Deviance‐construction in Stalinist societies: A critical analysis

This study is concerned with the definition of deviance and the processes of constructing deviance in Stalinist societies. Deviances created by the state in these societies are analyzed, especially from functionalist and phenomenologist aspects and by applying Foucault's approach. Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is used as a starting point for the analysis. In his work, Solzhenitsyn dwells at length on the “deviances” and the process of deviance construction in Stalinist Soviet Union. It is suggested that, in these societies, “total state deviance” fits in a desacralized, demodernized world view. Finally some consequences of this deviance image still at work are discussed.     

a new typology of deviance: integrating normative and reactivist definitions of deviance

The concept of positive deviance is marginalized in deviance literature by the focus on negative deviance and the absence of comprehensive conceptions of deviance. Current conceptions of positive deviance simply parallel definitions of negative deviance, namely normative and reactivist conceptions. Normative definitions posit positive deviance as behaviors and attributes that exceed normative expectations (e.g., overconformity), such as overachieving students. Reactivist definitions view positive deviance as positively evaluated behaviors and attributes, such as athletic talent. We propose a new typology, which cross-classifies reactivist and normative definitions of deviance and more precisely distinguishes positive deviance, along with three other categories of deviance. Negative deviance, the traditional focus of the sociology of deviance, refers to behaviors that involve underconformity or nonconformity to norms and negative evaluations. Rate-busting refers to overconformity that is negatively evaluated. Deviance admiration refers to underconformity that is positively evaluated. Positive deviance refers to overconformity that is positively evaluated. This typology compensates for deficiencies in the separate conceptions of deviance by highlighting their contradictions (e.g., reactivists fail to consider rate-busting; normative theorists ignore deviance admiration). Current and historical examples in each category illustrate the utility of the new typology. The typology also accommodates the contextual nature of deviance, accentuates the role of power in defining deviance, and suggests the value of general theories of behavior as opposed to specific theories of ''deviant behavior.''     

The social organization of deviance

The social organization of deviance refers to the structure of the deviant transaction, the pattern of relations among its roles. Deviant transactions can be arrayed along a dimension of complexity. Three forms are distinguished: individual deviance can be carried out by a single actor; deviant exchange requires two deviant actors in reciprocal roles; and deviant exploitation needs an offender and a target Organizational complexity has consequences for deviants and social control agents. As complexity increases, deviants are more likely to be seen as responsible for their actions, those actions are more likely to be defined as serious, the response to deviance is more likely to be punitive, the risks of the deviant's identification and capture become greater, the range of tactics used by deviants expands, and the tactics of social control agents become reactive. The complexity of transactions’ organization has implications for the study of deviant and respectable action.     

exploring the relationships between gender,control balance,and deviance

Most scholars acknowledge that males are overrepresented in crime statistics, but existing criminological theory has not yet provided a widely accepted explanation of this difference. In this article, we review Tittle's (1995) arguments concerning gender differences in deviant behavior and derive five gender hypotheses from control balance theory. Using data collected specifically for the purpose of operationalizing the control ratio, we examine differential involvement in two forms of deviance (predation against self and exploitation against others) and empirically assess each of the derived hypotheses. Three key findings emerge from our effort. First, we fail to find a statistically significant difference between the mean control balance ratios of males and females as well as the items that comprise the control balance scale. Second, we find a significant relationship between gender and involvement in two types of deviance. Third, and more importantly, we uncover differential effects of the control balance ratio on the two types of deviance that are contingent on gender. We discuss the implications of our gender-control balance-deviance interaction for control balance theory, and outline directions for future research.     

Acts against the workplace: Social bonding and employee deviance

Research into the phenomenon of workplace deviance has separately focused on two types of employee rule‐breaking behavior, 1) acts against the property and assets of the organization and 2) various types of counter‐productive behavior. In an attempt to compare the theoretical and empirical similarity of these two forms of employee deviance, this paper examines the self‐reported involvement in both property and production deviance among a population of employees randomly sampled from three industry sectors and three metropolitan areas. Utilizing a weighted least squares logit regression analysis, the findings support continued conceptual separation of these two forms of employee rule‐breaking as they seem to be explained by slightly different configurations of the “social bonding” model. Involvement in property deviance seems to be primarily the result of a lack of future “commitment” to the organization, while counter‐productive behavior is better understood using a combination of “commitment, attachment, and involvement” variables in the model. Further, both forms of workplace deviance were significantly more likely to involve younger employees.     

