Lecture
The question of the causes of deviant behaviour attracts close attention from scholars. There are three main approaches that explain the origins of deviation:
1. The biological approach. Its proponents were C. Lombroso and W. Sheldon. The essence of this approach is that deviant, and in particular criminal, behaviour is conditioned by certain physical traits. For example, a protruding lower jaw, a flattened nose, sparse facial hair, reduced sensitivity to pain (C. Lombroso), or mesomorphy, that is, a body build distinguished by strength and a well-proportioned physique (W. Sheldon). In recent decades, deviance within this approach has been explained by sex-chromosome abnormalities (the presence of an extra Y chromosome).
2. The psychological approach sees the cause of deviation in psychological conflicts, problems and traumas, especially those experienced in childhood. According to S. Freud, deviant behaviour arises from a conflict between the Ego and the Id, or between the Superego and the Id. For example, crimes occur when the Superego — the individual's civilised self-control — is unable to overcome the primitive, destructive, cruel impulses of the Id. Various impulses may be suppressed, thereby passing into the unconscious layers of the psyche.
Clearly, one must agree with the view that the essence (the level) of crime or any other type of deviation cannot be explained through the analysis of a single psychological trait, conflict or complex. It is more likely that both a biological and a psychological predisposition to deviant behaviour, in some cases combined with certain social conditions, produce the corresponding result.
3. The sociological approach explains the emergence of deviation through the search for social and cultural factors affecting people.
E. Durkheim's theory of anomie (deregulation, "normlessness") holds that deviation, and suicide in particular, occurs as a result of the breakdown or absence of clear social norms. Norms govern people's behaviour: they know what to expect from others and what others expect from them. However, during crises or radical social change, people experience a state of confusion and disorientation. Statistics show that during unexpected downturns and upswings the suicide rate becomes higher than usual. Social norms break down, people lose their bearings — all of this contributes to deviant behaviour.
R. Merton's theory of anomie. In his view, deviant behaviour is caused by anomie as a mismatch between the goals proclaimed by a given culture and the socially approved means of achieving them. As part of his concept, Merton developed a typology of deviant acts by analysing five modes of adaptation: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.
Culturological theories focus on the analysis of cultural values. From the standpoint of these theories, deviation occurs when an individual identifies with a subculture whose norms contradict those of the dominant culture. The important function is performed not by contacts with impersonal organisations or institutions (legislative bodies, the church, etc.) but by everyday interaction — at school, at home, "in the street." There is an age-related pattern: the younger a person is, the more readily they adopt patterns of behaviour imposed by others.
Labelling theory (stigmatisation). Deviance is understood as the ability of influential groups in society to impose certain standards on other strata, stigmatising and branding the behaviour of less protected groups as deviant.
The conflict-theory approach. Laws and the activity of law-enforcement bodies are instruments of influence of the ruling class. Moreover, proponents of this theory regard deviants not as violators of generally accepted rules, but rather as rebels standing against a capitalist society that seeks to «isolate and confine to psychiatric hospitals, prisons and juvenile colonies large numbers of its members, who are allegedly in need of control».
Thus, social control is a mechanism by which the environment, society and the individual respond to deviant acts, and, in parallel, a system for the prevention of social deviations. It performs the function of the self-regulation of society and the protection of existing social structures.
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