Monday, Jan 28, 2012
Explaining Deviance: The Perception, Reaction and Power: Socio-
logical Theories of Deviance
- Explaining Deviance: The Perception, Reaction and Power
- Interpretive Theories
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Labeling and Stigmatization
Critical Theories
- there are 4:
- Conflict Theories
- Power Reflective Theories
- Feminist Theories
- Postmodern Theories
These Topics Will Be Covered Too:
- The Constructionist Stance
- Relativism Labeling
- Against Relativism: A Harm Based Conception of DEviance
- Social Power: Conflict Theory
- Feminist Theory
“There are no moral phenomenon at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena
(Friedrich Nietzsche)
- positivist focuses on the actor or the act and tries to explain why some people behave
in deviant ways and why some people don’t - objective
- deviance can be identified and explained in a clear way
- interpretive and critical theories are more subjective - focusing on individual deviance
implies assumptions on how people should act
- we should not assume normative behaviour is indicative of how people should act
- interest is in the perceptions and reactions to the act
- also the role of power in influencing these perceptions
Interpretive & Critical Theories
Do not focus on the act, instead they focus on: Monday, Jan 28, 2012
- perceptions of the act
- reactions to the act
- influence of power in perceptions & reactions
Interpretive Theories Emphasize:
- social interaction
- meanings, understandings, interpretations
Critical Theories Emphasize:
- interest in emancipation and social justice
- power relations
- a combination of several interpretive and critical theories is associated with social con-
structionism that informs more subjective understandings of deviance
Joel Best: The Constructionist Stance
A. Berger and Luckmann’s (1966) work on sociology of knowledge
- they show how social life shapes everything people know
- they introduce the term “social constructionism”
- micro-analysis of labeling theory
- how individuals encounter reactions
- joins it with the more broader theories
B. Labeling theory, dominant approach to studying deviance in 1960s, was criticized
- conflict theories claimed labeling theory ignored how elites shape deviance definitions
- feminists claimed labeling theory ignored women’s victimization by men
- gay rights activists argued for political rights
Constructionists
- assigning meaning or making sense of behaviours classified as deviant
Interpretive Theories
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Labeling Theories
- Deviant Career
Symbolic Interactionism
- foundations of other interpretive theories
These contribute to the way we understand meaning:
- role-taking - see the world form the point of view of others Monday, Jan 28, 2012
- looking-glass self - how do we appear to others?
- significant others - “what would my family/friends say?”
- generalized other - “what would ‘people’ say?”
- results in varying meanings & interpretations of self-others
Labeling Theory
- meaning - people act on the basis of meanings they have
- interaction - meanings come from interaction
- interpretation - meanings are changed by interpretation
Becker - Relativism: Labeling Theory
A. Deviance is created by society
- deviance is not contained within individuals’ behaviours but in the response of others
- social groups create the rules
- labeled as ‘outsiders’
B. Deviance is relative not absolute
- deviance is not an objective, inherent quality of the act a person commit, but the result
of the application of rules and sanctions to an “offender”
C. Being labeled as deviant has important consequences for the person’s future
- Master status (Hughes)
- it becomes the single most important defining characteristic of a person
Costello - Against Relativism: A Harm-Based Conception of Deviance
- Costello reacts against Becker’s relativist position by advancing an absolutist perspec-
tive on defining deviance
- Acts are considered deviant on the basis of the harm they cause to others
A Harm-based Concept of Deviance
- rely on a “harm” concept to define deviance
- behaviour is morally wrong if it is harmful to the person, to others, or to society
Labeling Theory
(Lemert, 1951)
- Primary deviance: occasional rulebreaking
- Secondary deviance: deviant lifestyle & identity
- primary deviance -> getting caught -> secondary deviance Monday, Jan 28, 2012
- deviant label is attached and the conventional world rejects them and the deviant soci-
ety is the only place that accepts them
(Becker, 1963)
- master status and implications
- outsider
- changes in identity & lifestyle
- once they get labelled and label themselves, that becomes their master status
- it has an implicated for a persons everyday life
- the way you are treated changes
- identity gradually changes and as it changes behaviour does too
Relevant Research
- HIV Positive Mothers Research - many are coping with physical problems but their
emotional concerns were for their children
- coping with physical problems along with discrimination, stigma, isolation, child care
- disclosure issues and labeling
- not accessing health services to help them, they were so afraid of being outted that
their children would suffer
- primary concern about master status was not for their own concerns but for their con-
cerns for their children
- saw their HIV positive status as their master status, but mostly that they were MOTH-
ERS with HIV positive status
Movie Clip - Mental Health
- clip about master status, private identity and public identity
- clip is from Girl, Interrupted
- Winona Ryder (Suzanna) is promiscuous because she has sex before marriage with
her professor
- many women in the institution that did not conform
- movie argues that even sane people can be institutionalized because once they are in-
side, it is assumed that something is wrong
- bowling scene - acting like themselves, unconscious - basement of the hospital where
they can be free
- in the psychiatrists office - see how they react to their own and each other’s labels
- in the public - they act crazy as they are expected to act
- public/private selves are very clearly identified Monday, Jan 28, 2012
- public identification as deviant - others start to think of individual differently
- public and private settings in mental health centre
- spoiled identity outside - damaged identity - behave as they are expected to behave
- the dynamics of exclusion - Lemert - they are ostracized from what could be their so-
cial group - winona ryder ostracized from a girl in college
- master status - auxiliary traits
Labeling Theory
Dramaturgical approach (Goffman (1959)
- life as theatre - we are all assigned roles which we are expected to play
- e.g. front stage is teacher
- back stage is ourselves
- difference between front-stage selves & back-stage selves
- multiple responses to stigmatization or spoiled identity, through impression manage-
ment
- there are a number of ways people can respond to spoiled identity
Tertiary Deviance (Kitsuse, 1980)
- people who have been labelled make a lifestyle out of being deviant
- can emerge from the transition from primary to secondary deviance
- may resist the label ‘deviant’
- seek to redefine normal, to include that act or characteristic
Relevant Research
- HIV/AIDS Educational Campaigns
- Government campaigns focus less on sexuality and
More
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