This document discusses different theories of deviant behavior. It defines deviance as behavior that departs from social norms. Several key points are made: 1. Deviance is relative and depends on social/cultural norms which vary by time, place, and group. What is deviant for one may be normal for another. 2. Theories of deviance include social pathology, biological, psychological, social disorganization, labeling, anomie, conflict, and cultural transmission theories. Each theory proposes different causes of deviant behavior. 3. Merton identified five types of adaptation to cultural goals/means: conformists, innovators, ritualists, retreatists, and rebels. Each type relates

1. DEVIANCE

2. VALUES
beliefs or ideals shared by the
members of a culture about what
is good or bad and desirable or
undesirable.

3. DEVIANCE
•Any significant departure from what is
considered “normal” or normative.
•behavior that departs from the norm; i.e.
departs from whatever standard is typical
within a given situation or in Society as a
whole.

4. DEVIANCE IS RELATIVE
•Deviance may vary in
time and place

5. •What is deviant for one
group may be acceptable to
another group
DEVIANCE IS RELATIVE

6. •Deviant behavior may be tolerated,
approved, or disapproved. Modern
societies encourage some amount of
deviation which moves in the direction
of the ideal pattern of behavior.

7. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER IN DETERMINING IF A
CERTAIN TYPE OF BEHAVIOR IS DEVIANT OR
NOT
•Which norms are violated?
•Who violate them?
•Members of the upper class or lower
class?
•How visible is the deviation?

8. Basically, what is considered
deviant depends on how
others, who are socially
significant in power and
influence, define act

9. •The degree of deviation
depends on its variations from
the norms and the value
placed on the norm

10. EXPLANATION FOR
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR
THEORIES OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOR

11. SOCIAL
PATHOLOGY
explains that deviant behavior
is caused by actual physical
and mental illness,
malfunctions or deformities.

12. SOCIAL PATHOLOGY
•Social pathology includes: substance abuse,
violence, abuses of women and children, crime,
terrorism, corruption, criminality, discrimination,
isolation, stigmatization and human rights
violations.
•Solutions: Education, re-education,
hospitalization, rehabilitation, imprisonment,
capital punishment.

13. • Deviant behavior is a result of abberant genetic traits
• Cesare Lombroso – an Italian criminologist who studied
the skulls and bodies of many prisoners, reported that
there are “animalistic” physical patterns found in
criminals, savages and apes; that people with enormous
jaws, high cheekbones, and prominent superciliary
arches – are born criminals.
BIOLOGICAL THEORY

14. BIOLOGICAL THEORY
•Charles Goring – a British physician, who found no
differences between criminals and ordinary
citizens.
•Witkin (1976) – found that prisoners with an XYY
chromosome pattern or with an extra Y
chromosome (a normal man has an XY
chromosome pattern) might predispose themselves
to deviance.

15. BIOLOGICAL THEORY
•Danish study – the researchers speculated
that men with an extra Y chromosome are
less intelligent and easier for the police to
catch.
Solutions: Education, re-education,
hospitalization, rehabilitation, imprisonment,
capital punishment, and behavior
modification.

16. •Deviant behavior is brought about by inner
conflicts or by the inability to control one’s
inner impulses or failure to structure one’s
behavior in an orderly way
•Solutions: Psychiatry, psychological
counseling, hospitalization, and rehabilitation;
shock therapy.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
EXPLANATION

17. SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
THEORY
• believes that deviant behavior as caused by
the breakdown of norms, laws, mores, and
other important values of society.
Solutions: Modification or rehabilitation in the
part of the system which suffers from
disorganization.

18. SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
THEORY
•there are ecological factors that lead to
high rates of crime in these communities,
and these factors linked to constantly
elevated levels of "high school dropouts,
unemployment, deteriorating
infrastructures, and single-parent homes"
(Gaines and Miller).

19. SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
THEORY
•The theory is not intended to apply to all types
of crime, but instead to street crime at the
neighborhood level. The theory has not been
used to explain organized crime, corporate
crime, or deviant behavior that takes place
outside neighborhood settings.

20. LABELING THEORY
•Society’s labeling on behaviors as deviant
causes deviant behavior. Behaviors are
labeled or tagged as proper or improper,
moral or immoral, good or bad. Behaviors
which transgress the social norms and values
are labeled or socially defined deviant; they
are, in turn, sanctioned by ostracism or
punishment.

