Deviance & Social Control March 19th, 2014

• Functions of Deviance

• Negative Effects

• Positive & Negative Deviance

• Internal & External Social Control

• Durkheim’s theory

• Merton’s theory

• Herschi’s theory

Social Functions of Deviance Emile Durkheim stated that deviance was a normal and necessary part of social organization

1. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms. Any definition of virtue rests on an opposing idea of vice: There can be no good without evil and no justice without crime

2. Deviance defines moral boundaries, people learn right from wrong by defining people as deviant.

3. A serious form of deviance forces people to come together and react in the same way against it.

4. Deviance pushes society's moral boundaries which, in turn leads to social change.

Negative Effects of Deviance

• Can be harmful to others

• Erodes trust

• Deviance can stimulate more deviance

• Economic cost to society (police, courts, corrections)

The Nature of Deviance

• Deviance refers to behaviour that departs from societal or group norms

• Negative Deviance vs. Positive Deviance

• Some Examples:

• Dirtbag vs. Cleanfreak

• Neglectful Parent vs. Helicopter Parent

• Obese vs. anorexic

Social Control

• Social Control – Ways to encourage conformity to society’s norms

• Internal Social Control vs. External Social Control

• The Guilty Conscience vs. Laws and Sanctions

Durkheim – A Functionalist Approach to Deviance

• Believed that punishments within a culture define acceptable behaviour and thus contribute to stability

• If improper acts are commited and sanctions not applied, then standards of what is appropriate may be stretched

• Coined the term anomie to describe a social condition in which norms are weak, conflicting or absent

• Believed anomie led to increased levels of deviance

Anomie

• Economic collapse

– 1929 stock market crash

– Suicide rate increased

• Social Upheaval

– French Revolution

– Thousands killed

Strain Theory

• Sociologist Robert Merton built upon Durkheim’s ideas in the 1960’s

• Strain Theory - Deviance is more likely to occur when a gap exists between cultural goals and the ability to achieve these goals legitimately

Responses to Strain

1. Conformity – non-deviant behaviour

2. Innovation – goals are accepted, achieved illegally

3. Ritualism – goals are rejected but legitimate means are used. “going through the motions”

4. Retreatism – goals are rejected, no attempt to achieve them

5. Rebellion – goals are rejected, new goals are substituted

Control Theory

• Developed by Travis Hirschi

• Compliance with social norms requires strong bonds between individuals and society

• If bonds are weak, anomie is present, deviance occurs

Social Bonds

• Hirschi’s four components of social bonds

1. Attachment

2. Commitment

3. Involvement

4. Belief

Symbolic Interactionism and Deviance

• Page 214

• Differential Association Theory

• Labeling Theory

• Degrees of Deviance

• Consequences of labeling

Negative Effects of Labeling

• Stigma – undesirable label that is used to characterize an individual

• John Howard Society - an organization devoted to helping ex-convicts find gainful employment

Degrees of Deviance

• Primary Deviance – isolated acts of deviance (youthful mischief)

• Secondary Deviance – when a person’s life and identity are organized around deviance (career criminals)

• Deviance on a continuum

• What criteria determine where on that continuum a deviant act might fall?