1

Social Work Review Notes Most theorist have sidestepped the issue by
Human Behavior and Social Environment assuming that the agreed upon norms of society
can be found in the CRIMINAL LAW. The
DEVIANCE / DEVIANT BEHAVIOR theorists’ position is that the criminal law concerns
the well being of all and reflects the conscience of
Deviant – is the person involved in deviance the total society regardless of the diverse interests
Deviance – differing from a norm or form accepted of various individual or groups.
standards of society.
Criminal - person whose behaviors are formally
Deviant behavior – behavior which does not forbidden by legislation and punishable by the
conform to social expectation. state.

Deviant Behavior- behavior that is regarded as Some things/types of person regarded as deviant?
wrongdoings that generate negative reactions in Homosexuals, prostitute/prostituted women,
persons who witness or hear about it. drug addicts, radicals, criminals, liars, atheists,
card players, bearded men, perverts, obesity, etc.
Social Deviance /Deviance – disapproved behavior and Babies born with deformity were defined as
traits, characteristics or conditions that generate a monster and were thought to be predictors of
similar condemnatory, rejection reaction in others. disastrous epidemics in Early Eras. Babies born
- is an action that is likely to generate, or has with deformities were killed in ancient time. Plato
generated reactions to the actor by or from believed that deformed and infirm children should
certain audiences. be hidden away in a secret place. Today in modern
Cognitive Deviance – holding deviant beliefs, this contemporary times, those possess the stigma of
category includes unacceptable, religious, political and being physically disabled or handicap requires the
scientific belief. attention of social agencies.

But the question is not as simple as it sounds. 2 Important Ideas to consider in Deviance
We ask, What are the accepted standards and  An act can be criminal and deviant
social expectation? You personally know what is  An act can be deviant but not criminal.
accepted and expected within your circle of family
and friends but what about within other social Characteristics of Deviance
circumstances? Is it possible that some of your  Deviance is Universal, but there are no
behaviors are unacceptable to someone and that universal forms or deviance.
you are deviant?  Deviance is a social definition. It is not a
Deviance is in the eye of the beholder. In other quality of the act; it is how we define it. It is
words, that which is deviant to me may not be not the act; it is how we label it.
considered deviant by you!  Social groups make rules and enforce them,
Although, there is a wide agreement that some rules are socially constructed, and social
behaviors are deviant. Many other behaviors are groups utilize social control mechanism to
considered deviant by smaller number of people. ensure they are adhered to.
Yet, it is scarcely enlightening simply to say  Deviance is contextual.
that deviance is RELATIVE and LET THE Humans are evaluative creatures. We continually make
MATTER REST. judgments about the behavior and the characteristics of
Since, we will probably found highly others and ourselves. Societies everywhere have rules
subjective conceptions of deviant behavior; we can governing what we may and may not do, and how we
find also a generally agreed yardstick against should look.
which to measure deviant and non-deviant
behavior.
It is simply easier to define behavior as deviant Key Defining Elements in Deciding Deviant
if you have some of commonly-agreed standard  behavior or conditions that harm others
against which to compare of behavior.
2

 Something offends God, or is a violation of obese is not a crime, mentally ill or

