Chapter 3: Constructing Deviance Book: Deviant

Constructionists Ask … How is deviance conceptualized, imagined, defined, and represented?
What are some negative examples of negative reactions to what society considers wrongfulness or deviance?
How do norms and laws arise, and to whom do they apply?<br>

Constructing Deviance How do audiences construct and react to what they perceive as deviance?
Categorize
Judge if wrongful
Determine appropriate punishment, if any<br>

Formal and Informal Social Control Rules themselves are universal, and the punishment of rule violations is universal, but what the rules and the punishments are is variable.
Formal – Official (rational-legal) efforts to enforce conformity.
Informal – Unofficial, interpersonal interactions that convey approval or disapproval.<br>

Constructionist Perspectives Symbolic Interactionism and Labeling Theory
Conflict Theory
Feminist Theory
Controlology<br>

Symbolic interactionism Three Premises of Symbolic Interactionism
People act based on the meanings that things have for them.
Meanings grow out of interaction.
Meanings continually modified through interpretation.<br>

Labeling Theory Labeling theory (or the Labeling Perspective) took the emphasis away from the person who attracts a deviant label and toward the labelers of deviance.

Frank Tannenbaum (1893-1969) is considered the “grandfather” of the interactionist/labeling perspective toward deviance.
Author of Crime and the Community (1938), Tannenbaum was the first to stress the importance of the labeling process.

Edwin Lemert (1912-1996), author Social Pathology (1951) underplayed the causality of behavior that comes to be labeled as deviant and stressed the distinction between primary and secondary deviation.<br>

Primary and Secondary Deviation Primary deviation is simply the enactment of behavior or the expression of beliefs that become the basis of judgments of deviance.
Secondary deviation constitutes the adjustments someone who is labeled a deviant makes to the negative label.<br>

Howard Becker Howard Becker (b. 1928) is considered the “father” of the labeling or interactionist perspective toward deviance; he stressed that the perspective is not an etiological explanation, or an account of deviant behavior but stressed the contingencies of the labeling process.<br>

Elements of Labeling Theory Audience – Assigns deviant labels.
The Stigmatization Process:
An audience first labels an act, belief, or condition deviant
Then labels the individual deviant
Reflexivity – Viewing ourselves through the eyes of others.
The Inner Worlds of Deviance – The collectivities that are labeled as deviant create a subculture that differ from the mainstream.
Neutralization – The process or attempt at justifying, excusing, contextualizing the enactment of the behavior or holding the beliefs that are negatively judged.<br>

The Stickiness of Labels Society is often reluctant to accept those people returning from deviance on an entirely equal footing.
Ending deviance does not necessarily dissolve the label.
Stigma often continues as the label persists.<br>

Concepts Related to the Labeling Perspective Modified Labeling Theory – Perceptions of mental patients’ dangerousness and caregiver avoidance make the condition more serious .
Cumulative disadvantage – Compound effects of criminal sanctions, coupled with the deviant label, to disenfranchise over the life course.
Negative Credentials - Official markers that restrict access and opportunity rather than enabling them.<br>

Labeling Theory Today Labeling theory’s insights have incorporated into the contemporary study of deviance without acknowledging their origin—an example of “obliteration by incorporation.”
 
At the same time, they are the implicit basis of multiple fields of study, Including the study of delinquency, mental disorder, criminology, and penology.<br>

Conflict Theory In a given society, resources are finite and scarce; in fact, competition for resources in any society is a “zero sum game.”
This principle applies to both material or cultural resources.
All societies are made up of social categories that struggle to advance their own interests, which usually clash with the interests of other social categories.
Consequently, conflict rather than consensus is the foundation of social relations.
The criminalization process is the outcome of the struggle and conflict that drives all social relations.
Laws are enacted and enforced as a result of the dominance or hegemony of the most powerful strata; they reflect their class interests.<br>

Feminist Theory Before the late 1960s, Western intellectual perspective typically androcentric, patriarchal, and sexist.
Androcentrism is a male-centered bias.
Patriarchy refers to a male-dominated power structure.
Sexism is prejudice and discrimination against women.<br>

Androcentrism in the Study of Deviance Consideration of Women in Criminology and Deviance prior to 1970s:
Women were largely understudied, and often omitted.
Women’s deviance was studied as specialized deviance.
Victimization of women (especially rape, domestic assault, and sexual harassment) was underplayed<br>

Controlology Controlology or “The New Sociology of Social Control.”
Views all social control as …
Problematic
Coercive, Repressive, Dangerous
Coterminous with state or state-like control
Unified, interlocking, and totalizing.<br>

Controlology’s Central Concepts Panopticon – A prison designed for total surveillance of many by few.
Michel Foucault used the panopticon as a metaphor, claiming society has become transcarceral.
The Carceral Archipelago – Surveillance and control has shifted “from the penal institution to the entire social body.”
Foucault’s Panoptic Principles
Knowledge is power (the power to control).
Power comes through surveillance.
Surveillance is internalized.<br>

Summary “Informal social control is the foundation of social life.“
People act on ever-changing meanings that grow out of interactions.
Labels are ‘sticky’ and being labeled deviant reinforces deviance.
Conflict between social categories decides who is labeled deviant, criminal.
Feminists critique androcentrism, brought women’s deviance and victimization to the fore.
Controlology focuses on social control and the role of knowledge and surveillance.<br>