DEVIANCEFailure to conform to the Norms

SOCIOLOGICAL NORMS

• MorésEssential to social stability; the most powerfully enforced

• CustomsImportant and enforced, but with milder sanctions

• FolkwaysPart of cultural interaction, observed and remarked upon,

but rarely enforced or sanctioned

Deviance Disrupts Social Structure

• Social structure evolves, therefore…

processes for defining social acts as deviant, and responding to, specific social acts also evolves.

Norms Change, therefore social responses change

Labeling TheoryDominates Deviance Study

Erich Goode and Seven Pathways to being labeled Deviant:

1. Actively engage in pre-labeled Behavior2. Fail to Engage in Expected Behavior3. False Accusation of Deviance4. Profess Deviant Ideology5. Association with Deviants6. Defend Deviance7. Involuntary State of Being

Foundations of Labeling Theory

• Subjectivity

• Contextuality

• Power

The Evolution ProcessesLeading to Labeling

1. Exaggeration

2. Centrality

3. Persistence

4. Disjunctive Affect

5. Homogeneity / Clustering

The Evolution of DevianceThree Levels

1. Primary

2. Secondary

3. Tertiary

RESPONSES TO LABELING

Neutralization (Erich Goode)

1. Exceptionalization

2. Normalization

3. Excusing

Processes for Avoidance (Gresham Sykes and David Matza)

1. Denial of Responsibility

2. Denial of Injury

3. Denial of a Victim

4. Condemnation of Condemners

5. Appeal to Higher Loyalties

IMPACT OF DEVIANCE

Negative?

Criminal Deviance is most obvious

Positive?

Civil Rights MovementWar Protest

Women’s Liberation MovementGay Rights Movement

Sociological Perspectives of Deviance

• Labeling Theory – Goode, Becker; other Interactionists

• Structural Strain Theory – Robert Merton; other functionalists (empirically based)

• Differential Association Theory – Edwin Sutherland; other symbolic interactionists

• Rational Choice Theory – Cornish and Clark; other functinalists (empirically based)

• Power-Conflict Theory – Conflict Theory