Deviance as a sociological problem

The concept of deviance is defined as violation of cultural norms of group or all of society. Since cultural norms effect such a wide range of human activities, the concept of deviance is correspondingly broad. The most obvious and familiar type of deviance is crime – the violation of cultural norms that have been formally enacted into criminal law. Criminal deviance is itself quite variable in content, from minor offences such as traffic violations to serious crimes such as homicide and rape. Closely connected to crime is juvenile delinquency – the violation of legal standards by children or adolescents.

Deviance is not limited to crime, however. It includes many other types of nonconformity, from the mild to the extreme, such as left-handedness, boastfulness and Mohawk hairstyles, as well as pacifism, homosexuality and mental illness. Industrial societies contain a wide range of subcultures that display distinctive attitudes, appearance and behaviour. Consequently, to those who conform to society’s dominant cultural standards, artists, homeless people and members of various ethnic minorities may seem deviant. In addition, the poor – whose lack of financial resources makes conforming to many conventional middle-class patterns of life difficulty – are also subject to definition as deviant. Physical traits, too may be the basis of deviance, as members of racial minorities in America know well. Men with many highly visible tattoos on their body may be seen as deviant, as are women with any tattoo at all. Even being unusually tall or short, or grossly fat or exceedingly thin, may be reason for being seen by others as deviant.

Deviance, therefore, is based on any dimension of difference that is considered to be significant and provokes a negative reaction that serves to make the deviant person an outsider. In addition to the experience of social isolation, deviance is subject to social control, by which others attempt to bring deviant people back into line. Like deviance itself, social control can take many forms. Socialization is a complex process of social control in which family, peer groups and the mass media attempt to influence our attitudes and behaviour. A more formal type of social control is the criminal justice system – the formal process by which society reacts to alleged violations of the law through the use of police, courts and punishment. Social control does not have to take the form of negative response of conformity. Praise from parents, high grades at school, laudatory mention in newspapers and other mass media, and positive recognition from officials in the local community are all forms of social control that serve to encourage conformity to conventional patterns of thought and behaviour.

Kinds of groups

Sociology, as one of its main objects, studies social institutions and social relations, social bodies and social groups. Sociologists were early concerned with the problem of classifying groups as well. They have proposed many different classificatory schemes for the specific groups. They make up their classifications on the basis of selecting a few properties and define types of groups on the principle whether these properties are present or absent.

Among the properties most often employed are size (number of members), amount of physical interaction among members, degree of intimacy, level of solidarity, focus of control of group activities and tendency of members to react on one another as individual persons. On the basis of these properties the following kinds of groups have been identified: formal – informal, primary – secondary, small – large, autonomous – dependent, temporary – permanent. Sometimes sociologists make up their classifications of the groups according to their objectives or social settings. The primary group is a social group in which interaction is both personal and enduring. Within primary groups, people have personal and lasting ties designated as primary relationships. The family is perhaps the most important primary group within any society. The strength of primary relationships gives individuals a considerable sense of comfort and security.

A contrasting type of social group is the secondary group: a social group in which interaction is impersonal and transitory. Within a secondary group, which usually contains more people than a primary group, individuals share situational ties that are called secondary relationships. They involve little personal knowledge and weak emotional ties. If relationships within primary groups have a personal orientation, those within secondary groups have a goal orientation. In short, while members of a primary group have personal importance on the basis of who they are, members of secondary groups have significance on the basis of what they can do for us.