sociology of deviant behavior

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Notes on the Sociology of Deviance Author(s): Kai T. Erikson Source: Social Problems, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Spring, 1962), pp. 307-314 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/798544 Accessed: 25-08-2017 14:18 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/798544?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Oxford University Press, Society for the Study of Social Problems are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Problems This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms NOTES ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE KAI T. ERIKSON University of Pittsburgh It is general practice in sociology to policies of the company required range regard deviant behavior as an alienquite ele- another. Any situation marked ment in society. Deviance is considered by this kind of ambiguity, of course, a vagrant form of human activity, movcan pose a serious dilemma for the individual: if he is careful to observe ing outside the more orderly currents of social life. And since this type oneof set of demands imposed upon him, aberration could only occur he (inruns the immediate risk of violattheory) if something were wrong withing some other, and thus may find in the social organization itself,himself decaught in a deviant stance no viant behavior is described almost as matter how earnestly he tries to avoid if it were leakage from machinery init. In this limited sense, deviance can poor condition: it is an accidental re- be regarded a "normal" human result of disorder and anomie, a symp- sponse to "abnormal" social conditions, tom of internal breakdown. and the sociologist is therefore invited The purpose of the following re-to assume that some sort of pathology marks will be to review this convenexists within the social structure when- tional outlook and to argue that it ever deviant behavior makes an ap- provides too narrow a framework forpearance. the study of deviant behavior. DeviaThis general approach is clearly tion, we will suggest, recalling Durk- more concerned with the etiology of heim's classic statement on the subject,deviant behavior than with its concan often be understood as a normal tinuing social history-and as a result product of stable institutions, a vitalit often draws sociological attention resource which is guarded and pre-away from an important area of in- served by forces found in all human quiry. It may be safe to assume that naive acts of deviance, such as first organizations.1 criminal offenses, are provoked by strains in the local situation. But this is only the beginning of a much longer According to current theory, deviant behavior is most likely to occur whenstory, for deviant activities can gener- the sanctions governing conduct inate a good deal of momentum once any given setting seem to be contra- they are set into motion: they develop dictory.2 This would be the case, for forms of organization, persist over example, if the work rules posted bytime, and sometimes remain intact a company required one course of ac-long after the strains which originally tion from its employees and the longer-produced them have disappeared. In this respect, deviant activities are often Paper read at the 55th annual meetingsabsorbed into the main tissue of society of the American Sociological Association,and derive support from the same New York, 1960. forces which stabilize other forms of 1 Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Socio-social life. There are persons in sological Method (translated by S. A. Solovay ciety, for example, who make career and J. H. Mueller), Glencoe: The Free Press, 1958. commitments to deviant styles of con- 2 The best known statements of this gen-duct, impelled by some inner need for eral position, of course, are by Robert K.continuity rather than by any urgenMerton and Talcott Parsons. Merton, Social cies in the immediate social setting. Theory and Social Structures (revised edi- tion), Glencoe: The Free Press, 1957; and There are groups in society which Parsons, The Social System, Glencoe: The actively encourage new deviant trends, Free Press, 1951. often prolonging them beyond the This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 308 SOCIAL PROBLEMS correct spoon atan mealtime, taking good point where they represent adap- care sources of his mother, or otherwise observtion to strain. These of sup- ing the mores his society-and if port for deviant behavior are of difficult to visualize when we use terms like the community elects to bring sanc"strain," "anomie," or "breakdown" in tions against him for the occasions discussions of the problem. Such termswhen he does act offensively, it is may help us explain how the socialresponding to a few deviant details structure creates fresh deviant poten- set within a vast context of proper tial, but they do not help us explainconduct. Thus a person may be jailed how that potential is later shaped into or hospitalized for a few scattered modurable, persisting social patterns.3 Thements of