deviance

Deviance as a violation of social norms
Norms are specific behavioral standards, ways in which people are supposed to act, paradigms for predictable behavior in society.

For example, a deviant act can be committed in one society or culture that breaks a social norm there, but may be considered normal for another culture and society.

Altruistic suicide (death for the good of the group), egoistic suicide (death for the removal of the self due to or justified by the lack of ties to others), and anomic suicide (death due to the confounding of self-interest and societal norms) are the three forms of suicide that can happen due to extremes.

For example, the modern prison (more specifically the panopticon) is a template for these institutions because it controls its inmates by the perfect use of discipline.

Deviance can be observed by the negative, stigmatizing social reaction of others towards these phenomena.

When the symbols and ideas about deviation are much more favorable than unfavorable, the individual tends to take a favorable view upon deviance and will resort to more of these behaviors.

The bond consists of four positively correlated factors: commitment, attachment, belief, and involvement.

The issue of social power cannot be divorced from a definition of deviance because some groups in society can criminalize the actions of another group by using their influence on legislators. [6]

[edit] Theories
There are three broad sociological classes describing deviant behaviour, namely structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism and conflict theory.

[edit] Structural-Functionalism
Social integration is the attachment to groups and institutions, while social regulati...

Proponents of the theory of a Southern culture of honor hold that violent behavior which would be considered criminal in most of the United States, may be considered a justifiable response to insult in a Southern culture of honor.[17]

[edit] Types of deviance
Taboo is a strong social form of behavior considered deviant by a majority.

(Note that Beccaria argued for just punishment; as raising the severity of punishments without regard to logical measurement of utility would cause increasing degrees of social harm once it reached a certain point.)

[edit] Functions of deviance
Deviant acts can be assertions of individuality and identity, and thus as rebellions against group norms
Deviance affirms cultural values and norms, it also clarifies moral boundaries, promotes social unity by creating an us/them dichotomy...

Norms are rules of conduct, not neutral or universal, but ever changing; shifting as society shifts; mutable, emergent, loose, reflective of inherent biases and interests, and highly selfish and one-sided.

The research will try to show a correlation between labor market stratification and individual behavior (juvenile behavior).

[edit] Conflict theory
Main article: Conflict theory
In sociology, conflict theory states that society or an organization functions so that each individual participant and its groups struggle to maximize their benefits, which inevitably contributes to social change such as political changes and revolutions.

Techniques, motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes are all learned.

Symbolic interactionism allows researchers to understand how individuals negotiate, manipulate, and change the structure and reality to a certain extent.

"Certain factors of personality are theoretically and empirically related to workplace deviance,such as work environment, and individual differences."[16]"Situated in the masculinity and deviance literature, this article examines a "deviant" masculinity, that of the male sex worker, and presents the ways men who engage in sex work cope with the job."

[edit] Cross-Cultural Communication as Deviance
Cross-cultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from diffe...

Beccaria assumed a utilitarian view of society along with a social contract theory of the state.

In this theory, laws are instruments of oppression: tough on the powerless and less tough on the powerful.

[edit] Karl Marx
Marx himself did not write about deviant behavior but he wrote about alienation amongst the proletariat - as well as between the proletariat and the finished product - which causes conflict, and thus deviant behaviour.

The late modern society easily accepts difference, but it labels those that it does not want as deviant and relentlessly punishes and persecutes.

[edit] Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault believed that torture had been phased out from modern society due to the dispersion of power; there was no need anymore for the wrath of the state on a deviant individual.

The statistical study that Charles Goring published on this research is called "The English Convict".[13][14]

[edit] Other theories
The Classical school of criminology comes from the works of Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham.

Some forms of taboo are prohibited under law and transgressions may lead to severe penalties.

Legitimate and illegitimate behavior both express the same general needs and values.
[edit] Neutralization theory
Gresham Sykes and David Matza's neutralization theory explains how deviants justify their deviant behaviors by providing alternative definitions of their actions and by providing explanations, to themselves and others, for the lack of guilt for actions in particular situations.

The issue of social power cannot be divorced from a definition of deviance because some groups in society can criminalize the actions of another group by using their influence on legislators. [6]

[edit] Theories
There are three broad sociological classes describing deviant behaviour, namely structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism and conflict theory.

[edit] Structural-Functionalism
Social integration is the attachment to groups and institutions, while social regulation is t...

Individual and societal preoccupation with the label, in other words, leads the deviant individual to follow a self-fulfilling prophecy of abidance to the ascribed label.

Also, he argues that criminal behavior is learned in the same way that all other behaviors are learned, meaning that the acquisition of criminal knowledge is not unique compared to the learning of other behaviors.