HS2026: DEVIANCE AND SOCIETY (notes)
HS2026 Lecture 1
Social Construction of Deviance
“At its simplest, the sociology of deviance is the systematic study of social norm
violation that is subject to social sanction.” – Henry, 2009:1
A study of society’s edge:
Whose edge?
What edge? – it changes society’s space, and changes time
Why is it an edge?
Who benefits by it being an edge?
Some deviants are outsiders whilst some actually aren’t.
They do subscribe to the social norms they have broken – they believe in the social
norms.
o E.g. believing the ideologies of the state
How do we measure deviance?
Statistical behaviour
o E.g. taking racial stereotypes to be the absolute truth
Pathological
o Deviance is a disease
o Often seen as something that has to be rehabilitated, remedied
o The problem lies in the individual – psychologically treated
Relativistic
o Relative to who it is that determines the issue
o E.g. elite crime and lower-class crime are different
The Deviant as the Outsider:
The subject of much speculation
There is something inherently deviant (qualitatively distinct) about acts that break (or
seem to break) social rules.
The deviant act occurs because of some characteristic of the person.
Social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance.
o Deviance is not a quality that emanates from the individual, but rather it is a
consequence of the individual’s actions.
Labelling of a deviant – deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label.
LABELLING THEORY
“Deviant” but not legally sanctioned – there are groups that think that these types of
behaviour are deviant
o E.g. transvestism, lesbianism, etc. in Singapore
o E.g. breakdancing in public
Must create a clear distinction between a crime and a deviant behaviour
Deviance is fluid – not cast in stone
1
,Edwin Lemert
o Primary Deviance: experience connected to overt behaviour
The actual act of committing the deviant behaviour
o Secondary Deviance: role created to deal with society’s condemnation of behaviour
Intellectualise or rationalise your deviant behaviour
“I do these kinds of things because I am this way”
Becomes a subculture that revolves around primary deviance
Resocialisation into a deviant role
UTILITARIANISM THEORY
The proper course of action is one that maximizes utility – specifically defined as
maximizing happiness and reducing suffering
Theory in normative ethics
Cesare Beccaria – father of criminology
(On Crimes and Punishments – 1764)
o Signalled the height of the Milan Enlightenment
o Against: torture, death penalty (what right does the state have to take a life, not necessary
or useful), gun control laws
o Advocated: role of education in lessening crime, reform the criminal law system to
conform to rational principles
o Principles of Reason: an understanding of the state as a form of contract and utility – any
sanction must appeal to the reason of the deed
Premises:
Punishment should be preventive (deterrent), not retributive
Punishment should be proportionate to the crime
Justice is seen to be done
Certainty of punishment would achieve preventive effect not its severity
Procedures of criminal convictions should be public
Punishment should be prompt, so that the individual will realise the direct
consequences of his action
BIOLOGICAL POSITIVISM THEORY
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)
Premises:
o Clinical and descriptive research methods – did lab experiments on human body
parts
o Criminals are distinguished from non- criminals by multiple physical anomalies;
i.e. biological “throwbacks”
o Criminals are “born” and can be identified
E.g. sloping forehead, unusual ear size, excessively long arms etc.
E.g. less sensibility to pain and touch, more acute sight etc.
Typologies: Portraits of German Criminals, “Criminaloids”, criminals by passion, moral
imbeciles
2
,FUNCTIONALIST THEORY
Emile Durkheim
An act which offends strong and defined states of the collective conscience of society,
because the only characteristics common to all crimes, which are or have been recognised
as such, are the following:
o A crime offends sentiments which are found among all individuals of any given
society
o These sentiments are strong; and
o These sentiments are defined
Definition of punishment: It is a passionate reaction which emanates from society so as
to restore social order.
o Graduated in intensity
o This reaction is enforced through the intermediary of a constituted body – not
everyone can mete out punishment
Understanding of Deviance
o Deviance is normal – there can never be any society that rids itself of deviance.