misbehavior, defined as a fullindividual's need for self continuitytime deviant despite the fact that he and the group's offer of support are had supplied the community with altogether normal processes, even ifcountless other indications that he was they are sometimes found in deviant a decent, moral citizen. The screening situations; and thus the study of de- device which sifts these telling details viant behavior is as much a study ofout of the individual's over-all persocial organization as it is a study of formance, then, is a sensitive instrument of social control. It is important disorganization and anomie. II to note that this screen takes a number of factors into account which are From a sociological standpoint, de- not directly related to the deviant act viance can be defined as conduct whichitself: it is concerned with the actor's is generally thought to require the at- social class, his past record as an oftention of social control agencies--fender, the amount of remorse he manthat is, conduct about which "some-ages to convey, and many similar conthing should be done." Deviance is notcerns which take hold in the shifting a property inherent in certain forms moods of the community. This is why of behavior; it is a property conferredthe community often overlooks beupon these forms by the audienceshavior which seems technically deviant which directly or indirectly witness(like certain kinds of white collar them. Sociologically, then, the criticalgraft) or takes sharp exception to bevariable in the study of deviance is thehavior which seems essentially harmsocial audience rather than the indi- less (like certain kinds of sexual imvidual person, since it is the audience propriety). It is an easily demonstrated which eventually decides whether or fact, for example, that working class not any given action or actions willboys who steal cars are far more likely to go to prison than upper class boys become a visible case of deviation. This definition may seem a little who commit the same or even more indirect, but it has the advantage ofserious crimes, suggesting that from bringing a neglected sociological issue the point of view of the community lower class offenders are somehow into proper focus. When a community acts to control the behavior of one ofmore deviant. To this extent, the comits members, it is engaged in a verymunity screen is perhaps a more releintricate process of selection. Even avant subject for. sociological research than the actual behavior which is determined miscreant conforms in most of his daily behavior-using the filtered through it. Once the problem is phrased in this 8Cf. Daniel Glaser and Kent Rice, way, we can ask: how does a communi- "Crime, Age, and Employment," American ty decide what forms of conduct should Sociological Review, 24 (1959), pp. 67986. be singled out for this kind of atten. This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Notes on the Sociology of Deviance 309 tion? And why, having madeciple this of a system, then, is essentially a centripetal one: it draws the behavior choice, does it create special instituactors toward the nucleus of the tions to deal with the persons of who enact them? The standard answer to system, bringing it within range of this question is that society sets up basic norms. Any conduct which is the machinery of control in order toneither attracted toward this nerve protect itself against the "harmful" center by the rewards of conformity effects of deviance, in much the same nor compelled toward it by other social pressures is considered "out of control," way that an organism mobilizes its resources to combat an invasion of which is to say, deviant. germs. At times, however, this class-This basic model has provided the room convention only seems to make theme for most contemporary thinking about deviance, and as a result the problem more complicated. In the first place, as Durkheim pointed out little attention has been given to the some years ago, it is by no means clear notion that systems operate to mainthat all acts considered deviant in a tain boundaries. Generally speaking, boundaries are controls which limit the culture are in fact (or even in princi- ple) harmful to group life.4 And fluctuation in of a system's component parts so that the whole retains a dethe second place, specialists in crime and mental health have long suggested fined range of activity-a unique patthat deviance can play an important tern of constancy and stability-within role in keeping the social order intact the larger environment.6 The range of -again a point we owe originally human to behavior is potentially so great that any social system must make clear Durkheim.5 This has serious implicastatements about the nature and locations for sociological theory in general. tion of its boundaries, placing limits III on the flow of behavior so that it cir- In recent years, sociological theory culates within a given cultural area. Thus boundaries are a crucial point of with the concept "social system"-anreference for persons living within any has become more and more concerned organization of society's