SOCB50H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-5: Actus Reus, Jackson Katz, Juvenile Delinquency
Document Summary
Something is deviant because an individual, group or society takes offence and reacts negatively (based on reactions of observers) Deviance can be both ideas and attributes. People"s attributes can be the source of shunning and rejection: example: disfigured, obese, ugly, crippled, mentally handicapped. Negative reactions occur as onlookers interpret what they see and hear as wrong, bad, crazy, disgusting, strange. Negative reactions serve as mechanisms of social control. Negative responses range from mild to severe, informal to formal: informal: avoidance, ridicule, criticism, gossip (internal, formal: official warnings, legal punishments, various forms of treatment (external) Social controls may or may not limit or drive underground the occurrence, appearance, or expression of deviance. Behaviours, ideas and attributes that fail to elicit negative responses cannot be considered deviant. Debate of what degree deviance is a matter of objective fact ro subjective. Early discussions treated deviance as a simple violation of pre-existing and interpretation concrete societal norms.