o Deviance is necessary
Deviance is important – it will bring society to the next stage
This is something that we have to nurture and foster into society
E.g. Socrates
o Deviance as a sign of social health
A society that rids itself of deviance is a repressive and draconian society
SOCIAL THEORY
Kai Erikson
What we should be study is actually social order, the audience more than the deviant
Definition of deviance: A conduct which is generally thought to require the attention of
social control agencies – that is, conduct about which “something should be done”, most
likely to occur when the sanctions governing conduct in any given setting seem to be
contradictory
Premise:
o The critical variable in the study of deviance is the social audience rather than the
individual person
Studying society as a whole will enable us to understand why certain acts are deviant
Each society is unique with its deviant baggage
Makes conformity rather than deviance the problematic
Central feature of this theory is the importance it places on the family as a causative
factor in delinquency
o Is the family dysfunctional? Are they in poverty? Do they have a history of
delinquency?
o Low income family
3
, o Large family In the 1980s, large families were seen as problematic – lots of
incentives given to reduce family size
o Inapt parents
o Below average intelligence
o Parent with criminal record
Much work on crime and deviance in Singapore adopts this framework
Family becomes the arena of debate – Asian Values and what not
o Things become ideological, unscientific, unempirical very quickly
Deviance is highly conflated with inequality
Variants:
o Gendered Social Control
o Informal Social Control
Social control is not just legitimate
A state is an entity that has monopoly over violent – seen as a formal social
control
Informal social controls differ from place to place (e.g. parents can be a form
of informal social control)
In some places, parents are of less social control – children are given more
liberty
Thus, children can be seen as deviant in one society, but not deviant in
another society
STRAIN THEORY
Robert Merton
Derived from Durkheim’s idea of Anomie
Merton's Paradigm of Deviant Behaviour
Attitude to Goals Attitude to Means Modes of Adaptation
Accept Accept Conformity
Accept Reject Innovation
Reject Accept Ritualism
Reject Reject Retreatism
Reject / Accept Reject / Accept Rebellion
4
HS2026 Lecture 1
Social Construction of Deviance
“At its simplest, the sociology of deviance is the systematic study of social norm
violation that is subject to social sanction.” – Henry, 2009:1
A study of society’s edge:
Whose edge?
What edge? – it changes society’s space, and changes time
Why is it an edge?
Who benefits by it being an edge?
Some deviants are outsiders whilst some actually aren’t.
They do subscribe to the social norms they have broken – they believe in the social
norms.
o E.g. believing the ideologies of the state
How do we measure deviance?
Statistical behaviour
o E.g. taking racial stereotypes to be the absolute truth
Pathological
o Deviance is a disease
o Often seen as something that has to be rehabilitated, remedied
o The problem lies in the individual – psychologically treated
Relativistic
o Relative to who it is that determines the issue
o E.g. elite crime and lower-class crime are different
The Deviant as the Outsider:
The subject of much speculation
There is something inherently deviant (qualitatively distinct) about acts that break (or
seem to break) social rules.
The deviant act occurs because of some characteristic of the person.
Social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance.
o Deviance is not a quality that emanates from the individual, but rather it is a
consequence of the individual’s actions.
Labelling of a deviant – deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label.
LABELLING THEORY
“Deviant” but not legally sanctioned – there are groups that think that these types of
behaviour are deviant
o E.g. transvestism, lesbianism, etc. in Singapore
o E.g. breakdancing in public
Must create a clear distinction between a crime and a deviant behaviour
Deviance is fluid – not cast in stone
1
,Edwin Lemert
o Primary Deviance: experience connected to overt behaviour
The actual act of committing the deviant behaviour
o Secondary Deviance: role created to deal with society’s condemnation of behaviour
Intellectualise or rationalise your deviant behaviour
“I do these kinds of things because I am this way”
Becomes a subculture that revolves around primary deviance
Resocialisation into a deviant role
UTILITARIANISM THEORY
The proper course of action is one that maximizes utility – specifically defined as
maximizing happiness and reducing suffering
Theory in normative ethics
Cesare Beccaria – father of criminology
(On Crimes and Punishments – 1764)
o Signalled the height of the Milan Enlightenment
o Against: torture, death penalty (what right does the state have to take a life, not necessary
or useful), gun control laws
o Advocated: role of education in lessening crime, reform the criminal law system to
conform to rational principles
o Principles of Reason: an understanding of the state as a form of contract and utility – any
sanction must appeal to the reason of the deed
Premises:
Punishment should be preventive (deterrent), not retributive
Punishment should be proportionate to the crime
Justice is seen to be done
Certainty of punishment would achieve preventive effect not its severity
Procedures of criminal convictions should be public
Punishment should be prompt, so that the individual will realise the direct
consequences of his action
BIOLOGICAL POSITIVISM THEORY
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)
Premises:
o Clinical and descriptive research methods – did lab experiments on human body
parts
o Criminals are distinguished from non- criminals by multiple physical anomalies;
i.e. biological “throwbacks”
o Criminals are “born” and can be identified
E.g. sloping forehead, unusual ear size, excessively long arms etc.
E.g. less sensibility to pain and touch, more acute sight etc.
Typologies: Portraits of German Criminals, “Criminaloids”, criminals by passion, moral
imbeciles
2
,FUNCTIONALIST THEORY
Emile Durkheim
An act which offends strong and defined states of the collective conscience of society,
because the only characteristics common to all crimes, which are or have been recognised
as such, are the following:
o A crime offends sentiments which are found among all individuals of any given
society
o These sentiments are strong; and
o These sentiments are defined
Definition of punishment: It is a passionate reaction which emanates from society so as
to restore social order.
o Graduated in intensity
o This reaction is enforced through the intermediary of a constituted body – not
everyone can mete out punishment
Understanding of Deviance
o Deviance is normal – there can never be any society that rids itself of deviance.
o Deviance is necessary
Deviance is important – it will bring society to the next stage
This is something that we have to nurture and foster into society
E.g. Socrates
o Deviance as a sign of social health
A society that rids itself of deviance is a repressive and draconian society
SOCIAL THEORY
Kai Erikson
What we should be study is actually social order, the audience more than the deviant
Definition of deviance: A conduct which is generally thought to require the attention of
social control agencies – that is, conduct about which “something should be done”, most
likely to occur when the sanctions governing conduct in any given setting seem to be
contradictory
Premise:
o The critical variable in the study of deviance is the social audience rather than the
individual person
Studying society as a whole will enable us to understand why certain acts are deviant
Each society is unique with its deviant baggage
Makes conformity rather than deviance the problematic
Central feature of this theory is the importance it places on the family as a causative
factor in delinquency
o Is the family dysfunctional? Are they in poverty? Do they have a history of
delinquency?
o Low income family
3
, o Large family In the 1980s, large families were seen as problematic – lots of
incentives given to reduce family size
o Inapt parents
o Below average intelligence
o Parent with criminal record
Much work on crime and deviance in Singapore adopts this framework
Family becomes the arena of debate – Asian Values and what not
o Things become ideological, unscientific, unempirical very quickly
Deviance is highly conflated with inequality
Variants:
o Gendered Social Control
o Informal Social Control
Social control is not just legitimate
A state is an entity that has monopoly over violent – seen as a formal social
control
Informal social controls differ from place to place (e.g. parents can be a form
of informal social control)
In some places, parents are of less social control – children are given more
liberty
Thus, children can be seen as deviant in one society, but not deviant in
another society
STRAIN THEORY
Robert Merton
Derived from Durkheim’s idea of Anomie
Merton's Paradigm of Deviant Behaviour
Attitude to Goals Attitude to Means Modes of Adaptation
Accept Accept Conformity
Accept Reject Innovation
Reject Accept Ritualism
Reject Reject Retreatism
Reject / Accept Reject / Accept Rebellion
4
