Approaches to Defining Deviance

1. Approaches to Defining Deviance 4 Primary Approaches: Absolutist: Deviant behavior constitutes actions that are in violation of a universal morality. By morality sociologists mean a belief system for distinguishing right/good from wrong/bad. Fails to take into account situational or contextual factors (cultural differences; historical factors)

2. Western Judeo-Christian Absolutism Ten Commandments (Exodus) • Thou shalt have no other gods before me. • Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image … • Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy God in vain • Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy • Honor thy father and thy mother • Thou shalt not kill • Thou shalt not commit adultery • Thou shalt not steal • Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour • Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, Etc.

3. Approaches to Defining Deviance Statistical: Deviant behavior constitutes actions that are a numerical minority. Conformity is defined by majority behavior. Majority rule, minority deviance Criticism: What may be otherwise thought of as deviant behavior is from the statistical view is behavior in which a numerical majority engages (e.g. pre-marital sex; minor delinquency; speeding)

4. Approaches to Defining Deviance 3) Reactivist: Deviance is any behavior which produces a “negative” reaction. This puts the focus on those reacting rather than the “deviant”. Highly situational/contextual (subjectivist). Criticism: A norm violation is necessary before any reaction to deviance takes place.

5. Approaches to Defining Deviance 4) Normative (objective): Deviance is defined by violation of a social norm. Social norms can be identified in an objective way. Contextual, but less so than the Reactivist approach Deviance hinges on a group notion of: what “ought” to be (Prescriptions) What “should” not be (Proscriptions) Norms require a significant level of group consensus

6. Issues to be Aware of in Defining Deviance • Individual properties relevant to a deviant status • Attitudes, Beliefs • Behavior • Conditional characteristics • Ascribed characteristics • Achieved • Choices or “agency” • Structural influences on deviance • Structural differences in life chances • Power differences in defining deviance • Cultural frameworks, which provide meaning to interpreting behavior • We will examine both levels and try to make connections (Structuration – Giddens)

7. How Distinct is Deviance? Ch 2 (Tittle & Paternoster) makes this point. They focus on middle class norms because society is too fractured from their view to hold a single set of norms applicable to all members of society. Do you agree?

8. More on Norms Three dimensions of social norms: • Folkways - concerned with minor, everyday conventions of behavior: etiquette, tradition, etc. • Mores - based upon larger societal level standards of morality. • Laws – strongest set of norms: formally codified, sanctioned, etc.

9. Folkways, Mores, and Law Emile Durkheim on Deviance: Part Reactivist, part Normative What distinguishes different behaviors from one another? Crime: Acts that violate collective sentiments Collective Sentiments: Beliefs shared by social groups; all social groups can be thought of as cultural communities Culture: the distinctive way of life for a group of people Altruistic Sentiment: Respect for that which is another’s Durkheim’s Assumptions about Human Nature

10. Durkheim on Deviance/Crime Defining characteristic of crime is punishment that follows a criminal act The defining element is the social reaction to the act, especially the intensity of reaction.

11. Altruistic Sentiment Scale Durkheim wants to know “What distinguishes crime from poor taste?” Poor taste Robbery low High Moral boundaries Formal Negative Sanctions are applied when a threshold of collective sentiments is violated

12. Notes on Moral Boundaries • Variable according to changes in collective sentiments • Definitions change over time • Change over social space (audiences vary) • Amount of deviance, however is relatively stable • Subculture: A group with a distinctive way of life that maintains some ties to larger the society/culture • Sanctions: Positive & Negative Formal & Informal Sanctions are social devices to produce conformity