Deviance and Social Control Study Pack
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Last updated May 28, 2026
Deviance and Social Control Study Guide
Unpack how societies define, label, and control deviance through key frameworks from Durkheim, Becker, and Merton — covering strain theory, labeling theory, conflict theory, and both formal and informal social control mechanisms.
Key Takeaways
- •Deviance is defined not by the act itself but by whether a society labels it as a violation of shared norms, meaning the same behavior can be deviant in one context and acceptable in another.
- •Émile Durkheim argued that deviance performs positive social functions, including reinforcing collective norms, promoting social solidarity, and signaling where social boundaries need to change.
- •Formal social control relies on written laws and official institutions such as police, courts, and prisons, while informal social control operates through everyday social pressures like ridicule, ostracism, and praise.
- •Labeling theory, associated with Howard Becker, holds that deviance is not an inherent quality of an act but a consequence of how others categorize and respond to it — those labeled deviant often internalize that identity, a process called secondary deviance.
- •Strain theory, developed by Robert Merton, identifies five adaptations people use when they cannot reach culturally valued goals through legitimate means: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.
- •Conflict theory frames deviant labels as tools of power, arguing that dominant groups use definitions of deviance to criminalize behaviors associated with less powerful populations while protecting their own interests.
- •Social control mechanisms — both formal and informal — work together to maintain conformity to norms, but their effectiveness and fairness vary significantly across different social groups.
Defining Deviance: Norms, Relativity, and Social Context
Deviance cannot be understood as a fixed property of specific acts; it is defined relationally, through the standards a particular society or group uses to judge behavior at a particular time.
What Deviance Means in Sociological Terms
- •Deviance refers to any behavior, belief, or condition that violates the norms of a social group and draws a negative reaction from members of that group.
- •Norms themselves fall on a spectrum from folkways (minor customs like table manners) to mores (serious moral standards) to laws (formally codified rules), and violating each carries different social consequences.
- •Because norms differ across cultures and historical periods, deviance is culturally and historically relative — cannabis use, for example, has shifted from criminal deviance to legal activity in many U.S. jurisdictions within a single generation.
Stigma and the Social Construction of Deviance
- •Sociologist Erving Goffman introduced the concept of stigma to describe the deeply discrediting marks — physical, behavioral, or social — that reduce a person from a full social participant to a 'tainted' one in others' eyes.
- •Stigmatized individuals face social exclusion, discrimination, and damaged identity, illustrating that the social reaction to a behavior is often more consequential than the behavior itself.
- •The same act (e.g., killing another person) can be celebrated as heroism in war and condemned as murder in civilian life, confirming that context — not the act alone — determines deviant status.
Why Deviance Exists: Functional and Structural Explanations
Several major theoretical traditions explain why deviance arises and what role it plays in social life, with Durkheimian functionalism and Mertonian strain theory offering two of the most influential structural accounts.
Durkheim's Functionalist View of Deviance
- •Émile Durkheim argued, controversially, that deviance is a normal and necessary feature of any healthy society rather than a sign of social breakdown.
- •When a society responds collectively to a deviant act, it clarifies and reinforces shared moral boundaries — members reaffirm what they stand for by identifying what they stand against.
- •Deviance can also serve as an early indicator that existing norms no longer fit changing social conditions, functioning as a pressure valve that eventually drives moral and legal reform.
- •Durkheim introduced the concept of anomie to describe the social instability and normlessness that results when norms weaken or collapse — a condition he linked to elevated rates of crime and suicide.
Merton's Strain Theory and Modes of Adaptation
- •Robert Merton extended the concept of anomie, arguing that strain occurs when a society promotes culturally valued goals (such as wealth) but does not provide equal access to the legitimate institutional means (education, employment) needed to reach them.
- •Conformists accept both the goals and the legitimate means, while innovators accept the goals but substitute illegitimate means — theft or fraud, for example — when legitimate paths are blocked.
- •Ritualists abandon the goal of success but continue mechanically following the rules; retreatists reject both goals and means, withdrawing from mainstream society entirely (e.g., through chronic substance use).
- •Rebels reject existing goals and means and substitute new ones, seeking to restructure society rather than participate in it as currently organized.
- •Strain theory is especially useful for explaining property crime and white-collar crime in societies with high inequality between cultural aspirations and actual opportunity.
Labeling Theory: How Reactions Shape Identity and Career
Labeling theory shifts analytical focus away from the deviant act and toward the social process by which certain individuals come to be identified, treated, and ultimately transformed by the label 'deviant.'
Primary and Secondary Deviance
- •Sociologist Edwin Lemert distinguished between primary deviance — an initial rule violation that the person has not yet incorporated into their self-concept — and secondary deviance, which occurs when a person internalizes a deviant identity in response to societal reaction.
- •The secondary deviant reorganizes their life around the deviant role, often because legitimate social participation becomes difficult once the label is applied (e.g., a criminal record blocks employment).
Howard Becker and Moral Entrepreneurs
- •Howard Becker argued that deviance is not a quality of the act but 'a consequence of the application of rules and sanctions by others,' meaning an act is only deviant when someone with social power successfully labels it as such.
- •Becker introduced the concept of moral entrepreneurs — individuals or organizations that campaign to create or enforce rules, often by dramatizing a perceived threat and mobilizing public alarm.
- •Those who are successfully labeled deviant become 'outsiders,' a status that fundamentally alters their social relationships and future opportunities.
Differential Application of Labels
- •Research consistently shows that deviant labels are applied unequally across race, class, gender, and age lines — individuals from marginalized groups are more likely to be noticed, reported, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for equivalent behaviors.
- •This differential labeling means official statistics on deviance reflect not just actual behavior but also patterns of surveillance and enforcement targeting specific populations.
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What does it mean that deviance is 'culturally and historically relative'?
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Social Relativity of Deviance
Explain what it means to say that deviance is 'socially constructed' or relative. Why can't we define deviance simply by looking at the act itself, and what does that tell us about how norms work across different cultures or time periods?
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