Deviance

The Objective/Subjective Dichotomy

Objectivism: Deviance as an Act
The assumption that there is something inherent in a person, behavior or characteristic that is necessarily deviant

Statistical Rarity
If a behavior or characteristic is not typical, it is deviant.

Harm
If an action causes harm, then it is deviant.

Folkways: If you violate these norms you may be considered odd, rude or a troublemaker
Mores: Those standards that are often seen as the foundation of morality in a culture

Consensual view: The law is perceived as arising out of social consensus and is then equally applied to all
Conflict view: Perceive the law as a tool used by the ruling class to serve its own interests. They believe that the law is more likely to be applied to members of the powerless classes in society.
Interactionist view: Presents a nonconsensual view of criminal law. Society’s powerful define the law at the behest of interest groups, who appeal to those with power to rectify a perceived social ill.

Subjectivism: Deviance as a Label
Subjectivists say that we cannot recognize deviance when we see it; we have to be taught, through processes of socialization, that a person or behavior is deviant

Subjectivity and the “Social Construction” of Deviance
Social constructionism: Refers to the perspective proposing that social characteristics are creations or artifacts of a particular society at a specific time in history, just as objects
Radical constructionists postulate a distinct theoretical perspective claiming that the world is characterized by endless relativism
Sociologists who are soft or contextual constructionists emphasize the processes by which certain social phenomena come to be perceived and reacted to in particular ways in a given society at a specific time

Levels of Social Construction: Sociocultural, institutional, interactional, individual

Transcending the Objective/Subjective Dichotomy
On the objective side of the dualism,