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Sociology · Foundations

Deviance

9 min read 5 practice questions
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On this page 9 sections
  1. In 30 seconds
  2. Why this matters
  3. The college version
  4. Eli explains
  5. Worked example
  6. Key takeaway
  7. Quick check
  8. Study tools
  9. Sources & references

In 30 seconds

is behavior that violates social norms — the expectations a community holds about how people should behave. Sociologists use the word descriptively, not as an insult: an act is deviant when a group treats it that way, so the same act can be deviant in one setting and ordinary in another. Sociologists study why rule-breaking happens through strain, labeling, and control theories, how labels stick through , and who has the power to label. Deviance is not the same as crime.

Why this matters

Academically, deviance is where sociology gets concrete: the theories of Merton, Becker, and Hirschi reappear across courses on crime, social control, and inequality, and the concept teaches the field's core habit of questioning what seems natural. Practically, it explains everyday moments — why one joke lands and another earns a reputation, why some mistakes vanish while identical ones follow people for years. Forward-looking, understanding deviance helps you see labels as choices communities make rather than facts about people — a useful skill in workplaces, families, and public life. It also shows why studying the rules means studying the people who break them.

The college version

What deviance is

Deviance is behavior that violates social norms — the shared expectations a community holds about how people should behave. The working definition in sociology is William Graham Sumner's (1906): deviance is a violation of established contextual, cultural, or social norms, whether folkways, mores, or codified law (OpenStax, Introduction to Sociology 3e, section 7.1). It can be as small as picking your nose in public or as large as committing murder. Two details matter. First, the word is descriptive, not an insult: sociologists do not use 'deviant' to mean 'bad,' and they note that deviance can even push social change forward (OpenStax 7.1). Second, and more surprising, deviance is not a property of the act itself. Whether an act gets labeled deviant depends on factors like location, audience, and who performs it (Becker 1963) — in practice, deviance depends on society's response to the act (OpenStax 7.1). Original example: on a commercial fishing crew, a deckhand with a large squid tattoo on his forearm is unremarkable; three crewmates have similar ink. In a downtown law office two hundred miles away, the same tattoo on a new paralegal draws stares, and after a week a partner quietly suggests keeping sleeves buttoned. The tattoo never changes; the community's expectations do.

Who decides: norms come from communities

Deviance is defined against norms, and norms come from communities — the expectations that groups build, hold, and revise together. The sociology of norms is its own topic; what matters here is the consequence: because norms are local, deviance is local too. The same act that earns applause in one group can earn a reputation in another. Original example: in one office, staff call the manager by her first name, trade jokes in meetings, and answer work messages late at night; a new hire who joins in is quickly seen as a good fit. In the office across the street, identical behavior is read as disrespect — the same new hire would be warned twice and then written up. Nothing about the behavior differs, only the community holding the expectations. That is why sociologists say deviance is relative: the label follows the group's rules, not the act's nature (OpenStax 7.1).

Three theories, one line each

Sociologists have built many theories of deviance; three appear in almost every introduction to the subject, and each is named for its central claim. (Robert Merton) holds that deviance arises from a gap between the goals a society encourages — like financial success — and the legitimate means people have to reach them; blocked from the acceptable path, some people take another one (OpenStax 7.2). (Howard Becker; expanded by Edwin Lemert) holds that deviance is not in the act but in the reaction: what counts as deviant is decided by the responses of others, and a person repeatedly labeled deviant may come to believe it and live up to it (OpenStax 7.2). (Travis Hirschi, 1969) holds that deviance comes from weak bonds to society; people attached to family, committed to their communities, involved in legitimate activities, and believing in shared values have more to lose and deviate less (OpenStax 7.2). One line of memory aid: strain says people deviate when doors close; labeling says people deviate when names stick; control says people deviate when ties fray.

