Defining Deviance

1. Defining Deviance

2. Defining deviance is not a straightforward problem. • How about a list of “deviant” behaviours or identities? • Problem: that list is too long and it’s not clear what belongs and what doesn’t!

3. We can collapse that list into more general categories. • Crime (excluding suicide) • Mental disorders • Sexual deviance • Substance abuse • Physical disorders • Suicide • “Etc.” (impoliteness, dressing oddly, being American, and so on and on)

4. We can attempt to define deviance instead of classifying it. • Clearly, any attempt to “classify” will result in a virtually endless list. • Defining a concept is more appropriate as the definition can comprise many examples. • We will review five definitions of deviance.

5. Definition 1:The Statistical Definition • Deviance is any behaviour or condition that represents a departure from majority and/or average experience. This is a very concrete and clear definition. • Problem 1: This definition is overly inclusive: It makes everyone deviant. • Problem 2: Most people determine deviance according to what “ought” to be, not what “is.”

6. The Absolutist Definition • Deviance is any aberration from a given, “absolute” set of standards of conduct, such as standards imposed by religious or psychiatric authority. • Problem 1: There is almost always disagreement over “absolute” standards. • Problem 2: Even if one standard is “absolutely” true, it tells us nothing about sociologically-relevant topics such as the social organization of deviants. • Problem 3: That “absolute truth” may in fact be in the hands of a tiny minority and it would be odd to charge that all non-followers are “deviant.”

7. The Reactivist Definition • From Howard Becker: “The deviant is one to whom the label has successfully been applied; deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label.” • Problem 1: the definition asserts that unobserved behaviour cannot be deviant. • Problem 2: it also asserts that the label “deviance” has nothing to do with the behaviour per se but only the process of defining something as deviant.

8. The Normative Definition • Deviance is a violation of a norm, a socially-shared standard of conduct. • Norms are social properties that suggest what persons should/should not do as well as what behaviours are “normal” in certain situations. • This is the most popular sociological definition of deviance- main criticism is that “norm” is an inherently vague and relativistic concept.

9. The Legalist Definition • This definition provides a concrete benchmark for a normative view of deviance: Deviance is an act that breaches a law. • Problem 1: Not all deviant acts are illegal. • Problem 2: Not all illegal acts are deviant.

10. Some last words on “norms” • A norm is not necessarily a “rule.” Rules are often imposed by those in power, not socially shared. • Violations of rules is, in the case of sports for example, perfectly acceptable and not deviant. Violation of norms is always deviant. • An individual’s negative response to an act is not what makes the act deviant. Norms are, again, social things, not matters of individual taste or intolerance.