Concept Of Deviance Research Articles

Deviants or Consenting Adults: A Human Rights Approach to Defining and Controlling Deviant Behavior

This article examines the concept of deviance within a human rights perspective. The current debate over the need for consent, and the difficulty inherent in attempting to reach a consensus regarding definitions of deviance, are discussed. The positivist and subjectivist-constructionist approaches to defining deviance are outlined and critiqued. It is concluded that both of these models are inadequate for defining deviance and that a more objective approach is required which reflects society’s interests, while also protecting individuals from the tyranny of the majority. This conclusion leads to the development of a new model of deviance which incorporates human rights into the method for defining deviance. This model rests on the argument that there is a crucial difference between behaviors which are undesirable and those which are unacceptable. It is further argued that only unacceptable behaviors should be prohibited and that behaviors which are merely undesirable should be tolerated and regulated. A model is elaborated in which five criteria are posited as a methodology for determining whether particular behavior is deviant and/or whether it should be controlled through criminal sanctions.

Rethinking resistance and anti‐consumption behaviours in the light of the concept of deviance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address an under‐researched issue in marketing, atypical consumption behaviours. More particularly it focuses on the deviant behaviours of consumers in a commercial or consumption situation and on their reactions in regard to the market system.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on multidisciplinary literature, this work articulates the concepts of deviance, resistance and anti‐consumption. It looks at the interactions between these concepts and positions deviant, resistant and anti‐consumption behaviours in relation to the norm.FindingsThrough the notion of deviance, the research provides a new framework clearly differentiating and articulating the concepts of resistant and anti‐consumption behaviours. This integrative framework is sufficiently flexible and broad to cover and position the various behaviours and practices involving consumption rejection, opposition and avoidance.Originality/valueThis contribution answers a need for theoretical clarification of consumers' behaviours that challenge and oppose the market system and culture of consumption. By mobilising the concept of deviance, this research provides an original topological model that increases understanding and positions the concepts of resistant and anti‐consumption behaviours around the notion of social norm.

Framing Nicotine Addiction as a “Disease of the Brain”: Social and Ethical Consequences

In this article, we seek to better understand how a genomic vision of addiction may influence drug prevention and treatment. Though social influences on substance use and abuse (e.g., peer and family influence, socioeconomic status) are well documented, biomedical intervention is becoming increasingly technoscientific in nature. We wish to elucidate how emphasizing biological influences on substance use may lead to a vision of addiction as a phenomenon isolated within our bodies and neurochemistry, not lived daily within a complex social web of relationships and a particular political economy, including the tobacco industry, which aggressively markets products known to cause harm. We explore the emerging view of addiction as a "disease of the brain" in open-ended interviews with 86 stakeholders from the fields of nicotine research and tobacco control. Interview data were analyzed using standard qualitative techniques. Most stakeholders hold a medicalized view of addiction. Though environmental variables are understood to be a primary cause of smoking initiation, the speed and strength with which addiction occurs is understood to be a largely biological process. Though stakeholders believe that an increased focus on addiction as a disease of the brain is not likely to lead to widespread unrealistic expectations for cessation therapies, they remain concerned that it may reinforce teenagers' expectations that quitting is not difficult. Finally, stakeholder responses indicate that genetic and neuroscientific research is unlikely to increase or decrease stigmatization, but will be used by interest groups to buttress their existing views of the stigma associated with smoking. We argue that the main potential harms of focusing on biological etiology stem from a concept of addiction that is disassociated from social context. Focusing on genetic testing and brain scans may lead one to overemphasize pharmaceutical "magic bullet cures" and underemphasize, and underfund, more traditional therapies and public health prevention strategies that have proven to be effective. Genetic research on addiction may fundamentally change our conception of deviance and our identities, and may thus transform our susceptibility to substance use into something isolated in our biology, not embedded in a biosocial context.

