SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: False Advertising, Cybercrime, Illicit Cigarette Trade
Document Summary
Deviant" is any behavior or physical appearance that is socially challenged and or condemned because it departs from the norms and expectations of one group. Norms are rules and expectations for the way people are supposed to behave, feel and appear in a particular social situation. Norms can vary according to whom they apply to and whether people: Back them up with the force of law. Adhere to them in their public and private lives. Sociologists note that almost any behavior or appearance can qualify as deviant under the right circumstances. Emile durkheim offered an explanation: he argued that while ideas about what is deviant vary, deviance is present in all societies. He defined as those acts that offend collective sentiments. Thus, what makes an act or appearance deviant, even criminal, is not so much the act itself or its consequences, but rather the fact that the group has defined it as something dangerous or threatening to its well-being.
