deviance

Examples of deviance in the following topics:

• Deviance

  • Karen Halnon of Pennsylvania State University studies informal deviance and focuses on what she calls "deviance vacations," whereby people of a certain socioeconomic status voluntarily enter another, usually lower, social strata.
  • Deviance is often divided into two types of activities.
  • Examples of formal deviance include robbery, theft, rape, murder, and assault.
  • Deviance can vary dramatically across cultures.
  • Current sociological research on deviance takes many forms.

• Introduction to deviance

  • Deviance is any behavior that violates cultural norms.
  • Deviance is often divided into two types of deviant activities.
  • The first, crime is the violation of formally enacted laws and is referred to as formal deviance.
  • Current research on deviance by sociologists takes many forms.
  • Sociological interest in deviance includes both interests in measuring formal deviance (statistics of criminal behavior; see below), examining how people (individually and collectively) define some things deviant and others normative, and a number of theories that try to explain both the role of deviance in society and its origins.

• Sociological Theories of Deviance

  • Sociological theories of deviance are those that use social context and social pressures to explain deviance.
  • Sociological theories of deviance are those that use social context and social pressures to explain deviance .
  • Four main sociological theories of deviance exist.
  • The third main sociological theory of deviance is conflict theory.
  • The fourth main sociological theory of deviance is labeling theory.

• Deviance and Technology

  • Advances in technology have resulted in new forms of deviance as well as new forms of control.
  • In addition to new forms of deviance in traditional cultural mores, new forms of deviance have arisen within cyberculture.
  • For this reason, all of these behaviors are considered production deviance.
  • More serious cases of deviant behavior involve property deviance.
  • Discuss the impact of technological innovation on forms of deviance and social control

• Strain Theory: How Social Values Produce Deviance

  • Thus, deviance can be the result of accepting one norm, but breaking another in order to pursue the first.
  • According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria:
  • Thus, deviance can be the result of accepting one norm, but breaking another in order to pursue the first.
  • In this sense, according social strain theory, social values actually produce deviance in two ways.
  • Apply Merton's typology of deviance to the real world and give examples for each type

• The Functionalist Perspective on Deviance

  • What function does deviance play in society?
  • This question cannot be answered without investigating deviance .
  • For the structural functionalist, deviance serves two primary roles in creating social stability.
  • Deviance allows for the majorities to unite around their normativity, at the expense of those marked as deviant.
  • Deviance provides the key to understanding the disruption and re-calibration of society that occurs over time.

• The Functions of Deviance

  • Deviance provides society the boundaries to determine acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in society.
  • What function does the notion of deviance play in society?
  • This cannot be answered without addressing this question of deviance.
  • For the structural functionalist, deviance serves two primary roles in creating social stability.
  • Describe how structural functionalism views the relation between deviance and social change

• Psychological Theories of Deviance

  • Bales's alleged deviance.
  • One case study of a psychological theory of deviance is the case of conduct disorder.
  • Psychological theories of deviance do not necessarily have a biological element.
  • Bales's alleged deviance.
  • This goes to demonstrate the fluctuating nature of psychological theories of deviance.

• Norms and Sanctions

  • The act of violating a social norm is called deviance.
  • Studying norms and studying deviance are inseparable endeavors.
  • Like deviance, norms are always culturally contingent.
  • The violation of social norms, or deviance, results in social sanction.
  • Formal deviance, or the violation of legal codes, results in criminal action initiated by the state.

• Theories of Deviance

  • Merton, in his discussion of deviance, proposed a typology of deviant behavior.
  • According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria:
  • First, deviance helps distinguish between what is acceptable behavior, and what is not.
  • In a sense deviance is required in order for people to know what they can and cannot do.
  • This approach to deviance recognizes its cultural relativity and is aware that deviance can result from power imbalances.