Exploring the Concept of Positive Deviance Related to Breastfeeding Initiation in Black and White WIC Enrolled First Time Mothers

Positive deviance inquiry is effective in identifying advantageous health behaviors and improving health outcomes among disadvantaged resource-poor populations. The objective of this study was to apply the positive deviance concept to explore the characteristics of positive deviants for breastfeeding among WIC-enrolled first-time mothers in Louisiana. The cross sectional study included data on 2,036 WIC-enrolled first time mothers (52.6% black) from the LaPRAMs, 2000-2004. Chi-square test was used to compare groups. Multivariable logistic regression was applied to calculate adjusted OR and 95% CI by breastfeeding initiation status. The average age was 21.3years, 31.5% had less than 12years of education, and 44.6% of the sample reported having initiated breastfeeding. Black mothers were less likely to initiate breastfeeding than their white counterparts (OR 0.39 (95% CI: 0.31, 0.48)). Among 641 WIC-enrolled first time mothers with less than 12years of education, 28.4% were identified as positive deviants for breastfeeding initiation. Among the black mothers 19.8% were positive deviants compared to 40.3% of the white mothers. Breastfeeding in the hospital after delivery (P<0.0001) and having received help on how to breastfeed in the hospital (P<0.0001) were significantly associated with breastfeeding initiation in white and black mothers. In addition, the black positive deviants were more likely, OR 2.80 (95% CI: 1.20, 6.56) to have initiated breastfeeding if their baby was low birth weight. Breastfeeding practices shortly after delivery including assistance and education from staff in the hospital, are related to breastfeeding initiation among less educated WIC-enrolled mothers.

Benoît Garnot . Histoire de la justice: France, XVIe‐XXIesiècle . (Folio histoire, number 173.) Paris : Gallimard . 2009 . Pp. 789. €12.60. Jacques Krynen . L'état de justice: France, XIIIe‐XXesiècle .Volume 1, L'idéologie de la magistrature ancienne. (Bibliothèque des histoires.) Paris : Gallimard . 2009 . Pp. 326. €22.00.

As all historians learn early on, chronology reflects interpretation. In the case of France, conceptualizing the ancien régime as a distinct period has often meant focusing on the rise of the centralized state. Some have criticized the use of 1789 as an ending point but often followed Alexis de Tocqueville by arguing that many characteristics of the ancien régime persisted, thus aggravating the tendency to see the history of France as synonymous with the history of the French state. While placing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries at the heart of their analyses, the books under review argue for continuities both back to the late Middle Ages and forward to the twenty-first century. Although focused squarely on the most important service provided by the state (justice), both works make a strong case for the importance of resistance to the demands of the state over the longue durée. Benoît Garnot seeks to describe and analyze the changes and continuities in the French justice system over five centuries. After a brief description of the sources available to the historian of justice and a presentation of the historiography (the statistical history of crime, subsequently rejected for a more qualitative approach, followed recently by a turn toward the analysis of civil justice, local courts, and extrajudicial means of settlement), Garnot introduces the concept of deviance as the analytical tool best suited to an understanding of the social role of justice. Strangely, he sees civil cases as instances of deviance, which strikes me as an odd way to conceptualize cases such as boundary disputes and debts. This emphasis on deviance, a notion whereby a group seeks social cohesion by punishing and excluding, sits in tension with one of the main arguments of the book, namely that the justice system was primarily concerned with reconciliation. It fits better with the other main theme, however, which is that reforms to the judicial system originated within society rather than within the state.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SOCIAL PATHOLOGY? CONCEPTUAL FASHIONS AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE

Social scientific concepts go in and out of fashion. Social pathology was once a popular title for undergraduate sociology courses and textbooks, but it fell out of favor about fifty years ago. Similarly, there is evidence that fewer contemporary sociologists are using the concept of deviance in their analyses. This article sketches a natural history of sociological concepts that denote categories of troubling conditions; it argues that such concepts pose definitional problems that make them pedagogically helpful but analytically problematic.

Synthèse des travaux

Synthèse des travaux

La contribution féministe à l'étude de la déviance en criminologie

Beginning in the 70s, the silence on the question of women in criminology was broken by a feminist series of works that was set upon the questioning and updating of knowledge in the social sciences and in criminology. This article concerns the conception of deviance in feminist studies dealing with the "criminality" and criminalization of women. The author finds that the feminists adopt a firmly empathetical approach toward women offenders, which enables them to depart from the traditional concepts of deviance and the develop analyses that go beyond the known context of questioning in the discipline. The feminist approach also makes it possible to review the positions to be taken regarding the crime policies that should be applied.

