Sociology Of Deviance

Social-ethnic school composition and school misconduct. Does sense of futility clarify the picture?

by Jannick Demanet

Published in 'Sociological Spectrum'

This article assesses whether social-ethnic composition influences students’ school misconduct. Based on general... more This article assesses whether social-ethnic composition influences students’ school misconduct. Based on general strain theory, we expect to find that individual sense of futility acts as an intermediate mechanism. Starting from cultural deprivation and oppositional culture theory, however, we hypothesize that a shared school culture of futility acts as mediator. Multilevel analyses of data from the Flemish Educational Assessment, consisting of 11,872 students in 85 schools, showed that ethnic composition has an impact on school misconduct: there is more deviancy in ethnically mixed schools than in ethnic concentration schools due to a greater student sense of futility. The presence of a culture of futility did not affect the probability of being deviant. These results were true only for natives: school factors did not affect migrants’ deviancy. We conclude that, although a dispersal of ethnically diverse students across all schools is favorable, this can yield negative side effects.

School belonging and school misconduct. The differing role of teacher and peer attachment.

by Jannick Demanet

Published in 'Journal of Youth and Adolescence'

The schools-as-communities perspective provides a popular explanation for school-disruptive behavior, stating that... more The schools-as-communities perspective provides a popular explanation for school-disruptive behavior, stating that interpersonal bonding at school and feelings of school belonging prevent misconduct. In this article, we build on this perspective in three ways. First, we test whether the preventive influence of school belonging acts at the individual or school level. Secondly, we test whether a distinction should be made between the different actors with whom students bond at school, by assessing whether perceived teacher support, school belonging, and peer attachment relate differently to school misconduct. Lastly, the present study investigates whether the associations of bonding with teachers, peers and the school with school misconduct differ by socio-ethnic school context. Multilevel analyses were performed on data from the Flemish Educational Assessment. The sample consisted of 11,872 students (51.4% female) in 85 schools, most of whom were natives (88.8%), with immigrants (11.2%) mostly having Turkish or Moroccan backgrounds (both about 30% of immigrants in the sample), and others Southern-European (16%), Eastern-European (8%), North-African (5%), or other (17%) backgrounds. Results showed that the students’ individual feelings of bonding with peers, teachers and school associate with school misconduct, rather than the overall school cohesion. Results further showed that, while higher perceived teacher support and school belonging related to less school misconduct, higher peer attachment was associated with higher rates of school misconduct. No differences were found by socio-ethnic context. Implications are discussed.

Maladjusted Schooling: deviance, social control and individuality in secondary schooling

by John Schostak

The book was first published in 1983 but has now been re-issued by Routledge as part of their library series.

The problems this book discusses are the same now as they were 25 years ago: unemployment, poor housing, inadequate... more The problems this book discusses are the same now as they were 25 years ago: unemployment, poor housing, inadequate facilities, poverty, racism, violence. What is the function of a school in such a situation? Although many schools hold reformist ideals, their practice is constrained by organisational demands. School organisation is based upon a coercive theory of social control which is intolerant of expressions of individuality by teachers and pupils. Needs for individuality may be mistaken for deviance, and deviance is at least in part produced by, or exacerbated by, school organisation. The author maintains that schooling is therefore largely maladjusted to the needs of individuals.

Autoritarismo e costruzione di personalità fasciste nelle forze armate italiane: un’autoetnografia

by Pietro Saitta

Charlie Barnao & Pietro Saitta (2012) Autoritarismo e costruzione di personalità fasciste nelle forze armate italiane: un’autoetnografia, "I quaderni del Cirsdig", n. 50, Messina: Cirsdig.

The present article focuses on the learning of aggression in a “total institution” within the Italian army – namely,... more The present article focuses on the learning of aggression in a “total institution” within the Italian army – namely, an elite corpse of paratroopers called Folgore. The extremely violent training and rituals of this group can be seen as both symbolic and particularly representative of the ideal model pursued within the army, and the armed forces in general. The central hypothesis of the work is that the learning of aggression within the military institution is wanted and controlled, being necessary and functional for the purposes of the military institution itself. Based on an autobiographic ethnography, main rituals and practices in the everyday life of the squad are described and analyzed by making conceptual references to the notions of rites of passage, rites of institution, and the psychological behaviourist learning model. Moreover, the authors argue that Italy is witnessing the transmission of practices and ideologies from the military to the police – thus producing a blend which makes the custom between war and peace ever more blurred.


