Conceptualizing Deviance Theory (From Deviance in American Life, P 3-23, 1989, James M. Henslin, ed. -- See NCJ-124163)

• NCJ Number: 124164
• Author(s): J M Henslin
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In this analytical review, deviance theory is examined from the framework of structuralism and individualism in order to elucidate assumptions of causation.

Abstract

All theories of deviance must confront the central issue of the underlying motivation for or cause of deviance. Certainly no single theory has yet accounted for what might be called the phenomena of deviance, although the question of whether the matter is properly phrased phenomenon or phenomena is also a theoretical question. As both individualism and structuralism appear to be an essential part of human life, sociology will always face this tension between individual action and the overarching society which variously constrains that action. To do analytic justice to what humans are, in their motivations and in their behaviors, both structuralism and individualism must play complementarily correlative roles in sociological theorizing. To simultaneously embrace two contradictory but mutually indispensable components appears to be the discomfiting fate of sociological theorizing. 8 notes, 18 references.