Notes on the Sociology of Deviance Author(s): Kai T. Erikson Source: Social Problems, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Spring, 1962), pp.

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NOTES ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE

KAI T. ERIKSON of Pittsburgh University It is general in sociology to range ofthecompany practice policies required deviant behavior as an alienele- quite another. marked regard Any situation ment in society. Devianceis considered by thiskindof ambiguity, of course, a vagrant form ofhuman mov- can pose a serious dilemma fortheinactivity, currents dividual: if he is carefulto observe ing outsidethe moreorderly of social life.And since this typeof one setofdemands imposed uponhim, aberration could only occur (in he runsthe immediate riskof violatifsomething werewrong with- ing some other,and thus may find theory) in the social organization de- himself in a deviant stanceno itself, caught viantbehavior almostas matter is described how earnestly to avoid he tries if it wereleakagefrom in it. In thislimited can machinery sense,deviance it is an accidental re- be regardeda "normal"human repoor condition: sult of disorder and anomie, a symp- sponse to "abnormal" socialconditions, tomof internal breakdown. and thesociologist is therefore invited The purposeof the following re- to assumethatsomesortof pathology markswill be to reviewthisconven- exists within thesocialstructure whentional outlookand to argue that it ever deviantbehaviormakes an apa framework too narrow for pearance. provides the study of deviant Deviabehavior. This general approach is clearly Durk- more concerned withthe etiology tion,we will suggest, of recalling heim's classicstatement on thesubject, deviantbehaviorthan with its concan oftenbe understood as a normal tinuing socialhistory-and as a result a vital it oftendraws sociologicalattention productof stableinstitutions, which is guardedand pre- away froman important resource area of inservedby forces foundin all human quiry.It may be safe to assumethat naive acts of deviance, such as first organizations.1 criminaloffenses, are provokedby strains in the local situation. But this to current thebeginning of a muchlonger deviant is only According theory, fordeviant activities behavior is mostlikely can generto occurwhen story, the sanctionsgoverning once conductin ate a good deal of momentum are setintomotion:they seem to be contra- they any given setting develop This would be the case, for formsof organization, dictory.2 persist over remain intact if the workrulespostedby time, and sometimes example, the strains whichoriginally a company one courseof ac- long after required tionfrom itsemployees andthelonger- producedthem have disappeared. In thisrespect, deviant activities areoften absorbed intothemaintissue of society Paper read at the 55th annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, and derive supportfrom the same New York, 1960. forces whichstabilize otherforms of 1 Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Socio- social life. There are personsin sological Method (translatedby S. A. Solovay for example, who make career and J. H. Mueller), Glencoe: The Free ciety, commitments to deviant of constyles Press, 1958. some 2 The best known statements inner need for duct, impelled by of this genrather thanby any urgeneral position, of course, are by Robert K. continuity Merton and Talcott Parsons. Merton,Social cies in the immediate social setting. Theory and Social Structures(revised edi- There are in which groups society tion), Glencoe: The Free Press, 1957; and new deviant trends, encourage Parsons, The Social System,Glencoe: The actively Free Press, 1951. often prolongingthem beyond the

