Introduction to Sociology SOC-101

Introduction to SociologySOC-101 Unit 11 - Deviance

What is Deviance? • Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to a violation of norms • According to sociologist Howard S. Becker, it is not the act itself that makes an action deviant, but rather how society reacts to it • Deviance is a relative concept • What is deviant to some is not deviant to others since different groups have different norms • Crime is the violation of rules that have been written into law

What is Deviance? • Sociologists use the term deviance nonjudgmentally to refer to any act to which people respond negatively • To sociologists, all people are deviants because everyone violates rules from time to time • Stigma • Erving Goffman • Attributes that discredit one’s claim to a “normal” identity • A stigma (e.g., physical deformities, skin color) defines a person’s master status, superseding all other statuses the person occupies

What is Deviance? • Norms allow social order—a group’s customary social arrangements—because they lay out the basic guidelines for how we play our roles and how we interact with others • Deviance is often seen as threatening because it violates a group’s customary social arrangements and undermines the predictability that is the foundation of social life • Human groups develop a system of social control; formal and informal means of enforcing the norms

What is Deviance? • Society’s disapproval of deviance takes the form of negative sanctions • Ranges from frowns and gossip to imprisonment and capital punishment • Most negative sanctions are informal • Positive sanctions are used to reward people for conforming to norms • The sociological explanations of deviance differ from the biological and psychological ones • Psychologists and sociobiologists explain deviance by looking within individuals • Sociologists look outside the individual

What is Deviance? • Biological explanations focus on genetic predisposition • Includes factors such as intelligence, “XYY” theory, or body type • Psychological explanations of deviance focus on personality disorders • Includes “bad toilet training,” “suffocating mothers,” etc. • Yet these do not necessarily result in the presence or absence of specific forms of deviance in a person • Sociological explanations search outside the individual • Social influences—such as socialization, subcultural group memberships, or social class—account for why some people break norms

What is deviance?

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective • Edward Sutherland and Differential Association • We learn to deviate from or conform to society’s norms mostly from the people with whom we associate • The key to differential association is the learning of ideas and attitudes favorable to following the law • Because we learn both from the various people we associate with, the end result is an imbalance • We conform or deviate depending on which set of messages is stronger • Studies have demonstrated that families do teach their members to violate the norms of society • Families involved in crime tend to set their children on a lawbreaking path

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective • Differential Association (con’t) • The neighborhood is also likely to be influential • Sociologists have found that delinquents tend to come from neighborhoods in which their peers are involved in crime • Symbolic interactionists stress that we are not mere pawns, but help produce our orientation to life • Our choice of associates helps to shape our sense of self

Control Theory • Walter Reckless and Control Theory • Everyone is propelled towards deviance, but two control systems work against these motivations to deviate • Inner controls are one’s capacity to withstand temptations toward deviance • Include internalized morality, integrity, fear of punishment, and the desire to be good • Outer controls involve groups that influence a person to stay away from crime • Include family, friends, the police

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective • Travis Hirschi • Noted that strong bonds to society lead to more effective inner controls • Bonds are based on attachments, commitments, involvements, and beliefs • The likelihood that we will deviate from social norms is related to the strength of our control systems • If the systems are strong we will be less likely to deviate than if they are weak

Labeling Theory • Labeling theory • The labels people are given affect their own and others’ perceptions of them, and thus channel their behavior either into deviance or into conformity • Most people resist being labeled as deviant, even when engaging in deviant behavior • There are five different techniques of neutralizations: • Denial of responsibility (“I didn’t do it”) • Denial of injury (“Who really got hurt?”) • Denial of a victim (“She deserved it”) • Condemnation of the condemners (“Who are you to talk?”) • Appeal to higher loyalty (“I had to help my friends”)

Labeling Theory • Some people invite a deviant label • Examples: motorcycle gangs may pride themselves on getting into trouble, laughing at death, etc. • Chambliss’s study of the Saints and the Roughnecks provides an excellent illustration of labeling theory • There were social class differences not only in terms of the visibility of the law-breaking behavior, but also in the styles of interaction with those in authority • These influenced the way in which teachers and the police saw and treated them • The study showed how labels open and close the door of opportunity for the individuals involved

Robert Merton • (1910-2003)

Functionalist Perspective • Emile Durkheim • Stated that deviance is functional, for it contributes to social order • Deviance clarifies moral boundaries—a group’s ideas about how people should act and think—and affirms norms • Deviance promotes social unity • Deviance promotes social change (if boundary violations gain enough support, they become new, acceptable behaviors)

