Abstract: The thesis of this paper is that Robert Merton's essay “Social Structure and Anomie” contains two analytically distinct theoretical arguments, a theory of social organization and a theory of deviant motivation. The theory of social organization discusses the articulation of components of social systems, whereas the theory of deviant motivation addresses the sources of pressures on individuals to violate social norms. These two theories employ similar terms and are joined to deal with a principal substantive concern for Merton, namely, the distribution of deviant behavior within a social structure. I argue, however, that the two theories are not logically interdependent. Evidence inconsistent with one is thus not necessarily inconsistent with the other. Moreover, I suggest that the theory of social organization warrants greater attention than it has received to date because it is the more original and lucid of the two theoretical arguments, and because it has the potential for generating a promising resear...

Abstract: This article uses ethnographic data to examine the process of using the personals ads and finds it to be a deviant activity. People using the personals engage in deviance disavowal, telling only close friends, if anyone, about the behavior, and needing such friends to help in redefining the behavior as acceptable. Nevertheless, many of the people who use these ads are of a high enough status that their use suggests the possibility of the legitimation of the ads.

Abstract: The labeling perspective has been one of the most influential in the field of deviance over the past two decades. Firmly rooted in the thought of George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer, it is also referred to as the interactionist approach. The purpose of this paper is to move the interactionist perspective on deviance beyond political debate and piecemeal research to a slight measure of theoretical consensus. First, the development of the perspective will be reviewed (examining the separate strands of symbolic interactionism, interactional conflict, and phenomenological sociology). Second, an interactionist model of the components of social deviance will be presented (a total of eight components will be developed). Finally, important conceptual distinctions will be noted on the basis of the proposed model. Included here are moral entrepreneurs, primary and secondary deviance, role engulfment, and master status. The interactionist tradition is the heart of deviance theorizing. Clear conceptualization is n...

Abstract: The norm against snitching is emphasized in criminal groups. However, before punishing the culprits, they need to be identified. This article describes how Swedish inmates in a prison situation try to find out who the snitches are and whether they have informed outside or inside prison. This includes a process of searching for information, such as discerning which inmates receive otherwise unearned privileges or who talk to guards or have motives for informing. The information is often obtained in personal communication but since this source is not always seen as trustworthy, proof is searched for in the suspect's police and court records and other “papers.” Furthermore, it is argued that when a definition is finally made it has to be viewed as a social construction since most inmates, while pointing to one or a few specific inmates as snitches, still believe that most inmates have informed at some point. In agreement with Shibutani's theory of rumors, this construction is made through a process of accept...

Abstract: Although domestic violence is a much‐studied phenomenon, there is a notable lack of empirical research on the male perpetrators of spouse abuse. This paper uses data from a sample of 542 residents of battered women's shelters to examine the “generational transfer hypothesis” as it applies to these male batterers. This hypothesis asserts that a child's exposure to domestic violence in his family of orientation increases his propensity to abuse his spouse as an adult. The specific question addressed here is derived from this hypothesis: the degree of violent socialization of male spouse batterers is directly related to the severity of their violent behavior. Four indexes are used in our analysis: a Violent Socialization Index, a Forms of Violence Index, a Types of Injuries Index, and an overall Violence Severity Index. The results indicate that the socialization experiences of wife batterers, whether involving neglect, outright abuse, or merely witnessing parental or sibling abuse, appear to be directly rel...

Abstract: The agenda for theorists of deviance remains as it has been for many years: adequate conceptualization of the phenomenon in combination with theoretical attention to the problems of how deviance is produced (deviance‐making), how and why deviance occurs (theories of deviance) and how and why responses to deviance take particular forms (reactions to deviance). We argue that deviance is best conceptualized as differentially valuated phenomena. Deviance‐making is identified as an important, yet generally neglected area of concern. While we regard theorizing in deviance as relatively stagnant, some trends and issues are identified, with particular attention being given to the recent rise of structural and macro‐level theorizing. Reactions to deviance are discussed under the rubric of a series of generalizations subject to additional empirical assessment and synthesizing. We conclude by noting that attention to the issues identified in our agenda is imperative if the sociology of deviance is to remain a viable...