componentsystem, a prominent concept in the parts into a form which sustains in-group's special language and tradition. ternal equilibrium, resists change, and A juvenile gang may define its boundais boundary maintaining. Now thisries by the amount of territory it deconcept has many abstract dimensions, fends, a professional society by the but it is generally used to describerange of subjects it discusses, a fraterthose forces in the social order which nal order by the variety of members it promote a high level of uniformity accepts. But in each case, members among human actors and a high de- share the same idea as to where the gree of symmetry within human in- group begins and ends in social space stitutions. In this sense, the concept is and know what kinds of experience normatively oriented since it directs "belong" within this domain. the observer's attention toward those For all its apparent abstractness, a centers in social space where the core social system is organized around the values of society are figuratively lo-movements of persons joined together cated. The main organizational prin-in regular social relations. The only material found in a system for mark- 4 Emile Durkheim, The Division of ing boundaries, then, is the behavior Labor in Society (translated by George of its participants; and the form of beSimpson), Glencoe: The Free Press, 1952. See particularly Chapter 2, Book 1. 5 Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Socio6 Cf. Talcott Parsons, The Social System, logical Method, op. cit. op. cit. This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 310 SOCIAL PROBLEMS havior which best ceive? performs this funcPerhaps they satisfy a number of psychological perversities among the by definition, since it is the most exmass audience, as many commentators treme variety of conduct to be foundhave suggested, but at the same time within the experience of the group. they constitute our main source of inIn this respect, transactions takingformation about the normative outlines place between deviant persons on the of society. They are lessons through tion would seem to be deviant almost which we teach one another what the one side and agencies of control on the other are boundary maintaining norms mean and how far they extend. mechanisms. They mark the outside In a figurative sense, at least, morality limits of the area in which the norm and immorality meet at the public has jurisdiction, and in this way assertscaffold, and it is during this meeting how much diversity and variability canthat the community declares where the be contained within the system beforeline between them should be drawn. it begins to lose its distinct structure, Human groups need to regulate the its unique shape. routine affairs of everyday life, and to A social norm is rarely expressed asthis end the norms provide an impor- a firm rule or official code. It is an tant focus for behavior. But human groups also need to describe and anabstract synthesis of the many separate ticipate those areas of being which lie times a community has stated its sentibeyond the immediate borders of the ments on a given issue. Thus the norm group-the unseen dangers which in has a history much like that of an any culture and in any age seem to article of common law: it is an accum- ulation of decisions made by the com- threaten the security of group life. The munity over a long period of time universal folklore depicting demons, which gradually gathers enough moral devils, witches and evil spirits may be influence to serve as a precedent for one way to give form to these otherfuture decisions. Like an article of wise formless dangers, but the visible deviant is another kind of reminder. common law, the norm retains its validity only if it is regularly used asAs a trespasser against the norm, he a basis for judgment. Each time therepresents those forces excluded by the community censures some act of de- group's boundaries: he informs us, as viance, then, it sharpens the authorityit were, what evil looks like, what of the violated norm and re-establishes shapes the devil can assume. In doing so, he shows us the difference between the boundaries of the group. One of the most interesting features of control institutions, in this regard, is the amount of publicity they have always attracted. In an earlier day, correction of deviant offenders took place kinds of experience which belong within the group and kinds of experience which belong outside it. Thus deviance cannot be dismissed as behavior which disrupts stability in in the public market and gave the society, but is itself, in controlled quancrowd a chance to display its interest tities, an important condition for prein a direct, active way. In our own serving stability. day, the guilty are no longer paraded in public places, but instead we are confronted by a heavy flow of news- IV This raises a serious theoretical paper and radio reports which offer question. If we grant that deviant be- much the same kind of entertainment. Why are these reports considered "newsworthy" and why do they rate the extraordinary attention they