Constructionist Approaches to Deviance

(from Goode, 6th, 2001, and 7th, 2005 chapters 2 and 3)

 Constructionists don't understand the world to be divided up into categories of right and wrong, deviant and non-deviant. The basic issue surrounding designations of deviance is not why certain people violate a particular norm, but how are norms constructed (including what factors are taken into consideration in defining certain acts/people as deviant) and how are sanctions applied--why are some people engaged in certain behaviors (or who possess particular characteristics) condemned and labeled, "deviant." It is the "social construction of deviance" that needs to be explained, not the ("wrong") choices of individuals.

 Constructionist Focus On:

1. Creation of Deviant Categories

 2. Investigation of condemnation

3. Consequences of Rules

4. Enforcement of Rules

So: Constructionist can ask about:

    1. False Accusations

2. Physical Conditions as Deviant

But: There are reasons why some people violate society's rules and why some societies experience more deviance than others and these reasons can be discovered and explained. The violation of a society's norms is not randomly distributed from person to person or society to society.

But: Norms do not fall from the skies; they are created and enforced as a result of systematic, identifiable sociological processes. While the sociological positivist takes the norms and their enforcement as if they were a given, the fact is they are not, they are every bit a social product, and every bit in need of an explanation, as deviant behavior.

Central Concepts of Constructionism

1. Social Construction of Moral Meaning and Definitions
2. Relativity
3. Social Control
4. The Political Equation - The Processes of Criminalization
5. Contingency

The Social Construction of Moral Meanings and Definitions  

    Factors in the Construction of Moral Meanings

    1. Moral Entrepreneurs

    2. Social Status and Power

Relativity

Back to Defining Deviance

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/constructionism.htm
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
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Last Updated: Monday, January 29, 2007 1:33 PM