Theories Of Deviance Research Articles

Governance of New-Generation Migrant Worker Crime: An Analysis Based on Social Deviance Theory

Due to different life style and values, crime characteristics of the new-generation migrant workers are different from that of the first-generation migrant workers. Reasons for new-generation migrant worker crime can be explained by the theory of social deviance. Governance of new-generation migrant worker crime requires establishment of fair social security system, improvement in their cultural life, strength in their legal education and vocational training, as well as progress in services for new-generation migrant workers.

“Delinquent Boys”: Toward a New Understanding of “Deviant” and Transgressive Behavior in Gay Men

Cultural criminology suggests that crime, deviance, and transgression are often subcultural in nature. For this reason, cultural criminologists often focus on the simultaneous forces of cultural inclusion and social exclusion when explaining criminal, deviant, or transgressive behaviors. This is a particularly useful bricolage for examining contemporary gay deviance and transgression—behaviors that are perhaps closely linked to (if not directly caused by) the past isolation, marginalization and/or oppression of homosexuals by Western heteronormative societies. It is also useful for understanding behaviors that are the result of marginalization and oppression from other sources, namely, the gay community itself. Using subcultural theories of deviance—such as those favored by cultural criminologists—this article explores a perspective that can be used for exploring certain forms of gay deviance and transgression. First, some of the more ostensible criminological theories that satisfy a prima facie criminological inquiry will be presented and critiqued: labeling and stigma, and resistance to heteronormativity. To these will be added a new and potentially productive way of thinking that takes into consideration rule-breaking as a form of resistance to homonormative norms, values and rules.

The Understanding of Other Nations in the Book of Judge 3:1-6 in the Light of the Functional Deviance Theory

The Understanding of Other Nations in the Book of Judge 3:1-6 in the Light of the Functional Deviance Theory

‘Counterfeit Deviance’ Revisited

BackgroundThe field has seen a renewed interest in exploring the theory of ‘counterfeit deviance’ for persons with intellectual disability who sexually offend. The term was first presented in 1991 by Hingsburger, Griffiths and Quinsey as a means to differentiate in clinical assessment a subgroup of persons with intellectual disability whose behaviours appeared like paraphilia but served a function that was not related to paraphilia sexual urges or fantasies. Case observations were put forward to provide differential diagnosis of paraphilia in persons with intellectual disabilities compared to those with counterfeit deviance. The brief paper was published in a journal that is no longer available and as such much of what is currently written on the topic is based on secondary sources.MethodThe current paper presents a theoretical piece to revisit the original counterfeit deviance theory to clarify the myths and misconceptions that have arisen and evaluate the theory based on additional research and clinical findings. The authors also propose areas where there may be a basis for expansion of the theory.ResultsThe theory of counterfeit deviance still has relevance as a consideration for clinicians when assessing the nature of a sexual offence committed by a person with an intellectual disability. Clinical differentiation of paraphilia from counterfeit deviance provides a foundation for intervention that is designed to specifically treat the underlying factors that contributed to the offence for a given individual.DiscussionCounterfeit deviance is a concept that continues to provide areas for consideration for clinicians regarding the assessment and treatment of an individual with an intellectual disability who has sexually offended. It is not and never was an explanation for all sexually offending behavior among persons with intellectual disabilities.

