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How to Define Deviance?What are Deviant Behaviors?

How to Define Deviance

Deviance or deviant behavior may refer to:

• A broad range of activities that the majority in

society may view as eccentric, dangerous,

annoying, bizarre, outlandish, gross, abhorrent, and

the like.

• It refers to behavior that is outside the range of

normal social toleration.

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Legality of marihuana

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How to Define Deviance (cont.)

The definition of deviance is relative:

• to the time

• to the place

• to the person making the evaluation

Some acts are more universally defined than others.

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Same-Sex Marriage

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How to Define Deviance (cont.)

In defining deviance, we assume cultural values –

practices and beliefs that are prized by or believed

to be of benefit to the members of a society.

No society has a single, unified set of cultural

values.

• Societies protect their values by creating norms, which

are basically rules or prescribed modes of conduct.

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Types of Norms (by Sumner)

Informal modes of social control

• Folkways

• The least serious norms; so preferred but are not

subject to serious sanctions

• e.g., Manner, etiquette, dress style

• Mores

• More serious customs that involve moral judgments

and sanctions

• e.g., lying, cheating, stealing, killing

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Types of Norms (by Sumner), cont.

Formal modes of social control

• Laws

• Codified rules of behavior

• Institutionalization of the mores

Folkways MoresLaws

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Distinction between Two “Wrong” Acts

“Wrong” because prohibited

• Acts mala prohibita

• Some acts are wrong because they are prohibited

• Not viewed as bad in themselves but are violations because the law defined them as such

• E.g., Traffic violation, Building modification without license, Gambling, Under-age drinking

• Viewed as assisting human groups in making life more predictable

• Disobedience carries little stigma

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Distinction between Two “Wrong” Acts (cont.)

“Wrong” in self

• Acts mala in se

• Some act are wrong in themselves

• Forbidden behaviors (by laws)

• Wide-scale consensus on the prohibition

• E.g., Murder, Rape, Assault, Arson

Not all deviant acts are criminal, nor are all criminal acts necessarily deviant

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Issue of Criminalization

Under-criminalization

• Referring to the fact that the criminal laws fails to

prohibit acts that many feel are mala in se

• E.g.?

Over-criminalization

• Involving the overextension of criminal law to

cover acts that are inappropriately or not

responsibly enforced by such measures.

• E.g. ?

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Social Change and the Emergence of Law

Gemeinschaft societies• Simple, communal, relatively homogeneous societies that

lack an extensive division of labor and are also characterized by normative consensus

• Controlled by informal modes: folkways and mores

Gesellschaft societies• Complex, associational, more individualistic, and

heterogeneous

• Controlled by laws

Without supports of the mores, laws will be ineffective

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Three Models of Law

Consensus model

• Law is arising from agreement among the members of society as to what constitutes wrongdoing

• Reflecting “social contract theory” Law as an institutionalization of mores

Conflict Model

• The definition of crimes is assumed to reflect the wishes of the most powerful interest groups

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Three Models of Law (cont.)

• “Criminal law is unfair” Crimes of the wealthy

people are not covered

• Law is working to preserve the status quo on

behalf of the power

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Three Models of Law (cont.)

• “Criminal law is unfair” Crimes of the wealthy

people are not covered

• Law is working to preserve the status quo on behalf of

the power

Interactionist Model

• Focusing on the process where an activity or a

situation is constructed as a crime or being illegal

• Criminality is viewed as a label or stigma attached by

a societal reaction that is subject to shifting standards

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Concluding Remarks for “Intro”

Having discussed so far:

• What are deviant behaviors? How can we define

them?

• Various perspectives viewing deviances, norms

and legal systems

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Concluding Remarks for “Intro” (cont.)

How about crime?

• Simple definition: “Violation of criminal law (defined by lawyers and politicians)”

• Criticism against criminology

• “defending the status quo”

• Sociological view of crime should not restrict its concept of criminality to those convicted of crime in a legal sense

• Must study the social structural contexts that define crimes

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