Miss Safa Qasim

Lecturer (Department of Psychology)

Deviance and Control

What, exactly, is deviance? And what is the relationship between deviance and crime?

According to sociologist William Graham Sumner, deviance is a violation of established

contextual, cultural, or social norms, whether folkways, mores, or codified law (1906). It can be

as minor as picking your nose in public or as major as committing murder. Although the word

“deviance” has a negative connotation in everyday language, sociologists recognize that

deviance is not necessarily bad (Schoepflin 2011). In fact, from a structural functionalist

perspective, one of the positive contributions of deviance is that it fosters social change. For

example, during the U.S. civil rights movement, Rosa Parks violated social norms when she

refused to move to the “black section” of the bus, and the Little Rock Nine broke customs of

segregation to attend an Arkansas public school.

“What is deviant behavior?” cannot be answered in a straightforward manner. Whether an act

is labeled deviant or not depends on many factors, including location, audience, and the

individual committing the act (Becker 1963). Listening to your iPod on the way to class is

considered acceptable behavior. Listening to your iPod during your 2 p.m. sociology lecture is

considered rude. Listening to your iPod when on the witness stand before a judge may cause you

to be held in contempt of court and consequently fined or jailed.

As norms vary across culture and time, it makes sense that notions of deviance change also. Fifty

years ago, public schools in the United States had strict dress codes that, among other
stipulations, often banned women from wearing pants to class. Today, it’s socially acceptable for

women to wear pants, but less so for men to wear skirts. In a time of war, acts usually considered

morally reprehensible, such as taking the life of another, may actually be rewarded. Whether an

act is deviant or not depends on society’s response to that act.

Social Control

When a person violates a social norm, what happens? A driver caught speeding can receive a

speeding ticket. A student who wears a bathrobe to class gets a warning from a professor. An

adult belching loudly is avoided. All societies practice social control, the regulation and

enforcement of norms. The underlying goal of social control is to maintain social order, an

arrangement of practices and behaviors on which society’s members base their daily lives. Think

of social order as an employee handbook and social control as a manager. When a worker

violates a workplace guideline, the manager steps in to enforce the rules; when an employee is

doing an exceptionally good job at following the rules, the manager may praise or promote the

employee.

The means of enforcing rules are known as sanctions. Sanctions can be positive as well as

negative. Positive sanctions are rewards given for conforming to norms. A promotion at work is

a positive sanction for working hard. Negative sanctions are punishments for violating norms.

Being arrested is a punishment for shoplifting. Both types of sanctions play a role in social

control.

Sociologists also classify sanctions as formal or informal. Although shoplifting, a form of social

deviance, may be illegal, there are no laws dictating the proper way to scratch your nose. That

doesn’t mean picking your nose in public won’t be punished; instead, you will
encounter informal sanctions. Informal sanctions emerge in face-to-face social interactions. For

example, wearing flip-flops to an opera or swearing loudly in church may draw disapproving

looks or even verbal reprimands, whereas behavior that is seen as positive—such as helping an

old man carry grocery bags across the street—may receive positive informal reactions, such as a

smile or pat on the back.

Formal sanctions, on the other hand, are ways to officially recognize and enforce norm

violations. If a student violates her college’s code of conduct, for example, she might be

expelled. Someone who speaks inappropriately to the boss could be fired. Someone who

commits a crime may be arrested or imprisoned. On the positive side, a soldier who saves a life

may receive an official commendation.

The table below shows the relationship between different types of sanctions.

Informal/Formal Sanctions

Informal Formal

Positive An expression of thanks A promotion at work

Negative An angry comment A parking fine

SUMMARY

Deviance is a violation of norms. Whether or not something is deviant depends on contextual

definitions, the situation, and people’s response to the behavior. Society seeks to limit deviance

through the use of sanctions that help maintain a system of social control.
 GLOSSARY

Deviance

a violation of contextual, cultural, or social norms

Formal sanctions

sanctions that are officially recognized and enforced

Informal sanctions

sanctions that occur in face-to-face interactions

Negative sanctions

punishments for violating norms

Positive sanctions

rewards given for conforming to norms

Sanctions

the means of enforcing rules

Social control

the regulation and enforcement of norms

Social order

an arrangement of practices and behaviors on which society’s members base their daily

lives

Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance

scholars have developed theories that attempt to explain what deviance and crime mean to

society. These theories can be grouped according to the three major sociological paradigms:

functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory.

