What is deviance?

1. What is deviance? • Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms • Social norms guide virtually all human activities, so the concept of deviance is quite broad • One category of deviance is crime, the violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal law

2. Deviance draws negative sanctions • “Deviance constitutes departures from norms that draw social disapproval such that the variations elicit, or are likely to elicit if detected, negative sanctions” (Clinard & Meier, 2008) • concept incorporates both social disapproval of actions and social reactions to the disapproved actions

3. The Social Foundations of Deviance • Deviance varies according to cultural norms • People become deviant as others define them that way • Both norms and the way people define rule breaking involve social power

4. Deviance is a contested concept • a contradiction: no consensus reliably identifies behavior, people, or conditions that are deviant – yet most people claim they know deviance when they see it(Clinard & Meier, 2008), e.g., • opinions vary on when drinking becomes “problem” drinking • many dispute the harm of crimes such as prostitution & use of marijuana or cocaine (Meier & Geis, 2006) • only in 1973 did the American Psychological Association declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder, removing it from the DSM (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

5. What is “normal”? • norms are expectations of conduct in particular situations • standards of appropriate behavior for actors with a given identity • notion of expectations (or standards) highlights regularitiesof behavior based on habit or custom • norms regulate human social relations and behavior • norms are social properties, shared group evaluations or guidelines

6. \ Norms are socially constructed • Norms do not simply operate in society • Norms are created are enforced • norms are promoted, sometimes in competition with one another • Society creates norms in much the same sense that the idea of deviance itself results from social construction - social interaction

7. Norms vs Rules • norms are not necessarilyclear-cut rules • rules come from some authority, which formulates them individually and imposes them on others • norms may be formal or informal • norms are formalized as rules or laws • law may be criminal or civil • deviance is the violation of formal or informal norms • crime is an important subset of deviance that takes the form of violations of criminal law

8. Deviance & Society • Deviance is shaped by society • Deviance: • refers to something different from something else • people “not like us,” who “act different” - or so we believe • implies something evaluated negatively or disvalued • is relative • it depends on some audience’s definition of something as deviant • Each of 3 ideas - differentness, judgment, and relative standards - has important implications for a sociological understanding of deviance • helps make sense of individual deviant conduct – and its connection to the larger social community (Clinard& Meier, 2008)

9. Deviance&the deviant emerge out of a continuous process of interaction • For deviance to become a public fact, the following conditions must be met: • Some deviant category must exist (inscribed in tradition or law, for example) • A person must be viewed as violating the category • Someone must attempt to enforce this violation of the category (Clarke,2008)

10. Clarke, 2008 Key question: How (and why) do behaviors or conditions become defined as deviant? • Requires historical analysis of legislative & political processes that affect the evolution, modification, and enforcement of deviant categories • Focus on those who possess the power & resources not only to define deviance but also to apply a label of deviance and to make the label stick(Clarke, 2008)