certain religious principles that makes it disordered is not a crime.
deviant.
 It deviates criminal code. 5.) Positive Deviance
 Deviance is always and by a definition
Five Naïve, Misleading Definitions of Deviance negative in nature. There is no such thing
as positive deviance. We cannot refer to
1.) Absolutist Definition behavior or conditions that generate
 Argues that defining a quality or positive reactions as deviance.
characteristics of deviance can be  Certain behavior and conditions generate
found in the very nature of the act or negative reactions from some people or
the condition itself. groups and positive reactions from others;
 It says that deviance is intrinsic to this does not demonstrate the viability of
certain phenomenon, it dwells or the concept of positive deviance but the
resides within them. (i.e an Error in relativity of deviance.
Zimbabwe will also be an error in
Brazil, in Australia and in the moon. Two Fruitful definitions of Deviance
 According to the absolutist definition, 1.) The Normative Definition- deviance
what is deviance is defined not by can take place in secret; an act or
norms, customs or social rules. Right conditions that nobody knows about
and wrong exist prior to and except the violator. This definition
independent of the artificial, socially presumes that this observers capable of
and humanly created creatures. seeing any and all actions, even if they
are secret, and making accurate
2.) Statistical Definition judgment about their deviant status in
 Is that which is rare, unusual, uncommon a given society. To the normative
that which departs from a statistical norm. sociologist, deviance is a formal
Rare, uncommon phenomena are deviant; violation of the norms. (i.e. in
those that are common and frequent are American society, a woman who
not deviant. weighs 250 pounds has violated
(i.e takes 3 showers a day, owning 3,000 weight norm. Women are expected to
books, possessing 3 doctoral degrees, weigh 110 lbs to 140 lbs.. It is the
attending 4 different undergraduate norm of a married couple to have
institutions before receiving one. children; it violates the norm and is
thought deviance for a married couple
3.) Social and Individual Harm not to have children., In a society
 There are however simply too many where mainstream religion are the
harmless but deviant actions (i.e. an norms, membership in cult is deviance.
instructor on his class takes off all of his When physically and mentally abled is
clothes does not cause physical harm.) the norm, disability represents a form
And too many harmful but not deviant of deviance. ]
actions (i.e. warfare has destroyed 100 - the normative definition implies relativity. An
million lives, yet the parties responsible action or condition that may be in conformity
are rarely condemned or labeled as with the norm in one place or time may violate
deviants. In facts, most often, they are it in another.
regarded as heroes. - We know what the norms are, and we can
decide in advance whether they are violated by
4.) An act’s criminal Status a given action.
 Once again, there are many deviants but - We know even before it happens that the
not criminal actions. (i.e no one will be behavior of a man walking down a street
arrested for picking one’s nose, being completely naked will qualify as an instance of
deviance. If we know in a certain society that
3

engaging in sexual activity with a partner of Indirect or Symbolic Deviants – they know that they
the same sex is regarded as wrong; when this would be labeled as deviants when their identity or
happens, it is automatically an instance of activities discovered.
deviance.

3 serious problems of Normative Definition THEORIES ON DEVIANT BEHAVIOR

 The normative definition of deviance
underplays exceptions. I. The Rational Deviant –
 Does not adequately allow contingencies or
extenuating circumstances that alter The Classical
observer’s judgment as to whether a given
individual or act will in fact be regarded as This theory was patterned from the thought of
deviant. Beccaria about a plea for reform of the judicial and
 The normative definition ignores the penal system of the time, which was characterized
distinctions between violations of norms that by secret accusations, extensive use of tortures,
generate no special attention or alarm and harsh penalties for trivial offenses.
ones that cause audiences to punish or In the 15th century, the death penalty and
condemn the actor. serious mutilation were used only in extreme cases
to supplement the complicated and carefully
2.) The Reactive Definitions differentiated system of fine, but now, they
 It argues that the key characteristics of become the most common measures. Judges
deviance may be found in actual, concrete resorted to them whenever they were convinced
instances of a negative reaction to behavior. To that the offender was a danger to society.
qualify as deviance, the action must be The point was, it was no longer the extreme
observed and generate condemnation or penalty for serious offenses but a means of putting
punishment for the actor or individual. allegedly dangerous individuals out of the way. In
 Someone who engages in some little action in this kind of procedure, little attention was paid to
a closet somewhere, whose behavior is never the guilt or innocence of a suspect.
detected by anyone else, has not engaged in According to Beccaria, humans are
deviance at all. What counts to the reactivist is fundamentally rational and hedonistic. They
the action not the action. . possess free will and make deliberate decisions to
 Reactivist argue that behavior and conditions behave based upon a calculation of the pain and
are not deviant unless and until they have been pleasure involved. To avoid continual chaos
condemned. There is no such thing as deviant resulting from total individual freedom, humans
in advance or in general. If there is no eventually enter a contract in which they submit to
condemnation, no deviance has taken place. a wide authority in exchange for security under
laws of a state. Humans are basically self-serving;
Problems with Reactive Definition however, given the opportunity they will enhance
 It ignores secret behavior or conditions their own position at the expense of other humans.
that would be reacted to as deviance, were Thus, the role of the state is to prevent crime.
they known to the community. It is better to prevent crimes than to punish
 Ignores secret behavior and conditions them. This is the ultimate end of every good
that would be reacted to as deviant, even legislation , which to use the general terms for
when the actor or the possessor knows assessing the good and evils of life.
that it would be condemned by the To this end, Beccaria argued that the law
community at large. should be clear and simple and directed against
 Denies the possibility that there is any only those behaviors clearly endangering society
predictability in the reactive process and individuals in it. Because of their rationality,
 Ignores the reality of victimization all human where seen as equal before the law. He
accepted literally the notion that punishment
should fit the crime.
4

The Neo Classical - year goes by without some revelations concerns the
possible connection between a biological
Recognized as a practical matter that not all characteristics and human behavior.
persons are equally rational, particularly the young, the The influence of biology on human behavior is
mentally disturbed, and those confronted with other early overestimated and oversimplified.
unusual circumstances. In 1966, Charles Whitman after killing his
mother /wife climbed with 6 guns to the top of a tower
Despite their considerable influence on Western in the University of Texas campus. He shot 46 persons,
Legal System, the classical and neo classical schools killing 16. His behavior was puzzling. Whitman
failed to produce a variable theory of deviance. Their requested an autopsy to determine whether he had a
pre-occupation with the rationality of humans resulted mental disorder. The autopsy revealed a brain tumor.
in overlooking how society can adversely affect Some medical experts doubted the explanatory value of
behavior. the tumor. But others thought that his physical
condition could somehow account for his behavior.
II. POSITIVE SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY. [Link] – The Beginning of the Scientific Study
of Deviant
2 TERMS
Phrenology – the determination of the mental facilities
POSITIVISM – a philosophical approach, theory, or and character traits from the shape of the skull.
system based on the view that in the social as well as in - Franz Gall – an Austrian anatomist who spent
the natural sciences, sense experiences are all the 20 years touring insane asylums and prisons to
exclusive source of all worthwhile information. measure head shapes. Gall believed that the
- does not concern itself with the abstract and brain was the center of the thought, specific
unprovable but rather with the tangible and brain areas controlled different behavioral
quantifiable. It involves investigating the world by activities and brain areas of greater importance
objective data that can be counted or measured. In were greater in size and area.
short, if you can’t hear it, feel it, see it, or smell it - The notion that there maybe a link between
forget it. protuberance on the head and criminal
behavior was widely circulated throughout
DETERMINISM - refers to the principle that all Europe and USA.
events, including human behavior have sufficient - A phrenologist in USA made a theory dividing
causes. the brain into 34 areas, 3 of which were related
to criminal behavior:
Positivists do not advise punishment as a  Philoprogenitiveness (love for offspring)-
remedy because deviant behavior is not a matter of it was noted that a number of guilty
choice. Obviously, the recommended procedure for females committed infanticide had
halting deviant behavior depends upon the brand of defective philoprogenitiveness area.
determinism favored. Thus if the cause is located in  Destructiveness – this area if properly not
the body, the body must be “treated; if it is in social balanced will lead to murder
factors, anything from the family, neighborhood or  Covetiveness – unless restrained and
entire economic system may need renovation. properly directed will lead to great
selfishness and even theft.
MAJOR THEORITICAL POSITIONS
(Positivist Approaches to the Explanation of Deviance) Up to the end of the 19th century,
phrenology provided the basis for a moderate
I. Physical Characteristics of Deviance amount of theory and research on the nature of
criminal beings, but in the final analysis, it
- Of all the positivist approaches to the explanation of makes no contributions to the understanding of
deviance, the investigation of a possible relationship deviant behavior.
between anatomical attributes and behavior is not only One cannot detect the subtle shape of
the oldest but also the most persistent. Today, scarcely the brain by examining the exterior of the
5

