Conformity and Deviance

Conformity• behavior in accordance with socially accepted

conventions or standards

• The anticipated behavior to follow.

• is the desire to go along with the norms of agroup of people, so you will be accepted as anin-group person (and not rejected as an out-group undesirable person).

Deviance• departing from usual

or acceptedstandards, especiallyin social or sexualbehavior.

• A behavior thatviolates expectedrules and norms

Variety of Deviance

“What is deviant to one group may not be considered deviant to another.”

1. The study of why people violates laws or norms

2. The study of how society reacts to this violations

• was an Italiancriminologist andphysician, founderof the ItalianSchool ofPositivistCriminology, oftenreferred to as thefather ofcriminology

• Theory of anthropologicalcriminology essentially stated thatcriminality was inherited, and thatsomeone "born criminal" could beidentified by physical (congenital)defects, which confirmed a criminalas savage or atavistic.

criminals had :• less sensibility to pain and touch;• more acute sight;• a lack of moral sense, including an

absence of remorse;• more vanity,• impulsiveness,• vindictiveness, and cruelty; and other

manifestations, such as a specialcriminal argot and the excessive use oftattooing.

Deviance and the Social

Paradigms BasicAssumptions

Basis ofInterpretation

StructuralFunctionalism

Deviancepromotesunity, servesas a moralcompass, andprovidesopportunitieswhere thereare none.

Devianceperformsimportantfunctions inthe overalloperations ofsociety

Paradigms BasicAssumptions

Basis ofInterpretation

HistoricalConflict

Deviance is aresult ofunequaldistribution ofsocialdesirables andlife chances.

Is a form ofcivic action. Itaims to rectifythe unfair andunjustsyndromes ofsocialinequality.

Paradigms BasicAssumptions

Basis ofInterpretation

CriticalInterpretivism

Is a result of theexercise ofpower. Symbolsand ideas aremanipulated bypowerful peoplein the society inorder to protecttheir economicand politicalinterest

We are helpingthese entitiesmaintain theirprivilegedpositions insociety

Theoretical Interpretations of Deviance

Structural Strain Theory

• Offered a “side-by-side” formulation ofconformity anddeviance.

• He developed thestructural strain theory

Robert

Merton

• Strain refers to the discrepanciesbetween culturally defined goals and theinstitutionalized means available toachieve these goals.

• This theory traces the origins ofdeviance to the tensions that arecaused by the gap between culturalgoals and the means people haveavailable to achieve those goals

• Culture- establishes goals for people

• Social structure-provides (or fails toprovide) the means for the people toachieve those goals.

CONFORMISTS

• a person who conforms to accepted behavioror established practices.

RITUALIST

• A person who do not believe in theestablished cultural goals of society,but they do believe in and abide by themeans for attaining those goals.

INNOVATORS

• Are those individuals that accept thecultural goals of society but reject theconventional methods of attaining thosegoals

RETREATISTS

• Who reject both the cultural goals and the accepted means of attaining those

goals

REBELS

• They are not only reject both theestablished cultural goals and theaccepted means of attaining those goals

• They substitute new goals and newmeans of attaining these goals

Labeling Theory

• explains why people's behavior clasheswith social norms.

• holds that deviance is not inherent to anact, but instead focuses on the tendencyof majorities to negatively label minoritiesor those seen as deviant from standardcultural norms.

• Labeling theory holds that deviance is not

inherent to an act, but instead the result of

the externally-imposed label of "deviant".

• Labeling theory takes the view that

people become criminals when labeled as

such and when they accept the label as a

personal identity.

Social Control Theory

-developed by Travis Hirschi

-according to this theory, people care about

what others think of them and conform to

social expectations because their

attachments to others and what others

expect of them

• -this theory also suggests that most

people probably feel some impulse

towards deviant behavior at some time,

but their attachment to social norms

prevents them from actually participating

in deviant behavior.

Social Control and Deviance

“effective socialization makes conformity an

internally driven motivation, while

externally driven conformity always

engages the mechanisms of social control”

Refers to the idea that a person has the innate right to be valued, respected,

and treated well.

Are legal, social, and ethical principles that consider the human person as deserving

of liberties and protection by virtue of his or her human being

Are founded on natural rights,which are universal andinalienable, and are notcontingent on laws, customs,beliefs, or values of a particularculture.

The pursuance of the common good should

not be a cause for the violation of rights of

individual…