re- havior often performs a valuable service in society, can we then assume that society as a whole actively tries to pro- mote this resource? Can we assume, This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Notes on the Sociology of Deviance 311 in other words, that some kind of active sharp rite of transition, at once moving recruitment process is going on to ashim out of his normal position in sosure society of a steady volume of ciety devi-and transferring him into a distinct deviant role.8 The ceremonies ance? Sociology has not yet developed a conceptual language in which which this accomplish this change of status, sort of question can be discussed withusually, have three related phases. They out a great deal of circularity, butarrange one a formal confrontation beobservation can be made which tween gives the deviant suspect and reprethe question an interesting perspective sentatives of his community (as in the -namely, that deviant activities often criminal trial or psychiatric case conseem to derive support from the very ference); they announce some judgagencies designed to suppress them. ment about the nature of his deviancy Indeed, the institutions devised (a by "verdict" or "diagnosis," for examhuman society for guarding against ple); and they perform an act of social deviance sometimes seem so poorly placement, assigning him to a special equipped for this task that we might deviant role (like that of "prisoner" well ask why this is considered their or "patient") for some period of time. Such ceremonies tend to be events of "real" function at all. It is by now a thoroughly familiar wide public interest and ordinarily argument that many of the institutions take place in a dramatic, ritualized built to inhibit deviance actually opersetting.9 Perhaps the most obvious exate in such a way as to perpetuate it. of a commitment ceremony is ample criminal trial, with its elaborate For one thing, prisons, hospitals,the and other agencies of control provideritual aid and formality, but more modest and protection for large numbers of equivalents can be found almost anydeviant persons. But beyond this, where such that procedures are set up for institutions gather marginal people judging inwhether or not someone is to tightly segregated groups, give officially them deviant. an opportunity to teach one another An important feature of these cerethe skills and attitudes of a deviant monies in our culture is that they are career, and even drive them into using almost irreversible. Most provisional these skills by reinforcing their sense roles conferred by society-like those of alienation from the rest of society.7 of the student or citizen soldier, for This process is found not only in theinstance-include some kind of terinstitutions which actually confine the minal ceremony to mark the individual's movement back out of the role deviant, but in the general community as well. once its temporary advantages have The community's decision to bring been exhausted. But the roles allotted deviant sanctions against an individualto the deviant seldom make allowance is not a simple act of censure. It is afor this type of passage. He is ushered into the special position by a decisive and dramatic ceremony, yet is retired 7 For a good description of this process in the modern prison, see Gresham Sykes, from it with hardly a word of public The Society of Captives, Princeton: Princenotice. As a result, the deviant often ton University Press, 1958. For views of returns home with no proper license two different types of mental hospital settings, see Erving Goffman, "The Char-to resume a normal life in the com- acteristics of Total Institutions," Symposium on Preventive and Social Psychiatry, Wash- 8 Talcott Parsons, op cit., has given the ington, D. C.: Walter Reed Army Institute classical description of how this role transof Research, 1957; and Kai T. Erikson, fer works in the case of medical patients. 9 Cf. Harold Garfinkel, "Successful Deg"Patient Role and Social Uncertainty: A Dilemma of the Mentally Ill," Psychiatry, radation Ceremonies," American Journal of 20 (1957), pp. 263-74. Sociology, 61 (1956), pp. 420-24. This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 312 SOCIAL PROBLEMS munity. From a ritual point of view, stant pool of suspects. Nor could psynothing has happened cancel out chiatric clinicsto do a responsible job if the stigmas imposed him by they did notupon view former patients as earlier commitment ceremonies: the a group unusually susceptible to mental original verdict or diagnosis is still illness. Thus the prophecy gains curformally in effect. Partly for this rearency at many levels within the social son, the community is apt to place the order, not only in the poorly informed returning deviant on some formattitudes of of the community at large, but in the best informed theories of probation within the group, suspicious most control agencies as well. that he will return to deviant activity upon a moment's provocation. In one form or another, this problem has been known to Western culA circularity is thus set into motion ture for many