skull, and no single sections of the brain one that may or may not be seen by the theorists as
completely responsible for the complex inherited.
behaviors attributed to them by the - Theorist believed in this idea that criminality
phrenologist. was inherited and also the mental
defectiveness which played an important role
in criminal behavior.
“Concept of Born Criminal “ - Every feeble minded person is a potential
criminal. This is necessarily true since the
The notion that biology plays a significant, if feeble-minded lacks one or other of the factors
not paramount, role in causing deviant behavior is essential to moral life- an understanding of
usually associated with the writings of Cesare right and wrong, and the power of control.
Lombroso (founder of the Positivist School of
Criminology). EUGENICS – a science concerned with improving the
ATAVISM – criminals were seen as distinct quality of human offspring through the manipulation of
types of humans who would be distinguished from heredity by such means of selection of parents.
non-criminals by certain physical traits. These traits - what was scientifically found as a cause could
did not cause criminal behavior but, rather, served to be scientifically eliminated.
identify persons who were out of step with - i. e. Nazi german during the World War I. a
evolutionary scheme. textbook on Social problem reported on a
- Such persons were considered to be closer to proposal whereby “defective and confirmed
apes or to early primitive humans than were criminals would be placed in air-tight
most modern individuals; they were chambers and put to death by poisonous but
throwbacks (atavists) to an earlier stage in not unpleasant gas.
human development. - Another suggestion involved less drastic :
STERILIZATION or CASTRATION. The
FIVE TYPES OF CRIMINALS latter was advocated by those who felt that
 INSANE Criminals – who act from epilepsy, mere sterilization would not curtail lustful
imbecility, paranoia (delusions of being behavior or the spread of venereal disease.
persecutes) and other forms of mental Decades ago, 34 states in USA permitted
infirmity. /enacted this law without the consent of the
 Born Criminals – whose anti-human conduct is concern. Even before 1907 secret sterilization
the inevitable effect of an indefinite series of had been performed in inmates of state
hereditary influences which accumulate in the institution for many years. These laws were
course of generations.” applicable to 3 classes of individuals, “the
 Habitual Criminal – who show in an indistinct mentally ill, the mentally deficient and
way, if at all, the marks of the born criminal epileptics.
and act through moral weakness as influenced - It was considered before that all persons, who
by a corrupt environment. are feebleminded, insane, epileptic, habitual
 Criminals of Passion – who act under the criminals, incurable syphilis, etc. will likely
impulse of uncontrolled emotion on occasion become a Menace of the Society.
during otherwise moral lives. - The fruits of positivism in the USA was able to
 Occasional Criminals- who have not received come up with 70,000 individuals were
from nature an active tendency towards crime involuntary sterilized and many more were
but have fallen into it, goaded by the confined because their behavior, intellects or
temptation incident to their personal condition backgrounds were judged by state bureaucrats
or physical and social environment to be below standards.
- In Virginia USA, state hospitals approximately
III. Heredity and Mental Deficiencies 8, 000 individuals were sterilized between
1924 and 1972. Everything was very routine,
- Heredity concerns the process of passing men on Tuesday, women on Thursday.
characteristics from one generation to another: - Those are sobering reminders of how a
Mental deficiencies are specific characteristics scientific theory of human behavior, whether
6

correct or erroneous, proven or unproven can

justify the degradation of whole classes of
people. Such of course is envisioned for the
good of everyone concerned. But however,
benevolent program of scientific treatment or
scientific prevention may appear they maybe
not only ineffectual but a threat to human
freedom. Mesomorphic Body
Type:
 hard, muscular
body
 overly mature
SOMATOLOGY
appearance
- refers to the science of classifying human
 rectangular
physical characteristics by examining the
shaped
relationship between body type or physique
 thick skin
and particular patterns of mental and
 upright posture
behavioral characteristics or temperaments.
Associated personality
traits:
 adventurous
 desire for
Endomorphic Body power and
Type: dominance
 courageous
 soft body  indifference to
 underdeveloped what others
muscles think or want
 round shaped  assertive, bold
 over-developed  zest for
digestive physical
system activity
 competitive
Associated personality
traits:  love of risk
 love of food and chance
 tolerant
 evenness of
emotions
 love of comfort
 sociable
 good humored
 relaxed
 need for
affection
7