21. LABELING THEORY
• concerned with how the self-identity and behavior of
individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms
used to describe or classify them. It is associated with the
concepts of self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping.
Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent to an
act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to
negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from
standard cultural norms

22. LABELING THEORY
•Unwanted descriptors or categorizations -
including terms related to deviance, disability
or diagnosis of a mental disorder - may be
rejected on the basis that they are merely
"labels", often with attempts to adopt a more
constructive language in its place.

23. ANOMIE THEORY OR
STRUCTURAL STRESS
THEORY
– posits that deviance exists
when people are denied
access to accepted means to
reach approved goals.

24. ANOMIE THEORY OR STRUCTURAL
STRESS THEORY
• Durkheim – introduced the concept of “anomie” as a condition
within society in which individuals find that the prevailing social
norms are ill-defined, weak, or conflicting. For example, many
people expect to have a job, but the economy may not provide
enough jobs for everybody. Thus, a jobless job – seeker may
resort to illegitimate or illegal means to achieve his goals.
Solutions: Giving access to approved goals; equal opportunity for
all.

25. CONFLICT THEORY
– states that deviant behavior is caused by an
unjust social structure where unequal
distribution of wealth and power exists.

26. CONFLICT THEORY
•Solutions: The moderates propose more reforms
in the various social institutions; the radicals
advocate a sweeping transformation or a
revolutionary approach, an overhaul of the existing
unjust social structure in order to bring about a
more or less equal distribution of wealth, power,
and prestige in the new social order.

27. CULTURAL TRANSMISSIONS OR
DIFFERENTIALASSOCIATION THEORY
deviance is created through the socialization or
transmission of norms within a community or
group.
Solutions: Education, re-education, role models of
successful people hospitalization, rehabilitation,
imprisonment, fines, censures, capital punishment.

28. CULTURAL TRANSMISSIONS OR
DIFFERENTIALASSOCIATION
THEORY
•is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland
proposing that through interaction with others,
individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques,
and motives for criminal behavior.
•This theory focuses on how individuals learn to
become criminals, but does not concern itself with
why they become criminals

29. MERTON’S TYPES OF DEVIANT
BEHAVIOR
•Conformists: Most people are conformists. They
accept the goals their society sets for them, as well
as the institution-alized means of achieving them.
Most people want to achieve that vague status
called a “good life” and accept that an education
and hard work are the best ways to get there.

30. MERTON’S TYPES OF DEVIANT
BEHAVIOR
•Innovators: These people accept society’s
goals but reject the usual ways of achieving
them. Members of organized crime, who have
money but achieve their wealth via deviant
means, could be considered innovators.

31. MERTON’S TYPES OF DEVIANT
BEHAVIOR
•Ritualists: A ritualist rejects cultural goals but still
accepts the institutionalized means of achieving
them. If a person who has held the same job for
years has no desire for more money, responsibility,
power, or status, he or she is a ritualist. This
person engages in the same rituals every day but
has given up hope that the efforts will yield the
desired results.

32. MERTON’S TYPES OF DEVIANT
BEHAVIOR
•Retreatists: Retreatists reject cultural goals
as well as the institutionalized means of
achieving them. They are not interested in
making money or advancing in a particular
career, and they tend not to care about hard
work or about getting an education.

33. MERTON’S TYPES OF DEVIANT
BEHAVIOR
•Rebels: Rebels not only reject culturally approved
goals and the means of achieving them, but they
replace them with their own goals. Revolutionaries
are rebels in that they reject the status quo. If a
revolutionary rejects capitalism or democracy, for
example, he or she may attempt to replace it with
his or her own form of government.

34. IV.TYPES OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOR AND THE
MEANS OF INDIVIDUAL ADAPTATION
1. Innovators – are those who accept culturally approved goals
but disregard the institutional means to achieve them.
Examples: government officials and low-wage earners who
commit graft and corruption to achieve a higher standard of
living.
2. Ritualists – are those who give up cultural goals but follow
the prescribed norms.
Examples: a religious fanatic; an employee who reports to work
but does nothing about it.

35. 3. Retreatists – are those who abandon both the cultural
goals and the prescribed means to achieve them.
Examples: drug addicts, hippies, alcoholics.
4. Rebels – are those reject both the societal goals and
prescribed means to achieved them but try set up new
norms or goals.
Examples: rebel soldiers; New People’s Army.