SOC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Ritualism In The Church Of England, Restorative Justice, Differential Association
31 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
DEVIANCE
What is Deviance?
• Deviance
o Refers to norm violations ranging from minor infractions such as bad manners to
major infractions such as serious violence
o Social control
▪ Attepts soiet to regulate people’s thoughts ad ehaiours
• Ie when parents praise or scold children
o Crime
▪ Violatio of a soiet’s forall eated riial la
o Criminal justice system
▪ Formal response by police, courts and prison officials to alleged violations
of law
Theories of Deviance
• Biological theories
o Sees deviance as the result of biological instincts
o Early studies
▪ Relationship between criminal behaviour and
• Lambroso
o Head shape
• Sheldon
o Body size
o Current studies
▪ Criminality is the result of
• Genes
• Social influences
• Psychological theories
o Sees deviance as the result of unsuccessful socialization
o Containment theory
▪ Reckless and Dinite
• Links delinquency to weak conscience
• Individual factors like the ability to cope with frustration and
identifying positively with cultural norms are related to fewer
problems with the police
Social Foundations of Deviance
• deviance varies according to cultural norms
o ie Quebecers can drink at a younger age than Ontarians
• people become deviant as others define them that way
o ie taking a pen from work without intending to return it
▪ mentally ill or criminal?
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• both norms and the way in which people define rule breaking behaviour involve social
power
o homeless man speaking on the street risks arrest
o mayoral candidate speaking on the street gets police protection
Functions of Deviance: A Structural Functional Analysis
• Durkheim
o Deviance is normal
▪ Affirms cultural values and norms
• Ie no justice without crime
▪ Responding to it clarifies moral boundaries
• Ie line between academic honesty and cheating
▪ Responding brings people together
• Ie murder students (horror and grief)
▪ Encourages social change
• Ie rock and roll used to be moral but is now popular
• Merto’s strai theor
o Deviance depends on the extent to which society provides the means to achieve
cultural goals
▪ Conformity
• Uses approved means
o Ie gaining wealth and prestige through talent, schooling
and hard work
▪ Innovation
• Strain between cultural goals and opportunities to get them
• People may use illegitimate means
o Ie street crime to achieve wealth
▪ Ritualism
• Inner rejection of cultural goals
o Ie I ko I a’t e rih so let e just stik to the rules to
at least feel respected
▪ Retreatism
• Dropping out
o Ie alcoholics, drug addicts, street people
▪ Rebellion
• Seek new cultural goals
o Form counterculture
• Deviant subcultures
o Cloward and Ohlin
▪ Eted Merto’s theor
▪ Deviance/conformity arises from the relative opportunity structure that
fraes a perso’s life
• Eg. Gangs
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