Functionalism

Sociologists who follow the functionalist approach are concerned with the way the different

elements of a society contribute to the whole. They view deviance as a key component of a

functioning society. Strain theory, social disorganization theory, and cultural deviance theory

represent three functionalist perspectives on deviance in society.

Émile Durkheim: The Essential Nature of Deviance

Émile Durkheim believed that deviance is a necessary part of a successful society. One way

deviance is functional, he argued, is that it challenges people’s present views (1893). For

instance, when black students across the United States participated in sit-ins during the civil

rights movement, they challenged society’s notions of segregation. Moreover, Durkheim noted,

when deviance is punished, it reaffirms currently held social norms, which also contributes to

society (1893). Seeing a student given detention for skipping class reminds other high schoolers

that playing hooky isn’t allowed and that they, too, could get detention.

Robert Merton: Strain Theory

Sociologist Robert Merton agreed that deviance is an inherent part of a functioning society, but

he expanded on Durkheim’s ideas by developing strain theory, which notes that access to

From birth, we’re encouraged to achieve the “American Dream” of financial success. A woman

who attends business school, receives her MBA, and goes on to make a million-dollar income as

CEO of a company is said to be a success. However, not everyone in our society stands on equal

footing. A person may have the socially acceptable goal of financial success but lack a socially

acceptable way to reach that goal. According to Merton’s theory, an entrepreneur who can’t

afford to launch his own company may be tempted to embezzle from his employer for start-up

funds.

Merton defined five ways people respond to this gap between having a socially accepted goal

and having no socially accepted way to pursue it.

1. Conformity: Those who conform choose not to deviate. They pursue their goals to the

extent that they can through socially accepted means.

2. Innovation: Those who innovate pursue goals they cannot reach through legitimate

means by instead using criminal or deviant means.

3. Ritualism: People who ritualize lower their goals until they can reach them through

socially acceptable ways. These members of society focus on conformity rather than

attaining a distant dream.

4. Retreatism: Others retreat and reject society’s goals and means. Some beggars and street

people have withdrawn from society’s goal of financial success.

5. Rebellion: A handful of people rebel and replace a society’s goals and means with their

own. Terrorists or freedom fighters look to overthrow a society’s goals through socially

unacceptable means.
Social Disorganization Theory

Developed by researchers at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, social

disorganization theory asserts that crime is most likely to occur in communities with weak

social ties and the absence of social control. An individual who grows up in a poor neighborhood

with high rates of drug use, violence, teenage delinquency, and deprived parenting is more likely

to become a criminal than an individual from a wealthy neighborhood with a good school system

and families who are involved positively in the community.

Proponents of social disorganization theory believe that individuals who grow up in impoverished areas
are more likely to participate in deviant or criminal behaviors. (Photo courtesy of Apollo
1758/Wikimedia Commons)

Social disorganization theory points to broad social factors as the cause of deviance. A person

isn’t born a criminal but becomes one over time, often based on factors in his or her social

environment. Research into social disorganization theory can greatly influence public policy. For

instance, studies have found that children from disadvantaged communities who attend preschool

programs that teach basic social skills are significantly less likely to engage in criminal activity.
Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay: Cultural Deviance Theory

Cultural deviance theory suggests that conformity to the prevailing cultural norms of lower-

class society causes crime. Researchers Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay (1942) studied crime

patterns in Chicago in the early 1900s. They found that violence and crime were at their worst in

the middle of the city and gradually decreased the farther someone traveled from the urban

center toward the suburbs. Shaw and McKay noticed that this pattern matched the migration

patterns of Chicago citizens. New immigrants, many of them poor and lacking knowledge of the

English language, lived in neighborhoods inside the city. As the urban population expanded,

wealthier people moved to the suburbs and left behind the less privileged.

Shaw and McKay concluded that socioeconomic status correlated to race and ethnicity resulted

in a higher crime rate. The mix of cultures and values created a smaller society with different

ideas of deviance, and those values and ideas were transferred from generation to generation.

The theory of Shaw and McKay has been further tested and expounded upon by Robert Sampson

and Byron Groves (1989). They found that poverty, ethnic diversity, and family disruption in

given localities had a strong positive correlation with social disorganization. They also

determined that social disorganization was, in turn, associated with high rates of crime and

delinquency—or deviance. Recent studies Sampson conducted with Lydia Bean (2006) revealed

similar findings. High rates of poverty and single-parent homes correlated with high rates of

juvenile violence.