TROUBLE WITH SHE-DICKS: PRIVATE EYES AND PUBLIC WOMEN INTHE ADVENTURES OF LOVEDAY BROOKE, LADY DETECTIVE

C. L. (CATHERINE LOUISA)PIRKIS'S“The Murder at Troyte's Hill,” second in her series of stories about Detective Loveday Brooke, begins with Brooke's boss debriefing her on a case: “Griffiths, of the Newcastle Constabulary, has the case in hand…. Those Newcastle men are keen-witted, shrewd fellows, and very jealous of outside interference. They only sent to me under protest, as it were, because they wanted your sharp wits at work inside the house” (528). This is a typical beginning for one of Brooke's adventures, which were published in the London magazineLudgate Monthlyin 1893 and 1894. As one of the earliest professional female detectives in English literary history, Brooke's career was marked by conflicts with territorial male officers and the ever-present pressure to keep her detective work “inside the house.” Emerging at a historical moment when understandings of women, criminality, and law enforcement were rapidly changing in Britain, Pirkis's stories offer an interpretation of these intersecting cultural shifts that is surprisingly different from her contemporaries. In a decade rife with scientific interrogation into the nature of criminality, such as in the work of Havelock Ellis and Francis Galton, detective fiction of the 1890s tended to mimic scientific discourse in its representations of criminals. The Brooke stories, however, challenge such conceptions of deviance and reveal the poverty of their underlying understandings of crime as well as gender.

Deviance may be alive, but is it intellectually lively? a reaction to goode

In a recent article in this journal, Goode (2003) counters claims that deviance is “dead” by arguing that (a) deviance classes continue to enroll large numbers of students, (b) people continue committing deviant acts, and (c) sociologists continue studying those acts. These may be signs of continued life, but Goode ignores evidence that sociologists are finding the concept of deviance less useful. The concept may be alive, but it does not seem all that lively.

A new typology of deviance: integrating normative and reactivist definitions of deviance

The concept of positive deviance is marginalized in deviance literature by the focus on negative deviance and the absence of comprehensive conceptions of deviance. Current conceptions of positive deviance simply parallel definitions of negative deviance, namely normative and reactivist conceptions. Normative definitions posit positive deviance as behaviors and attributes that exceed normative expectations (e.g., overconformity), such as overachieving students. Reactivist definitions view positive deviance as positively evaluated behaviors and attributes, such as athletic talent. We propose a new typology, which cross-classifies reactivist and normative definitions of deviance and more precisely distinguishes positive deviance, along with three other categories of deviance. Negative deviance, the traditional focus of the sociology of deviance, refers to behaviors that involve underconformity or nonconformity to norms and negative evaluations. Rate-busting refers to overconformity that is negatively evaluated. Deviance admiration refers to underconformity that is positively evaluated. Positive deviance refers to overconformity that is positively evaluated. This typology compensates for deficiencies in the separate conceptions of deviance by highlighting their contradictions (e.g., reactivists fail to consider rate-busting; normative theorists ignore deviance admiration). Current and historical examples in each category illustrate the utility of the new typology. The typology also accommodates the contextual nature of deviance, accentuates the role of power in defining deviance, and suggests the value of general theories of behavior as opposed to specific theories of ''deviant behavior.''

Creating deviance: scenarios of stigmatization in postmodern media culture

This paper examines the social construction of deviance in contemporary mediated society. First, it presents basic orienting questions which link poststructuralist cultural studies with concerns of interactionist labeling. These questions are a general mapping for the study of stigmatized meaning-generation. Second, it discusses the relationship between Mills's (1959) sociological imagination and Denzin's (1989a; 1989b) twin conceptions of interpretive interactionism and interpretive biography as a suitable context for meaning creation. Lived experience and self are overlapping textual productions. Third, the concept of scenario for use in describing the process of deviance-labeling is presented. The layers of the process include the deviant event, media reconstruction, and the stigma movie. Concluding, the paper suggests the scenario as a strategy for critiquing meaning-generation. Conceptions of deviance and conformity emerge as intertwined biographical and sociocultural narratives linked to the stigma contest as social problem construction. Gender, age, and race images are primary meaning sites. The scenario's fluidity highlights positoning of stigma in the broader cultural context.

Concepts of deviance and disturbance in children and adolescents: A comparison between the United States and Japan

Fifth and eleventh graders in the United States (N = 169) and Japan (N = 166) were interviewed about their reactions to stories describing various forms of psychological deviance in hypothetical peers. For each story, students were asked if any of the protagonist's behaviours seemed strange or unusual; why these behaviours were strange or unusual; and why the protagonist acted the way he or she did. More Japanese than American students mentioned the psychological reasoning of the individual, and more American than Japanese students mentioned external influences and violation of social norms in explaining and conceptualizing deviant conduct, respectively. Few developmental or gender differences emerged. Results are discussed in terms of the individualism‐collectivism paradigm and cultural differences in attributions for success and failure.