Abstract: Since its genesis in the unique all‐male environment of the nineteenth century British public schools, a cluster of characteristics has developed around the rugby union game. With these in mind, several studies have recently described the rugby fraternity as a deviant subculture. Extensive participant observation was conducted in a cross‐cultural study of rugby teams in the United Kingdom and North America. One emergent similarity was the highly circumscribed nature of members' behavior. What at first appeared to be spontaneous deviance on closer inspection revealed itself to be highly ritualized and internally policed. The formal and informal control mechanisms of the rugby subculture will be discussed, focusing on modes of behavior that lend themselves to group acceptance or ostracism.

Abstract: Definitions that emerge when people react to behaviors that can be viewed as mistreatment were compared in a research design that varied the status of the victim: child, elderly parent, husband, or wife. Vignettes developed by Giovannoni and Becerra (1979) were adopted for use in this study by varying reference to the perpetrator and the victim. Factor analysis of the seriousness ratings of the vignettes by a purposive sample of lay respondents, college students (N=214), showed, with minor exceptions, similar definitions for failure to provide, emotional mistreatment, and sexual abuse across the victim groups. Many similarities and differences between victim groups appear related to the dependent status of the victim. Definitions for mistreatment of wives and husbands were alike, but differed from those for children and the elderly.

Abstract: The focus of this research is to better understand occupational stress within the dental profession and how this may contribute to why dentists as an occupational group may have such a high incidence of suicide. Attention is given to the socially related working conditions that dentists encounter and the occupational role demands they face. Data are based upon 25 in‐depth, unstructured interviews with dentists from a large mid‐western city. The findings of this research include that the occupational role of dentists facilitates social tension and stress and that dentists experience a status dilemma, especially when compared to physicians. We suggest that these conditions may contribute to a dentist's choice to commit suicide.

Abstract: In the late 1970s, a new pattern of criminality appeared: the illegal disposal of toxic wastes by previously legitimate waste oil dealers, especially by selling a mixture of liquid toxic wastes and waste oils as fuel oil. This pattern of crime was caused by changes in the social conditions determining economic self‐interest in the petroleum industry, and by changes in the criminal law regarding the disposal of toxic wastes. Official crime rates have remained low despite widespread criminal behaviors because of the power of affected industries to limit the enforcement of criminal laws.

Abstract: This paper discusses the reasons for the persistence of the disease model of alcoholism in the face of increasing evidence contradicting its basic assumptions. Data from in‐depth interviews with former problem drinkers are used to illustrate the ways in which the disease model: 1) shapes the empirical reality from which data for its support are derived, 2) implies methodological strategies which limit the possibility of its refutation and 3) blinds its supporters to the meaning of anomalous data. Implications for the immediate future of the disease model are discussed.

Abstract: This paper explores some possible theoretical distinctions between lethal and nonlethal encounters. Generally, theories of interpersonal violence have not focused on differences between these types of outcomes as involving factors intrinsic to the interaction process itself. It is argued that the logic of control theory offers a perspective which could direct future research to reveal differences in the interaction processes which lead to lethal and nonlethal outcomes.

Abstract: This paper addresses quantitative and historical studies which purport to demonstrate the utility of a “Durkheimian” functionalist approach to deviance. When that tradition is analyzed the most dramatic general propositions are found to be inconsistent with subsequent extensions of the argument and are not supported by the examples presented. When the subsequent extensions are assessed in terms of the basic logic of a functional explanation the data presented are either inadequate for a test of the model or ignore a crucial aspect of it. Furthermore, interpretations of specific historical witchhunts in terms of a functional‐boundary maintenance model run counter to generalizations in historical research on European, British and colonial witchhunting. Even the link to Durkheim can be challenged in that arguments about mutual causation and ultimate consequences have been misinterpreted as arguments about functions and some of Durkheim's statements imply a quite different model. A careful assessment of bound...