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308

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

an adap- correct taking good spoonat mealtime, point wheretheyrepresent orotherwise observThese sourcesof sup- careofhismother, tion to strain. are difficulting the moresof his society-andif behavior portfordeviant electsto bringsanclike the community to visualizewhen we use terms him for the occasions tions in "breakdown" or against "anomie," "strain," it is Suchterms when he does act offensively, of theproblem. discussions to a few deviant details the how social us responding explain may help deviantpoten- set withina vast contextof proper createsfresh structure Thus a personmaybe jailed tial,but theydo not help us explain conduct. fora fewscattered mois latershapedinto or hospitalized how thatpotential ofmisbehavior, defined as a fullThe ments socialpatterns.3 durable, persisting need for self continuitytimedeviantdespitethe factthathe individual's with are had supplied the community of support and the group'soffer indications that countless other he was if even normal processes, altogether moralcitizen. The screening foundin deviant a decent, theyare sometimes thesetelling details of de- devicewhichsifts and thusthe study situations; over-allperof out of the individual's is as mucha study viantbehavior instruof formance, then,is a sensitive as it is a study social organization of control. It is ment social and anomie. important disorganization to notethatthisscreen takesa numwhichare ber of factors into account II related to the deviant act de- not directly Froma sociological standpoint, withthe actor's which itself:it is concerned as conduct canbe defined viance as an oftheat- social class,his past record to require is generally thought ofremorse theamount he mantentionof social controlagencies-- fender, and manysimilar conthat is, conductabout which "some- ages to convey, which cerns take hold in the is Deviance not done." be should shifting thing This is why in certainforms moodsof thecommunity. inherent a property often overlooksbeit is a property of behavior; conferredthe community havior which seems deviant audiences the forms these technically by upon witness (like certainkinds of white collar or indirectly which directly to bethem.Sociologically, then,the critical graft)or takessharpexception harmis the haviorwhichseemsessentially of deviance in thestudy variable kindsof sexualimthan the indi- less (like certain social audiencerather It is an easily demonstrated sinceit is theaudience propriety). vidualperson, thatworking class or fact,for example, decideswhether whicheventually not any given actionor actionswill boyswho stealcarsare farmorelikely to go to prisonthanupperclassboys becomea visiblecase of deviation. the same or even more who commit a little seem This definition may that from of seriouscrimes, suggesting but it has the advantage indirect, view of of the the issue a community point sociological bringing neglected are somehow When a communitylower class offenders focus. intoproper thecomTo thisextent, of one of moredeviant. thebehavior actsto control a morerelescreen is perhaps it is engagedin a very munity its members, research Even a vant subjectfor.sociological intricate processof selection. determinedmiscreantconformsin than the actual behaviorwhich is it. the filtered through mostof his dailybehavior-using in this is phrased Once theproblem we canask: howdoesa communi8Cf. Daniel Glaser and Kent Rice, way, American "Crime, Age, and Employment," should ofconduct decide whatforms Sociological Review, 24 (1959), pp. 679- ty out forthiskindof atten. be singled 86.

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Notes on the Sociology of Deviance

309

tion? And why, having made this cipleof a system, is essentially a then, one: it drawsthe behavior choice,does it createspecial institu- centripetal tions to deal with the personswho of actorstowardthe nucleusof the answerto system, it withinrange of enact them?The standard bringing this questionis that societysets up basic norms.Any conductwhich is the machinery in orderto neitherattracted toward this nerve of control of conformity protectitself against the "harmful" centerby the rewards of deviance, in muchthe same norcompelled toward effects it byother social mobilizesits pressures is considered "outofcontrol," way that an organism resources to combat an invasionof whichis to say,deviant. This basic model has provided this classthe however, germs.At times, theme roomconvention for most contemporary to make thinkseems only In the ing about deviance, theproblem morecomplicated. and as a result first has been given to the pointedout littleattention place, as Durkheim someyears ago,it is byno meansclear notionthatsystems operateto mainthat all acts considered deviantin a tain boundaries. Generally speaking, culture are in fact(or even in princi- boundaries arecontrols which limit the of a system's to grouplife.4And in fluctuation ple) harmful component in crime partsso thatthe whole retains the secondplace, specialists a deand mental havelongsuggested fined health rangeof activity-a uniquepatof constancy that deviancecan play an important tern and stability-within role in keeping thesocialorderintact thelarger environment.6 The rangeof to human behavior is potentially so great -again a pointwe owe originally This has seriousimplica- thatanysocialsystem mustmakeclear Durkheim.5 in general. statements tionsforsociological about the nature and locatheory tion of its boundaries, limits placing III on theflowof behavior so thatit cirIn recentyears, area. sociological theory culateswithina given cultural are a crucial has becomemoreand moreconcerned Thus boundaries pointof forpersons with the concept"social system"-an reference within living any a prominent of society'scomponent system, organization conceptin the and tradition. in- group's speciallanguage partsinto a formwhichsustains itsboundaternal and A juvenile resists gangmaydefine equilibrium, change, of territory is boundary Now this ries by the amount it demaintaining. has manyabstract societyby the concept dimensions,fends,a professional it discusses, used to describe rangeof subjects a fraterbut it is generally of members in the socialorderwhich nal order it thoseforces by thevariety accepts.But in each case, members promotea high level of uniformity amonghumanactorsand a high de- sharethe same idea as to wherethe withinhumanin- groupbeginsand ends in socialspace gree of symmetry In thissense, theconcept stitutions. is and know what kinds of experience orientedsince it directs "belong"withinthisdomain. normatively For all its apparent attention towardthose a the observer's abstractness, is organized in social space wherethe core social system aroundthe centers of persons lo- movements values of societyare figuratively joinedtogether The only cated.The main organizational prin- in regularsocial relations. material foundin a system formark4 Emile Durkheim, The Division of then,is the behavior Labor in Society (translated by George ing boundaries, of itsparticipants; and theform of beSimpson), Glencoe: The Free Press, 1952.
See particularlyChapter 2, Book 1. 5 Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method, op. cit.
6 Cf. Talcott Parsons,The Social System, op. cit.