Il presente articolo indaga le modalità di apprendimento della violenza all’interno di una “istituzione totale” e di un corpo d’elite dell’esercito italiano: la Folgore. L’addestramento e i riti estremamente violenti di questo gruppo possono essere considerati simbolici, oltre che particolarmente rappresentativi, di un modello ideale perseguito dall’esercito e dalle forze armate in genere. L’ipotesi centrale presentato nel lavoro è quella per cui l’apprendimento dell’aggressione dentro le forze armate è voluta e controllata, essendo funzionale ai fini di queste
stesse istituzioni. Attraverso un’etnografia autobiografica e il riferimento alle nozioni di rito di passaggio, rito di istituzione e, infine, al modello comportamentista di apprendimento, vengono descritti e analizzati i principali riti e le pratiche quotidiane di un reparto di paracadutisti. Gliautori sostengono inoltre che in Italia si stia assistendo alla trasmissione di pratiche e ideologie dall’esercito alla polizia, producendo una commistione che rende il confine tra guerra e pace sempre più confuso.

Andriotis, K. (2010). Brits Behaving Badly - Template Analysis of Newspaper Content. International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 1(1): 15-34.

by Konstantinos Andriotis

Free access available at: http://www.inderscience.com/storage/f584721091131612.pdf

This study explores the ways in which public debates about the sexual, drinking and risk taking behaviour of young... more This study explores the ways in which public debates about the sexual, drinking and risk taking behaviour of young British travellers, who participate in trips organized to Greek summer resorts exclusively by Club 18-30, have been interpreted, and framed, within print media (British newspapers). Using a template analysis approach four themes emerged, namely binge drinking, sexual behaviour, risk taking and host reactions. These themes are discussed in relation to the methodology adopted, and the findings of previous research, and policies for risk-taking decrease, and solutions to reduce the problems posed by young tourists’ antisocial behaviour in summer Greek resorts, are provided.

Keywords: youth travel, antisocial behaviour, binge drinking, casual sex, risk taking, template analysis.

Andriotis, K. (2010). Heterotopic erotic oases: The Public Nude Beach Experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 37(4): 1076-1096.

by Konstantinos Andriotis

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738310000447

Despite the importance of beaches for a broad spectrum of recreational activities, very little is known about the... more Despite the importance of beaches for a broad spectrum of recreational activities, very little is known about the multitude of beach use in marginalized spaces offering a range of opportunities for transgressive behaviour. To explore the ways that the principles of Foucault’s heterotopia are articulated by users of a gay nude beach, functioning as an erotic oasis, this study adopted a covert ethnographic approach which involved non-participant observation. The results of the study offer a unique glimpse into the role of beach, body and sexuality in the tourism experience and unlock the complexities and entanglements engaged in deviant beach use.

Keywords: heterotopia, erotic oasis, beach experience, nudism, gay space, sexual body.

Review of Crime as Structured Social Action by James W Messerschmidt

by Carl L Bankston

Gardeła, L. (2011) Rethinking Viking Age 'Deviant Burials', In. Abstracts. European Association of Archaeologists. 17th Annual Meeting. 14-18 September 2011. Oslo-Norway, Oslo, 50

by Leszek Gardela

Adolescents and Deviance in a Vietnamese American Community: A Theoretical Synthesis

by Carl L Bankston

co-authored with Min Zhou

Vietnamese Ethnicity and Adolescent Substance Abuse

by Carl L Bankston

Σύγχρονες τάσεις του εγκλεισμού (Contemporary tedencies of incarceration/Les tendances actuelles de l'incarceration)

by Stavroula Bougadi

Published in "ΠΟΙΝΙΚΗ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΥΝΗ ΚΑΙ ΕΓΚΛΗΜΑΤΟΛΟΓΙΑ" (Journal of CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND CRIMINOLOGY) ,ATHENS 1/2010
Please cite in Greek as: Μπουγάδη Στ.(2010) "Σύγχρονες τάσεις του εγκλεισμού:Από το αναμορφωτικό ιδεώδες της δεκαετίας του'70 στη σημερινή κατάσταση",Ποινική Δικαιοσύνη και Εγκληματολογία, 1, 28-40
Abridge version has published as: Bougadi St. (2011)"The Contemporary tendencies of Incarceration:From restorative ideal of the '70s to Current Situation", in Farsedakis J.,"The contemporary criminality,its confrontation and the science of Criminology,Vol.I,ATHENS:NOMIKI BIBLIOTHIKI,pp.837-856

The modern model of penal control of crime and criminal it constitutes intermixture of the systems that were applied... more The modern model of penal control of crime and criminal it constitutes intermixture of the systems that were applied occasionally.
Besides, it is characterized by its internationalisation, which begins –traditionally henceforth– from the USA and is scattered in the entire
world. The prisons, internationally, present common characteristics traits as they are: the continuous increase of their population,
the“overpopulation“, the large number of foreigners, pre-judicial people and large majority of men condemned for laws about narcotics,
etc. According to the last record of World Prison Population List, what is based on elements that were available up to in October 2006,
more from 9,25 millions persons are jailed worldwide and most as prejudged despite as condemning. In our country, as in other countries
of Western world, its correctional population increased iniquitous the last fifteen years. In the study that follows we will present tendencies
of incarceration the last decades in Greece compared to other countries and the problems that result from the squalid conditions of
imprisonment and violation of fundamental human rights of inmates.

