Understanding Deviance: Societal Perspectives & Traditional Theories

1. Deviance Lecture Notes 9: 10/19/09 S-100

2. Basic Facts What is deviance? • Those who commit “illegal” or “immoral” acts • Behavior that does not conform to social expectations • Violates the rules of the group • Socially constituted – society constructs right and wrong • It is a relative, not absolute notion • Varies from society to society • Inconsistency in labeling of behavior • Situation and circumstances deciding factor on whether any action is interpreted and labeled as deviant

3. Basic Facts What is deviance? • Behavior which are considered to be outside the pale of societal acceptability • That is, behavior that does not confirm and meet the standards of acceptability of particular social groups, or of the established society • Behavior which conflicts and violates the codes or rules (custom, law, role, or moral code) which any group or society has established to govern itself • It is the violation of what is right • Concepts such as right and wrong are socially constructed • As such is deviance as a social construct

4. Basic Facts What is deviance? 3. In heterogeneous (mixed and diverse) societies • Differential treatment for similar behaviors by different categories of people • Widespread disagreement on the rules and hence what would constitute deviance • Deviance determined by the majority

5. Deviance From the order perspective • Focuses on deviants themselves, rather than on the system • Seeks to establish that those who become deviants have been inadequately socialized • Believes that deviants should be rehabilitated as a means of causing them to conform to the established norms of the society

6. Deviance From the order perspective • It is an integral part of healthy society. It has positive consequences • Gives non-deviants a sense of solidarity • Collective indignation expressed in punishment imposed on deviants • Punishment is not about the prevention of future crimes, but is about reasserting the importance of rules • The definition of acts as criminal creates the boundaries of socially acceptable behavior • It is not necessary for social order to prevail

7. Deviance From the Conflict perspective • Focuses on laws and customs of the society and the class which constructs the laws and customs • Argues that laws and customs are constructed by the powerful to serve their interests • Argues for the restructuring of society

8. Deviance From the Conflict perspective • Rule violations have political implications • Punishment legitimizes the norms • Dominant norms are biased and designed to preserve the status quo • Deviance is a rejection of the status quo and a challenge to the legitimacy of those in power

9. Deviance Traditional Theories Associates deviance to what they see as individuals with fatal flaws • This is the central premise of biological, psychological, and some sociological theories • Biological Explanations for deviance comes out of a focus on facial features, configuration of the skull, physique, genetic anomalies, and brain malfunctions • Hence statistical biological conclusions have linked physical characteristics with deviance • Seeks to establish that there is a link between an extra Y chromosome in some males to crime • Psychological Theories associates deviance to the condition of the individuals mind and personality • Psychopaths – lacking in affection during childhood – traumatic early life experience • Solution-changing the individual

10. Deviance Traditional Theories • The sociological approach • Crime and mental illness vary by class, ethnicity, race, place of residence, and sex • Certain social conditions are conducive to the internalization of values that encourages deviance • Cultural Transmission • Theory of differential association – Edwin Sutherland • Through interaction and close association with deviants one learns to be a criminal

11. Deviance Traditional Theories • Societal goals and differential opportunities • Explanation for working class crime – Robert Merton • Lack of access to the legitimate means of achieving appropriate goals leads the disenfranchised to deviant behavior • Deviant behavior of the working class related to the quest to achieve appropriate goals and success • Social structure is the root source of deviance • Not individual pathology • structure influences and causes changes in individual action

12. Deviance Traditional Theories • Subcultural Difference or the “culture of poverty” hypothesis • Class positions determines differential experiences and value systems – Edward Banfield • Hence due to their class position the poor are qualitatively different in their values and in their lifestyles • Hence a unique (and deviant) morality and set of norms make a working class person achieve success through crime • Low class position causes them not to have a strong sense of morality • Causes them to have a weak ego • Frame of mind everyday, rather than futuristic • Willingness to take risk and inflict injury • Banfield’s theory ignores crimes by the middle and upper classes (financial and white collar crimes)

13. Deviance Traditional Theories • What do these theories have in common? • They are deterministic • Individuals have no choice but to behave the way they behave • These theories “Blame the Victim” – William Ryan • He argues that rather than change the structure of the social conditions which leads to deviance – society demands that the victims change

14. Deviance Blame the Victim approach • Who are the victims • Cultural Deprivation – group culture deficient and inferior • Assumption that working class children fail in school because of lack of exposure of educational facilities afforded to the children of the middle class • Who should be blamed for this – the families or the education system? • Determinants: Curriculum, class biased IQ tests, overcrowded class rooms, differential allocations of resources between school districts, and low expectations of teachers towards children of working class neighborhoods.

15. Deviance Blame the Victim approach • Who are the victims • Victim blame theorist contends that recidivism – characteristics of criminals account for their re-involvement in crime • Stats over two thirds of released criminals re-arrested within three years • Victim blame theorists contend that this have to do with the nature of criminals – they are greedy, aggressive, they lack self control, and a conscience • Who are to be blamed – the penal education system, or the employment factors available • The Victim blame approach also assert that the characteristics of ethnic minorities account for deviant behavior • Does racism limit the facilities for ethnic minorities?

16. Deviance Labeling Theory • Society defines what is deviant and assigns labels or deviant status to individuals – this label and status in turn dominates the individual’s identity and future behavior • Who gets labeled as a deviant – the powerless • This determines who or what race of persons will most likely go to jail, receive the death penalty, get paroled, which group is overrepresented in the prison population, who is more likely to be stopped and searched, etc

17. Deviance Labeling Theory • Hence Lower Class Persons according to William Chambliss are: • More likely to be scrutinized • More likely to be arrested • More likely to spend the time between arrest and trial in jail • More likely to come to trial • More likely to be found guilty • And if found guilty more likely to receive harsh punishment • In other words the well to do is more likely to avoid the label “criminal”

18. Deviance Labeling Theory • Primary and Secondary Deviance • Primary deviance : rule breaking prior to labeling • Secondary Deviance: Behavior which results from labeling