figures
§ Higher - respected
○ PH - too concerned about titles
§ Ma'am, sir, boss, etc.
§ Title = prestige = income/renumeration
• Anyone who directly challenges the capitalist status quo is likely to be defined as deviant.
○ "Activists"
§ Considered criminals/terrorists
○ Those who question capitalism
○ Capitalist system - problematic part of society that contributes to all problems
§ Exploitation
○ Das Capital - first part is a celebration of capitalism (increase in production life expectancy food longevity)
§ 2nd half capitalism is problematic - digging its own grave
□ Inconsistencies (dialectics, contradictions)
□ If there are inconsistencies and contradictions in the system, it dissipates
§ Surplus value should be for the workers not the capitalists hence exploitation
§ Communism - classless society
§ Property system - started when people who are stronger than others XXXXX surplus
§ Men are built for production, women are built for child-rearing
§ The base of society is economy
White Collar Crime
• Crime committed by people of high social position in the course of their occupations (Sutherland, 1940).
• “Crime in the suites” utilizes powerful offices of perpetrators to illegally enrich themselves and others, often causing significant public harm in the process.
○ Corruption,
Corporate Crime
• The illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf.
• Ranges from knowingly selling faulty or dangerous products to deliberately polluting the environment (Derber, 2004).
○ Mining companies
○ FPIC - free prior informed consent
Organized Crime
• A business supplying illegal goods and services.
• Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for “protection.”
• In most cases, involves the sale of illegal goods and services-often sex, drugs, and gambling-to willing buyers.
○ Sugar cartel, illegal import
○ Drug trade
Feminist Perspective (Freda Adler, Meda Chesney-Lind)
• Virtually every society in the world places stricter controls on women than on men.
○ Clothing, double standards, etc
• Because society puts men in positions of power over women, men often escape direct responsibility for actions that victimize women.
○ Men tend to be absolved from penalty / censorship
• In the workplace, men have exercised greater power than women in pricing, accounting, and product control, giving them greater opportunity to engage in crimes as embezzlement and fraud.
○ Men are more involved in corruption cuz they have higher positions in government loool
Deviance and Race
Hate Crimes
• A criminal act against a person or a person’s property by an offender motivated by racial or other bias.
○ Asian hate - Americans (derogatory) attacked Asians in the US because of the pandemic
○ Crimes based on sexual orientation
• This may express hostility toward someone's race, religion, ancestry, sexual orientation, or physical disability.
○ Religion, Mindanao
The Cultural Perspective
• Deviance is a collective act, driven and carried out by groups of people.
• Multiple groups (i.e. dominant and subordinate groups; social, religious, political, ethnic, and economic factions) with different interests exist in the society.
○ Hierarchy of different groups
§ Tagalog, Ilokano, Cebuano, Waray - more dominant yung Tagalogs because the language is more mainstream when in Manila
□ Cebu - Bisaya, English; do not use Tagalog
® "Imperial Manila"
The Conflict of Conduct and Norms (Thorsten Sellin, 1938)
• To some extent the norms and values of subcultures are incorporated and meshed with the norms and value of the overarching mainstream culture, but to some extent they were different and in conflict.
○ Culture could be conflicting with mainstream culture, address differences to avoid conflict in culture
§ Satanists being in conflict with the mainstream culture of Roman Catholicism
Situations for Conflict of Subcultural Groups
• When people from one culture cross over into the territory of another culture.
○ Colonization → resistance expressed through war
• When the laws of one cultural group is extended to apply to another.
○ Colonization dictated laws →loss of identity
○ Germany →Nazis →Genocide
○ Ethnocentrism
• Border with contiguous cultural areas.
○ SKR, NKR
○ Islam only regions in Mindanao
Arguments of Subcultural Theories
• When one part of the society can impose its definitions on other parts, the dominant group has the ability to label the minority group’s norms and values and the behavior that results from these as deviant.
• Explanation of deviance is in the flesh of the norms and values that compose different subculture groups. Through cultural transmission, groups pass their norms and values down from one generation to the next, ensuring their survival and social placement as well as the continuance of cultural conflict.
○ Rizalistas - what will happen to their religion if the members are exposed to other cultures (transmission of culture)
§ Second generation members are exposed to the education system of the country / outside the country