F. Fernandez, "The Crack Smokers Theater. Staging Emotions and Self Exposure", Ethnologie française, vol. 41, n°4, 2011, pp 707-715.

by Fabrice Fernandez

French Title: "Le théâtre des fumeurs de crack. Mise en scène émotionnelle et voilement/dévoilement de soi"

http://www.cairn.info/resume.php?ID_ARTICLE=ETHN_114_707

http://www.puf.com/wiki/Ethnologie_française

The Crack Smokers Theater. Staging Emotions and Self Exposure

Based on an ethnographic fieldwork in the... more The Crack Smokers Theater. Staging Emotions and Self Exposure

Based on an ethnographic fieldwork in the neighborhood of la Goutte-d'Or in Paris, this article examines the social uses of emotions of drug addicts in crack houses. Behind the appearance of an irrational discourse, emotions give meaning to social interaction in everyday life and allow the re-articulation of heterogeneous experiences in the continuity of life courses.
Keywords
Drug Addiction, Crack, Poverty, Emotions, Social Inequality

Le théâtre des fumeurs de « crack ». Mise en scène émotionnelle et voilement/dévoilement de soi

À partir d'une enquête ethnographique dans le quartier de la Goutte-d'Or à Paris, cet article interroge le jeu des émotions durant les scènes collectives de consommation de crack. Derrière les apparences du discours irrationnel, la mise en scène des émotions et le voilement/dévoilement de soi participent à construire du sens à ces interactions « sous influence » à l'intérieur des squats précaires, réarticulant des expériences hétérogènes dans la continuité de parcours de vie.
Mots clés
Toxicomanie, Crack, Pauvreté, Émotions, Inégalités sociales

Das Theater der Crack-Raucher - Emotionale Inszenierung und Verschleierung/Enthüllung des eigenen Selbst

Auf Grundlage einer ethnographischen Untersuchung im Pariser Viertel Goutte-d'Or hinterfragt der vorliegende Beitrag die Emotionalität des gemeinsamen Crackrauchens. Denn hinter den scheinbar irrationalen Diskursen, hinter der Inszenierung von Emotionen sowie hinter der Verschleierung und Enthüllung des eigenen Selbst, die man in den besetzten Häuser des sozialschwachen Stadtviertels findet, verbirgt sich die Konstruktion von Sinnhaftigkeit, von Interaktionen, von gleichartigen Erfahrungen und somit von Kontinuität.

Schlagwörter
Rauschgiftsucht, Crack, Armut, Emotionen, Soziale Ungleichheiten

Religion, Sexuality and Retribution: Placing the ‘Other’ in Sydney

by Carole Cusack

With Jason H. Prior in Carole M. Cusack and Christopher H. Hartney (eds), Religion and Retributive Logic: Essays in Honour of Professor Garry W. Trompf, Brill, Leiden, 2010, pp. 347-368.

Australia is a notably majoritarian society, where the ‘majority’ is defined as white, heterosexual and Christian. At... more Australia is a notably majoritarian society, where the ‘majority’ is defined as white, heterosexual and Christian. At crucial periods in Australian history tensions involving minorities that did not conform to majoritarian expectations have flared up. The late nineteenth century was rife with racist and religionist tensions, particularly focused on the Chinese community, which influenced the Federation (1901) agenda for Australia. This agenda, enshrined in legislation such as the Immigration Restriction Act (1901) and other Acts constituting the White Australia Policy, determined Australian immigration until the late 1960s. Sexual minorities, particularly gays and lesbians, have not generally posed the overt and public challenge to ‘Australian values’ that alien ethnic and religious groups have. However, there are important synergies between the two cases and the challenges they pose for mainstream Australia. What is central to majoritarian Australia is peripheral to them; what is normative is alien. Their communities gather in areas that are “undesirable” or unwanted by the establishment, and their “deviant” practices take place in mysterious, substantially hidden locations.