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havior which best performsthis func- ceive? Perhaps they satisfya number tion would seem to be deviant almost of psychological perversities among the since it is the most ex- mass audience, as many commentators by definition, treme varietyof conduct to be found have suggested,but at the same time within the experience of the group. theyconstitute our main source of inIn this respect, transactions taking formation about the normative outlines place between deviant persons on the of society. They are lessons through one side and agencies of control on which we teach one anotherwhat the the other are boundary maintaining normsmean and how far theyextend. mechanisms. They mark the outside In a figurative sense, at least, morality limits of the area in which the norm and immoralitymeet at the public has jurisdiction, and in this way assert scaffold, and it is during this meeting how much diversity and variability can thatthe community declareswhere the be containedwithin the systembefore line between them should be drawn. it begins to lose its distinctstructure, Human groups need to regulatethe its unique shape. of everyday routine affairs life, and to A social norm is rarelyexpressedas this end the normsprovide an impora firmrule or officialcode. It is an tant focus for behavior. But human of the many separate groups also need to describe and anabstractsynthesis times a community has statedits senti- ticipate those areas of being which lie mentson a given issue. Thus the norm beyond the immediateborders of the has a historymuch like that of an group-the unseen dangers which in articleof commonlaw: it is an accum- any culture and in any age seem to ulation of decisions made by the com- threaten the security of group life.The munity over a long period of time universal folklore depicting demons, which graduallygathersenough moral devils, witchesand evil spiritsmay be influenceto serve as a precedent for one way to give formto these otherfuture decisions. Like an article of wise formlessdangers,but the visible common law, the norm retains its deviant is another kind of reminder. validityonly if it is regularlyused as As a trespasseragainst the norm, he those forcesexcludedby the a basis for judgment. Each time the represents communitycensures some act of de- group's boundaries: he informsus, as viance, then,it sharpensthe authority it were, what evil looks like, what of the violated norm and re-establishes shapes the devil can assume. In doing the boundariesof the group. between so, he shows us the difference of kinds which experience belong One of the most interesting features in this regard, within the group and kinds of experiof control institutions, is the amount of publicity they have ence which belong outside it. Thus deviance cannot be dismissed In an earlierday,coralways attracted. in rectionof deviantoffenders took place as behavior which disruptsstability in controlled but is itself, in the public market and gave the society, quancondition for precrowd a chance to display its interest tities,an important in a direct, active way. In our own servingstability. day, the guiltyare no longer paraded IV in public places, but instead we are confronted This raises a serious theoretical by a heavy flow of newspaper and radio reports which offer question. If we grant that deviant bemuch the same kind of entertainment. havior oftenperforms a valuable servcan we then assume that Why are these reports considered ice in society, and why do they rate societyas a whole activelytriesto pro"newsworthy" the extraordinary attention they re- mote this resource? Can we assume,

