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The Other side : perspectives on deviance / edited by Howard S. Becker
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... La desviación no surge de la nada, no es una «tara» del individuo, sino que es algo que surge en la interacción con los otros, siendo entendida, tal y como expone Durkheim, «como un producto normal de instituciones estables» (Erikson, 1964: 9). La desviación, siguiendo esta línea de pensamiento, la crean los propios grupos sociales, que elaboran reglas cuya infracción constituye desviación, reglas que aplican a gente específica a la que etiquetan como outsiders, tal y como defiende Becker (1964). Desde esta perspectiva la desviación, lejos de ser una cualidad del acto que comete la persona, es una consecuencia de la aplicación que otros hacen de las reglas y sanciones hacia un offender (Becker, 1964) 1 , siendo el desviado la persona a la cual se le ha aplicado la etiqueta con éxito. ...
... Este etiquetaje y la estigmatización asociada no son un mero capricho o casualidad, sino que son de gran utilidad para la sociedad, que establece así la maquinaria de control para protegerse a sí misma contra los efectos «dañinos» de la desviación; a pesar de que, tal y como defendieron Durkheim y Mead, no está claro de ningún modo que todos los actos considerados desviados en una cultura sean, de hecho, dañinos para la vida del grupo (Erikson, 1964). Aun así, queda claro que el comportamiento desviado existe y sigue presente debido a que juega una parte importante en el mantenimiento del orden social intacto: la desviación constituye una herramienta esencial que sirve para preservar la estabilidad al mostrar cuáles son los límites del grupo (Erikson, 1964), a los que se habrá de ceñir el individuo para no ser marginado ni estigmatizado; puesto que a todo aquel que se salga de dichos límites se le percibe como incapaz de utilizar las oportunidades de progreso existentes en diversos caminos aprobados por la sociedad, como representante de un fracaso dentro de los esquemas motivacionales de la sociedad (Goffman, 1970). ...
... Este etiquetaje y la estigmatización asociada no son un mero capricho o casualidad, sino que son de gran utilidad para la sociedad, que establece así la maquinaria de control para protegerse a sí misma contra los efectos «dañinos» de la desviación; a pesar de que, tal y como defendieron Durkheim y Mead, no está claro de ningún modo que todos los actos considerados desviados en una cultura sean, de hecho, dañinos para la vida del grupo (Erikson, 1964). Aun así, queda claro que el comportamiento desviado existe y sigue presente debido a que juega una parte importante en el mantenimiento del orden social intacto: la desviación constituye una herramienta esencial que sirve para preservar la estabilidad al mostrar cuáles son los límites del grupo (Erikson, 1964), a los que se habrá de ceñir el individuo para no ser marginado ni estigmatizado; puesto que a todo aquel que se salga de dichos límites se le percibe como incapaz de utilizar las oportunidades de progreso existentes en diversos caminos aprobados por la sociedad, como representante de un fracaso dentro de los esquemas motivacionales de la sociedad (Goffman, 1970). Se hace, entonces, evidente que la función de la mala reputación es el control social, tanto formal como informal (Goffman, 1970), tal y como se produce aquí en el caso de los jóvenes y adolescentes multados y «sometidos» que viven en sus propias carnes la crudeza de saltarse las limitaciones impuestas por el sistema. ...
The number of fines issued for drug taking is increasing
and the majority of these are issued to people under the age of
25. An alternative approach is to make them undergo therapeutic
sessions to help them stop taking drugs; however, this is often
done without taking into account the damage that therapy can
cause if an individual does not believe they have a problem. These
policies harm both young people and health professionals and lead
young people to associate health with coercion, thus reducing the
likelihood of them seeking specialized healthcare once they actually
do have a real problem with drugs.