Strain Theory • Robert Merton and Strain Theory • What happens when people are socialized to desire a cultural goal but denied the institutionalized (i.e., legitimate) means to reach it? • Anomie • The strain people experience when they are blocked in their attempts to achieve those goals • Deviants are products of their society • Some people experience greater frustration in achieving cultural goals because of their location in society, making them more likely to deviate

Strain Theory • Merton identified five reactions to cultural goals and institutionalized means: • Conformity - Using acceptable means to seek the goals society sets • Deviant innovation - Using illegitimate means to achieve them • Ritualism – Giving up on achieving cultural goals, but clinging to conventional rules of conduct • Retreatism - Rejecting cultural goals, dropping out • Rebellion - Seeking to replace society’s goals

Illegitimate Opportunity Theory • According to illegitimate opportunity theory, social classes have distinct styles of crime due to unequal access to institutionalized means of achieving socially acceptable goals • Many poor children in industrialized societies, who are socialized into wanting to own things, end up dropping out of school because of educational failure • Therefore, the doors are closed on many legitimate avenues to financial success

Illegitimate Opportunity Theory • Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin suggest that opportunities for remunerative crime are woven into the texture of life • May result when legitimate structures fail • In this way the poor may be drawn into certain crimes in unequal numbers • Illegal income-producing activities are functional for those who want to make money, but whose access to legitimate activities is blocked • This includes robbery, drug dealing, prostitution, pimping, gambling, and other “hustles”

Illegitimate Opportunity Theory • Gangs offer disadvantaged youth an illegitimate opportunity structure • Research by Martin Sanchez Jankowski demonstrated that young men joined gangs because they provided them with access to steady money, recreation, anonymity in criminal activities, protection, and a way to help the neighborhood • White-collar crime refers to crimes that people of respectable and high social status commit in the course of their occupations • Such crimes exist in greater numbers than commonly perceived, and can be very costly—totaling ~$400 billion a year • They can involve physical harm and sometimes death

Conflict Theory

The Conflict Perspective • Conflict theorists address the issue of why the legal system is inconsistent in terms of providing “justice for all” • This inequality is central to their analysis of crime and the criminal justice system—the police, courts, and prisons • The criminal justice system is controlled by the wealthy and powerful—a power elite • This group determines the basic laws whose enforcement is essential to the preservation of its power

The Conflict Perspective • According to conflict theory, the law is an instrument of repression • It is a tool designed to keep the powerful in privileged positions and the powerless from rebelling and overthrowing the social order • When members of the working class get out of line, they are arrested, tried, and imprisoned in the criminal justice system • While the criminal justice system tends to overlook the harm done by the corporations, flagrant violations are prosecuted • The publicity given to white collar criminals helps to stabilize the system by providing evidence of fairness

The Conflict Perspective • Usually the powerful bypass the courts altogether, appearing instead before some agency whose members are people from the same wealthy background • Given this, it is not surprising that the usual sanction is a token fine • Property crimes committed by the masses are handled by the courts • These crimes not only threaten the sanctity of private property, but ultimately, the positions of the powerful

Reactions to Deviance

Reactions to Deviance • Imprisonment—a reflection of a “get-tough” orientation—is an increasingly popular reaction to crime • There has been a tremendous growth in the U.S. prison population • It is estimated that more than 1.8 million people are currently incarcerated • About 94 percent are men, and about half are African American • The recidivism rate in the U.S. runs as high as 79%, and those given probation do no better

Reactions to Deviance • Research on the death penalty reveals that the death penalty is not administered evenly • Biases including differential treatment based on geographic location, gender, social class, as well as racial and ethnic biases • As opinions change, or different groups gain access to power, definitions of deviance and laws also change

Reactions to Deviance • Medicalization of Deviance • View that deviance is a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians • Thomas Szasz argues that mental illness is simply problem behaviors: • Some forms of “mental” illnesses have organic causes (e.g., depression caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain) • While others are responses to trouble with various coping devices • Some sociologists find Szasz’s analysis refreshing because it indicates that social experiences, and not illnesses of the mind, underlie bizarre behaviors

Reactions to Deviance • Just the experience of being homeless can cause mental illness: • Because you are on the streets and often have no place to wash yourself or your clothes, you are stared at or ignored, which results in withdrawal • Homelessness and mental illness can be reciprocal: • Just as “mental illness” can cause homelessness, so can the trials of being homeless and living on the streets can lead to unusual and unacceptable thinking and behaviors

Reactions to Deviance • With deviance inevitable, one measure of a society is how it treats its deviants • The larger issues are how to protect people from deviant behaviors that are harmful to their welfare, to tolerate those that are not, and to develop systems of fairer treatment for deviants

Introduction to Sociology SOC-101