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Notes on the Sociology of Deviance

in otherwords, thatsome kind of active recruitment process is going on to assure societyof a steadyvolume of deviance? Sociology has not yet developed a conceptual language in which this sortof question can be discussedwithout a great deal of circularity, but one observationcan be made which gives the question an interesting perspective -namely, that deviant activitiesoften seem to derive support from the very agencies designed to suppress them. Indeed, the institutions devised by human society for guarding against deviance sometimes seem so poorly equipped for this task that we might well ask why this is considered their "real" functionat all. familiar It is by now a thoroughly argumentthatmany of the institutions built to inhibitdeviance actuallyoperate in such a way as to perpetuateit. For one thing,prisons,hospitals,and other agencies of control provide aid and protection for large numbers of deviant persons.But beyond this,such institutions gathermarginalpeople into tightly segregated groups,give them an opportunityto teach one another the skills and attitudes of a deviant career,and even drive them into using their sense these skills by reinforcing of alienation fromthe rest of society.7 This process is found not only in the which actuallyconfinethe institutions deviant,but in the general community as well. decision to bring The community's deviant sanctionsagainst an individual is not a simple act of censure. It is a
7 For a good descriptionof this process in the modern prison, see Gresham Sykes, The Societyof Captives,Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, 1958. For views of two differenttypes of mental hospital settings,see Erving Goffman,"The Characteristics of Total Institutions," Symposium on Preventive and Social Psychiatry, Washington,D. C.: Walter Reed ArmyInstitute of Research, 1957; and Kai T. Erikson, "Patient Role and Social Uncertainty:A Dilemma of the Mentally Ill," Psychiatry, 20 (1957), pp. 263-74.

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at once moving sharpriteof transition, him out of his normal position in sohim into a disciety and transferring tinct deviant role.8 The ceremonies which accomplishthischange of status, usually,have threerelatedphases. They arrange a formal confrontationbetween the deviant suspect and representatives of his community(as in the criminal trial or psychiatric case conference); they announce some judgment about the natureof his deviancy (a "verdict"or "diagnosis,"for examan act of social ple); and theyperform placement,assigning him to a special deviant role (like that of "prisoner" or "patient") for some period of time. Such ceremoniestend to be events of wide public interest and ordinarily take place in a dramatic, ritualized setting.9 Perhaps the most obvious example of a commitmentceremonyis the criminal trial, with its elaborate ritual and formality, but more modest equivalents can be found almost anywhere that proceduresare set up for judging whether or not someone is deviant. officially An importantfeatureof these ceremonies in our cultureis that they are almost irreversible.Most provisional roles conferredby society-like those of the student or citizen soldier, for instance-include some kind of terminal ceremonyto mark the individual's movement back out of the role once its temporaryadvantages have been exhausted.But the roles allotted to the deviant seldom make allowance for this type of passage. He is ushered into the special position by a decisive and dramaticceremony, yet is retired fromit with hardlya word of public notice. As a result,the deviant often returnshome with no proper license to resume a normal life in the com8 Talcott Parsons, op cit., has given the classical description of how this role transfer works in the case of medical patients. 9 Cf. Harold Garfinkel, "SuccessfulDegradationCeremonies,"AmericanJournalof Sociology,61 (1956), pp. 420-24.

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS stantpool of suspects.Nor could psychiatricclinics do a responsiblejob if they did not view formerpatients as a groupunusuallysusceptible to mental illness. Thus the prophecygains currencyat many levels within the social order,not only in the poorlyinformed attitudes of the communityat large, but in the best informedtheories of most controlagencies as well. In one form or another,this problem has been known to Western culture for many hundredsof years,and this simple fact is a very important one for sociology. For if the culture has supporteda steadyflowof deviant behavior throughoutlong periods of historical evolution, then the rules which apply to any formof functionalist thinkingwould suggestthat strong forces must be at work to keep this flow intact. This may not be reason enough to assertthat deviantbehavior is altogether"functional"-in any of the many senses of that term-but it should make us reluctant to assume that the agencies of controlare somehow organized to preventdeviant acts from occurring or to "cure" deviant of theirmisbehavior.'0 offenders This in turnmight suggestthat our present models of the social system, with theirclear emphasis on harmony and symmetry in social relations,only do a partialjob of representing reality. (and oftenconPerhaps two different are foundwithinany flicting)currents well-functioning system: those forces which promote a high over-all degree of conformity among human actors, and those forces whichencouragesome so thatactorscan be degreeof diversity deployed throughoutsocial space to
10 Albert K. Cohen, for example, speaking for most sociologists, seems to take the question for granted: "It would seem that the controlof deviant behavior is, by a culture goal." In "The Study definition, of Social Disorganizationand Deviant Behavior," Merton, et al., editors, Sociology Today. New York: Basic Books, 1959, p. 465.