... The poverty problem…in its lower class form consists of people who would live in squalor and misery even if their incomes were doubled or tripled. The lower-class forms of all problems are at bottom a single problem: the existence of an outlook or style of life which is radically presentoriented and which therefore attaches no value to work, sacrifice, self-improvement, or service to family, friends, or community, social workers, teachers, and law enforcement officials -all those whom Gans calls the " caretakers " cannot achieve their goals because they can neither change nor circumvent this culture obstacle [Banfield 1970: 211] Research from the 1970s also stressed homeless individuals are " disaffiliated " from their family and friends (Bahr 1970Bahr , 1973 Bahr and Caplow 1973; Becker 1964; Blumberg et al. 1973; Bogue 1963; Wiseman 1979) The theories of Frazer, Banfield, and others dominated well into the 1980s, when assaults on the welfare state began to dismantle the safety net poor and homeless people, 1950-1980, in many ways led the attack. Targeting systemic explanations, Murray argued pervasiveness in social and economic policies contributed to the growth in homelessness and poverty in the 1970s, leading to an explosion of homelessness in the 1980s. ...
... Deregulation and a growing criticism of the welfare state by the new intellectual elite helped quicken its end. Interpretations of the federal antipoverty effort have tended to differ according to the political affiliation and ideology of the interpreter. Becker 1964; Bogue 1963). This research concluded homelessness " is a condition of detachment from society characterized by the absence or attenuation of the affiliative bonds that link settled persons to a network of interconnected social structures " (Bahr 1973: 17). Its formula of " disenfranchisement not defectiveness " could have supported syst ...
Homelessness poses an enduring and formidable challenge to 21st-century urban America. My work draws from three years of ethnographic research on the streets and in the social service agencies of Lawrence, Kansas. I formally interviewed 31 people made up of shelter employees, board members, and homeless clients of the Lawrence Community Shelter and the Salvation Army emergency shelter. Eight people defined themselves as homeless, six were members of advisory boards associated with the shelters, and 17 were shelter employees. The central claim of this thesis is that beliefs about the causes of homelessness, and constructions of the homeless person, contain two distinct discourses: the systemic and the individual-based. Embedded in social policy, academic literature, and popular culture, these discourses influence care-provision for the homeless. My research investigated discourses at two emergency shelters and how they affected the shelter's operational strategies. "Theories on Homelessness" outlines the two discourses I identify as primary. Chapter Three traces those discourses through American history. The final chapters present my data and findings, offer some conclusions, and suggestions for future research.
... This has been prompted out of a general understanding that work is first and foremost, as Brown (1978) explained, an experience and a tool for communicating difference and social stratification. This is most vividly reflected in the views one holds about the social world and in expectations of social protection and mobility (Becker, 1964; Kassimati, 2004). But there is also a second more particular reason for pressing ahead with such an inquiry. ...
Central to this paper is the relationship between work and welfare marginalization ofmigrant women domestic workers. Based upon the findings of a recent (2005-2007)research study on Albanian and Ukrainian domestic workers’ access to socialinsurance, medical and children’s care (i.e. nurseries, kindergartens), the paper claimsthat welfare barriers are constituted around lack of resources, discriminations as well asconditions and values at work.At the highest level of generality, paid domestic work is considered part of aneconomic activity that is increasingly difficult to relate with the official state policiesand welfare provisions, because of its fluid and personalized work conditions.However, the typical processes, routes followed, and set of ideas developed by migrantwomen in domestic work in order e.g to maintain employability, necessitate theadoption of practices and values which sustain and enhance existing welfare barriers tothe above mentioned services.The first part of the paper explores the role of low status jobs in welfare ideas andpractices. The second part refers to the case of Albanian cleaners and Ukrainian carersworking in Greece, their work conditions and values, and how both contribute to welfare limits.
... Uncited references [3,13,16,17,19,26,34,46,53]. ...
As the open source movement grows, it becomes important to understand the dynamics that affect the motivation of participants who contribute their time freely to such projects. One important motivation that has been identified is the desire for formal recognition in the open source community. We investigated the impact of social capital in participants’ social networks on their recognition-based performance; i.e., the formal status they are accorded in the community. We used a sample of 465 active participants in the Wikipedia open content encyclopedia community to investigate the effects of two types of social capital and found that network closure, measured by direct and indirect ties, had a significant positive effect on increasing participants’ recognition-based performance. Structural holes had mixed effects on participants’ status, but were generally a source of social capital.