Attitude Transference and Deviant Behavior: A Comparative Study in Japan and the United States

Attitude transference is the term that has come to be used to refer to a key process by which one's personal attitudes approving or disapproving of certain behavior reflect those of his or her primary groups and in turn affect his or her conforming or deviant behavior. Cross-cultural comparisons on this and other issues afforded by previous studies, however, have been limited primarily to examining findings that have used different samples and instructions. Drawing on previous literature on cultural variability in individualism, the present study directly tests the hypotheses that although attitude transference operates similarly across cultures, the effects of parental and peer attitudes toward deviance on one's own attitudes should be weaker and stronger, respectively, in Japan compared to the United States. The analysis of identical survey data from college students in the two societies provides mixed support for the hypotheses.     

Crossnational deviance in the workplace: Diverging impact of organizational commitment in Canada and Belgium

Using a self-report questionnaire from the aggressor's point of view, this study contrasted employees' frustration, perception of procedural justice, organizational commitment, and their relationships to interpersonal deviance in Canada and Belgium. Significant main effects were found in both countries for frustration and procedural justice on psychological and physical violence. Moreover, hierarchical regression analyses revealed significant interactions of country by normative and continuance commitment in interpersonal deviance, indicating the unique patterns relationships in Canada and Belgium. Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions was used to discuss the results.     

Abusive supervision and subordinate supervisor‐directed deviance: The moderating role of traditional values and the mediating role of revenge cognitions

This study examined the link between abusive supervision and subordinate supervisor‐directed deviance by focusing on the moderating role of traditionality and the mediating role of revenge cognitions directed towards supervisors. The results of analysing 283 supervisor–subordinate dyads in six private electronic companies and 222 supervisor–subordinate dyads in two state‐owned oil and gas companies in the People's Republic of China showed that abusive supervision was positively related to revenge cognitions directed towards supervisors and to supervisor‐directed deviance. In addition, traditionality moderated the above relationships such that they were stronger among low traditionalists than among high ones, while revenge cognitions mediated the main effect of abusive supervision and the interactive effect of abusive supervision and traditionality on supervisor‐directed deviance.     

“忠臣”还是“逆臣”？员工建设性越轨行为对主管绩效评价的非线性影响机制

整合社会交换和相似吸引理论,探讨了员工建设性越轨行为对主管绩效评价的过犹不及效应的作用机制和边界条件。实证分析结果表明：建设性越轨与主管绩效评价呈倒U形关系,领导感知的LMX在建设性越轨与主管绩效评价之间的倒U形关系中起完全中介作用,领导的建设性变革责任感在建设性越轨与LMX的倒U形关系中起负向调节作用。     

A reassessment of cultural deviance theory: The use of underclass measures

This paper reassesses Miller's version of cultural deviance theory utilizing underclass measures to define the subculture. Previous research has ignored the potential of underclass measures such as unemployment and welfare status, despite evidence suggesting that such measures are strongly correlated with delinquency. The results in this paper are for the most part consistent with Miller's theory. We find that a number of indicators of subcultural focal concerns are significantly associated with underclass membership. Further, these indicators of focal concerns are also significantly associated with delinquent behavior. However, tests of the socialization process notions implicit in delinquency theories yield results more consistent with social control theory than with cultural deviance theory.     

The Consequences of School Environment and Locus of Control on Adulthood Deviant Behavior

We examine the long-term effect of school environment on individual deviant behavior. Specifically, we contrast the effects of school deviance and students’ perception of school deviance on personal deviance later in life. Using longitudinal data from four waves of more than 3,100 participants in the Kaplan Longitudinal and Multigenerational Study, we are able to show that school deviance in 7th grade has only a short-term effect on individual deviance. However, when students perceive a lack of deviance in their school at 7th grade, it decreased their personal deviance in their mid-forties if they were both deviant in 7th grade and reported an external locus of control.     

Responses to labeling attempts: Deviant drinkers’ pathways of label manipulation

Recognizing the traditional labeling approach's view of the label recipient as a passive participant in the labeling process, this paper argues that the symbolic interactional roots of this approach indicate this to be an inappropriate formulation. Rather, it is suggested that label recipients are active participants in the process and their major goal is the reduction of stigma and limited conforming opportunities inherent in label application. For the deviant drinker, there are two available pathways of label negotiation. With initial labeling attempts, it is hypothesized that label recipients should attempt to negotiate reality through deviance avowal, whereas with increasing numbers of prior labeling attempts, deviance avowal becomes the only viable means of reality negotiation. Because of the medicalization of deviant drinking, deviance avowal becomes a means of reducing label‐based social costs through occupation of the repentant‐deviant role. Given the need to invoke certain aspects of the medically based sick role in order to gain entrance into the repentant‐deviant role, it was hypothesized that those attempting to negotiate reality through deviance avowal exhibit attitudes more consistent with the traditional sick role than those attempting to disavow deviance. Although the findings provide general support for these hypotheses, they also indicate inadequacies of the Parsonian sick‐role formulations in deference to the more appropriate repentant‐deviant role model for deviant drinkers attempting to avow deviance.     