munity.From a ritual point of view, nothing has happened to cancel out the stigmas imposed upon him by earlier commitmentceremonies: the original verdict or diagnosis is still in effect. formally Partly for this reais apt to place the son, the community returningdeviant on some form of probationwithinthe group,suspicious that he will returnto deviant activity upon a moment'sprovocation. A circularity is thus set into motion which has all the earmarksof a "selffulfillingprophecy,"to use Merton's finephrase.On the one hand, it seems obvious that the apprehensionsof the community help destroy whatever chances the deviant might otherwise have for a successfulreturnto society. Yet, on the other hand, everydayexperience seems to show that these apprehensionsare altogetherreasonable, for it is a well-known and highlypublicized fact that most ex-convictsreturnto prison and thata large proportion of mental patients require additional treatment after once having been discharged. The community's feeling thatdeviantpersonscannotchange, then,maybe based on a faulty premise, but it is repeated so frequentlyand with such convictionthat it eventually creates the factswhich "prove" it correct.If the returned deviantencounters this feelingof distrust oftenenough,it is understandable that he too may begin to wonderif the originalverdictor diagnosisis stillin effect-and respond to thisuncertainty deviant by resuming In some respects, this solution activity. may be the onlyway forthe individual and his community to agree what formsof behavior are appropriatefor him. Moreover,this prophecyis found in the officialpolicies of even the most advanced agencies of control. Police departmentscould not operate with if they did not any real effectiveness regard ex-convictsas an almost permanentpopulation of offenders, a con-

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Notes on the Sociology of Deviance

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mark the system's boundaries. In such quiry altogether.Perhaps the stability a scheme,deviant behavior would ap- of some social units is maintainedonly are recruitedto pear as a variation on normative if juvenile offenders themes,a vital formof activitywhich balance an adult majority; perhaps outlines the area within which social some families can remain intact only if one of their members becomes a life as such takes place. As Georg Simmel wrote some years visible deviant or is committedto a ago: hospital or prison. If this supposition to be a useful one, sociologists proves An absolutely andharmonious centripetal not onlyis should be interested in discovering group,a pure "unification," it couldshowno real how a social unit manages to differenunreal, empirically life process.. . Justas the universe tiate the roles of its membersand how needs"love and hate,"thatis, attractivecertain persons are "chosen" to play and repulsive in orderto have forces, at all, so society, any form too,in order the more deviant parts. a determinate to attain needssome shape, Second, it is evident that cultures ratioof harmony and disquantitative of association and competition,vary in the way they regulate traffic harmony, of favorable and unfavorable tendencies. back and forthfromtheirdeas we knowit, is the re- moving . . . Society, sult of both categories of interaction,viant boundaries. Perhaps we could whichthusbothmanifest as begin with the hypothesis that the themselves traffic wholly positive.11 patternknown in our own cula marked Puritan cast: a dehas ture V finedportion of the population,largeIn summary, two new lines of in- ly drawn fromyoung adult groups and to seem be indicated by the from the lower economic classes, is quiry stabilizedin deviant roles and generalargumentpresentedabove. First, this paper attemptsto focus ly expected to remain therefor indefiour attentionon an old but still vital nite periods of time. To this extent, sociological question: how does a so- Puritan attitudesabout predestination cial structure communicateits "needs" and reprobationwould seem to have or impose its "patterns" on human retained a significant place in modern actors? In the presentcase, how does criminal law and public opinion. In a social structure enlist actors to en- otherareas of the world,however,difin deviant are known.There traffic activity? Ordinarily, ferent gage patterns the fact that deviant behavior is more are societiesin which deviance is concommon in some sectors of society sidereda naturalpursuitforthe young, than in others is explained by declar- an activity which theycan easily abaning that somethingcalled "anomie" or don when they move throughdefined "disorganization" prevails at these ceremonies into adulthood. There are sensitive spots. Deviance leaks out societies which give license to large where the social machineryis defec- groups of personsto engage in deviant tive; it occurs where the social struc- behavior for certain seasons or on ture fails to communicateits needs to certaindays of the year.And thereare human actors. But if we consider the societies in which special groups are possibilitythat deviant persons are re- formed to act in ways "contrary"to sponding to the same social forcesthat the normalexpectationsof the culture. fromothers,then we Each of these patterns regulates deelicit conformity are engaged in another order of in- viant traffic yet all of them differently, means provide some institutionalized 11 Georg Simmel,Conflict (translatedby for an actor to give up a deviant Kurt H. Wolff), Glencoe: The Free Press, "career" without permanent stigma. The problem forsociological theoryin 1955, pp. 15-16.

