Conformity and Deviance

• Conformity and Deviance

  • twin process that flow from the enculturation and socialization processes
• Conformity

  • anticipated behavior to follow
• Deviance

  • behavior that violates expected norms and rules
• Study of deviance:

  • why people violate laws and norms
  • how society reacts to this violation
• Cesare Lombroso

  • italian criminologist
  • concluded that criminals displayed signs of atavism or primitive characteristics
• Structural Functionalism

  • deviance performs functions in the overall operations of society
• Historical Conflict

  • deviance is a result of unequal distribution of social desirables and life chances
• Critical Interpretivism

  • deviance is result of exercise of power
• Structural Strain Theory

  • by Robert Merton
  • traces origins of deviance to the tensions that are caused by the gap between cultural goals and the means people have available to achieve those goals
• Conformists

  • believes in both established goals and normative ways to attain goals. they follow societal rules
• Ritualist

  • doesnt believe in goals, but abide by the means of attaining goals
• Innovators

  • accept goals, rejects conventional methods of attaining those goals
• Retreatist

  • reject goals, and means of attaining goals
• Rebels

  • rejects both, they substitute new goals and new means of attaining goals
• Labeling Theory

  • no act is intrinsically criminal
• Social Control theory

  • by Travis Hirschi
  • people care about what others think of them and conform to expectations
• Families

  • first to orient us with rules of society
• Lessons of Life

  • reinforced by schools