DEVIANT BEHAVIOR
Sullivan (2001): It is a function of the pigment of a particular group who observes the behavior.
Deviant Behavior may be tolerated, approved, or disapproved. Modern societies encourage some amount of deviation, which moves in the direction of the ideal pattern of behavior.
Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms. One familiar type of deviance is crime, or the violation of norms a society formally enacts into criminal law. A subcategory of crime is termed juvenile delinquency, or the violation of legal standards by the young. Deviance encompasses a wide range of other acts of nonconformity, from variations in hair styles to murder.
Social Control Deviant people are subject to social control, or how members of a society try to influence each other's behavior. A more formal and multifaceted system of social control, the criminal justice system, refers to a formal response to alleged violation of law on the part of police, courts, and prison officials.
The Biological Context. During the later part of the nineteenth century, Caesare Lombroso, an Italian physician who worked in prisons, suggested that criminals have distinctive physical traits. He viewed them as "evolutionary throwbacks to lower forms of life." His research was scientifically flawed. Several decades later, Charles Goring, a British psychiatrist, conducted a scientific comparison of prisoners and people living in society and found no overall physical differences.
During the middle of this century, William Sheldon suggested that body structure was a critical link to criminal behavior. Subsequent research by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck supported this argument; however, they suggested body structure was not the cause of the delinquency.
Since the 1960s new knowledge in the field of genetics has rejuvenated interest in the study of biological causes of criminality. The connection between a specific pattern of chromosomes has been shown to be related to deviant behavior. However, in its attempt to explain crime in terms of physical traits alone, this approach provides a limited understanding of its causes. Overall, research findings suggest genetic and social influences are significant in affecting the patterns of deviant behavior in society.
Personality Factors. Psychological explanations of deviance concentrate on individual abnormalities involving personality. The containment theory posits the view that juvenile delinquency (among boys) is a result of social pressure to commit deviant acts in the absence of moral values and a positive self-image. Longitudinal research conducted by Walter Reckless and Simon Dintz during the 1960s supported this conclusion.
Weaknesses to psychological research are pointed out. First, most serious crime is committed by people who are psychologically normal. Second, cross-cultural differences in what is deemed normal and abnormal tend to be ignored. And third, the fact that people with similar psychological qualities are not equally as likely to be labeled deviant is not considered.
The Social Foundations of Deviance Both conformity and deviance are shaped by society. This is evident in three ways: (1) they exists only in relation to cultural norms, (2) people become deviant as others define them that way, and (3) both norms and the way people define situations involve social power.
STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS
Durkheim: The Functions of Deviance Emile Durkheim asserted that deviance is an integral part of all societies and serves four major functions. These include: (1) affirming cultural values and norms, (2) clarifying moral boundaries, (3) promoting social unity, and (4) encouraging social change.
Merton's Strain Theory According to Robert Merton, deviance is encouraged by the day-to-day operation of society. Analysis using this theory points out imbalances between socially endorsed means available to different groups of people and the widely held goals and values of society. This structured inequality of opportunity makes some people prone to anomie. This leads to higher proportions of deviance in those groups experiencing anomie. Four adaptive strategies are identified by Merton: innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Figure 8-1 (p. 206) outlines the components of this theory. Conformity, or the acceptance of both cultural goals and means, is seen as the result of successful socialization and the opportunity to pursue these goals through socially approved means.
There are some inadequacies to this approach. First, it is difficult to measure precisely how much deviance is actually caused by strain. Second, some kinds of deviance, like mental illness and homosexuality, are not adequately explained. Third, Merton is not precise about why one response to strain is chosen over another. And fourth, the extent to which the variability of cultural values creates different concepts of personal success is not adequately incorporated.
Deviant Subcultures Researchers Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin have attempted to extend the work of Merton utilizing the concept of relative opportunity structure. They argue criminal deviance occurs when there is limited opportunity to achieve success. They further suggest that criminal subcultures emerge to organize and expand systems of deviance. In poor and highly transient neighborhoods conflict subcultures (i.e., violent gangs) are more often the form this process takes. Those who fail to achieve success using illegitimate means are likely to fall into retreatist subcultures (i.e., alcoholics).
Albert Cohen found that deviant subcultures occur more often in the lower classes and are based on values that oppose the dominant culture. Walter Miller argued that the values which emerge are not a reaction against the middle-class way of life. Rather, he suggested that their values emerge out of daily experiences within the context of limited opportunities. He described six focal concerns of these delinquent subcultures--trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy.
Three limitations of the functionalist approach are pointed out. First, functionalists assume a single, dominant culture. Second, the assumption that deviance occurs primarily among the poor is a weakness of subcultural theories. Third, the view that the definition of being deviant will be applied to all who violate norms is inadequate.
SYMBOLIC-INTERACTION ANALYSIS
The symbolic-interaction paradigm focuses attention on the creation of deviance as a social process and the extent to which definitions of deviance and conformity are flexible. Labeling theory, the assertion that deviance and conformity result, not only from what people do, but from how others respond to those actions, stresses the relativity of deviance. The Global Sociology box (p. 209) describes cockfighting and asks if it is a meaningful cultural ritual or simply a vicious abuse of animals.
Primary and Secondary Deviance Edwin Lemert has distinguished between the concepts of primary deviance, relating to activity that is initially defined as deviant, and secondary deviance, corresponding to a person who accepts the label of deviant.
Stigma Erving Goffman suggested secondary deviance is the beginning of a deviant career. This typically results as a consequence of acquiring a stigma, or a powerfully negative label that radically changes a person's self-concept and social identity. Some people may go through a degradation ceremony, like a criminal prosecution.