Gender dependency of occupational deviance and role overload as determinants of fear of success imagery

The effects of occupational deviance and role overload on Fear of Success (FOS) scores were investigated following Bremer and Wittig's (1980) finding that these inflate FOS scores when a story cue describing a female character is given to respondents of both sexes. This finding was replicated by the present study. However, stories were also given that described events involving a male character. In this condition occupational deviance and role overload produced no such effect upon the FOS scores. Bremer and Wittig's suggestion that these two variables are independent of the sex of the cue character is therefore refuted and it is argued instead that these variables will be interpreted very differently depending on the sex of the cue character. The finding that male and female respondents produce very similar FOS scores to the same stories provides further evidence that such measurement techniques evoke sex-role stereotypes rather than an indication of the individual's motivation. The particular relevance to Parsons and Goff's (1980) emphasis upon the incentive value component of the McClelland/Atkinson Motivational Model is also explored.     

The structuring of Vicarious Sex

This paper proposes a change in the typing of a form of sexual deviance: voyeurism (watching persons who are undressing, undressed, or in the act of sexual intercourse). The analysis focuses on a suggested change in what is thought to prompt voyeurism. Voyeurism is presently regarded as pathological deviance by some researchers. This paper suggests that some voyeurism can be better understood if considered within the context of sociological deviance. Support for this change is offered from a review of relevant literature and data collected from two groups of voyeurs.     

组织中的建设性偏差:概念界定、形成机制及影响

组织中的建设性偏差是组织成员为了提升组织或组织利益相关者的福祉,有意采取的违背组织重要规范的行为。文章介绍了组织中建设性偏差的概念、与相关概念的关系及测量方法;从多个层面系统梳理了建设性偏差的影响因素和形成机制,并且分析了建设性偏差对组织和个体的影响结果。文章最后提出未来研究应构建建设性偏差的本土化结构与测量工具,探索多层次多视角的行为产生机制,重视对员工建设性偏差频率和强度的"度"的拿捏,以及关注中国背景下的建设性偏差研究。。     

Dancing with identity: Narrative resistance strategies of male and female stripteasers

Using life history interviews with 14 female and 10 male striptease dancers, the researchers examined how the language of deviance is used in the life narratives of exotic dancers. Past studies have oriented toward striptease as an occupational curiosity for men and as deviant for women. This article addressed both genders in one study. Eschewing typical deviance vocabularies of analysis, the authors drew upon “biographical work” as our theoretical orientation to frame the life history interview materials and to develop the concept of “narrative resistance.” Rather than assuming that deviance is inherent to striptease dancing for women, but not men, the authors demonstrated how deviance is a socially constructed narrative resource that all dancers may draw upon to construct an account of self. The narrative resistance strategies discussed here include two deviance exemplars: sleaze and immersion. The authors concluded with two discussions: one regarding gender and biographical work and the other regarding the generalizability of narrative resistance as a biographical work strategy.     

cumulative continuity and injection drug use among women: a test of the downward spiral framework

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.     

Leathers and Rolexs: The Symbolism and Values of the Motorcycle Club

Labeling theory tends to focus largely on the offender. Yet, implicit in interactionist theories of deviance is a concern for the social situation as a whole. This logically includes the victim of crime. This article explores the potential of extending the interactionist perspective on deviance to the experiences of victims of crime. Specifically, I outline a parallel labeling process for victims in which differential social reactions to this status, flowing from varying attributions of sympathy worthiness, have an impact on the behaviors, adjustment, and identities of the individuals concerned. This process is further distinguished from the related labeling of emotional deviance. I then present the results of a qualitative study of individuals who have suffered the murder of a loved one. Through an empirical examination of the varying social reactions to these individuals by extended family, friends, acquaintances, and the community, as well as victims' varying responses thereto, I indicate how familiar terms such as accommodation, labeling, primary, secondary, and tertiary deviance each have their conceptual counterpart in the experiences of victims.     

Are Dishonest Extraverts More Harmful than Dishonest Introverts? The Interaction Effects of Honesty‐Humility and Extraversion in Predicting Workplace Deviance

Honesty‐Humility, one of the six major personality dimensions included in the HEXACO model of personality structure, has previously been found to show negative correlations with workplace deviance. In this study, we hypothesised that Extraversion would moderate the relationship between Honesty‐Humility and workplace deviance. In particular, we posited that the relation between Honesty‐Humility and workplace deviance would be stronger among employees who are high on Extraversion than among those low on Extraversion. The hypothesis was tested using three different samples across Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. It was found in two of the three samples that high levels of Extraversion did indeed amplify the relationship between (low) Honesty‐Humility and workplace deviance. Results suggest a potentially important role for multiplicative effects of personality variables on workplace criteria.