1. Heckert and Heckert view deviance as both objective and subjective by considering the internal and external forces that influence an individual to go against the norms of the social group that they exist in. The authors review four different approaches of deviance and explain the social contexts in which they come up. The Absolutist approach viewed all deviance as the same and all people who did not conform to these universally accepted social norms were labelled as deviants, whereas the Relativist approach is based on a reactive response. This means that a certain behavior could be considered either deviant or non-deviant by different societies, depending on the interpretation by audience who has the power to label one as deviant. Lastly, …show more content…
Negative deviance refers to behaviors that fail to conform to the society’s norms and result in negative outcomes. Rate busting are behaviors that conform to these norms but result in negative reactions. Deviance admiration can be attributed to a situation where there is under conformity with the society’s norms, but the reactions to these actions are positive. Positive deviance refers to over conformity to the existing norms that leads to positive views. A good number of norms within the middle class can be characterized as belonging to these four definitions. For instance, apostasy versus group loyalty, intrusion versus privacy, indiscretion versus prudence, deceitfulness versus honesty and uncouthness versus courtesy are some of the norms applied to negative deviance. Fanaticism versus group loyalty, provincialism versus conventionality, assertion versus moderation and obsequiousness versus courtesy are some of the norms categorized under rate busting. Rebellion versus group loyalty, investigation versus privacy, exhibitionism versus prudence and irreverence versus courtesy are norms categorized under deviance admiration. Altruism versus group loyalty, circumspection versus privacy, discretion versus prudence and courtesy versus gentility are some of the norms under positive …show more content…
Chesney-Lind notes that the juvenile justice system reinforces the subordination of women and promotes the subjectivity of females within the American society. She asserts that there is need for a feminist approach to deviance theory which takes “gender stratification” into account. because our society has double standards for judging girls and boys at very early ages where the moral regulation of women is enforced through more stringent laws. The number of status offences that may subject females to court proceedings are generally higher than males. For crimes that are considered traditionally male-affiliated like assault and robbery, women are likely to earn harsher rulings than their male counterparts. Many females within prisons have fallen victims to sexual or physical assault at one time in their lives. This is what pushes them into defying the society’s norms and venturing into crime such as robbery and prostitution. The strictness with which the society treats crime cases involving females has advanced this deviance and these individuals have criminalized all their survival strategies. Therefore, it is likely that a good number of individuals who go against the society’s norms do so because of the hostility and alienation that they undergo from the rest of the society