The Routledge Handbook of Deviant Behavior

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewsFull AccessThe Routledge Handbook of Deviant BehaviorSuzanne Yang, M.D., and Jeffrey L. Geller, M.D., M.P.H., Suzanne YangSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., and Jeffrey L. GellerSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., M.P.H., EditorPublished Online:1 Apr 2013https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.640408AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail edited by BryantClifton D.; New York, Routledge, 2011, 648 pages, $220The concept of deviation implies identifiable norms and values against which behavior is defined as pathological. In this comprehensive but compact work, editor Clifton D. Bryant (1932–2010), sociologist and professor emeritus at Virginia Tech University, presents an array of topics that explore fundamental debates surrounding the social definitions of normality and abnormality. This is a manageably sized reference work that provides a coherent introduction to a surprisingly wide range of phenomena.The volume begins by outlining several definitions of deviance. After succinct summaries of quantitative, qualitative, and historical methods, a section on theories of deviance examines the conceptual approaches that have most strongly influenced research in this field. Authors then describe the process of becoming deviant and the maintenance of deviant lifestyles and deviant subcultures. Readers will find astonishing statements such as, “Everyday life can be conceptualized as a behavioral cafeteria—everyone can pick according to their whims, inclinations, and idiosyncratic persuasions.” This dimensional approach is thought provoking, examining social practices that range from clear pathology to variations on normality that encompass shifting degrees of deviation. The perspective suggests an account of normative behavior as adherence to nondeviance.The remainder of the book outlines specific behavioral phenomena, ranging from vegetarianism to sexual behaviors to serious crime. Deviant family processes, political deviance, workplace behaviors, and sports and leisure are addressed in separate chapters under a section titled Deviance in Social Institutions. Traditional criminal deviance is also examined, and these chapters generally provide a useful overview of criminological research regarding each category of offense.Strengths of the book include discussions of historical background and the contextualization of deviance as an emerging process with contemporary manifestations. The chapters are inconsistent, however, in the historical analysis that they offer, despite the highlighting of historical methods earlier in the book. Some authors provide an international perspective, with cross-cultural comparisons of deviant phenomena, but analyses of cultural difference are not emphasized. The scholarship remains centered on English-language works and briefly acknowledges other traditions. The article on arson will serve mental health professionals well as a guide to criminal justice data on fire setting, but it does not provide a comprehensive overview of psychological and psychiatric factors. The book therefore may be a useful starting place when seeking a critical introduction to phenomena in social deviance but should prompt further exploration.Readers of Psychiatric Services will naturally gravitate to chapters on mental illness and negative behavioral outcomes, such as suicide, self-injury, violence, and substance abuse. These chapters are valuable for their ability to situate topics familiar to mental health professionals within the larger theoretical schema in this sociologically complex domain. Of particular note is the thoughtfully argued chapter by Phelan and Link outlining major findings of their research program on stigma and mental illness. Overall, the volume provides a refreshingly different perspective on social phenomena that often intersect with health care, and it stimulates questions regarding how or under what circumstances deviance becomes medicalized. Perspectives on new forms of deviance, particularly in cyberspace, will encourage mental health professionals to reflect on the social and subjective meanings of contemporary behaviors with a sociologically informed point of view.Dr. Yang is with Veterans Integrated Service Network 4, Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The reviewer reports no competing interests. Contents do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the U.S. government. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 64Issue 4 April 2013Pages e04-e04 Metrics The reviewer reports no competing interests. Contents do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the U.S. government.PDF download History Published online 1 April 2013 Published in print 1 April 2013

The future of feminist criminology

This paper outlines the origins of feminist criminology, tracing them to the 1960s, especially the social and cultural shifts of that period and the student movement, noting that approaches such as new deviancy theory did not provide any answers to the questions raised by pioneers in the field. The history of feminist perspectives is summarised and claims are asserted that these are the most successful developments in criminology of the second half of the 20th century. A number of cautions and criticisms are suggested, followed by several outstanding examples of recent scholarship and finally some ideas of blue sky thinking and proposals of areas which may be developed further in the future.

Is Street Art a Crime? An Attempt at Examining Street Art Using Criminology

A clear and basic definition is the fundamental element in understanding, thus explaining any social scientific concept. Street art is a social phenomenon, characterized by its illegal nature, which social scientists from several subjects have increasingly been examining, interpreting and discussing for the past 50 years. Even though the concept itself has been defined much more clearly over the years, its standing concerning whether it is a crime or form of art is still a borderline issue. This paper attempts to first try to define street art under a type of crime, then examine it using criminological perspective, with criminological and deviance theories in order to understand and explain it better using an example, the KüF Project from Ankara Turkey.

