Tabla de Contenidos
Deviant behavior is any behavior that is contrary to the dominant norms of society. There are many different theories that explain how behavior comes to be classified as deviant and the causes that trigger it, including biological, psychological , and sociological explanations. Here, the main sociological explanations of deviant behavior are reviewed.
Structural Deformation Theory
It postulates that societies are made up of both culture and social structure. While culture sets goals for people in society, the social structure provides – or does not provide – the means for people to achieve those goals. In a well-integrated society, people use accepted and appropriate means to achieve socially established goals, so that the goals and the means to achieve them are in balance. It is when the objectives and the means are not in balance with each other that deviation is likely to occur. This imbalance between cultural goals and structurally available means may actually encourage deviance.
ecological theory of deviance
It is based on the identification of geographically and environmentally changing areas of social disorganization, caused by phenomena such as migration, in which there is evidence of a low influence of rules, norms and values. In this way, deviant behavior is explained as the result of little social support. This theory is criticized because it does not explain the fact that there are people who do not commit crimes, despite living in the midst of certain social disorganization, and that there are individuals who commit deviant acts residing outside these places.
Differential Association Theory or Social Disorganization
He points out that it is social groups contrary to the law that encourage criminal behavior. Thus, deviant behavior occurs in societies with unequal classes, where people tend to adhere to groups. He states that criminal behavior is learned through the communication process, within the closest relationships of the deviant individual; the deviant individual is, then, the one who has a favorable view of the violation of the law, a consequence of the association or associations with patterns of deviant behavior. This theory is criticized for not explaining the diversity of deviant behaviors that occur without any criminal association.
Value dichotomy theory
He affirms that the predominance of criminality in the lower social classes generates certain values, criminal values, which coexist with conventional values. Both criminal and conventional values can be experienced alternately or simultaneously. This theory is criticized because it does not explain crime, but rather describes what happens in any society in which deviant people live and interact with normal people.
criminal subculture theory
He explains that people with deviant behaviors hang out with other people in the same conditions, in such a way that they develop a subculture or group culture, that is, a particular way of seeing and doing things. Such a subculture involves beliefs, values, norms, and behaviors that are condemned, approved of, or even demanded by the members. In turn, these values result from the limitations that prevent individuals from accessing certain living conditions through legal means, which leads them to a “cultural” conflict that determines their integration into a subculture separate from official society or culture. . This theory is criticized for not explaining why an individual turns to a subculture instead of another;
The theory of underground values criticizes the thesis of the criminal subculture, reflecting on the fact that many times, when the antisocial is arrested, he manifests feelings of guilt or shame, which contradicts that he comes from a subculture opposed to the global one.
Labeling theory or interactionist theory of deviance
He questions the label of “deviant”, since he considers problematic what other theories assumed: that certain behaviors are intrinsically deviant and defined by the members of a group. Therefore, it does not conceive of the “deviant” as a being different from the others, but as a person who has been successfully labeled as such. In this sense, the main concern of this theory is what happens when someone is defined as deviant and the effects that this entails, since it suggests that individuals can be pushed to deviant behaviors because they have been defined and treated as if they were deviant. criminals. This theory is criticized, among other reasons, for its neglect of primary deviation; also because of its determinism,
Sources
Hikal, W. The differential association theory for the explanation of criminality and the articulation of a criminal policy . Law and social change , ISSN: 2224-4131: 1-15, 2017.
Pérez, J. The sociological explanation of criminality . Law and Social Change , ISSN-e 2224-4131, 7(22): 1-22, 2011.
Sancho, M. Sociology of deviance: Howard Becker and the “ interactionist theory of deviance” . Social Conflict, 7(12): 65-87, 2014.