Labeling: Past and Future Retrospective labeling is the reinterpretation of someone's past consistent with present deviance. Projective labeling unfairly uses present deviance to evaluate future actions.
Labeling and Mental Illness Thomas Szaz has argued that the concept "mental illness" should stop being applied to people. He says only the "body" can become ill and therefore mental illness is a myth. He argues this concept is applied to people who are different and who jeopardize the status quo of society. It acts as a justification for forcing people to comply to cultural norms. The label of mental illness becomes an extremely powerful stigma and can act as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Medicalization of Deviance The medicalization of deviance relates to the transformation of moral and legal issues into medical matters. Our society's view of alcoholism in recent years is a good illustration of this process. Whichever approach is used, moral or medical, will have considerable consequences for those labeled as deviant.
The Significance of Labels Issues about labels include who responds to deviance, how people respond, and what assumptions will be held about the personal competence of the deviant. In the Seeing Ourselves box (p. 211), National Map 8-1 reveals where psychiatrists practice across the United States.
Sutherland's Differential Association Theory Edwin Sutherland suggests that deviance is learned through association with others who encourage violating norms. This is known as the differential association theory. Survey research supports this view.
Hirschi's Control Theory Travis Hirschi pointed out that what requires explanation is conformity. He suggested conformity results from four types of social controls: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.
Limitations of the social-interaction approach concern a lack of focus on why society defines certain behavior as deviant and other behavior as not deviant. Unlike other theories which focus on the act of violence, the focus of labeling theory is on the reaction of people to perceived deviance. This theory provides a relativistic view of deviance and overlooks certain inconsistencies in the actual consequences of deviant labeling. Further, the assumption that all people resist the deviant label and the fact that there is limited research on actual response patterns of members of society to people labeled as deviant are weaknesses to this approach.
SOCIAL-CONFLICT ANALYSIS
Deviance and Power Social inequality serves as the basis of the social-conflict theory as it relates to deviance. Certain less powerful people in society tend to be defined as deviant. This pattern is explained in three ways. First, the norms of society generally reflect the interests of the status quo. Second, even if the behavior of the powerful is questioned they have the resources to resist deviant labels. And third, laws and norms are usually never questioned as being inherently unfair; they are viewed as "natural."
Deviance and Capitalism Steven Spitzer suggested that deviant labels are attached to people who interfere with capitalism. Four qualities of capitalism are critical in determining who is labeled as deviant. This list includes: private ownership, productive labor, respect for authority, and acceptance of the status quo.
White-Collar Crime The concept white-collar crime, or crimes committed by people of high social position in the course of their occupations, was defined by Edwin Sutherland in the 1940s. While it is estimated that the harm done to society by white-collar crime is greater than street crime, most people are not particularly concerned about this form of deviance.
Research has found that crime in the suites, as white-collar crime is often called, is typically dealt with in terms of civil law instead of criminal law. Civil law refers to general regulations involving economic losses between private parties and criminal law encompasses specific laws that define every individual's moral responsibility to society.
Social-conflict theory focuses our attention on the significance of power and inequality in understanding how deviance is defined and controlled. However, there are several weaknesses to this approach. The assumption that the rich and powerful directly create and control cultural norms is questionable given the nature of our political process. Further, the approach seems to overgeneralize the cost of white-collar crime relative to street crime. Finally, the approach suggests that only when inequality exists is there deviance; yet all societies exhibit types of deviance and, as Durkheim has pointed out, deviance can be functional.
1. DRUG ABUSE: is a deviant which have aroused a sense of awareness among people the danger of such deviance and has developed common sense of morality.
It refers to the use of drugs, lawful or unlawful, which results in physical, emotional, social of behavioral impairment.
Most Commonly Abused Drugs listed by DDB in the Philippines
a. SEDATIVES- which exert calming effects on the nervous system. (Barbiturates, tranquilizers, alcohol)
b. STIMULANTS- sometimes called “pep pills” which increase alertness and physical disposition. They hide fatigue and create exhilaration and a state of euphoria. The excessive use may lead to insomnia and later exhaustion and deep depression. (Amphetamine, cocaine, and caffeine)
c. HALLUCINATIONS- also called psychedelic, which affect sensation, thinking, self-awareness, and emotion. Taking them leads to changes in perception of time and space, delusion, or false beliefs. (LSD, mescaline, and marijuana)
d. NARCOTICS- which relieves pain, make one drowsy and relax and induce sleep. They are taken by injection, subcutaneously or intervenously. ( Shabu, Ecstasy)
2. CRIME: is a common violation of a norm codified into law and carries punishment for it.
a. FAMILY: exerts a great impact on the behavior, values, and attitudes of its members.
b. School: plays a crucial role in the integrated development, social maturation, and the preparation of the juvenile to become a well-adjusted, law-abiding, and productive member of society.
c. Peer Group: exerts strong influence on children.
d. Community: offers a wide range of services for the young as a supplement to the efforts of the family, the school and the state.
e. Mass Media: influence the development as well as the deterioration of the character of individuals.
Index Crime:
1. Murder
2. Homicide
3. Physical Injury
4. Rape
5. Robbery
6. Theft
1. Kidnap for ransom
2. Illegal drug trafficking
3. Bank Robberies
4. Illegal Gambling
5. Car napping
6. Petty Crimes (cellphone snatching, pick pocketing
It refers to the measures and pressures designed to ensure conformity to the approved standards of behavior in a group or society.
TWO TYPES of SOCIAL CONTROL
1. Informal- may be observed in small groups or remote rural where one knows everyone else and is in continued face-to-face contact with each other.
2. Formal- are mechanism which involve organized system of specialized agencies to set up rules, codes, standards of expected behavior and formal sanctions if they are not followed.
I'm doing a thesis about this.. thanks for the ideas :)
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