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or anything to learnfrom be to learnwhether thosecultures might general are func- whichpermit intonormal sonot thesevarying patterns re-entry in some meaning- cial life to persons who have spenta tionally equivalent ful sense; the problemfor applied period on society's of"service" boundabe to see if we have ries. might sociology

COMPONENTS OF VARIATION IN CITY CRIME RATES

KARL SCHUESSLER
Indiana University

A persistent Introduction. issue in peripheral to thatproblem by a correwhether crime is the selected rates is crime lational of criminology analysis of all Ameriof general which and socialcharacteristics socialfactors product or more, determine the rate of its cancities, 100,000 population universally of cir- 1950. The immediate or theconsequence occurrence; objectivewas in whether thevariation cumstances to a given social to determine specific and wanting in generality. rateof these105 largecities This thecrime setting in could be statistically informal finds explainedby a problem expression or small of number as suchquestions as "Does crime factors, general vary would of factors a multiplicity "as whether conflict?" thedegree of normative A secondtask of equal the degreeof social deprivation?" "as be required. was but greater the degreeof economic need?"-as if importance difficulty ifpossible, thesociological werea simple, mechanical func- to establish, crime that factors of any statistical thwarted meaning tion of normative disorder, in theanalysis. social ambition, or economicinsuffi-might emerge ciency. Such broad questions have Data. The crimerateswerebased on served notonlyas a pointof departure knownto thepoof "offenses for numerous but records empiricalstudies, in Uniform as CrimeRegiven lice," well occasion for have been as the and economic and the social ports; in the grandmanner muchtheorizing from data were obtained principally and Bonger.Alof Ferri,Garofalo, AdCensus United States publications. are currently though criminologists data are fallible-in these mittedly, moreabsorbed by theories applicable still thepolicerecords-but such as particular, to a limitedrange of facts, as be of unreliable to not so unworthy and lower theories of embezzlement analysis. have class delinquency, always they For each city, averageannualrates of been intrigued by the possibility 15+, forthe 100,000population, per common social elements to discovering for were 1949-51, computed period all crime. listed below seven major offenses, evidence (Table 1) along with corresponding This study provides Purpose. values.' and extreme medians Next listed (Table 2) are the 20 Read before Criminology Section of variables,which, aside Ohio Valley Sociological Society, Annual independent weresefrom their readyavailability, Meeting, April 21-22, 1961, Cleveland,
Ohio. The author is indebted to Lelah Padilla, Gerald Slatin, Roland Chilton,and Cherry Carter who assisted in various phases of the statisticalwork; also to the for Graduate School of Indiana University financialassistance.
1 The decision to analyze offense-specific rates ratherthan a general crime rate reflectsthe assumptionthat crime is not a unitary phenomenon, and that different causes. kinds of crime have different

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