Abusive supervision and workplace deviance: the mediating role of interactional justice and the moderating role of power distance

This study replicates previous studies by examining the effects of abusive supervision on employee deviant behaviours in the Chinese organisational context. It extends the existing research of abusive supervision by investigating the mediating role of the perception of interactional justice and the moderating role of individual‐level power distance in the link between abusive supervision and workplace deviance. Regression analyses on data of 283 employee–supervisor dyads revealed that the perception of interactional justice mediates the link between abusive supervision and workplace deviance. We also found that abusive supervision has a stronger negative relationship with the perception of interactional justice for employees low in power distance than for employees high in power distance. These findings provide both replications of and extensions to western theories of abusive supervision and workplace deviance. Practical implications of this study include hints for reducing both financial and psychological costs of deviant behaviour.

The Effects of Social Factors on Committing Crimes: A Case Study of Darehshahr Prison, Iran

In a descriptive research, based on social deviance theories, the present study attempts to offer a sociological analysis of crime in Darehshahr prison, Iran, in 2009. Using data analysis method, the findings of the study demonstrate that the highest rate of crime is related to financial crimes, and the lowest rate to cultural and political crimes. Among the supposed hypotheses, only “the relation between age and kind of crime” and “the relation between age and cooperative crimes” were proved. Hence, crimes in Dareshahr are mostly violent, financial and juvenile, indicating the threat of organized and cooperative crimes among the youth.

A Comparison of Four General Theories of Crime and Deviance

Explanations of deviant and criminal behavior have been widely studied in the United States and Europe with some studies also conducted in Asian countries. The authors believe that this study is the first to compare directly the extent to which major general social psychological theories of criminal and deviant behavior developed primarily in the United States (General Strain, Social Bonding, Self-Control, and Social Learning) are applicable to a Latin American society. The authors compare how well the theories explain variation in marijuana use among samples of university students in the United States and Bolivia using the same methodology and measurements in each. The results indicate that each of the theories do account for individual differences in use in both samples to some extent, with social learning theory receiving somewhat more support as an explanation of marijuana use in both societies.

Becoming Vegetarian: The Eating Patterns and Accounts of Newly Practicing Vegetarians

Vegetarianism is a dynamic and fluid lifestyle that can be described as unique for each person who practices. Vegetarianism traditionally falls outside of the accepted eating patterns in Western nations; furthermore, the meat-free lifestyle can be classified as a form of positive deviance. Semistructured interviews were conducted with self-described vegetarians regarding eating patterns and motivations within the initial adoption of the lifestyle. Vegetarian vocabularies of motive were categorized according to established deviance theory referred to as accounts. This newly practicing, or developmental, stage of vegetarianism was more likely to fall on the less strict side of the vegetarian continuum for eating patterns and the motives had a propensity to be monothematic.

Exploring the theoretical underpinnings of driving whilst influenced by illicit substances

An increasing number of studies are highlighting the alarming proportion of motorists that drive after having consumed illicit drugs. However presently, little attention has focused on the factors that may facilitate drug driving from a criminogenic paradigm. This study evaluated the contribution of deterrence, defiance, and deviance theories on intentions to drug drive to determine factors that might facilitate or reduce this behaviour. A total of 922 individuals completed a questionnaire that assessed frequency of drug use and a variety of perceptions on deterrence, defiance, and deviance constructs. The analysis showed that the defiance constructs (i.e., experiencing feelings of shame and believing in the legitimacy of sanctioning authority) and the deviance constructs (i.e., moral attachment to the norm and having a criminal conviction) were predictive of drug driving intentions. The facets of deterrence theory were not found to be significant predictors. Ultimately, this study illustrates that a range of behavioural and perceptual factors have the capacity to influence decisions to drug drive. As a result, there appears the need to extend the focus of research endeavours beyond legal sanctions to examine other factors that may be utilised to both understand the aetiology of drug driving as well as increase the possibility of compliance with the corresponding legislation.