Abstract: In this article we examine the nature of legal order in two work settings, both of which are located in a dangerous environment. It is our contention that the weight of law resides with those rules whose observance is considered crucial to group survival, and that the manner of their enforcement will reflect the level of solidarity characteristic of the work organization. In order to better explain the nature of integration and social control in these milieux, we have applied, to the micro‐structural level, a revised version of Emile Durkheim's notions regarding penal evolution.

Abstract: There is great concern over the present debate with regard to the presence of any inborn or biological predilection toward crime and deviance. The concerns are real: they involve, among others, the question of responsibility of the offender, the use of the data for racist or sexist purposes, their use for the dismantling of social programs. The authors contend that these issues are irrelevant to the scientific ones, but that one must proceed with caution and take preventive measures to see that findings are not misused.

Abstract: Even though it is unlawful to send chain letters through the mails, thousands of Americans send them to friends, acquaintances, and strangers in hopes that their names will move to the top of the pyramid, and they will receive the influx of tax‐free dollars from those at the bottom of the chain. This paper analyzes the content and structure of the chain letter and also describes the accounts which chain letter players (N=129) provide for their participation. Differences between male and female accounts and participation strategies are provided. The implications for these differences for understanding participation in the underground economy are discussed.

Abstract: Traditionally the sociology of deviance has focused on understanding why deviance occurs This analysis goes one step further and pursues the issue: Once an individual becomes involved in deviance how does that person (and others aware of it) respond to this contingency In this paper only deviant modes of adaptations to a deviant involvement will be developed The main deviant modes of adaptations for the deviant actor are identified as: (1) deviance seeking, (2) deviance maintenance, (3) dazed consciousness, and (4) deviance erasing The deviant responses, for others aware of the initial deviant act, are identified as: (1) deviance bandwagon and (2) deviance retaliation modes of adaptations The analysis strongly supports the position that deviance can be viewed as an independent variable in the deviance amplification process

Abstract: Using behavioral vignettes, the present study examines label, behavior, and recipient interactions in tolerance for deviant behavior. The application of a schizophrenia label is found to have more impact on behaviors that are a danger to self than on behaviors considered a danger to others which are proscribed for all actors independent of the mental illness label.

Abstract: In this analytic essay. I shall utilize the framework of Individualism and structuralism in an attempt to realize an overview of theory in the sociology of deviance.1 A major advantage of this framework is that it provides a perspective that sensitizes one to a theory's basic locus of causation and motivation for deviance. This takes us into the question of why some people, but not others, commit deviant acts even though they know those acts will be negatively viewed by others and bring sanctions upon themselves. As I apply this framework to selected major theoretical orientations.2 I shall also note limitations of each theory. In addition. I shall Indicate contrasting practical Implications of deviance theory that have far‐ranging ramifications for social life—Interconnections between our changing political orientations and Individualism and structuralism in deviance theory.

Abstract: Observations of customer‐waitress interaction in a topless club over a two‐and‐one‐half month period are presented. Data were generated by a participant‐observer who worked as a waitress‐dancer in a topless club during this period. Analysis focuses on the setting, appearance, and manner of the “cynical performance” (Goffman 1959) orchestrated by the waitress through which she uses semi‐nudity, nudity and nude dancing to stimulate the fantasies of her patrons and thereby creates “counterfeit intimacy” (Boles and Garbin 1977). The overriding goal of the club and the waitress‐dancers is to make money through the sale of alcohol and table dances; customer goals are to have a “sexual experience” (not necessarily intercourse) of some sort. Various “ploys,” enacted by both customers and waitresses, are analyzed, with the ultimate goal of these ploys being to enhance the effectiveness of the “counterfeit intimacy” contrived by both parties. Conclusions suggest that all forms of “counterfeit” can be studied as sou...