SOCI LECTURE 2 NOTES

Question 1

What is Deviant Behaviour?

Answer 1

• Deviance is any act that violates social norms. Deviance is anything that falls under what is considered normal

Question 2

What are norms and what is the violation of norms lead to?

Answer 2

• Norms are the set of rules that people are expected to follow in society. They are the dos’ and don’ts of society.
• Violation of norms often leads to social sanctions through social control. These are known as reactions to norm violation.
• Both formal vs informal: (imprisonment vs ostracized)

Question 3

Name Summer’s Three Types of Norms

Answer 3

Folkways: Folkways are customs, traditions, and etiquette. (Dress codes, eating habits, demeanours)

Mores: More critical values of society. Seen as the fabric to uphold culture. (drug addiction, cheating in marriage, illegitimate childbearing)

Laws: certain norms that are codified by law and social sanctions. (child pornography, treason, rape, assault)

Question 4

How does society deal with violations of each of these norms?

Answer 4

Folkways: distasteful reactions. Usually viewed as a social prodigy and odd

Mores: the violation of these norms are seen as a threat to social order and the violator is harmful to society.

Law: social sanctions, imprisonment, or even death sometimes

Question 5

Are Crime and Deviance the Same?

Answer 5

• Crime and deviance overlap with independent dimensions. But they are not subsets of one another
• Lots of crime is not considered deviant (white collar crimes)
• Lots of deviant acts is not criminal (mental illness, physical disability)

Question 6

ABCS OF DEVIANCE

Answer 6

Attitudes: Choosing an alternative attitude or extreme belief system than what is considered normal. (Cults, religious ideologies, extreme worldviews, mental illness)

Behaviour: Acts that are considered norm-violating. (dress and speech conventions, kinky sexual acts, using drugs, murder)

Conditions (achieved): conditions that are seen as deviant such as personal characteristics and traits. (extreme wealth, self-harming, overweight)

Question 7

ABCS Ascribed or Achieved

Answer 7

BOTH !
Achieved: political extremism, extreme wealth, kinky sexual behaviour, extreme wealth. Possible to return to normal state

Ascribed: mental illness, lisp, physical disability. Nothing can be done to return to normal state

Question 8

Three Ss of Deviance

Answer 8

Sin: the religious perspective of deviance. Derives from the violation of religious norms and related to satanic influences.
- to navigate religious exorcism was performed

Sick: Medicalization of deviance in 19th and 20th century. Used to treat drug addiction, mental illness, LGBTQ, etc. (Diasnostical handbook of psychology)
- Conrad and Synder’s deviant behaviour is prospected with medical interest to see if there can be a gain of rewards for that profession

Selected: The movement to resist the medicalization of deviance. Intentionally selected deviant behaviour. E.g., gambling, veganism, self-injury, eating disorder

Question 9

Smith and Pollack’s distinction of crime and deviance

Answer 9

• deviance should be conceptualized with violations of norms associated with crime, sin and poor taste