deviance
SOC/CHSS 1110 Lecture 8 Deviance
Deviance: the recognized violation of cultural norms.
e.g. crime
Deviance calls for social control
Deviance: (1) A Biological issue?
(2) Personality factors?
Reckless and Dinitz’s (1967) containment theory: strong moral standards and positive self-image delinquent X
(3) social foundations of deviance:
-varies according to cultural norms.
-people become deviant as others define them that way.
-both norms and the way people define rule-breaking involve social power.
Approach to Deviance
(A) Structural-Functional Analysis: The Functions of
Deviance:
(I) Emile Durkheim
1. affirms cultural values and norms.
2. clarifies moral boundaries.
3. promotes social unity.
4. encourages social change.
(II) Merton’s strain theory
“strain” between our culture’s emphasis on wealth and the limited opportunity to get rich
4 types of deviance (responses to failure):
a.Innovation
b.Ritualism
c.Retreatism
d.Rebellion
4 types of deviance:
a. attaining of those goals in unaccepted ways
b. the acceptance of the means but the forfeit of the goals.
c. the rejection of both the means and the goals
d. a combination of rejection of societal goals and means and a substitution of other goals and means.
Critique: not everyone seeks success in conventional terms of wealth. Critique:
(1) all shares same cultural standards?
(2) attention on the poor
(3) everyone breaking the rules defined as deviant.
(B) Labeling Deviance: Symbolic-Interaction Analysis
(I) Labeling theory: deviance and conformity result, not so much from what people do, but from how others respond. Stigma: a powerfully negative social label that radically changes a person’s self-concept and social identity, operating as a master status.
a. attached in formal rituals: degradation ceremonies.
b. deepened by retrospective labeling
Labeling difference as deviance:
Thomas Szasz (1961) argument-- “mentally ill” label
Critique: Labeling
Deviance: the recognized violation of cultural norms.
e.g. crime
Deviance calls for social control
Deviance: (1) A Biological issue?
(2) Personality factors?
Reckless and Dinitz’s (1967) containment theory: strong moral standards and positive self-image delinquent X
(3) social foundations of deviance:
-varies according to cultural norms.
-people become deviant as others define them that way.
-both norms and the way people define rule-breaking involve social power.
Approach to Deviance
(A) Structural-Functional Analysis: The Functions of
Deviance:
(I) Emile Durkheim
1. affirms cultural values and norms.
2. clarifies moral boundaries.
3. promotes social unity.
4. encourages social change.
(II) Merton’s strain theory
“strain” between our culture’s emphasis on wealth and the limited opportunity to get rich
4 types of deviance (responses to failure):
a.Innovation
b.Ritualism
c.Retreatism
d.Rebellion
4 types of deviance:
a. attaining of those goals in unaccepted ways
b. the acceptance of the means but the forfeit of the goals.
c. the rejection of both the means and the goals
d. a combination of rejection of societal goals and means and a substitution of other goals and means.
Critique: not everyone seeks success in conventional terms of wealth. Critique:
(1) all shares same cultural standards?
(2) attention on the poor
(3) everyone breaking the rules defined as deviant.
(B) Labeling Deviance: Symbolic-Interaction Analysis
(I) Labeling theory: deviance and conformity result, not so much from what people do, but from how others respond. Stigma: a powerfully negative social label that radically changes a person’s self-concept and social identity, operating as a master status.
a. attached in formal rituals: degradation ceremonies.
b. deepened by retrospective labeling
Labeling difference as deviance:
Thomas Szasz (1961) argument-- “mentally ill” label
Critique: Labeling