XYY CHROMOSOMES SYNDROME

 46 chromosomes arranged in 23 pairs –human

Ectomorphic Body Type:
cells each parents having donated one of each
 thin pair.
 flat chest  Every normal cell in a woman’s body contains
 delicate build
 young appearance
two X chromosomes, and each cell in a male
 tall has one X and one Y.
 lightly muscled  However exception to this genetic pattern does
 stoop-shouldered occur. Of interest in here is the estimated 1
 large brain percent (1 out of 1, 000) of the males who
possess an extra Y chromosomes, a condition
Associated personality traits: first reported in 1961. In 1968, this genetic
 self-conscious
 preference for privacy anomaly received much public attention when
 introverted in France a defense attorney in a murder trial
 inhibited claimed that his client possessed an extra Y
 socially anxious chromosomes and he is not responsible for his
 artistic offense. This claim was based on a very
 mentally intense
 emotionally restrained limited research indicating that some
chromosomally abnormal men had histories of
anti social behavior.
 The most publicized case was that of Richard
Speck, who murdered eight Chicago student
nurses. In 1968, Specks attorney claims to the
press that Speck had XYY chromosomes, a
contention that made front page headlines. As
it developed, Speck was simply XY, but
findings received very little publicity.

BRAIN MALFUNCTION

1935 – systematic manipulation of the brain for the

purpose of altering behavior was iniated. Antonio
Moniz introduced the prefrontal lobotomy. In this
operation, Moniz destroyed large sections of the frontal
lobes of the brain. His subjects were 20 mental patients
who had been unaffected by other treatments.
Accordingly 15 showed some degree of improvements
as the result of the operation. One lobotomied patient
was later to pump five bullets into Dr. Moniz.

Lobotomy – is the beginning of what is known today

as Psychosurgery.
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Frontal lobes are involved in motor function, problem to doctors about the mildly retarded girl having
solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, interest in boys. Her father never informed the
judgment, impulse control and social and sexual rest of the family bout what he had done. She
behavior. The area is associated with reasoning, lived out her life in Wisconsin institution and
planning, emotions and problem solving. Frontal area died on January 7, 2005. This operation was
is the most common region of injury following mild to one of the famous failures. Leaving Rosemary
moderate traumatic brain injury. Patients with frontal Kennedy inert and unable to speak more than a
damage exhibit little spontaneous facial expression or few words. After lobotomy, she was sent to
difficulty in speaking. Winconsin institution where she remained until
her death in 2005
Psychosurgery – the surgical removal or destruction of
the brain tissue to disconnect one part of the brain from 2 Fundamental Approaches to the Explanation of
another with the intent of altering behavior. However Deviance
there are mentioned few effects for such, some of these  The cause is within the deviant; the goal was to
are the loss of ability to fantasize, to think abstractly discover individual characteristics contributing
and to become creative. to becoming involved in deviant behavior. In
- there is still exist considerable controversy short, this first approach concerned explaining
over whether the stimulation or destruction of the deviant by means of biological and
certain areas of the human brain results in psychological positivism.
predictable changes in behavior. It is argued  The other approach stressed the importance of
that no specific and consistent human behavior social factors as a cause of deviance. The goal
result from psychosurgery. was to explain both the existence of deviant
- The idea of brain surgery as a means of behaviors and its distribution in society. This
improving mental health got started around in short concerns explaining the varying
1890 when Friedrich Golz, a German research, amounts of deviance between groups by means
removed portions of his dog’s temporal lobe of social determinism.
and found them to be calmer, less aggressive.
It was swiftly followed by a doctor of SWISS Theorists Guerry and Quetelet labeled as “Moral
Mental institution, who attempted similar Statisticians” noted 2 phenomena in relation to
surgeries on 6 of his schizophrenic patients. deviance.
Some were indeed calmer and two died.  That the types and amount of deviance vary
- Because some of his patients became calmer, according to geographical region.
some did not. Moniz advised extreme caution  That annual deviance within a specific area
in using lobotomy, and felt it should only be varies little from one year to another.
used in cases where everything else has been
used.
- Between 1939 and 1951, over 18,000 SOCIAL INTERPETATION OF DEVIANCE
lobotomies were performed in the US, and
many more in other countries. It was often ECONOMIC INFLUENCE
used on convicts and in Japan it was
recommended for use on “difficult children”. An economic interpretation of deviance was an
There are still Western countries that permit aspect of the work of Quetelet when he, for example,
the use of the lobotomy, although its use has considered the price of grain to be a crucial variable in
decreased dramatically worldwide. Curiously, the operation of society.
the old USSR banned it back in the 1940’s on - This influence is an attempt to find relationship
moral grounds. between crime and a variety of economic
- In the 1950’s, people began upset about the factors such as the prices of various grains,
prevalence of lobotomies. Protests began and business cycles and income levels of convicted
serious research supported the protesters. persons.
- There have been a few famous cases over the
years. For example, Rosemary Kennedy was Karl Marx
given a lobotomy when her father complained
9