... For understanding the behaviour of a person one needs to understand how this person defines reality rather than how reality " is " in an objective sense. This relationship between meaning and behaviour is explained by what sociologists called the phenomenon of " self-fulfilling prophesies " (Becker, 1964; Merton, 1968). Dealing with Propositional Ambiguity in Business Process Improvement 4 ...
If it is true that people express their views about organisational issues in ambiguous terms then one needs to address this ambiguity instead of the ‘problems’ to find an appropriate methodological approach to resolving or dissolving problem situations in the organisation. This paper highlights and discusses those issues, which therefore relate to ambiguityin relation to decision making tasks within organisations, and the related Soft Systems Methodology / Systems Thinking school of thought, which traditionally constrains such ambiguities. A model of these issues is presented in terms of the Business Process Improvement (BPI) task to highlight these interdependencies.
A large literature in social science examines the economics of crime and its
resultant effects on all aspects of society, but reasons associated with a return to
penal institutions for subsequent crimes are far from definitive. Recidivism
remains a socially vexing issue that pervades all aspects of society. The social, economic, and emotional costs to victims and the community are non-trivial.
Despite increasing research on the factors associated with individuals returning to
crimes, global rates of recidivism remain high. This chapter begins by offering a
detailed background on the study of recidivism as well as providing a global
perspective to the analysis, which is followed by a discussion and application of
Becker’s seminal work on crime to the topic of recidivism. Given the challenges
in comparing recidivism rates, this chapter then discusses key issues associated
with the measurement of recidivism. In conclusion, the chapter offers some policy suggestions for mitigating recidivism with attention paid to the role of public and private sectors in becoming more targeted in their approach to tackling recidivism. The growth in prison populations around the world and the accompanying increase in recidivism, by any measure, has stressed the socioeconomic fabric of society and policies aimed to mitigate, much less prevent, a return to the penal system have yielded far too little benefits.
Through analysing the history, meaning and context of ‘knife crime’ we can challenge certain misunderstandings, ambiguities and fabrications wrapped up in the concept. However, working beneath the political discourses and the pronouncements of policy makers (and the ‘knife crime industry’) there are professionals who confront the complex realities of interpersonal violence in everyday practices and actions. And there are also young people themselves. Drawing on qualitative research with both youth justice practitioners and focus groups involving seventy-eight young people in southeast London, this chapter provides a grounded sociological understanding of the shifting experiences of youth that are concealed and obscured by assumptions contained within the ‘knife crime’ label. Empirical accounts of gentrification, exploitation, institutional racism, over-policing and community fragmentation are presented here—in order to provide an alternative understanding of the knife crime phenomenon through the lived realities of those most impacted by the label and its meaning.
This chapter begins with a brief philosophical discussion of three paradigmatic approaches underlying qualitative research: positivist, phenomenological, and pragmatist. Each is important, as they contribute to different methodological approaches and distinctive interpretations of research findings. The evolution of qualitative methods for studying substance use is also explored, from classical anthropology and sociology and continuing through the postmodernism of the late-twentieth century, finally touching on posthumanist approaches that have emerged in the early twenty-first century; providing a theoretical framework for a discussion of specific methodologies. An in-depth discussion of two foundational qualitative methodologies, participant observation, and ethnographic interviewing, as well as the practical and ethical issues attendant to all substance use research in the context of prohibition and social stigma is presented. Finally, the chapter briefly explore uses of complementary methods such focus groups, content analysis, cognitive and ethnographic mapping, space-time diaries and geographic information systems (GIS), autoethnography, Photovoice, and community-based approaches such as Participatory Action Research (PAR) in the context of substance abuse research.
From its very beginnings, clinical psychology has dealt with antisocial and criminal behavior. When Lightner Witmer founded the first psychology clinic at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, “unruly and disruptive” children, who would now be labeled “delinquent,” were among the first clients. Shortly thereafter, in 1909, a psychologist, Grace Fernald, was a cofounder of the first court clinic (Reisman, 1966). This event is taken as the beginning of criminal justice or correctional psychology (Megargee, 1982b).
