Deviant Conduct
An individual's behavior is labeled as "deviant" when the behavior goes against the prevailing norms that govern social life. These norms are generally unspoken rules designed to promote patterns in the social interactions between people. This gives rise to expectations about how people must act and behave. Those who do not conform to these expectations are therefore considered "deviant."
Generally, there are three main areas covered by unspoken social norms. The first area concerns appearance - one's clothing, hairstyle, personal grooming. This also extends to material possessions. In Western society, in particular, people reveal much about themselves by their choice of cars, houses and jewelry.
The second area of social norms concern manners. These include how we relate to others on an interpersonal as well as a group level. Personal manner norms concern areas like proxemics, the typical distances people maintain during face-to-face interactions. Group style norms are generally dictated by membership in a social group, as determined by factors like one's gender, socioeconomic status and race.
The final area concerns norms relating to conduct. These include rules regarding authority, individual obligation and account-giving. These rules vary according to time, across different cultures and even within the same cultures.
While these norms change over time, one constant is that these norms change. Concomitant to this, the definitions of what constituted "deviant" behavior is also constantly changing. Furthermore, studies have shown that what constitutes "deviant" behavior is often influenced by time, socio-economic status and other social and even biological factors.
For example, most cultures today have strict norms against cannibalism. However, James Henslin (1991) recounts the unusual case of the Uruguayan soccer team whose plane crashed into the Andes. Because of the lack of food, the survivors had to eat the human flesh of the dead passengers. As proof of the deep-rooted...
In addition, although their account was well publicized, their behavior was not labeled as deviant.
This contrasts sharply with accounts of
serial killers like
Jeffrey Dahmer, who supposedly ate some of the body parts of his victims. Because Dahmer's actions were committed under very different circumstances, his cannibalistic behavior served to further define him as a horrible deviant, who presented a great danger to society.
William Chambliss (1973) also chronicled how socio-economic status affects perceptions regarding deviance. Chambliss studied two groups of delinquent boys from the same
high school. Chambliss found that though both groups were guilty of behavior such as vandalism and truancy, one group of boys was generally labeled as the "saints," while the others were viewed as "roughnecks." The
police, educators and townspeople were generally more tolerant of the behavior of the saints, while the roughnecks were often harassed and thrown in jail for being troublemakers. The only difference between the groups, Chambliss found, was socio-economic class. While the saints came from stable, upper-middle class families, the roughnecks were from the lower-income side of town.
Later studies have shown that
race and gender also affect perceptions of
deviant behavior. For example, the fact that African-Americans are over-represented in death row leads to
claims that the legal system penalizes deviant
criminal behavior of black people more than that of other races (Jackson 2000). This dichotomy is also caused by gender. Studies show, for example, that promiscuity is more tolerated among men, while a promiscuous woman is labeled as a "slut."
This
labeling often has long-reaching effects on an individual's…
