SOC212H1 Lecture 1: Intro
Why study deviance?
- Some deviance causes harm, threats to a person’s health
o Physical, mental, emotional health
▪ Ex. alcohol use; linked to depression and anxiety, as well as spousal and
child abuse
o Financial security
▪ Ex. fraud
o Political stability
▪ Ex. terrorism
o Social stability
▪ Ex. bigotry (racism, homophobia)
Social problems
- Deviance can often reflect underlying social problems
o Ex. Canada’s treatment of indigenous people
- High rates of deviant behaviour; much higher than average substance abuse and
incarceration rates in Canada
- Reflections of history of colonialism, past explicit discrimination, continued
marginalization
Helps us to understand broader social issues
- Deviance as a response to social organization
o Political: protest movements
▪ Ex. woman’s suffrage movements
o Social: deviant subcultures
▪ Ex. punk
o Economic: money motivated crime
▪ Ex. white collar crime
Course objectives
- Identification
o How to recognize deviance and its features
o How d owe separate the normal from the abnormal
o How do these features change depending on context
o Reflect different values and social positions
o * think of power in terms of a relationship; we always act on each other
▪ Example of identification: Blue Laws in Canada
• 1982: illegal to keep your shops open on Sundays
• 1983: rule was deemed to be against religious rights of the
individual