Place, Identity, and Deviance: A Community-Based Approach to Understanding the Relationship Between Deviance and Place

Cities invariably have “gray” areas where formal policing and regulatory reach is relatively ineffective. By focusing on individuals or groups traditional theories of deviance fail to account for community-level processes that create local alternative norms that contribute to behavior seen as deviant by outsiders. By combining theories of space with issues of identity construction and deviance, we analyze an inner-city neighborhood in Mexico City in terms of four factors: Structural Location, Material Form, Meaningfulness, and Organizational Integration. This creates a model for understanding forms of deviance that are rooted in community processes of resistance to the dominant normative system.

Raves and ecstasy use in Egypt: a subcultural paradigm

This article aims to investigate the main aspects of the growing subculture of ecstasy (MDMA) users in Egypt. It criticizes post-modern theoretical orientations that devalue subcultural theories of deviance on the basis that they can no longer support an understanding of recreational substance use among youth today. Through ethnography and semi-structured interviews and observation, the social and subcultural use of the recently introduced psychoactive substance ecstasy is examined. Data reveals that ecstasy use takes place within a broader glocal subculture of drug use. A main conclusion from the data is that understanding the etiology of ecstasy use in Egypt needs a thorough understanding of its related youth subculture. Key Words: Ecstasy; raves; ethnography; subculture; glocalization

Who Says There’s a Problem?

This article compares the concept of the “problem patron” in the library and information science (LIS) and nursing literatures as the basis for developing a new framework for use in LIS. The trend in the LIS literature has been to identify either the patron or the patron’s behavior as the problem. The nursing literature uses interactionist theories to contextualize the so-called problem within a larger framework that includes, among other things, the nurse, hospital-related norms of behavior, the patient care environment, the philosophy of care, and the patient’s own life experiences. This paper examines theories of stigma, deviance, and labeling, among others, as they have been used in the nursing literature to examine the process and effect of labeling. I argue that the work on labeling found in the nursing literature provides the foundation for a new framework to think about the “problem patron” in LIS. In the proposed framework, I define problem behavior at three different levels: the community, the library, and the individual. Using this framework is helpful for thinking about solutions because it encourages us to respond to the “problem” at the level where the behavior is labeled as deviant. This framework is used to explore solutions offered in the LIS literature for the problems that can be identified at each of these different levels.

Pathways to Adult Alcohol Abuse across Racial/Ethnic Groups: An Application of General Strain and Social Learning Theories

There is considerable variation in the prevalence, etiology and consequences of alcohol and other drug use across racial/ethnic groups, but studies examining these issues among adult populations remain scarce. This is an important oversight as exposure to many of the risk factors associated with substance use and abuse has been shown to vary by race/ethnicity as well as age. This study examines the causes and correlates of adult alcohol abuse across the three largest racial/ethnic groups in the United States—Whites, Blacks and Hispanics—and provides a theoretically grounded examination of substance abuse by applying two general theories of deviance, Agnew's general strain theory and Akers' social learning theory. Results indicate unconditional support for both theories when applied to White alcohol abuse but more conditional support when applied to patterns of adult alcohol abuse among Hispanics and Blacks. These results suggest that these three racial/ethnic groups experience somewhat different pathways to alcohol disorder.

The deviance of women: a critique and an enquiry

The deviance of women: a critique and an enquiry

The promise of positive deviants: bridging divides between scientific research and local practices in smallholder agriculture

Positive deviants challenge existing organisational structures and institutional set-ups, and promote alternative approaches to solving seemingly intractable social problems, either playing direct role of a boundary spanner or indirect role as activists. However, these roles of positive deviants have not yet been recognised to its potential in international development because the legacy of deviancy theory lies on negative deviants, such as addicts and criminals. This paper investigates the promise of positive deviants to bridging scientific research and local practices using empirical evidence from community-based participatory research of rice, a crucial subsistence crop in the Chitwan district of Nepal. Non-profit private and public stakeholders worked as boundary spanners, specifically to initiate stakeholder interaction with non-traditional partners, in spite of the lack of enabling environments to do so. Similarly, one of the members of a farmers' group developed a rice variety from a handful of see...

