Deviance Theory Analysis - Identify Deviance for situations and explain Within any given society, individuals are expected to behave and or conduct themselves in a given acceptable manner. However, there are instances when particular individuals act contrary to the set standards and violate the cultural norms. Such acts may include acts of crime, theft, defiance, breaking of rules, and truancy just to mention a few. Deviance could thus be viewed as the intentional or accidental violation of the particular behavioral aspects and ways that people are expected to act within a society (Hardy). When an individual breaks the societal rules of conduct, they are said to be involved in deviant behaviors. However, due to the dynamism of the societies, what may be regarded as a deviant act in one society could be regarded as normal within another society. This brings out the issue that deviance may be viewed as relative to both time and location with regard to the differences in societies. Out of this understanding, deviance is viewed as the violation of social norms out of any acts, thoughts, or attitudes that the particular society regards as violation of its values or rules (Long Russ). A deviant conduct is against the definitions of the good and bad conduct as agreed upon by members of a social system. Such behaviors are in a negated direction and bear enough magnitude to surpass the acceptance and accommodation limit of the particular community. Different sociological theories have been put across in describing deviant behaviors. They include: cultural transmission/differential association theory; control theory; labeling theory; structural strain theory/anomie theory; subcultural theories; and medicalization of deviance (Sociolog... ... middle of paper ... ...ted Works Blumer, Herbert. Society as Symbolic Interaction. In Arnold M. Rose. Human Behavior and Social Process: An Interactionist Approach, 1962. Houghton-Mifflin. Reprinted in Blumer (1969). CliffNotes. Theories of Deviance, 2000-2011. Available at: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/Theories-of-Deviance.topicArticleId-26957%2CarticleId-26873.html Hardy, CL, eHow Contributor. Social Deviance Theory. 199-2011. Available at: http://www.ehow.com/about_5413178_social-deviance-theory.html Long Russ. Introductory Sociology, Deviance, 2008. Available at: http://www.delmar.edu/socsci/rlong/intro/deviance.htm Sociological Theories To Explain Deviance. Available at: http://www.valdosta.edu/~klowney/devtheories.htm Stark, Rodney. Sociology: Biological Theories of Deviance, Tenth Edition 2007. Pp.182- 185. Belmont, CA. Thomson Wadsworth
Deviance is described as “the recognized violation of cultural norms”(Macionis 238). While deviance can include crime, it is not always such. Deviance can mean trying to sneak into a hospital room, desperately searching for someone like the character of Benny in the movie Benny and Joon. Or it could be preforming on the streets for people to watch. Deviance isn’t always a criminal act. The movie Benny and Joon gave several examples of deviant behavior portrayed by the three main characters, Benny, Joon, and Sam.
In society norms are referred to as a set accepted behavior behaviors or manners for particular roles and the social status there in. Deviance hence refers to complete violation violation of the accepted rules set within the society on behavior that go against the norms whereas crime is the practice of behavior that contracts the set written or accepted rules and are punishable by law.
Social deviancy is the violation of social norms. A deviant is someone who rejects folkways and mores. Any action that violates the values or rules of a social group is deviant behavior. In order to actually be characterized as a deviant, the individual must be detected committing a deviant act and be stigmatized by society. A stigma is a mark of social disgrace, setting the deviant apart from the group. Criminality is healthy for society. Deviance affirms our cultural values and norms. Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries and brings people together. There will always be people who break society’s rules and that’s important.
Societies are founded on various social norms. Norms can best be defined as a set of acceptable attitudes and practices by a given society. These norms however are found to vary from one society or cultural setting o the other. Deviance on the other hand is simply when one does something that goes against the set societal norms. Deviance is gauged on a scale of attitudes and behavior contradicting to acceptable social standards (Samuels, 2012).
Social deviance is when people who are faced with social norms either choose to conform or to rebel
Deviant behavior is sociologically defined as, when someone departs from the “norms”. Most of the time when someone says deviance they think against the law or acting out in a negative behavior. To sociologists it can be both positive and negative. While most crimes are deviant, they are not always. Norms can be classified into two categories, mores and folkways. Mores are informal rules that are not written; when mores are broken, they can have serious punishments and sanctions. Folkways are informal rules that are just expected to be followed, but have no real repercussions.
