Deviance and

Social Control
Lecture 21 & 22
Dr A. WOHAB

S WOHAB 2020
 Deviance and Social Control
• Deviance and conformity
• Social Control
• Crime
• Social Policy and Social Control
 Deviance

• What is Deviance?

• Deviance: behavior that violates the standards of conduct or

expectations of a group or society
• Involves violation of group norms, which may or may not be
formalized into law
• Subject to social definition within a particular society and at
a particular time
 Social Control
• Techniques and strategies are employed for preventing
deviant human behavior in any society
• Conformity and Obedience
– Conformity: going along with peers who have no special right to
direct behavior – we may conform to a group standard of honesty
and integrity.
– Obedience: compliance with higher authorities in an hierarchical
structure

Sanctions: Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm

 Social Control

• Conformity and Obedience

– Conformity to Prejudice
• Research demonstrates that people may conform to
attitudes and behavior of peers even when it means
expressing intolerance towards others
• Milgram pointed out that in the modern industrial world,
we are accustomed to submitting to impersonal authority
figures, whose status is indicated by a title or uniform
 Social Control

• Informal and Formal Social Control

• Informal Social Control: used casually to
enforce norms
• Formal Social Control: carried out by
authorized agents

Under conducive circumstances, otherwise normal people can and often

do treat one another inhumanely
 Social Control

• Law and Society

• Some norms are so important to a society that
they are formalized into laws
• Law: governmental social control
• Control Theory: our connection to members
of society leads us to systematically conform
to society’s norms
 Deviance

• What is Deviance?

• Deviance: behavior that violates the standards of conduct or

expectations of a group or society
• Involves violation of group norms, which may or may not be
formalized into law
• Subject to social definition within a particular society and at
a particular time
Deviance
Figure 8-1. The Status of Medical Marijuana

Source: Developed by author based on data from Marijuana Policy Project 2004, 2005
 Deviance

• What is Deviance?
– Deviance and Social Stigma
• Stigma: labels society uses to devalue
members of certain social groups
• Deviance and Technology
• Technological innovations can redefine
social interactions and standards of
behavior related to them
 Deviance

• Explaining Deviance
– Functionalist Perspective
• Deviance common part of human existence,
with positive as well as negative consequences
for social stability.
• Durkheim Legacy
• Anomie: loss of direction felt in society when
social control of individual behavior becomes
ineffective
 Deviance

• Explaining Deviance
– Functionalist Perspective
• Merton’s Theory of Deviance

Anomie Theory of Deviance: how people adapt in certain ways

by conforming to or by deviating from cultural expectations,
including conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and
rebellion
 Deviance
Table 8-1. Modes of Individual Adaptation

Source: Adapted from Merton 1968:194

 Deviance

• Explaining Deviance
– Interactionist Perspective
• Cultural Transmission Theory
• Cultural Transmission: humans learn how to behave in
social situations, whether properly or improperly
• Differential Association: the process through which
exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to
the violation of rules (Sutherland)
 Deviance
• Explaining Deviance
– Interactionist Perspective
• Routine Activities Theory

• Criminal victimization increases when motivated

offenders and suitable targets converge
• Labeling Theory/Societal-Reaction Approach
• Some individuals or groups have the power to define and
apply labels
 Deviance

• Explaining Deviance
• Conflict Theory

• Agents of social control and other powerful

groups can impose their own self-serving
definitions of deviance on the general public
– Feminist Perspective
• Society tends to treat women in stereotypical
fashion
• Emphasizes deviance, including crime, tends to
flow from economic relationships
 Deviance
Table 8-2. Approaches to Deviance
 Crime

• Types of Crime
Crime: violation of criminal law, for which some governmental authority
applies formal penalties

• Laws divide crimes into categories based on:

• Severity of offense
• Age of offender
• Potential punishment
• Jurisdiction
 Crime
• Types of Crime

• Victimless Crimes: willing exchange among adults of widely

desired, but illegal, goods and services
• Professional Crime
• Professional criminal: person who pursues crime as a day-
to-day occupation
• Organized Crime: group that regulates relations between
various criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities
 Crime

• Types of Crime
– White Collar and Technology-Based Crime
Computer Crime: use of high technology to carry out illegal activity
Computer Crime: use of high technology to carry out illegal activity
Corporate Crime: any act by a corporation
that is punishable by the government

• Transnational Crime
• Crime that occurs across multiple national borders
 Crime

• Crime Statistics
• Not as accurate as social scientists would like
• Understanding Crime Statistics
• Reported crime is very high in the U.S.
• Public regards crime as major social problem

Victimization Surveys: surveys of ordinary people, not police

officers, to determine whether they have been victims of crime
 Crime

• Crime Statistics
– International Crime Rates
• Violent crimes much more common in U.S.
than Western Europe in 1980s and 1990s
• Disturbing increases in violent crime are
evident in other Western societies
 Crime
Table 8-3. Types of
Transnational Crime

Source: Compiled by author based on Mueller 2001 and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2005
 Crime
Figure 8-2. Victimization Rates, 1973—2003

Source: Catalano 2004:1

Social Policy and Social Control

• Gun Control
– The Issue
• Over the past 10 years, two-thirds of all murders committed
with firearms
• 1994 Brady Act mandates firearms dealers run criminal history
background checks on people who wish to purchase handguns
• About two percent of all purchases denied
 Social Policy and Social Control

• Gun Control
– The Setting
• The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the
“right of the people to keep and bear arms”
• 30 to 35 million people in the United States own handguns
• About 45 percent of U.S. households have some type of
firearm on the premises.
Social Policy and Social Control

• Gun Control
– Sociological Insights
• Since Brady Act, support for stricter measures declined
• Conflict theorists contend that groups like National
Rifle Association (NRA) dominate the legislative
process because they can mobilize resources
Social Policy and Social Control

• Gun Control
– Policy Implications
• Advocates for stricter gun control want:
• Total ban on assault weapons
• Tight restrictions on permits to carry concealed
weapons
• Increased penalties for leaving firearms where
they are easily accessible
Unlawful use of guns is a global issue