Stigma, and who gets labeled

When a label sticks, it can become a stigma — Erving Goffman's (1963) term for a mark that discredits a person, an attribute that society rejects and that spoils the person's identity in others' eyes (Wikipedia, 'Social stigma'). The mark can outlast the act: a single public mistake can follow someone for years. Deviance and power: sociologists also observe that labeling is not power-neutral. Conflict-theory accounts, including C. Wright Mills's work on the power elite, argue that those with more power are better positioned to define what counts as deviant — and to avoid the label themselves (OpenStax 7.2). Original example: in a small company, a senior manager and a new intern each make the same error in a client's billing. The manager's error is called an honest oversight and corrected with a short email; the intern's identical error is described as carelessness and nearly costs the job. The acts are the same; the labels are not. This is an observation about how labels travel through social positions, not a claim about what any company should do.

Two honest notes, and the mirror

Honest note one: deviance is not the same as crime. Deviance is the broader term — it covers the whole range of rule-breaking, some of it criminal and much of it not (OpenStax 7.1). A law is a formal , and breaking one is a crime, but most deviant acts break no law at all. The sociology of crime — its patterns, causes, and consequences — is a separate topic that builds on this one. Honest note two: the honest framing. Deviance is a mirror held up to norms. Every act that gets called deviant reflects back what a community expects — the mirror shows the rules by showing what happens when someone breaks them. The reality check: the mirror has no fixed image. Because norms change and vary, deviance changes and varies with them; the term names a relationship between an act and a community's expectations, not a quality the act carries on its own.

Eli, the EliExplains learning guide

Eli explains

The same idea, in plain words

Explain it like I’m 10

Deviance is a word sociologists use for breaking the rules — not just legal rules, but the unwritten expectations of the people around you. The twist is that the same act can be deviant in one place and totally normal in another, because deviance is decided by the group, not by the act. If everyone around you treats a behavior as strange or wrong, it is deviant for that group; if they celebrate it, it is not. Sociologists explain rule-breaking with three named theories: strain (Merton — blocked goals push people to break rules), labeling (Becker — the reactions of others make someone deviant), and control (Hirschi — weak ties to society loosen the pull of its rules). When a label sticks hard, it can become a stigma, a mark that discredits a person. And deviance is not the same as crime: most rule-breaking breaks no law.

Picture it like this

Think of deviance as a shadow. A shadow is not a property of the object — the same fence post throws a long shadow at sunset and none at noon. The light makes the shadow, and for deviance the light is the community's expectations. The same act — wearing pajama pants to buy milk — casts a long deviant shadow in a business district and no shadow at all in a college town late at night. Where the community's expectations shine on an act, a label appears; where they do not, the act passes unnoticed.

Where the picture stops working

A shadow never changes the object that casts it, but a deviance label can change the person: once a label sticks, people may start to see themselves that way and act accordingly — what Edwin Lemert called secondary deviance. Shadows are also consistent and physical, while labels vary with the audience and can be contested or rejected. And the same object can cast different shadows in different lights at once, which real labels often do.

Worked example

Niko, a college sophomore, starts wearing his grandmother's oversized floral cardigan everywhere — to class, to the grocery store, to his shift at the campus bookstore. The reactions split by audience. His classmates tease him affectionately; a stranger in the store photographs him and posts the photo with a mocking caption; his coworkers barely mention it, but the store manager quietly warns him the cardigan reads as unprofessional with customers. The cardigan never changes — only the audiences do. Niko is breaking no law, which is the point: sociologists would call the cardigan deviant in some settings, ordinary in others, and in no setting a crime. The label, not the fabric, did the work.

Key takeaway

Deviance is behavior that violates social norms — socially defined, not absolute, and broader than crime. It is a mirror held up to norms: every label shows what a community expects, and who gets labeled depends on the audience and the power around them.

Quick check

3 questions here, of 5 in this lesson’s practice set. Answers stay hidden until you check.

Question 1 of 3foundational

In sociology, what is deviance, according to the working definition?

Choose an answer, then check it.
Question 2 of 3intermediate

Maya's uncle arrives at a family dinner in a full clown costume, and everyone laughs and plays along. The next week he wears the same costume to a job interview and is escorted out. What does this contrast best illustrate?