Emotional &amp; Behavioral Disorders: Theory and Practice

* The problems of behavioral disorders in the schools is ever increasing (Feil & Becker, 1993). Many students with emotional and behavioral disorders exhibit extremely disruptive behaviors and thereby identify and isolate themselves (Bell, Young, Blair, & Nelson, 1990). Despite the increasing number of children with behavioral disorders in schools, educators often find that they do not have the necessary skills to prevent disruptions and manage these children. Margaret Cecil Coleman has provided an introductory text that encompasses both affective and behavioral manifestations of emotional and behavioral disorders in children and youth. As she points out in the Preface, a major change in this third edition is the inclusive term of emotional/behdiioral disorders that is reflected in the title, Emotional & Behavioral Disorders: Theory and Practice. Each chapter begins with an Orientation. This section familiarizes the reader with the topic(s) of discussion and, in a brief statement, lets the reader understand how the chapter develops and its key point(s). The Overview section gives a bird's eye view of the chapter content with key issues and points that are addressed. It includes the approach used in the organization and development of the material. The main content of the chapter is divided into components that can be easily read and assimilated. Each small segment provides a quick reference for readers who may want to refer to a particular area of interest. In the Conclusion to each chapter, the author shares with the reader some insights and perspectives about the chapter. The author makes definitive statements about what was covered and reaches a conclusion about the current status of the subject. Key Points is an important section of each chapter for students in special education. It allows the reader to review major elements, to return to a section, topic, or point that is of particular interest or was missed. In future editions, the author might include a page or section reference to aid the reader in finding key points within the text. The final part of each chapter is Additional Readings. Readers interested in studying the chapter's information in depth may find this section more useful than the reference section. Chapter 1 presents historical antecedents of contemporary special education for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Deviant individuals have been recognized throughout the history of human development. Superstition and fear were manifested in a belief in demonology as late as the 1700s. Historically, services for deviant individuals can be categorized into three broad phases: the Segregation Phase, Early Middle Ages to 1600s; the Transition Phase, 1700 to 1 800s; and the Service Phase, 1900 to the present. Chapter 2 investigates the concepts and characteristics of EBD. The author offers a definition of emotional and behavioral disorders and explores the process of identification. Various factors, including personal tolerance of a range for behavior, professional philosophy, terminology, and social parameters of acceptable behavior, determine concepts of deviance. Defining EBD is useful for a number of reasons, including prevalence, service provision, research, and accountability. Most states use a form of the federal definition of emotional disturbance in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Chapter 3 presents two theoretical models of deviant behavior: the biophysical and psychodynamic models. Both models view factors within the individual as the primary source of disturbance which can be treated either physically or psychologically. Coleman points out that an understanding of theoretical models is important in dealing with children with EBD because our views, evaluation procedures, and interventions are based on assumptions drawn from these models. The biophysical model holds that there are organic causes of EBD that can be treated medically or physically. …

The Appraisal of Academic Conduct: Are Norms an Adequate Moral Guide?

ABSTRACT This paper examines the legitimacy of norms as a means of evaluating academic conduct. Section one provides a general overview of some issues involved. In section two the concept of norms is unpacked and, in section three, some problems with an adequate account of norms are identified. In section four the rationality of norms is examined and in the following section, section five, the concept of deviance is discussed. It is argued that deviance from rational academic norms is usually, but not always, unacceptable. However, it also is suggested that dissenting conduct is required of academics since it is a central professional norm, closely connected to the purposes of a university. The concept of academic freedom, whilst not examined in any detail in this paper, provides a general defence of dissenting–but, in general, not of deviant ‐conduct. Given the difficulties associated with the concept of norms, the importance of character over conduct is emphasised. It is concluded that the moral basis f...

Concepts of deviance in children and adolescents: The case of Japan

This paper reviews the theoretical, clinical, and empirical literature on three forms of deviance in Japan: bullying, school refusal, and children's violence against parents. These behaviors are among the most widely discussed and extensively researched behavioral problems of children and adolescents in Japan today, yet they occur with relatively low frequency compared with other industrialized nations This paper analyzes the relationship among Japanese child‐rearing goals, traditional values, interpersonal dynamics, and concepts of deviance in children and adolescents and explores the emergence of these expressions of deviant behavior as major social problems in Japan. Application of this type of sociocultural‐psychological analysis to the study of deviance in American society is considered.

Positive deviance: A viable concept?

This paper questions the viability of the positive deviance concept, which has been endorsed recently by a number of authors. Much of the discussion about the viability of positive deviance hinges on whether the theorist adopts the normative or the reactive definition of deviance: If one follows the normative definition of deviance, positive deviance is a theoretically viable concept; if one follows the reactive definition, it is not. In the author's view, the proponents of the positive deviance concept are guilty of invoking irrelevant justifications, which, although worthwhile in themselves, are not legitimate reasons for adopting the positive deviance notion. In addition, positive deviance has been defined in a number of entirely different ways; the concept is sloppy and inconsistent. The author agrees with Sagarin's judgment (1985) that positive deviance is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron.

The Newsworthiness of International Terrorism

The emergence of media-oriented terrorism has led scholars of modern terrorism to reconceptualize this phenomenon within the framework of symbolic communication theory. This study focuses on the newsworthiness of international terrorism. It relates the concept of deviance as a predictor of newsworthiness to the specific attributes of terrorist events and their impact on media selection (coverage or no coverage) and prominence of coverage (amount of space or time and location). The RAND Corporation chronology of international terrorism (1968-1980) and the coverage given to each terrorist event in the three American television networks and nine newspapers from various countries serve as the data base. By means of multivariate analysis, the effects of various attributes of terrorist events on media selection and coverage are examined. In general, the level of victimization, the type of action, the identity of the perpetrators, and an attributable responsibility were found to be the best predictors of media coverage. However, the effect of attributes on coverage varied from selection to prominence, thus suggesting a two-step process of selection in which different considerations affect each step. The impact of the various attributes was found to change over time. These findings suggest that the process of news selection is more complex than a simple relationship between attributes of events and coverage. In the case of terrorism, deviance as newsworthiness can be regarded as the guiding principle of coverage.

A Question of Morality: Sorcery and Concepts of Deviance among the Kabana, West New Britain

For the Kabana of New Britain, deviant behaviour is es sentially the advancement of self-interest untempered by self-regula tion such that the individual infringes on the ability of others to pur sue their own self-interest. Social labelling is applied to deviant behaviours, but no permanent stigma attaches to individuals. Reac tions to deviance include shame, gossip and ridicule, proceedings be fore the village magistrate and sorcery. The performance of sorcery, a major cause of death, is a complex and ambiguous event, insofar as a sorcerer's threat may both inhibit deviance and mediate conflict, but the actual enactment of the threat is itself a deviant act. In cases where a victim's illness is attributed to sorcery, a moot may be held to dis cern the motives of sorcery and identify the sorcerer. In a particular case, which is examined at length here, failure clearly to identify the sorcerer was followed by the victim's death. Resume: Chez les Kabana de Nouvelle Bretagne, les comportements deviants sont largement le resultat d'une poursuite d'interets personnels non-moderes qui empiete aux autres la possibilite de poursuivre leurs propres interets. II existe un systeme d'etiquettage social vis-a-vis des comportements deviants, mais cela ne marque pas les individus. Les reactions a la deviance incluent la honte, le commerage, la ridiculisation, comparaitre devant le magistrat du village et la sorcellerie. L'acte de sor cellerie, etant une cause importante de deces, est une occurrence com plexe et ambigue. En fait, une menace provenant d'un sorcier peut soit decourager la violence soit agir en tant qu'agent mediatif; par contre cette menace est elle meme un acte deviant. Dans les cas ou la victime est malade par cause de sorcellerie, une assemble peut etre reunie pour determiner pourquoi la sorcellerie a ete utilisee en plus de decouvrir 1'identite du sorcier. Cette etude examine en profondeur un cas particu lier ou une victime est morte parce que le sorcier n'a pu etre identifie.

Applying the Skill‐Deficit Concept of Deviance to Juvenile Delinquents

AbstractMany theories have been advanced to account for juvenile delinquency. Most theories provide convincing partial explanations for some phenomena, but not others. Furthermore, most theories of delinquency offer only vague guidelines for treatment. The social learning school of psychology has developed a skill‐deficit conception of deviance which has implications for treatment. In order to determine the applicability of this approach, a sample of 411 adjudicated male delinquents was obtained. They were assessed along a number of dimensions, and were found to be deficient as a group in all the skill areas measured. Implications for delinquency theory are discussed, as are treatment recommendations.