hundreds of years, and which has all the earmarks of a "selffulfilling prophecy," to use Merton's this simple fact is a very important fine phrase. On the one hand, it seems one for sociology. For if the culture obvious that the apprehensions of the has supported a steady flow of deviant community help destroy whatever behavior throughout long periods of chances the deviant might otherwise historical evolution, then the rules have for a successful return to society. which apply to any form of functionalYet, on the other hand, everyday ex- ist thinking would suggest that strong perience seems to show that these ap- forces must be at work to keep this prehensions are altogether reasonable, flow intact. This may not be reason for it is a well-known and highly pub- enough to assert that deviant behavior is altogether "functional"-in any of licized fact that most ex-convicts rethe many senses of that term-but it turn to prison and that a large propor- tion of mental patients require addi- should make us reluctant to assume tional treatment after once having that the agencies of control are somebeen discharged. The community's feel- how organized to prevent deviant acts ing that deviant persons cannot change, from occurring or to "cure" deviant offenders of their misbehavior.'0 then, may be based on a faulty premise, This in turn might suggest that our but it is repeated so frequently and with such conviction that it eventually present models of the social system, creates the facts which "prove" it cor- with their clear emphasis on harmony rect. If the returned deviant encounters and symmetry in social relations, only this feeling of distrust often enough, it do a partial job of representing reality. is understandable that he too may be- Perhaps two different (and often congin to wonder if the original verdict or flicting) currents are found within any diagnosis is still in effect-and respond well-functioning system: those forces to this uncertainty by resuming deviant which promote a high over-all degree of conformity among human actors, activity. In some respects, this solution may be the only way for the individual and those forces which encourage some degree of diversity so that actors can be and his community to agree what forms of behavior are appropriate for deployed throughout social space to him. 10 Albert K. Cohen, for example, speakMoreover, this prophecy is found in ing for most sociologists, seems to take the official policies of even the most the question for granted: "It would seem advanced agencies of control. Police that the control of deviant behavior is, by departments could not operate with definition, a culture goal." In "The Study any real effectiveness if they did not of Social Disorganization and Deviant Be- havior," Merton, et al., editors, Sociology regard ex-convicts as an almost per- Today. New York: Basic Books, 1959, p. manent population of offenders, a con- 465. This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Notes on the Sociology of Deviance 313 mark the system's boundaries. Inquiry such altogether. Perhaps the stability a scheme, deviant behavior wouldofapsome social units is maintained only pear as a variation on normative if juvenile offenders are recruited to themes, a vital form of activity which balance an adult majority; perhaps outlines the area within which social some families can remain intact only if one of their members becomes a life as such takes place. visible deviant or is committed to a As Georg Simmel wrote some years ago: hospital or prison. If this supposition proves to be a useful one, sociologists An absolutely centripetal and harmonious should be interested in discovering group, a pure "unification," not only is empirically unreal, it could show no real how a social unit manages to differenlife process. . . Just as the universe tiate the roles of its members and how needs "love and hate," that is, attractive certain persons are "chosen" to play and repulsive forces, in order to have any form at all, so society, too, in order the more deviant parts. to attain a determinate shape, needs some quantitative ratio of harmony and dis- Second, it is evident that cultures harmony, of association and competition, vary in the way they regulate traffic of favorable and unfavorable tendencies. moving back and forth from their de. . . Society, as we know it, is the re- sult of both categories of interaction, which thus both manifest themselves as wholly positive.11 V In summary, two new lines of inquiry seem to be indicated by the argument presented above. First, this paper attempts to focus our attention on an old but still vital viant boundaries. Perhaps we could begin with the hypothesis that the traffic pattern known in our own culture has a marked Puritan cast: a defined portion of the population, largely drawn from young adult groups and from the lower economic classes, is stabilized in deviant roles and generally expected to remain there for indefi- nite periods of time. To this extent, sociological question: how does a so-Puritan attitudes about predestination cial structure communicate its "needs" and