What is Deviance?

According to the book, Deviance is any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs.

Right from the start we can see that Deviance, despite our instincts about it, is not universal but relative. This means that deviance depends on the group in which the behavior occurs.

We have been discussing social structure and group dynamics and we saw that each group has it's own culture…so we can look at deviance only relative to the culture (either group or societal) norms and expectations.

Different kinds of deviance have different degrees of seriousness.

Crime is a form of deviant behavior that violates criminal law and is punishable by fines, jail terms and other negative sanctions.

An interesting question for sociologists to ask is: Who defines what is deviant? Or better yet, what is normal?

To fully understand the answers to this question we have to take into consideration what we have learned about social structure. Individuals and institutions within our society have been charged with the responsibility of determining what is normal and what is deviant…all together these create a sense of what is normal for our society.

Consider the following groups and their role in defining what is normal and what is not:

• Courts
• Many times when a case goes to court it is not clear if a crime has been committed. Depending on the type of crime, judges and juries will decide if a particular behavior happened and how it should be punished
• Psychiatrists and Psychologists
• These individuals collectively publish a book called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders. The guidebook provides diagnostic criteria for determining if behavior is simply eccentric or abnormal.
• Legislators and Law Makers
• Ultimately what is considered criminal is based in policy. Policy that has been developed in light of legislative action that limits, or controls interactions among individuals.
• Different levels of government have control over different kinds of interactions.

Social Control

All that we are dealing with here is social control, which came up in the last chapter.

Social Control is the systematic practices developed by social groups to encourage conformity and discourage deviance.

All groups exert a kind of social control on their members in order to reduce deviance. This is important in the establishment of the identity of a group because it is these behaviors which define the group.