Sociologists suggest deviance is a violation of any societal norm. Yet some have suggested deviance is a socially outmoded concept based on a Durkheim’s model of social solidarity. Therefore suggesting now it is obsolete, there is no longer a use for it in a (post) modern progressive and diverse society like Australia. According to Roach Anleu (2004) Colin Sumner was one such claimant. Sumner suggested that the sociological concept of deviance and any coherent theoretical development stagnated in mid 1970s, as no agreement on how deviance should be set never happened, therefore there was never an answer to the question, “deviant from what”? Secondly, Sumner states there is no explanation for why deviance is the chosen subject of research, instead of the norms that specify deviance. He believed it only made sense to examine deviance within the framework of social disapproval. Sumner also believed the relationships between deviance, crime, and difference to be unclear. Lastly he thought that the search for a general concept to encompass such a assorted range of activities, problems and situations was misguided because there can be no behavioural unity for such a diverse range of practices. Sumner (1994) suggested that the focus should analysis how deviant categories are constructed and managed by the power relationships that are continually changing. (Sumner 1994), (Roach Anleu 2014) Roach Anleu (2014) describe norms as reflecting some level of consensus and can be laws, rules, regulations, standards, or unspoken expectations. However, within large communities, there can be individuals, and groups whose behaviour is perceived as deviant according to the accepted norms. Those individuals and or groups may not necessarily be consider...
There exists conflicting theories among sociologists in the area of determining why a person is considered to be a deviant, and the reasons behind why he or she has committed a deviant act. From a positivistic perspective, deviance is based on biological or social determinism. Alternatively, from a constructionist perspective, deviance is created and assigned by society. Both perspectives seek to give a theory for why a person may become known as deviant. Although they both view similar acts as deviant, the basic differences between positivists and constructionists theories are clear.
Before the 1950’s theorists focused on what the difference was between deviants and criminals from “normal” citizens. In the 1950’s researchers were more involved exploring meaning and reasons behind deviant acts. This led to the most dominant question in the field of deviance, “what is the structural and culture factors that lead to deviant behavior?” This question is important when studying deviance because there is no clear answer, everyone sees deviance in different ways, and how deviance is created. Short and Meier states that in the 1960’s there was another shift in focus on the subject of deviance. The focus was what causes deviance, the study of reactions to deviance, and the study of rule breaking and rule making. In the 1960’s society was starting to speak out on what they believed should be a rule and what should not; this movement create chaos in the streets. However, it gave us a glimpse into what makes people become deviant, in the case it was the Vietnam War and the government. Short and Meier also write about the three levels that might help us understand were deviance comes from and how people interact to deviance. The first is the micro level, which emphasizes individual characteristics by biological, psychological, and social sciences. The second level is macrosociological that explains culture and
Sociologist utilizes several perspectives to explain individual motivations of deviance with an emphasis on biological, psychiatric, psychoanalytic, and psychological terms. The emergence of these ideals temporarily displaced social disorganization theory, which stresses a rapidly changing environment as the cause of deviant behavior. Social pathology seeks to explain deviance by evaluating conditions or circumstances, uniquely, affecting the individual. Sociological theories recognize the existense of social conditions that produce deviant behavior and how society identifies it.
Deviance is defined as actions or behaviors that violate socials norms. In turn the concept of deviance is dependent on the social observation and perception. “By it’s very nature, the constructionism through which people define and interpret actions or appearances is always “social.” ”(Henry, 2009 , p. 6) One’s perception of a situation may be completely different from another depending on cultural and social factors. The way someone talks, walks, dresses, and holds themselves are all factors that attribute to how someone perceives another. In some cases what is socially or normally acceptable to one person is deviant in another’s eyes. For this reason there is a lot of gray area involving the topic of deviance because actions and behaviors are so diversely interpreted.
What is deviance? What does it mean? What determines a behavior as deviant? Deviance is anything that violates a social norm. For example, when a child burps at the supper table but doesn’t excuse himself. Who we socialize and spend time with will determine what we deem as deviant behavior. There are many types of deviant behaviors, some of these behaviors may not be considered deviant to one culture but to another they are.
In sociology, the term deviance refers to all violations of social rules, regardless of their seriousness (Essentials of Sociology 136). Deviance is an individual or organizational behavior that violates societal norms and is usually accompanied by negative reactions from others. According to a sociologist S. Becker, he stated that it is not the act itself that makes an action deviant, but rather how society reacts to it.
Deviance is amongst other things a consequence of the response of others to a persons act. Students of deviance can not assume that they are dealing with a homogenous category. When they study people who have been labelled deviant (Howard Becker)
There are 5 basic techniques of managing deviance. There is secrecy, manipulating the physical setting, rationalizations, change to non-d`eviance, and joining deviant subcultures. The act of secrecy is easily defined as the word itself. The deviant keeps secrets from those around them. The thought behind it being that if nobody ever knows about their deviant behavior there is no one who can place negative sanctions upon the deviant. Next, manipulating the physical setting, the deviant chooses to avoid negative sanctions by appearing to be legitimate in their reasons for taking part in the act or situation. For example a prostitute may work under the guise of being an escort or masseuse. Another technique of managing deviance is rationalizations. An example of a rationalization would be a shoplifter who justifies their actions by saying that the store has insurance and can afford to suffer the loss. A fourth technique of managing deviance would be to make a change to non-deviance. For example, criminals will refer to the technique as “going straight.” The fifth and final technique of managing deviance is to join a deviant subculture. Joining the subculture makes the deviant feel like they are less deviant because they are surrounded by their deviance.