![]() ![]() The place or context – nudity is often seen as deviant in public (though in itself it is never criminal), but rarely in private playing loud music is deviant on public transport, but not at music festivals, and drinking to excess is deviant almost anywhere, but not necessarily in pubs or clubs. For example, cigarette smoking used to be very popular, now it is illegal to smoke in restaurants or buses. The historical period – definitions of deviance change over time in the same society as standards of normal behaviour change. Whether or not an act is seen as deviant often depends on: These two conceptions of deviance suggest that, while there may be some acts that many people agree are deviant in one society, those acts defined as deviant will vary between groups within a society. Situational deviance refers to the way in which an act being seen as deviant or not depends on the context or location in which it takes place. Societal deviance refers to forms of deviance that most members of a society regard as deviant because they share similar ideas about approved and unapproved behaviour – murder, rape, child abuse and driving over the alcohol limit in the UK generally fall into this category. Plummer (1979) discusses two aspects of defining deviance, using the concepts of societal deviance and situational deviance. Their judgement will depend on the context in which it occurs, who the person is, what they know about them and what their motives might be. Downes and Rock (2007) suggest that ambiguity is a key feature of rule-breaking, as people are frequently unsure whether a particular episode is truly deviant or what deviance is. Deviance includes both criminal and non-criminal acts, but it is quite difficult to pin down what members of any society or groups actually regard as deviant behaviour. The concept of deviance is more difficult to define than crime. ![]() ![]() The Functionalist Perspective on Crime and Deviance ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |