Deviance Sociologists general defines deviance as “an action that is perceived as violating a society’s or groups cultural norm”. Deviance can be perceived in many different ways. Vegetarians and Muslims are both groups that do not consume meat. Although these groups are not breaking the law. Their behavior is different than what is accepted to be normal.
After reading these articles I garnered a greater insight on what deviance is and how it is formed. According to the Outsiders reading, deviance is essentially a label that is put on a person of whom commits an act or exhibits behaviors that stray from what is normal or expected. These people are therefore also labeled as “outsiders”. Outsiders in that they are seen as those who are to be placed outside of a certain group do to their deviant behaviors. There exist many views of deviance.
Deviance is categorized as a violation of cultural norms. In order for one to express deviance, they must act out against societal norms which are known as expectations and rules that "lead the way" for how an individual should act. Therefore, its much easier to depict from there that mostly one's society is what ultimately differentiates what the rules and expectations are as well as what it needed to break those rules that they have somewhat instilled and ingrained into our daily lives. To add, due to society and different eras of socialization deviant behavior evolves over time.
They are tools with which we decide what we experience, why something is the way that it is, and how we might act or react” (Pfohl, 2009, pg. 11). Stephen Pfohl, author of Images of Deviance and Control, examines nine different theoretical perspectives on deviance and control. In the book, each perspective, its deviance, and how it can be studied and controlled is explained. The nine theoretical perspectives of deviance discussed are the demonic perspective (deviance rooted in realm of the supernatural); the classical perspective (deviance as rational hedonism); the pathological perspective (deviance as sickness); the social disorganization perspective (rapid change and normative breakdown); the functionalist perspective (deviance as beneficial or positive); the anomie perspective (normlessness and inequality); the learning perspective (acquiring deviance in association with others); the societal reaction perspective (social construction of deviance); and critical perspectives.
Crime and Deviance is an important part of our daily lives. Deviances are described as the recognized violation of cultural norms. Crime is known as the violation of a society formally enacted laws. Both crimes are subjective to a society and things that are considered crime or deviance in one society may not be considered crime or deviance in a different culture. Sociologist have theorized why people will do deviant or criminal acts, three theories that explain why people chose deviance are Becker's labeling theory.
In the 1940s, Robert Merton proposed a biological explanations of deviance with the conclusion that biology cannot account for similarities from one society to the next in the new era and range of deviance (Author Unknown, p 1). His primary focus was on why the rates of deviance differ so dramatically in different societies and for different subgroups within a single society which reflected back on the roles of the culture, particularly its unifying aspects; giving an explanation for the distribution of deviant behavior across groups defined by class, race, ethnicity, and the alike (Author Unknown, p 1). Leading Merton to borrow a concept from Durkheim to analyze situations in which culture creates deviance and conflict to a situation in which cultural norms break down because of rapid change leading people unable to adapt (Author Unknown, p 1). Merton define his concept to concentrate on a situation’s disparity between the culture's norms on what constitutes success in life (goals) and the culture's norms on the appropriate ways to achieve those
Deviance and its role in shaping norms and reactions is a fundamental component of every person’s experience in societal life regardless of the active mutability of society and values. In the article “Does the Death of the Sociology of Deviance Claim Make Sense?” Sociologist Erich Goode dissects Colin Sumner’s “The Sociology of Deviance: An Obituary” and his claim that the sociology of deviance is dead. Goode makes six different points, all varying in importance and applicability, as to why he believes Sumner’s claims are false and that the study of deviance is alive and well. Although certain points of Goode’s seem relatively unimportant, his argument that the field of deviance holds validity and successfully identifies the flaws in Sumner’s
Deviance has many functions in society. Although deviance violates social norms, without it, we would not have rules, so it helps form, guide, and shape society’s norms and goals. Social norms are different from culture to culture. Norms that may be acceptable in one culture may be frowned upon in another. Emile Durkheim quotes that “deviance and deviant behavior is an integral part of all healthy societies (Adler, 2014, p74).”
According to the Henslin (2014), deviance is the violation of norms, rules or expectations. In Sociology the perception that others have about the act is what makes something deviant. In June, 2015 two women engaged in a physical altercation in the aisle of a Walmart store. This altercation included the six year old son of one of the women. The incident started with a verbal disagreement between a woman driving a scooter and a Walmart employee.
Deviant behavior is the behavior that is different from the most powerful norms of the society or can also be defined as odd or unacceptable behavior. In sociological way deviance is simply any violation of societal norms. There are many reasons why a person has deviant behavior which includes biological , psychological and sociological explanations. the most popular sociological theories are Structural Strain Theory which was developed by Robert K merton as an addition of the functional point of view on deviance. The theory discovers the origin of deviance that these are caused by the difference
Deviance is an action or behavior that violates our society norms. Therefore the society cannot confirm deviance and usually disapprove it. Social norms and deviance are different in every culture. For that reason a deviant may is considered wrong in a culture but another culture may approve it. For example public display of affection is not a wrong action in some Europe country but it is a deviance in Islamic countries.
According to Hunt and Colandar (2011), a word deviant refers to when an individual’s actions contradict with society’s norms. For instance, majority peoples followed norms because society expect individual to behave in morally tolerate with each other. Those failing to conform the norms noted as deviant. In a social context, the task of the society is to blind the action of the social community together. Once failing to act them to the society’s reaction that seem as deviant.
Deviance is any behavior that violates social norms and is usually of sufficient severity to warrant disapproval from the majority of society. Deviance can be criminal or noncriminal. Media helps us frame the way we think, act, and choose. Children have growing brains
Although the term deviance usually carried a negative characteristic in first impression trough out history, afterward the term positive deviance was also introduced and analyzed. To begin with according to (“positive deviance.org”2015), “Positive Deviance is established on the inspection that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their colleagues, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or even worse challenges”. “Positive deviance somehow exceeds social expectations. Moreover positive deviance can also be defined as individual or acts of individuals in a society that are superior because they super pass
Functionalists, conflict theorist, and interactionist all have different views and focus on different parts of society and its people. What is deviance? Deviance is a behavior, trait, or belief that departs from a norm and generates a negative reaction in a particular group (Ferris and Stein 151). It is considered a social construct.
