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deviance

deviance Commonsensically, deviance has been seen as an attribute, as something inherent in a certain kind of behaviour or person: the delinquent, the homosexual, the mentally ill, and so forth. Indeed, this was a position which had a certain credence in the earlier writings of the social pathology theorists, and which is still important in some clinical and criminological research. For sociologists, however, deviance is best viewed, not as a type of person, but rather as a formal property of social situations and social systems. There is no fixed agreement on the substance of deviance—even murder or incest are accepted at times—but there are two interrelated properties which help characterize the phenomenon.

The first refers to deviance as a pattern of norm violation, and a range of norms are then specified such that religious norms give rise to heretics, legal norms to criminals, health norms to the sick, cultural norms to the eccentric, and so forth. Since norms emerge in most social situations, such a definition is very wide-ranging, and enters every sphere of social life. For example, there can be class deviance, where the normative expectations of class behaviour are violated; or situational deviance, where the norms emerging between a group of friends are transgressed.

A second property highlights deviance as a stigma construct, a label bestowed upon certain classes of behaviour at certain times, which then become devalued, discredited, and often excluded. This characteristic can also be seen as very wide-ranging: people may make friends deviant simply because they belch or talk too much; whilst terrorists may become political martyrs in the eyes of those who share their particular values. The study of deviance here is concerned primarily with the construction, application, and impact of stigma labels.

Within either tradition—norm violation or stigma construct—deviance is a shifting, ambiguous, and volatile concept. Precisely who or what is deviant depends upon a firm understanding of the norms and labelling process in particular social contexts. Despite these inherent difficulties with the term an enormous sociological literature has been generated by research on deviance.

The work of Émile Durkheim is generally considered the most fruitful starting-point for the contemporary analysis of deviance. In his work, two major and somewhat antagonistic issues emerge, both of which signpost subsequent trends. One is his focus on anomie: a state of normlessness and breakdown which emerges most conspicuously at times of rapid social change. Anomie indicates a strain, a breakdown, within a social order or social structure. This concept shifts the focus away from the deviant as a type of person to the suggestion that deviance is a feature of certain kinds of social structure. It is an idea followed through in a host of subsequent writings; in theories of delinquency as a consequence of strains within the social order (as in the work of Robert Merton and anomie theory); as a consequence of the breakdown of parts of the city (see, for example, the concept of the ZONE OF TRANSITION); and in the idea of subcultures.

Durkheim's second concern is his focus upon the functions of deviance. In The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) he suggests that ‘crime is normal because a society exempt from it is utterly impossible’. Deviance is bound up with the very conditions for a society; far from deviance being abnormal or pathological in itself, every society needs deviance. This seemingly paradoxical claim about the normality of deviance is propounded by Durkheim on several grounds. First there is a broad statistical argument; empirically, all known societies do have their deviance, and the rate of deviance often remains relatively stable over periods of time (though Durkheim certainly agrees that there can be abnormally high rates which need to be checked). But why is deviance universal? In line with Durkheim's more general functional analysis he suggests that deviance fulfils a number of important functions. Citing Socrates, he argues that one of these functions is to bring about change: today's deviants are signs of tomorrow's world. This is not true of all deviance—some is apologetic and fits readily into the existing social order. But deviance that is radical, challenging, and threatening is often so precisely because it suggests a different vision of the social world, one that may increasingly come to be: the reforming Christian sects of the sixteenth century, for example, quickly became the established Churches of subsequent eras. But in contrast to the function of facilitating change there is also a major function of solidarity and cohesion secured by deviance: people unite against a common enemy.

Durkheim's work has been very influential but there have been many other sociological traditions within which the issue of deviance has also been addressed in some depth. Members of the so-called Chicago School examined deviance as part of a normal learning process of cultural transmission, most fruitfully in the later work of Edwin Sutherland, and in terms of the general theory of differential association. Those within the symbolic interactionist tradition were particularly concerned with the processes through which deviance was socially constructed. Ultimately this interest gave rise to labelling theory and social constructionism. Other strands of thought have seen deviance as a form of social conflict, and there have been attempts recently to link it to Marxism and the sociology of law, feminist criminology, and Michel Foucault and discourse theory.

Throughout the late 1960s and much of the 1970s, deviance theory was one of the most fertile and controversial fields of sociology, but by the 1980s debate had become largely institutionalized and interest somewhat diminished. In the opinion of some observers the rather boisterous specialism gradually matured. Alternatively, in the view of many of the self-proclaimed radicals within the field, the sociology of deviance simply became yet another sociological orthodoxy. However one judges this process the story itself is well documented in Stephen J. Pfohl , Images of Deviance and Social Control: A Sociological History (1985)
. See also CAREER; CRIME; DEVIANCE AMPLIFICATION; DEVIANCE DISAVOWAL; SOCIAL CAPITAL.