This paper examines two case studies of communities that challenged majoritarian Australia, and the places and constructed spaces associated with them in Sydney. The first case study is focused on the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese community and the two temples in which the Chinese carried on their religious life; Sze Yup in Glebe (1904) and Yui Ming in Alexandria (1909). The witch-hunt against the Chinese culminated in a Royal Commission in 1891, which exonerated them on all counts (opium addiction, sexual immorality, and stealing the jobs of whites). The second case study examines the police raids on Club 80, a gay male venue that was located at various addresses in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst. This witch-hunt was the last gasp of a long campaign waged by conservative elements of society against homosexuals in Sydney. The first Gay Mardi Gras parade in 1978 and the ultimate failure to close venues like Club 80 signalled profound social change. This research is a significant contribution to scholarship, in that it establishes important parallels between deviant ethnic religion and deviant sexuality and raises questions concerning what is regarded as decent and indecent, central and peripheral, healthy and unhealthy, normal and abnormal, “other” and “same,” safe and dangerous, in the Australian context. These issues are located within Australia’s emerging multiculturalism and multi-faith post-Christian religious landscape, and Sydney’s emerging reputation as one of the premier gay cities of the world.

“What Can a Hippie Contribute to our Community?”: Culture Wars, Moral Panics, and the Woodstock Festival, New York History, Vol. 91, No. 3, Summer 2010, pages 221-243 (quote NY HIstory version).

by Ronald Helfrich, Jnr.

Quale spazio per una nuova sociologia “critica”? L’inchiesta sociale come lotta

by Pietro Saitta

Pietro Saitta (2010) Quale spazio per una nuova sociologia “critica”? L’inchiesta sociale come lotta, "Quaderni di intercultura", 2, pp. 3-29.

The present article focuses on the evolution of “critical” approaches to society and deviance in the Italian sociology... more The present article focuses on the evolution of “critical” approaches to society and deviance in the Italian sociology and criminology. Ethics and purposes of social research are discussed, in the light of the existing relationships between scholars and external forces structuring the field of social investigation (public and private granting organizations, neoliberal ideology, personal opportunities for the scholars involved in the “reassurance projects”, etc.). The author deploys some classic examples drawn from the Italian “social inquiry” (inchiesta sociale) of the 1960-1970’s – most probably, the greatest season for the modern Italian social sciences – in order to propose a new agenda for the study of deviance and crime in an age of neoliberal management of security.

LINKING NORMLESSNESS AND VALUE CHANGE IN THE POST-COMMUNIST WORLD.

by Christopher S. Swader

The apparent realities of the communist dystopia lead to specific expectations from the transition to capitalism: the... more The apparent realities of the communist dystopia lead to specific expectations from the transition to capitalism: the replacement of communism should cause not only a boon in human happiness, but also a resurgence of social life. Two types of observations in the past 20 years challenge these expectations. First, people from former-communist countries are often nostalgic and pessimistic when discussing changes in social relationships, friendships, family, and social engagement. Many lament the perceived decay of relationships due to a claimed growth in egoism, materialism, working hours, and moving abroad. Such stories suggest that people may have come to devalue the interpersonal social sphere during the transition years. In addition to these changes in values, there is evidence for enhanced normlessness. An example is the steep increase in murder, suicide, alcoholism, and juvenile delinquency in many post-socialist societies. However, these two observations, changing values and social disorder, have not been fully integrated, whether theoretically or empirically. As a first step toward alleviating this, the present article connects both of these changes to the reintroduction of a capitalist economic structure. Post-communist social disorder, such as deviance, can be explained if the free-market transformation weakened social values and thereby undermined the informal social control which depends on these values. This article will, in two steps, empirically investigate this proposition. First, it will ask whether the transformation to capitalist culture has resulted in individualized values that challenge informal social control. Second, this new latency of sociality will be linked to normlessness.

Gardeła L. (in preparation) Atypical burials before and after Christianization. A cross-cultural perspective. In L. Słupecki (ed.), Conversions and Ideological Changes in Middle Ages in Comparative Perspective, Rzeszów (forthcoming 2012)

by Leszek Gardela

Positive Deviance, Edgework, and Wilderness Survival

by Daniel Harrison

This paper addresses the sociology of positive deviance, edgework and wilderness survival.  Positive deviance has... more This paper addresses the sociology of positive deviance, edgework and wilderness survival.  Positive deviance has emerged over the last three decades as a viable, if contentious, research paradigm.  This paper attempts to make positive deviance more intellectually robust, in part by relating the concept to the notion of edgework.  It claims that we should speak of positive deviance when, and only when, people engage in risky, rare, positive action that exceeds social expectations.  The utility of the argument is demonstrated by examining studies of wilderness survivors and the conditions under which they may be viewed as positive deviants.

What is a problem drug user?

by Toby Seddon

Published in Addiction Research & Theory

Brethren Behaving Badly: A Deviant Approach to Medieval Antifraternalism

by Guy Geltner

Speculum 85 (2010): 47-64

A seminal survey and analysis of major instances of deviancy among members of the mendicant orders, especially the... more A seminal survey and analysis of major instances of deviancy among members of the mendicant orders, especially the Dominicans.