Introduction to Deviance:
● Begin with a mental experiment to understand "What is deviance?" Relax,
imagine behaviors enacted across various settings with different audiences, and
note how reactions vary. For example, wearing beach attire to class, a wedding,
or a birthday party might draw distinct responses.
● Observing others' reactions helps identify deviant
behaviors(越轨行为), defined as those attracting societal censure
or punishment.
● Key elements: Identify the actor, audience, and behavior to analyze whether it is
deviant and why.
Contextual Understanding of Deviance:
● Deviance is influenced by context and society’s evolving standards. Generational
views often differ, with behaviors once deemed deviant now accepted, and vice
versa.
Sources of Deviance Norms:
● Deviant behaviors typically stem from religious, moral, and legal codes. Over
time, societal norms change, e.g., mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Misleading Definitions of Deviance:
1. Absolute Criteria: Killing is generally deviant, yet exceptions exist (e.g., self-
defense, police interventions).
2. Psychological Abnormality: Not all psychological issues signify deviance; societal
context matters.
3. Harm: Some deviant acts (e.g., gambling) may not directly harm others.
4. Criminal Status: Criminality doesn’t always align with deviance (e.g., marijuana
use, ignoring someone in distress).
5. Statistical Rarity: Deviance isn’t simply about rarity; “positive deviance” exists
(e.g., acts of generosity).
Positivist vs. Constructionist Perspectives on Deviance:
● Positivists: View deviance as absolute, objective, and influenced by social
environments. Deviance can be studied scientifically as a cause-effect
phenomenon.
● Constructionists: See deviance as relative, subjective, and dependent on labeling.
Deviance is voluntarily chosen, and societal reaction is central to understanding
it.
Durkheim’s View on Deviance:
● Crime is natural, defining societal boundaries by showcasing unacceptable
behaviors, thus fostering order.
● Durkheim’s “Society of Saints” hypothetical: Even in a utopian society, minor
infractions would be considered deviant due to rigid norms.
Anomie and Social Control:
● Anomie (normlessness) arises in rapidly changing societies, where established
norms break down, leading to deviance.
● Social control operates formally (laws, police) and informally (family, peers).
Informal control is often rooted in early socialization, reinforced by guilt, shame,
and peer influence.
Merton’s Theory of Anomie and Deviance:
● Economic disparity fuels deviance when societal goals (e.g., wealth) are
unachievable for all.
● Five Modes of Adaptation:
1. Conformity: Accept both societal goals and means.
2. Innovation: Accept goals but create new means (often leading to crime).
3. Ritualism: Reject societal goals but follow prescribed means.
4. Retreatism: Reject both goals and means (e.g., addiction).
5. Rebellion: Replace goals and means with personal alternatives.
Function and Criticisms of Merton’s Theory:
● Merton’s theory highlights the systemic pressures contributing to deviance,
especially for lower classes.
● Criticisms include a focus on property crime and the assumption of universal
societal goals, neglecting middle and upper classes.
Deviating from the Norm
➔ Any actions or behaviors that go against social norms or expectations.
➔ Social norms are unwritten rules that a society or culture deems as acceptable.
➔ Any behavior that violates social norms or formal laws is considered deviant
The Mental Experiment
➔ Imagine a behavior being enacted in many different settings before many different
audiences; imagine specific conditions being revealed to a wide range of audiences
◆ How do they react?
◆ How do they treat the individual who enact this behavior or possess
these conditions?
◆ Are they neutral or tolerant?
➔ If we are perceptive, our mental experiment will sensitize us you what is deviant-that
is behavior or conditions that attract censure and punishment from numerous or
influential people
➔ In determining what is deviant, it is important to identify the party judging the
behavior or condition
➔ We need to locate the actor, audience, and behavior
CODES THAT PEOPLE OUGHT TO FOLLOW IN SOCIETY:
➔ Religious codes
◆ Premarital sex (Not accepted by most religions)
➔ Moral codes
◆ Murdering (Not absolute considering murders of the criminals or those who
pose threats to the society)
◆ Frauds
➔ Legal codes
◆ Committing a crime
➔ Social Etiquettes
◆ Being loud in libraries
➔ Criminal Deviants
◆ What is considered a deviant might not be considered criminal / illegal
● For example: Eating disorders, self-harms
◆ As in contrast, what is considered illegal might not be a deviant as well
● For example: Using cellphones while driving, underage drinking
Positivism and Constructivism Perspectives on Deviance:
➔ Positivism:
◆ We can have absolute opinions and definitions on deviants
◆ Believe that deviance can be objectively known
➔ Determinism:
◆ Deviants are pre-determined by the society
➔ Constructivism:
◆ Most of deviants theory evolved around it
◆ What is considered deviants is relative (Relativism)
➔ Deviants are also subjective
◆ Think of deviants on a continuum (High consensus — Low consensus)
The Concept of Anomie
➔ Anomie is the idea of “normlessness” or society with broken rules
➔ Anomie is viewed as a product of
◆ Social components become isolated
◆ Industrial society where growth & change is too rapid
◆ Evolution of society causes loss of equilibrium
Durkhem’s view of social history
➔ Society evolved from mechanical solidarity to a modern organic solidarity through the
changes that were part of the process of industrial development
Under early mechanical solidarity(机械团结)
➔ Everyone performs same tasks
➔ Society is a self-sufficient(自给自足) group with the same values
➔ Goal is to protect society and fulfill group needs
➔ Agrarian foundation, everyone behaves the same
Progress changes society’s structure
➔ Over time, society movies toward organic solidarity
◆ The division of labor
◆ Goal is to protect the individual not the group
◆ Use of law to regulate society
◆ Society runs on contract relationships
◆ People behave differently
◆ Change disrupts society’s equilibrium
Destabilizes equilibrium of mechanical solidarity
➔ Markets grow too fast
➔ Production is unbridled & unregulated
➔ Separation of owners, workers, and consumers
➔ Disasters, economic crisis & commercialism cause breakdown of norms
(规范)
Organic societies have continual states of anomie
Durkheim’s books that focus on anomie
Wrote Division of labour in society (18930 and suicide (1897)
➔ Deviance is normal, it serves the function of helping society develops
➔ Punishment(处罚) is necessary to insure protection of norms that
maintain social
solidarity
➔ Focus on social conditions where rules lose value
➔ Without a regulated society as a guide, individuals are confused & can’t adjust;
this anomie
➔ Anomie represented by high rates of suicide, crime & deviance, Robert Merton
Theory (Strain Theory)
Merton’s social structure and anomie (1938)
➔ Use aggregate rates of crime, suicide, and attempts to explain them
➔ Durkheim’s rapid industrial development is like our modern society
➔ Societal-level events explain how changes affect groups (classes) of people
Anomie Theory Foundations
➔ Focuses on embedded social structure & cultural disparities(文化差异) in
society Saw strain from social disjunction between goals and means
of society
◆ Goals: What one should strive for (money, success, status)
◆ Means: Ways of attaining goals (approved and not)
Anomie and the American Dream
➔ Society tells us what to achieve but not everyone has access to socially-approved
means
➔ Access to legitimate means is unequally distributed by class
◆ Social class pyramid keeps poor on bottom
◆ Social disorganization(解体) and common values
◆ Societal members share common values
➔ Value system gives us goals & means (appropriate and institutionalized ways of
achieving the goals)
➔ Social disorganization creates differential access to goals and means because means
are unequally distributed
➔ Availability & unavailability in goals & means creates pressure toward deviance
➔ Anomie results when a society overemphasizes success goals