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	Tolerable Differences: Living with Deviance, 2d ed. Magazine article from: The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology; 11/1/1997; ; 700+ words ; The introductory deviance text is likely to resonate with readers...discussion by identifying tolerable deviance as practices that constitute significantly...individual and group differences. As such, deviance is made possible by the fact that humankind... Read more
	The Politics of Deviance.(Book Review) Magazine article from: National Observer - Australia and World Affairs; 1/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...Republic than to anything adult, what exactly is deviance? Can deviance, which by definition implies some more or less universally...illegal to condemn them--has not the entire notion of deviance gone the way of phrenology, Pelmanism, Emile Coue... Read more
	Stigmatization, tolerance and repair; an integrative psychological analysis of responses to deviance.(Brief article)(Book review) Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 8/1/2008; 128 words ; ...psychological analysis of responses to deviance. Dijker, Anton J.M. and Willem Koomen...HM811 In order to understand responses to deviance, social psychologists Dijker (Maastricht...Amsterdam) adopt an evolutionary approach to deviance, seeing as a threat to fitness or reproductive... Read more
	Deviance and Crime: Theory, Research, and Policy, 3d ed.(Brief Article)(Book Review) Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 11/1/2005; 146 words ; 1583605495 Deviance and crime; theory, research, and policy...Introduction to the Sociological Study of Deviance but changed the title as the focus shifted...critical perspectives of the sociology of deviance, crime, and social control, along with... Read more
	Standard Deviance.(Book Review) Magazine article from: National Review; 10/28/2002; ; 700+ words ; The Politics of Deviance, by Anne Hendershott (Encounter, 194...behavior of others, all discussion of deviance became obsolete. Indeed, Hendershott...convinced themselves that the sociology of deviance was actually the construction of deviance... Read more
	Orders of the Day.(Review) Magazine article from: Reason; 11/1/1999; ; 700+ words ; ...Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order, by Francis Fukuyama, New York: The...the Great Disruption. But he adds that social order, once disrupted, tends to get remade...nature designed to create moral rules and social order for ourselves. Fukuyama's argument is... Read more
	Pius XII & the Jews: further research, please. Magazine article from: Commonweal; 7/17/1998; ; 700+ words ; ...the notion of a distinctive Catholic social order, sharing in Catholicism's century-long...traditional Catholic notions of the social order toward an embryonic embrace of a social...the pope calling for an entirely new social order in Europe and in the world-at-large... Read more
	The structuration of gender and deviance: a power-control theory of vulnerability to crime and the search for deviant role exits. Magazine article from: The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology; 5/1/1990; ; 20 words ; The structuration of gender and deviance: a power-control theory of vulnerability to crime and the search for deviant role exits Read more
	Constructions of deviance; social power, context, and interaction, 6th ed.(Brief Article)(Book Review) Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 5/1/2008; 106 words ; 9780495504290 Constructions of deviance; social power, context, and interaction, 6th ed. Ed. by Patricia...norm-violating behavior, deviant identity, the social organization of deviance, and the phases of the deviant career. The sixth edition add... Read more
	Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context and Interaction, 5th ed.(SOCIOLOGY)(Brief Article)(Book Review) Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 8/1/2005; 98 words ; HM291 2005-901233 0-495-00372-7 Constructions of deviance; social power, context, and interaction, 5th ed. Title main...engage in norm-violating behavior, the social organization of deviance, and the phases of the deviant career. The fifth edition... Read more

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	National Deviance Conference Book article from: A Dictionary of Sociology National Deviance Conference (NDC) The name given to a...criminologists (see CRIMINOLOGY, CRITICAL ) and deviance theorists in the United Kingdom, who...are Stanley Cohen ( ed.) , Images of Deviance (1971) , and Laurie Taylor and and Ian... Read more
	primary and secondary deviance Book article from: A Dictionary of Sociology primary and secondary deviance Introduced by Edwin Lemert in his...central to labelling theory. Primary deviance refers to differentiation which is...marginal, and fleeting; secondary deviance is pivotal, central, and engulfing... Read more
	deviance amplification Book article from: A Dictionary of Sociology deviance amplification Introduced by Leslie Wilkins in his book Social Deviance (1967), the concept suggests that a small initial deviation...was used most extensively within the labelling theory of deviance. However, by far the most systematic defence and application... Read more
	new deviance theory Book article from: A Dictionary of Sociology new deviance theory See CRIMINOLOGY, CRITICAL ; DEVIANCE ; LABELLING ; NATIONAL DEVIANCE CONFERENCE . Read more
	deviance disavowal Book article from: A Dictionary of Sociology deviance disavowal A refusal, on the part of those who have been labelled deviant, to accept this characterization. The concept...social deviants, such as the physically handicapped, who had a strong interest in attempting to minimize the stigma of deviance in order either to appear normal or to normalize their ... Read more

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