On 1 October 1939 Adolf Hitler issued a Fuhrer order. It said simply:Hitler’s order, backdated to 1 September 1939, set loose what became known as Aktion T4, a state policy that enabled German physicians to diagnose patients as ‘incurably sick, by critical medical examination and then to kill these patients’ (Proctor 1988: 177). Over 270,000 people with various mental illnesses or with physical disabilities and deemed to be ‘useless’ or ‘life unworthy of living’ were killed by teams of doctors and nurses in Germany. In addition, state policy mandated the use of starvation diets such as the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior’s Starvation Diet Decree of November 1942, authorizing diets designed to kill patients.
This chapter reviews the literature on police violence, concentrating on studies of police violence in some western democracies, especially the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia; as well as in other less-developed democratic countries, in Latin America and Africa. The Mumbai police is situated within this wider literature and various models (individual, situational, organisational and structural) to explain the causes of police violence, that are relevant to the situation in Mumbai are discussed. The “moral dilemma” that arises in situations that call for solutions to a “means-and-ends” problem is explored. The content and nature of policing is intrinsically linked to the use of force, and in many countries has been associated with some form of racial discrimination. The situation in India, and Mumbai, in particular, is more nuanced, in that, the use of deadly force by the police is allegedly directed against “hardened criminals”, but the police are often accused of mainly targeting criminals belonging to a minority ethnic community.
The article by Thomas Scheff in this volume (pp. 64–69) is one of the classic statements of the sociology of deviance as it developed in the 1960s and 1970s: a perspective which applies essentially the same set of ideas to social phenomena as apparently diverse as crime, learning disabilities, left-wing subversion, cheating in science, homosexuality, rape, drug addiction, industrial disputes and mental illness (Lemert, 1951; Becker, 1963, 1964). All of these are instances of deviance because they are regarded as objectionable by people who are powerful and credible enough to ensure that their worries influence public debates and public policy. In this framework, then, deviance derives from the moral judgements made by some people that some other person or group of persons, or some condition, is undesirable, disreputable, wicked, threatening, pathetic, contagious, outrageous or otherwise unacceptable. Since different social groups have different ideas, this notion of deviance implies disputes and struggles between people as to how life should be lived, and about how it is established — powerfully — that some are in the right and some are in the wrong.
This paper reflects on the distinctive character of sociological knowledge production, particularly in rural and environmental sociology, which is called into question by the huge current interest in understanding human encounters with nature and by increasing calls for interdisciplinarity in researching these. It attempts to re-state some foundational strengths of sociology as a discipline, as well as to identify some theoretical dilemmas for sociologists undertaking socio-natural research.
The study of crime, law, and deviance is considered to be an isolated subarea of sociology that draws upon but does not contribute
to the core of the discipline. Subareas, the specific and substantive topics of sociology, may be expected to make less obvious
and direct contributions to the core than do theory, methodology, social organization, and social psychology as the major
areas of sociology. And within subareas, studies that are readily applied may be considered less integrated and contributory
to the discipline than the more “pure” or basic science subareas. This analysis examines the relationships between areas,
subareas, and the core of sociology; the subject matter of sociological subareas; the actual versus perceptual isolation of
crime, law, and deviance studies from the core; and the meaning of contribution. Measurement of contribution is limited to
a survey ofSociological Abstracts, theCumulative Index of Sociology Journals, and the 1993 program for the American Sociological Association annual meetings. Comparing area and subarea publications
and conference sessions suggests that, contrary to expectations, crime, law, and deviance research constitutes a significant
portion of the available knowledge base. The perceived isolation of crime, law, and deviance from sociology may be explained
by professional bias against applied studies of stigmatized populations.
