Deviance
– the recognized violation of cultural norms
• Norms guide virtually all human activities, rules of conduct specifying how people should behave in various situations
- Ranges from mild breaches of etiquette to serious violence/crimes
• Crime – the violation of norms a society formally enacts into criminal law
• Juvenile Delinquency – the violation of the legal standards by the young
Sociological Analysis of Deviance
1. Deviance varies according to cultural norms
There is no thought or action that is inherently deviant. It depends on the certain norms a society operates; deviance is relative
2. People can be termed as deviant as others perceive them that way
One can be termed as deviant depending on the response or perception of the social audience
3. Both rule-making and rule-breaking involves social power
Rooted in social inequality
4. Deviance depends on time, can be tolerated and accepted/approved and disproved
5. Not all deviance involves actions
Types of Deviant Behavior
1. Innovators – accept the culturally approved goals but disregard the institutional means to achieve them
2. Ritualists – give up cultural goals but follow the prescribed norms
3. Retreatists – abandon both the cultural goals and the prescribed means to achieve them
4. Rebels – reject both the societal goals and prescribed means to achieve them but try to set up new norms or goals
• Conformists – accept both culturally approved goals and means
• Deviants – reject either the goals or the means of achieving them
• Non-conformists – people with exceptional talents who seek to create new goals and the new means of attaining them
Specific Kinds of Deviant Behavior
1. Infractions of the Sex Code and Laws (rape, adultery, concubinage, pornography, zoophilia, sadism…)
2. Infractions to Life, Liberty, Property and against the State (abortion, child abuse, juvenile delinquency, rebellion, graft and corruption, violations of human rights…)
3. Infractions against self or Victimless crimes (illegal gambling, suicide, prostitution, smoking, alcoholism, mendicancy…)
Theories of Deviant Behavior
1. Social Pathology – deviant behavior is caused by people with physical and mental illness, malfunctions or deformities
2. Biological Theory – deviant behavior is a result of aberrant genetic traits
• Lombrosio – concluded that there are animalistic patterns found in criminals, savages and apes
• Sheldon – body type predict criminality
• Goring – found no difference between criminals and ordinary citizens
• Witkin – found that prisoners with an XYY chromosome pattern or with an extra Y chromosome might predispose themselves to deviance
• Danish study – men with extra Y chromosome are less intelligent and easier for the police to catch
3. Psychological Theory – deviant behavior is brought about by uncontrolled inner impulses (developed during childhood)
• Personality factors (personality traits are hereditary but most psychologists believe that temperament is shaped by social experiences; failure to structure one’s behavior in an acceptable way the norms, tensions, frustrations, traumatic experiences)
• Containment Theory - Reckless and Dinitz work : good boys (displayed conscience, cope well with frustrations, identify with cultural norms and values) and bad boys (weaker conscience, little tolerance for frustrations
4. Labeling Theory – society’s labeling on certain behaviors as deviant causes deviant behavior ( one respond to being labeled and embraced the role)
5. Anomie Theory/Structural Stress Theory – social structure prompts people to engage in deviant behavior (goals and means are not in harmony)
• Anomie – normlessness; condition within a society in which individuals found that prevailing social norms are ill-defects, weak and conflicting
6. Conflict Theory – deviant behavior is caused by unjust social structure (social arrangements)
7. Cultural Transmission/Differential Association – deviance is created through socialization/transmission of norms within a group
8. Feminist Theory – 3 schools of thought
• Liberal – rational response to gender discrimination
• Radical – attribute deviance to patriarchy
• Socialist – economic factors; capitalistic societies
Emile Durkheim – no society can exist without deviance (S-F Analysis)
Functions of Deviance
1. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
2. Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries
3. Responding to deviance promotes social unity
4. Deviance encourages social change
SANCTIONS as means of Social Control
Sanctions - refer to the system of reward and punishment in order to ensure that norms are followed and expectations met.
• Rewards – positive sanctions for those who behave properly
• Punishments – negative sanctions
Kinds:
1. Formal Sanctions – used for violations of formalized norms
• Governmental sanctions - penal laws and fines
• Business groups sanctions – promotions, bonuses, awards, suspensions and expulsions
• Religious sanctions – promises of salvation, penance, excommunication
2. Informal Sanctions – gossip, ridicule, concession, favorable or unfavorable pulic opinion, approval and praise, mob violence
SOCIAL GROUPS AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
As John Donne has stated, “no man is an island”. Man cannot live satisfactorily by himself alone. His very existence and the satisfaction of his needs and wants, as well as his happiness, depend to a large degree upon other people.
Homans defines a group as a collection of two or more persons who are in social interaction, who are guided by similar norms, values, and expectations and who maintain a stable pattern of relations over a period of time. Donald Light defines a group as a set of individuals who identify and interact with one another in a structured way based on shared values and goals.
Social group
- A unit of interacting personalities with interdependence of roles and statuses existing between and among themselves. It is a collection of people who interact with each other in accordance with the position they occupy in the society.
Social Organization
- A type of collectivity established for the pursuit of specific aims or goals
- Stable pattern of relationship
Social Structure
- Interdependent network of roles and the hierarchy of statuses which define the reciprocal expectations and the power arrangement of the members of the social unit guided by norms
Social Function
- The results of action that occur in relation to a particular structure and includes the results of the activities of individuals occupying particular statuses.
Human clusters – collections which do not form social groups but may transform into one.
1. Aggregates – collection of persons in a common physical location without interaction
2. Social category – members possess common identifying status characteristics but do not interact socially
3. Collectivity – temporary group of people interacting with each other but the interactions are passing or short-lived
Characteristics of Social Groups
1. Group members interact regularly (affect each other)
2. Develop a structure (status and role)
3. Members agree on important goals and values
4. Sense of identity (united and interdependent)
Types of Social Group
A. According to social ties (bond)
1. Primary Group – face-face structures, close and intimate relationship
Ex: family, gangs, cliques, play groups
• Family – principal agent of socialization
- Nursery of the human nature
2. Secondary group – comes later in life
- Impersonal, business-like
- Formal relationship
Ex: industrial workers, faculty staff, business associates
B. Based on Self-identification (whether a member refers to him/her to a group)
1. In-group – “we” feeling
- Individual feels at home, ex: friends
2. Out-group – outsiders of the group
- “they’ feeling
Ex: law abider and law violators; friends to enemies
3. Reference/psychological group – groups to which we consciously or unconsciously refer when we try to evaluate our own life situations or behavior
Normative function: model
C. According to geographical location
1. Gemeinschaft – social system is personal, traditional
- Community of intimate, private and exclusive living and familism ex: barrios, agriculture and fishing villages, tribal groups
- 2. Gesselschaft - relationships are impersonal, formal, contractual, more advanced
Ex: city, urban groups
D. According to form of organization
1. Formal groups – social organization
- Goals are clearly stated, division of labor, based on member’s merit
- Administrative structure – “bureaucracy” (hierarchical arrangement)
- Large scale, formal organization
Ex. Government
2. Informal groups – unplanned, doesn’t have specific goals
Ex: barkadas, gangs
• Leader – one who influence the activities of group towards the attainment of the goals
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