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Question 3 of 3advanced

A guidance counselor tells a student who skipped class three times, "You're a troublemaker now — everyone knows it." The student starts skipping more and leaning into the reputation. Which theory best explains the change in the student's behavior?

Choose an answer, then check it.
Practice all 5

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Practice this lesson
Study tools & related lessonsYou’ll learn to · Common mistakes · Easily confused · Key vocabulary · Related

You’ll learn to

  • Define deviance using the working definition: behavior that violates social norms.
  • Explain why deviance is socially defined rather than absolute, using an original example.
  • Name the three theories — strain, labeling, and control — and attribute each to its key sociologist.
  • Distinguish deviance from crime, recognizing that deviance is the broader category.
  • Analyze how power shapes who gets labeled deviant, using an original example.

Common mistakes

  • "Deviance is just another word for crime."

    Deviance is the broader term: it covers every violation of social norms, from loud talking in a concert hall to breaking the law. Crime is the subset that violates formal written rules backed by institutions. The sociology of crime itself is a separate sibling topic.

  • "Deviance is a fixed quality of an act — either an act is deviant or it is not."

    Whether an act is labeled deviant depends on location, audience, and who performs it (Becker 1963). The same tattoo, joke, or outfit can be deviant in one community and unremarkable in another.

  • "Deviant always means bad."

    Sociologists use the term descriptively. Deviance can be harmless, admired, or even a driver of social change — what makes an act deviant is the community's response to it, not its moral weight.

  • "Only certain kinds of people are deviant."

    Everyone violates norms from time to time; labeling theory's insight is that deviance is assigned by reactions, and that most rule-breaking never sticks as a label. The label, not the person, is the sociological subject.

Easily confused

deviance vs. crime

Deviance is any behavior that violates social norms; crime is behavior that violates formal written laws. Deviance is the broader category — much deviance (talking through a concert, wearing pajamas to the store) breaks no law, and the study of crime itself belongs to a sibling topic.

primary deviance vs. secondary deviance

Both are Edwin Lemert's terms. Primary deviance is a norm violation that leaves no lasting mark on identity — a speeding ticket that changes nothing. Secondary deviance is what happens after a label sticks: the person reorganizes their identity around the label, like the student who becomes the troublemaker.

labeling theory vs. control theory

Both explain deviance, but from opposite ends: labeling theory looks at how the reactions of others create the deviant (Becker and Lemert), while control theory looks at why people deviate in the first place — weak bonds to society (Hirschi). One asks who gets called deviant; the other asks why anyone breaks the rules at all.

Key vocabulary

deviance
Behavior that violates social norms: the shared expectations a community holds about how people should behave. The working definition in sociology is attributed to William Graham Sumner (1906).
norm
A shared expectation about how people should behave in a given situation; norms come from communities and range from everyday customs to moral rules and written laws. Norms have their own topic in this series.
strain theory
Robert Merton's theory that deviance arises when people lack socially accepted means to reach the goals their society encourages, such as financial success.
labeling theory
The theory, associated with Howard Becker and expanded by Edwin Lemert, that deviance is assigned by the reactions of others rather than fixed in the act itself.
control theory
Travis Hirschi's theory that deviance results from weak social bonds — thin attachment to others, little commitment, low involvement, and weak belief in shared values.
stigma
A mark that discredits a person: an attribute society rejects, which spoils the person's identity in others' eyes. The term is associated with Erving Goffman (1963).
primary deviance
Edwin Lemert's term for a norm violation that does not change a person's self-image or how others treat them in the long run.
secondary deviance
Edwin Lemert's term for a norm violation that reshapes a person's identity after they are labeled deviant, leading them to embrace the label.

Sources & references

  1. 7.1 Deviance and Control — Introduction to Sociology 3e — OpenStax, Rice University
  2. 7.2 Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance and Crime — Introduction to Sociology 3e — OpenStax, Rice University
  3. Deviance — Encyclopaedia Britannica — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  4. Social stigma — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

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Researched 2026-08-22

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