SOC 2070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Serial Killer, Homicide, Microsociology
20 Apr 2016
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Rarity, harm (an infliction of some sort of harm) Debatable on how much harm is necessary for something to be defined as deviant. Some actions can inflict serious harm, some very minor (telling someone they smell bad) Definition can change through time on how much harm is okay and when the threshold is crossed. Things can be harmful but not deviant (smoking, mcdonalds for example) Things can be deviant and not harmful as well (bad manners) Anything that doesn"t occur often (serial murder, of one percent of all homicides, terrorism) Not all rare behaviour is deviant (winning the lottery) Common behaviours can be deviant (domestic assault, tax fraud: norms and values. Deviance can violate the norms and values of a collective society. This theory works well with crime (homicide, rape) Also works with less serious forms of deviance (how to ride in an elevator, face the front) Must know who"s norms and values you"re talking about.