- Marx developed an economic interpretation of theory. Political, military, economic and

societies. He claimed that all social legislative actions are not the product of
phenomena-legal codes, political institutions, harmonious decision making by concerned and
religion, ethics, the arts, the family are affected parties. Often such actions are, at best,
products of society’s economy in the form of matters of compromise; at worst they represent
its means of production. only the opinions of the powerful and maybe
- In a capitalistic economy, there is a private detrimental to, or against the wishes of a
ownership of the means of production , sizeable segment of the population.
distribution and exchange of wealth; as a
consequence, there exist an intense 2nd.) with touch of sarcasm, he points out how
competition resulting in the exploitation of deviance serves many purposes in support of
proletariat (working class) by the bourgeoisie the existing society. Without deviance, police,
(owners and controllers of means of judges and law professions would have no
production). jobs; the mechanical inventions derived from
- According to Marx, the continual competition the innovations in the torture would be
requires that minimal wages be paid for labor; undiscovered, engineering of monetary
the bourgeoisie becomes richer and richer and instruments and chemical methods to detect
the proletariat becomes poorer and miserable. illegal adulteration of products would all
The condition of poverty and continued remain unadvanced.
exploitation produce all forms of social
problems. Only by destroying the economic To this extent, Marx appropriately can be regarded as
system, ultimately accomplished by the an economic determinist. In short, the enduring legacy
proletariat in a violent revolution, will a of Marx lies in his theory that society’s foundation is
classless society emerge of economic its economic structure.
exploitation and its evils.
- Marx never actually spelled out a theory of
deviance, but inferences can be made and his ANOMIE
writings have been influential to the
explanation of deviance. - simply defined , a state where norms
(expectations on behavior) are confused ,
1st.) Marx writings provides basis for viewing unclear or not present
deviance as a product of social conflict. - normlessness
Accordingly, deviance cannot be eliminated by - A breakdown in the cultural structure,
adjustments within capitalist society; deviance occurring particularly when there is an acute
is inherent in capitalism and only the total disjunction between cultural norms and goals
destruction of economic sub structure will and the societies structural capacities of
provide a remedy. members of the groups to act in accord with
Marx saw capitalistic society as them.
composed of one sided conflict between - The premium placed on financial success in
groups. From his perspective, deviance was an the absence of opportunities creates a
expression of a struggle in which the disjunction between the goal and the capacities
economically powerless attempt to cope with or means of individuals to attain it.
the exploitation and poverty imposed upon - Accordingly, societies evolved from a simple,
them. non-specialized form called mechanical
He portrayed deviant as demoralized towards a highly complex specialized form
and brutalized by the day to day experience of called organic.
employment (and unemployment), but still - In the former society, people behave and think
able to grasp at the necessities of life through alike and more or less perform the same work
theft and graft. tasks and have the same group oriented goals.
His conceptions of society as When societies become more complex or
consisting of conflicting economic groups organic, work also becomes complex. In the
remain an important contribution to social
10

