Sociology of Deviance
The study of people who disapprove
- Us not them
Durkheim: the normal and pathological
- Try to show how sociologists should study the world
- Shouldn’t take for granted what others say about deviance
- People often don’t report their experience well
Durkheim suggested that deviance was common in all communities
- Necessary ingredient of social life
- Most people see it as unnecessary and unwanted
- Pathological
Erikson’s Definition of Deviance
- “Conduct that people of a group consider so dangerous, embarrassing, irritating that they bring special
sanctions to bear against the person who exhibits it.”
- Not inherent in any behavior
- Deviance is social
3 Orienting Concepts
- Expectation: normative rule or law where people of the community are expected to conform
- Without this, there is no deviance
- Necessary
- Doesn't make deviance by itself
- Violation: transgressions of the norms or law
- Not needed
- Reaction: a response to transgression
- Necessary
- Combined with expectation equals deviance
Erikson suggests sociologists should explain where expectations and reactions come from
- What makes a person or behavior deviant
Durkheim argued that one goal of sociology was to explain “collective conscious”
- Thought of as “beliefs or sentiments are common to the average member of the community
Observations About Violation
- Our institutions are designed to stop deviance, but often perpetuate it
- Prison gathers criminals together, where they can learn from each other and reinforce their alienation from
society
- Our language and interactions with deviant people reinforce our expectations that they will continue to
behave the same way
- Commitments to deviant roles are formal, intricate, and public
- Reversals of this decision are informal and private
Communities seem to be organized in a way to make it more likely that potential violators will remain in the role
, Douglas: Purity & Danger
Hygiene was seen within religious practices
Medical Materialism: explaining religious experiences with medical stuff
- ex) drugs, indigestion, mental illness, etc
- Anthropologists
The Difference Between European and “Primitive” Cultures
- Europeans: dirt avoidance is a matter of hygiene or aesthetics
- Not a matter of religion
- Dominated by knowledge of pathogenic organisms
When dirt has no use, it is considered to be matter out of place
- ex) shoes, mud, and dishes
- Needs to be excluded if order is to be maintained
- “Need to clean up our city.”
- Linked with deviance
- Depends on what order that's created
Our impressions are determined from the start
- As we get older and more experienced, we have a greater investment in our system of labels
We are uncomfortable with factors that we won’t let fit in
- We ignore it so it doesn’t mess with our established assumptions
If we cannot see in front of our eyes
- Can’t accept it
- Can’t imagine it
Anomaly: an element that doesn’t fit a given series or set
Ambiguity: character of statements that are capable of 2 interpretations
Schema: the way we organize the world in our head
- Limits our ability to see what we can’t imagine
- Social
- Really hard to change in the large view
Our modern calendar is Christian
Anomale: something that's out of pattern
- Can relabel, destroy, avoid, remove what contradicts, and label as dangerous or taboo
- The act of judging
The way we see the world is ordered
The study of people who disapprove
- Us not them
Durkheim: the normal and pathological
- Try to show how sociologists should study the world
- Shouldn’t take for granted what others say about deviance
- People often don’t report their experience well
Durkheim suggested that deviance was common in all communities
- Necessary ingredient of social life
- Most people see it as unnecessary and unwanted
- Pathological
Erikson’s Definition of Deviance
- “Conduct that people of a group consider so dangerous, embarrassing, irritating that they bring special
sanctions to bear against the person who exhibits it.”
- Not inherent in any behavior
- Deviance is social
3 Orienting Concepts
- Expectation: normative rule or law where people of the community are expected to conform
- Without this, there is no deviance
- Necessary
- Doesn't make deviance by itself
- Violation: transgressions of the norms or law
- Not needed
- Reaction: a response to transgression
- Necessary
- Combined with expectation equals deviance
Erikson suggests sociologists should explain where expectations and reactions come from
- What makes a person or behavior deviant
Durkheim argued that one goal of sociology was to explain “collective conscious”
- Thought of as “beliefs or sentiments are common to the average member of the community
Observations About Violation
- Our institutions are designed to stop deviance, but often perpetuate it
- Prison gathers criminals together, where they can learn from each other and reinforce their alienation from
society
- Our language and interactions with deviant people reinforce our expectations that they will continue to
behave the same way
- Commitments to deviant roles are formal, intricate, and public
- Reversals of this decision are informal and private
Communities seem to be organized in a way to make it more likely that potential violators will remain in the role
, Douglas: Purity & Danger
Hygiene was seen within religious practices
Medical Materialism: explaining religious experiences with medical stuff
- ex) drugs, indigestion, mental illness, etc
- Anthropologists
The Difference Between European and “Primitive” Cultures
- Europeans: dirt avoidance is a matter of hygiene or aesthetics
- Not a matter of religion
- Dominated by knowledge of pathogenic organisms
When dirt has no use, it is considered to be matter out of place
- ex) shoes, mud, and dishes
- Needs to be excluded if order is to be maintained
- “Need to clean up our city.”
- Linked with deviance
- Depends on what order that's created
Our impressions are determined from the start
- As we get older and more experienced, we have a greater investment in our system of labels
We are uncomfortable with factors that we won’t let fit in
- We ignore it so it doesn’t mess with our established assumptions
If we cannot see in front of our eyes
- Can’t accept it
- Can’t imagine it
Anomaly: an element that doesn’t fit a given series or set
Ambiguity: character of statements that are capable of 2 interpretations
Schema: the way we organize the world in our head
- Limits our ability to see what we can’t imagine
- Social
- Really hard to change in the large view
Our modern calendar is Christian
Anomale: something that's out of pattern
- Can relabel, destroy, avoid, remove what contradicts, and label as dangerous or taboo
- The act of judging
The way we see the world is ordered
