Stakes in Conformity and the “Normalization” of Deviants: Accounts by Former and Current Skid Row Inebriates

Abstract

The broad context of this paper is the concomitants of ‘normalization’ of deviants. The field work focuses on current and former skid row inebriates. “Normalization” is not a prominent topic in sociological work on deviance, social control and social problems. A review of specialized literature on spontaneous recovery or intervention outcomes among several forms of deviance lead to hypotheses in six general areas: socio-economic background, degree of involvement in a deviant sub-culture, ‘negative‘ experiences accompanying deviance, stakes in conformity, formal interventions and aging. The field research involved retrospective accounts of 346 former and current skid row inebriates selected through contact with skid row informants and over 30 treatment and care-taker facilities. Scales were developed to measure each of the hypotheses. Stakes in conformity was found to be highly correlated with recovery in the multiple discriminant analysis. The explanatory power was increased by inclusion of the element of rewards for initiating normalization.