Radical criminologists have argued that criminology's traditional focus on explaining the causes of criminal behavior is inherently conservative and mainly serves the state's interest in repression) WHB see a good deal of lower class crime as an alternative to revolutionary activity. The scientific explanation of criminal behavior is then of potential value to radicals as it may suggest ways to redirect the energies now invested in individualistic criminal violations toward a more organized, consciously political challenge to the dominant institutions of a capitalist society. This position allows one to seek the elimination of some common forms of lower class crime without embracing liberal meliorism or conservative repression, and acknowledges that fear of crime need not be a manifestation of'racism. In emphasizing the importance of class consciousness for an understanding of the relationship between social structure and proletarian behavior (ordinary versus politically conscious crime), WHB avoid the mechanical causal explanations of traditional positivist criminology while at the same time transcending the radical quietism of David Matza's "appreciative stance" toward deviance or the "unconventional sentimentality" which Becket ascribes to much of the recent humanistically oriented research on crime and deviance. 3
This paper reviews key literature from several disciplinary and theoretical perspectives in exploring the relationship between various forms of academic failure in schools and a range of critical student attitudes and behaviors. It is argued that both the process of schooling, and the taken-for-granted assumptions which support this process, serve to manufacture, in large part, negative student attitudes and anti-social behaviors. The seeming conflict between survey and ethnographic data concerning the impact of academic failure is discussed within the context of competing explanatory paradigms. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways in which differing data-gathering strategies might be combined to generate a more complete view of the everyday process and outcomes of schooling.
This essay explores the question of why sociology departments, compared to other university departments, are often viewed
negatively by higher-level administrators (deans, provosts, chancellors and presidents). We are asked to consider, as sociologists,
how departments are ranked and evaluated by administrators. The characteristics of any good university department are identified
(e.g., grants, support from alumni, publications, quality of teaching, national rankings, student enrollments); and, the characteristics
of dynamic and healthy departments are outlined (e.g., student learning is primary; there is a commitment to the goals of
the larger organization; leadership is provided by the unit to solve all-university problems; there is a focus on learning;
faculty are productive; there are strong communication links across the organization). The question is posed and then systemically
answered as to how sociology departments compare in terms of these standards. It is suggested that a major factor in terms
of how and why sociology departments are negatively evaluated is the fact that sociology uses narratives of power and explanations
of organizational behavior that are inherently oppositional, i.e., there is an “us” and “them” mentally that sometimes develops.
Other reasons for organizational marginalization are identified such as the “canon wars” and their lingering effects, and
the fact that the sociological enterprise has been diluted by the teaching of “sociology” in many other campus units, such
as composition programs. Finally, questions are raised about how sociology, as an intellectual enterprise, differs from other
disciplines in terms of pedagogy, the sequencing of courses, “grand” theory, and forms of apprenticeship. It is recommended
that sociologists act positively to help the organizations within which they work to identify common problems and solve them.
It is argued that sociology can and should “own” the area of civic engagement as a means of making a positive and distinctive
contribution. Sociological “stories” grounded in the reality of everyday life are compelling. It is suggested that sociologists
need to deepen connections with their communities and to offer real solutions to real problems.
Intervention effectiveness research requires that investigators include "real world" variables in the design of studies to develop an understanding of how interventions perform in the "real world." Two areas that have been neglected in effectiveness research on mental health case management are mental illness self-stigma and the effects of different case managers. Self-stigma is a reality for many consumers that negatively impacts their lives. Case managers, themselves, are a potential source of autocorrelation and likely provide services differently. This study explores the relationship between self-stigma and quality of life for consumers receiving services from different case managers. Cross-sectional data were collected from 160 consumers of an urban case management agency. Self-stigma was negatively associated with quality of life. Case managers did not account for a significant amount of variance in quality of life scores. However, the interaction between case manager and self-stigma was significant. Some case managers were able to mitigate the negative effects of self-stigma on quality of life. Future effectiveness research in community mental health case management needs to account for the effects of self-stigma, case managers, and the interaction between the two in the research design.
Three approaches to the study of mental illness are examined: the medical, the behavioral, and the societal reaction models. Operational measures of each model are presented and used to determine the relationship between the measures and duration of institutionalization and the relative importance of the three models in predicting duration of institutionalization.
Data were obtained on 36 admissions at two state hospitals, and from interviews with 142 of the patients' relatives, friends, and co-workers. The measures of the societal reaction model and behavioral model were found to be related to duration of hospitalization, with the societal reaction model being the most predictive.
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