society, people are no longer tied to one by perceived undiminishing prosperity, personal crises
another and social bonds are impersonal. will develop and result to suicide.
- Changing of condition as well as adjustment of
life leads to dissatisfaction, conflict and
deviance. He observed that social periods of
disruptions (economic depression for example)
brought greater anomie and high rates of Merton’s Anomie
crime, suicide and deviance.
Merton’s theory involves the interaction of 2 social
components:
Durkheim’s Anomie  Culture goals – the aspirations and aims that
define success in society.
Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist wrote  Institutionalized means – the socially
his major works during a time when the study of acceptable methods and ways available for
deviant behavior was dominated by those who viewed achieving goals.
deviants as the products of defective biology.
-he argued that a society without deviance is - It is believed that in America before, it was not
impossible. Thus it is impossible to have a collection the mere lack opportunity or the excessive
of human so inflexible in their behavior that none will emphasis on the accumulation of wealth that create
diverge to some degree from the ideal. He further anomie; it is when both exist in the situation where
claims that deviance is not only inevitable but also all or most members of a society believed that the
necessary for the health and progress of society. opportunities are available to them that anomie
Without deviance society would be static. The results.
inevitability and desirability of deviance led him to
conduct that deviance is “normal” in society. This did Merton’s important contribution is the provision of
not mean that he necessarily regarded the individual alternative behaviors that may result from the
deviant as normal. From the standpoint of society, disjunction between goals and means.
deviance is an expression of individual freedom and
one of the prices to be paid for social change. There are 4 adaptations apart from conformity that can
-Durkheim first used the concept of anomie in be defined as deviant:
division of labor in society. Here it played a minor
role; it’s purpose was to signify a lack of integration  INNOVATION – is the adaptation in which
and adjustment that threatens the cohesiveness of most property crimes would be found. It
contemporary society, which unlike hunting and occurs when persons accept without
agricultural society are characterized by a complex qualification the importance of attaining the
variety of occupation and interest. goals and will use any means regardless of
their prosperity, morality, or legality to achieve
- Durkhein felt that sudden change caused a those goals.
state of anomie. The system breaks down, either during - In short, their philosophy can be described in
a great prosperity or great depression, anomie is the the words of Vince Lombardi when he said
same result. “Winning isn’t everything; it is the only
Anomic suicide – was one of the 4 types and thing”.
was considered to stem from a state of ‘normlessness”
or “deregulation” in society. Such suicide occurs  RITUALISM – is a behavioral alternative in
because society allows its members to have unlimited which great aspirations are abandoned in favor
aspirations, and there is no discipline imposed on of careful adherence to the available means.
notions of what may be realistically achieved. These Early morning classes often considered
suicides arise particularly during periods of sudden ritualists. Attendance is not a means for them
economic prosperity. Thus Durkheim was convinced to attain success; they are there simply because
that humans are susceptible to limitless ambition. they should be. Merton uses the example of
Unless society imposes regulations upon aspirations, persons in factories and other bureaucracies
unless there is some check upon the passions aroused who staunchly perform their duties, but who
11

have neither the intention nor the inclination to society where strong bond is not present or
advance themselves. They carefully avoid relatively low.
rocking the boat and prefer to play it safe.
There maybe some argument whether DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY
such behavior is really deviant, but the lack of
ambition certainly is not in keeping with the  The explanation of crime lay not in biology but
idealized American way. in the social world and that crime is
transmitted through intimate personal groups.
 RETREATISM – is the category containing  Some groups are organized fro criminal
the mentally disordered, drug addicts, activities and some are organized against these
alcoholics and any other groups that has activities.
apparently withdrawn from the competitive
struggle. Thus persons do not strive for the Propositions of the Theory
goals that society encourages, nor do they obey  Crime is learned
rules of how to act. They seek their own  Criminal Behavior is learned in interaction
private rewards and live by rules peculiar to with other persons in a process of
their style of living. communication.
 The principal part of learning criminal
 REBELLION – involves not only a rejection behavior occurs within intimate personal
of the goals and means, but the intention of groups. Impersonal communication such as
replacing those goals and means by altering the television, magazines and the like play only a
social structure. secondary role in the learning of crime.
 When criminal behavior is learned, the
Comments /Criticism: learning includes techniques of crime, which
 Middle class Bias are sometimes complicated, simple, the
 Irrelevance of anomie from more forms of motives and drives.
deviation
 Absence of value consensus

CONTROL THEORY
- according to this theory , the social
environment does not push one toward deviant
behavior; rather, it fails to restrain one from so
behaving
- Deviance is not caused by the present values,
beliefs or other motivating factors, but by the
absence of values and beliefs that normally
forbid delinquency
- While most theorists ask, why do they do it?
That is what processes encourage deviant
behavior, Control theory turns the question
around and ask Why don’t they do it?
- Most of us do not engage in deviant or
criminal acts because of strong bonds with or
ties to conventional, mainstream social
institutions. If these bonds are weak or broken,
we will be released from society’s rules and
will be free to deviate.
- Society or neighborhood is able to invest its
citizens or residents with a stake worth
protecting, it will have lower rates of crime vs.
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