Keeping Sin from Sacred Spaces: Southern Evangelicals and the Socio-Legal Control of Alcohol, 1865–1915

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On a recent trip to Pittsburgh, I was struck by the close proximity of churches and nightclubs, a good number within a few feet of each other and, in a few spectacular cases, bars operating out of barely reconstructed houses of worship. Having lived in the South for twenty years and having studied southern ways of managing access to alcohol, the close juxtaposition of sacred and profane spaces was rather jarring. Historically, and still today, southerners have attempted to maintain a strict separation of items deemed sinful and spaces deemed pure. White southerners have also been unusually concerned with separating persons deemed sinful or tempting from spaces or persons, as the long sad history of laws designed to prohibit intimate cross-racial fraternization well illustrates. While many Americans might view an inebriated churchgoer as an ill person who has inappropriately entered a sacred place, southern evangelicals then and now would characterize the person as a victim of Satan's machinations. While preventing sin in general is a time-honored preoccupation for many Americans, the nineteenth-century efforts to sin from pure spaces reflects a logic more distinctly reflective of southern evangelical sensibilities (primarily Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian variants) and, oddly enough, some of the leading contemporary theories of crime and deviance. Southern evangelical perceptions of the nature of sin reflected a concern with the geography of temptation and led to the creation of a whole host of social control measures aimed at limiting liquor's influence, in particular by attempting to remove drink as a source of temptation. The geographic concerns of southerners parallel and pre-date the emphases of contagion or theories of crime that argue that exposure to or proximity to norm-violators or to norm-violations (deviants and/or deviance) increases the likelihood of someone engaging in ordinarily prohibited behaviors. In essence, a leading criminological theory and the moral cosmology of southern evangelicals present a rather strange and unexpected convergence on the belief that exposure to deviance/deviants affects a person's moral choices. Both would agree that witnessing sinful or deviant acts firsthand reduces taboos against otherwise prohibited behaviors by jeopardizing any communally held sense of inherent wrongness. BROKEN WINDOWS OF THE SOUL Broken is a criminological theory rooted in empirical observations that communities with many broken windows (e.g., on houses or cars) often experience a greater level of crime, even when other factors (e.g., the make and model of a car) are held constant. Similarly, the Biblical Recorder's advice to careful of the company your children keep receives support from research on adolescents' propensity to engage in risky or dangerous behaviors. If their closest friends engage in such behaviors, adolescents are far more likely to try out those activities, although voiced parental disapproval does decrease the likelihood of adolescents engaging in such behaviors. While criminologists and southern evangelicals may disagree on which behaviors ought to be seen as destructive, both perspectives raise the key question: Why does exposure to destructive behavior lead to decreased inhibitions against that behavior? Only the evangelicals provide a definitive answer. (1) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Similar to the invitation to crime occasioned by broken windows, evangelical southerners have long argued that opportunities and exposures to sin tempt all humans, not just the morally weak or insufficiently vigilant, leaving everyone vulnerable to falling under Satan's seductive spells. Concerned that open temptation-public alcohol consumption, for example--might ensnare otherwise good community members in vice, evangelical southerners sought social-control strategies that policed public and, especially, sacred spaces rigorously in order to prevent a pattern of windows of the soul developing in their communities. …

Violence, Crime, and Violent Crime

I propose a dual conceptualization of violent crime. Since violent crime is both violence and crime, theories of aggression and deviance are required to understand it. I argue that both harm-doing and rule breaking are instrumental behaviors and that a bounded rational choice approach can account for both behaviors. However, while some of the causes of harm-doing and deviance (and violent and nonviolent crime) are the same, some are different. Theories of crime and deviance cannot explain why one only observes individual and group differences in violent crime and theories of aggression and violence cannot explain why one observes differences in all types of crimes. Such theories are “barking up the wrong tree.”