reprobation would seem to have or impose its "patterns" on human retained a significant place in modern actors? In the present case, how does criminal law and public opinion. In a social structure enlist actors to en- other areas of the world, however, dif- gage in deviant activity? Ordinarily, ferent traffic patterns are known. There the fact that deviant behavior is more are societies in which deviance is con- common in some sectors of society sidered a natural pursuit for the young, than in others is explained by declar- an activity which they can easily abaning that something called "anomie" or don when they move through defined "disorganization" prevails at these sensitive spots. Deviance leaks out ceremonies into adulthood. There are human actors. But if we consider the societies in which special groups are societies which give license to large where the social machinery is defec- groups of persons to engage in deviant tive; it occurs where the social struc- behavior for certain seasons or on ture fails to communicate its needs to certain days of the year. And there are possibility that deviant persons are re-formed to act in ways "contrary" to sponding to the same social forces thatthe normal expectations of the culture. elicit conformity from others, then weEach of these patterns regulates de- are engaged in another order of in-viant traffic differently, yet all of them provide some institutionalized means for an actor to give up a deviant 11 Georg Simmel, Conflict (translated by "career" without permanent stigma. Kurt H. Wolff), Glencoe: The Free Press, 1955, pp. 15-16. The problem for sociological theory in This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 314 SOCIAL PROBLEMS general might be toanything learn whether to learn orfrom not these varying patterns which permit are funcre-entry in tionally equivalent in some cial life meaningto persons who ful sense; the problem applied on soc periodfor of "service" sociology might be ries. to see if we have COMPONENTS OF VARIATION IN CITY CRIME RATES KARL SCHUESSLER Indiana University Introduction. A persistent issue in peripheral to that problem by a correcriminology is whether crime lational is theanalysis of selected crime rates social characteristics of all Ameriproduct of general social factors and which canits cities, 100,000 population or more, universally determine the rate of 1950. The immediate objective was occurrence; or the consequence of cirdetermine whether the variation in cumstances specific to a giventosocial theThis crime rate of these 105 large cities setting and wanting in generality. could problem finds informal expression inbe statistically explained by a small such questions as "Does crime vary as number of general factors, or whether the degree of normative conflict?" "as a multiplicity of factors would be "as required. A second task of equal the degree of social deprivation?" importance but greater difficulty was the degree of economic need?"-as if establish, if possible, the sociological crime were a simple, mechanical to function of normative disorder, thwarted meaning of any statistical factors that social ambition, or economic insuffimight emerge in the analysis. ciency. Such broad questionsData. have The crime rates were based on served not only as a point of departure records of "offenses known to the pofor numerous empirical studies, but lice," as given in Uniform Crime Rehave been as well the occasion for ports; and the social and economic data were obtained principally from of Ferri, Garofalo, and Bonger. AlUnited States Census publications. Adthough criminologists are currently mittedly, these data are fallible-in much theorizing in the grand manner more absorbed by theories applicable particular, the police records-but still to a limited range of facts, such as not so unreliable as to be unworthy of theories of embezzlement and lower analysis. class delinquency, they have always For each city, average annual rates been intrigued by the possibility of per 100,000 population, 15 +, for the discovering social elements common to period 1949-51, were computed for seven major offenses, listed below Purpose. This study provides evidence (Table 1) along with corresponding all crime. medians and extreme values.' Read before Criminology Section of Ohio Valley Sociological Society, Annual Next listed (Table 2) are the 20 independent variables, which, aside Meeting, April 21-22, 1961, Cleveland, from their ready availability, were seOhio. The author is indebted to Lelah The decision to analyze offense-specific Padilla, Gerald Slatin, Roland Chilton,1 and rates rather than a general crime rate reCherry Carter who assisted in various phases of the statistical work; also to the flects the assumption that crime is not a Graduate School of Indiana University for unitary phenomenon, and that different financial assistance. kinds of crime have different causes. This content downloaded from 130.101.140.126 on Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:18:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
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