Deviance (sociology)

1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Deviance or the sociology of deviance[1][2] explores the actions or behaviors that violate social norms across formally enacted rules (e.g., crime)[3] as well as informal violations of social norms (e.g., rejecting folkways and mores).

Deviant acts can be assertions of individuality and identity, and thus as rebellion against group norms of the dominant culture and in favor of a sub-culture.

[9] Three broad sociological classes exist that describe deviant behavior, namely, structural functionalism, symbolic interaction and conflict theory.

Durkheim (1897) describes the collective conscience as a set of social norms by which members of a society follow.

[11] Merton described 5 types of deviance in terms of the acceptance or rejection of social goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them:[3] Symbolic interaction refers to the patterns of communication, interpretation, and adjustment between individuals.

Both the verbal and nonverbal responses that a listener then delivers are similarly constructed in expectation of how the original speaker will react.

Behavior is not defined by forces from the environment such as drives, or instincts, but rather by a reflective, socially understood meaning of both the internal and external incentives that are currently presented.

Sutherland would feel that because a certain individual's primary influential peers are in a gang environment, it is through interaction with them that one may become involved in crime.

An example of this is a prison system that labels people convicted of theft, and because of this they start to view themselves as by definition thieves, incapable of changing.

"From this point of view," Howard S. Becker writes:[22] Deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an "offender".

"[23] It is important to note the salient fact that society is not always correct in its labeling, often falsely identifying and misrepresenting people as deviants, or attributing to them characteristics which they do not have.

However, punishment does not necessarily stop crime, so the actor might commit the same primary deviance again, bringing even harsher reactions from the institutions.

Compared to the country's average at the time, violent crime rates fell 28 percent as a result of the campaign.

[24] Control theory advances the proposition that weak bonds between the individual and society free people to deviate.

This claim opens up more possible approaches to social disorganization, and proves that the already implemented theories are in need or a deeper connection to further explore ideas of crime and delinquency.

Reckless asserted that the intercommunication between self-control and social controls are partly responsible for the development of delinquent thoughts.

The containment theory is the idea that everyone possesses mental and social safeguards which protect the individual from committing acts of deviancy.

[25] More contemporary control theorists such as Robert Crutchfield take the theory into a new light, suggesting labor market experiences not only affect the attitudes and the "stakes" of individual workers, but can also affect the development of their children's views toward conformity and cause involvement in delinquency.

[citation needed] In a study conducted by Tim Wadsworth, the relationship between parent's employment and children's delinquency, which was previously suggested by Crutchfield (1993), was shown empirically for the first time.

The findings from this study supported the idea that the relationship between socioeconomic status and delinquency might be better understood if the quality of employment and its role as an informal social control is closely examined.

Conflict theory is based upon the view that the fundamental causes of crime are the social and economic forces operating within society.

He theorized that throughout history, when more labor is needed, the severity of punishments decreases and the tolerance for deviant behavior increases.

Jock Young, another Marxist writer, presented the idea that the modern world did not approve of diversity, but was not afraid of social conflict.

The late modern society easily accepts difference, but it labels those that it does not want as deviant and relentlessly punishes and persecutes.

Michel Foucault believed that torture had been phased out from modern society due to the dispersion of power; there was no need any more for the wrath of the state on a deviant individual.

For example, the modern prison (more specifically the panopticon) is a template for these institutions because it controls its inmates by the perfect use of discipline.

[citation needed] The Italian school of criminology contends that biological factors may contribute to crime and deviance.

Cesare Lombroso was among the first to research and develop the Theory of Biological Deviance which states that some people are genetically predisposed to criminal behavior.

When Pearson and Goring researched skeletons on their own they tested many more and found that the bone structure had no relevance in deviant behavior.

He argued that the role of the state was to maximize the greatest possible utility to the maximum number of people and to minimize those actions that harm the society.