Rosa Parks (1913-2005), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Jesus Christ, and Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)--the examples mentioned point to the relativity of what is considered deviant in society. Social and historical context and power distribution dictate how deviance is defined in society. Culture dictates beliefs and norms, and as culture is redefined and these beliefs change, so too the acts, thoughts, and people,which are considered deviant.

In analyzing deviance, it is not just a difference in time period that shows the relativity of deviance, but competing perceptions exists within society. Gay marriage and abortion are examples. Some people believe that gays and lesbians do not deserve equal rights, while others do. Some people believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman only. Interestingly, up until 1967, inter-racial marriages or miscegenation was considered illegal n the US. Anti-miscegenation laws were also in place during Nazi Germany and during apartheid in South Africa. Since racial inferiority, or the belief that other races are inferior to another was common during that time, miscegenation was believed to be wrong.

Nowadays,the popular belief in the US is that marriage should be between two people who are sexually male and female is the norm and anything other than that is wrong. Thus, marriage itself is not wrong, but if done in certain circumstances (who, what, and where) it is. This logic is similar to the killing of another human being. In the US and in most societies, whether or not the killing of another human being is wrong has to be defined by the courts (for example whether or not the act was done in self defense). In situations such as war, the killing of another human being IS the goal. In times of war if non-combatants are killed, the act is still lawful, since these are, in military jargon, collateral damages and justified by the mission.

Sociologists look at the anti-miscegenation laws and the current laws against gay marriage as similar cases. Deviance is socially constructed, since norms are socially constructed. The examples I mentioned have led to formal punishment or formal sanctions of deviant behaviors, such as imprisonment or in the case of Jesus Christ, the death penalty. These are examples wherein institutions or groups of people execute the punishment in some sort of systematic way. But there are more mundane ways to be deviant that do not necessarily lead to formal punishment. In the US, eating with the hands is acceptable in some cases (french fries, hamburgers, pizzas), but not in other cases (rice, mashed potatoes). Defying these social norms may not lead to incarceration, but one might be ostracized by the people around them, which are referred to as informal sanctions.

One of the central aspects of punishment is publicity. Public executions, public trials, and parading those accused of crime on the streets or displaying them in the pillory have been the common practice throughout history. In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977), Foucault begins the book with the gruesome public and torture of Robert-Francois Damiens, who was convicted of regicide in the 18th century. The last person to be executed in France, Damiens was dismembered for his crime. According to Foucault, physical or corporeal punishment and torture as practiced before was haphazardly implemented and were “ineffective” uses of the body. In the 18th and 19th century, these types of punishments have since been replaced with a more controlled, individualized, and refined forms of discipline. In prison, the body is regulated as to when to sleep and eat. These “docile bodies” were regulated through observation and regiment.

The panopticon, a type of prison architecture that allows an observer to to observe all of the prisoners, without being detected by the prisoners is a type of domination and control. Prior to the 18th century, the threat of physical bodily punishment prevented people to conform, while in most contemporary societies, the threat of imprisonment and the loss of freedom is the fear that regulates deviant behavior. There are still places, however, that legally sanctions corporeal punishment. In the US, the death penalty is legal, although physical pain is not the intention. In Saudi Arabia, amputations of either hands or feet are the punishments for robbery.

In the 21st century, with the interent and social media, informal can come in the form of cyberbullying or trolling online. Social media gives informal groups a collective voice.

For the functionalist perspective, the use of sanctions against deviance is necessary. By punishing people who commit deviance, especially done in public, other members of society are more likely to conform, thus preserving social order. Cultural norms and values are reaffirmed by clearly, legally, and at times, brutally punishing those who deviate from the expected behavior. Functionalist perspective cites a person's inability to cope with social change as a cause for deviance. In an economic downturn, a person who losses his job may need to resort to other means in order to survive.

Robert Merton uses the functionalist tradition to explain why people become deviant. He introduces strain theory in explaining deviance. According to Merton, deviance occurs because society is structured to have certain goals or definitive definition of what it means to succeed, but members of society may not share these goals, or may not have the necessary know-how or means to pursue these dreams. Merton believes that there are five ways for people to cope with strain caused by social expectations. Conformity is the most common, wherein people accept both the goals and the means for achieving success.

In the US, success is defined by monetary wealth, so a person who has decided to go to school and work has conformed to the goals and the means. Innovation occurs when a person accepts the goals (in this case, money), but is not capable of achieving the goals through legitimate ways, so they innovate their own means. A person who decides to rob a bank to get rich is a person who belongs to this category. Ritualism refers to when an individual abandons the goal, but continues to act according to accepted behavior. A person who maintains a decent living, pays the rent, but does not have any dreams of ever having financial wealth is a ritualist. Retreatism occurs when a person gives up the goals and the means. A person who gives up their job and live on the streets without any ambition to change the situation is a retreatist. Lastly, Rebellion happens when the goals and the means are challenged. Unlike retreatism, the person or group makes an effort to change the system. The civil rights movement in the US in the 60s, the Cuban Revolution are examples.

The conflict perspective on the other hands looks at deviance as a manifestation of the power struggles in society. The values and norms of those in power are upheld and are legitimized since the same people control the laws in society. An analysis of how the justice system treats corporate vs. street criminals is an example. Martha Stewart was convicted of obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and making false statements in 2004 during an insider trading investigation. Insider trading, the sale or trading of stocks or securities based on private information is illegal in the financial world. She was found found guilty of lying to authorities about her sale of ImClone Systems stock in late 2001. Martha Stewart's broker at Merrill Lynch, Peter Bacanovic, was accused of ordering his assistant to notify Stewart that the CEO of ImClone System was selling his company stocks, since it was believed that the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) would reject the company's new cancer drug (CNN Money 7/20/08). Stewart sold $228,000 worth of stocks before stock prices of ImClone Systems dropped.

Martha Stewart was involved in a crime that involved tens and thousands of dollars, and she is sentenced to five months of home confinement and two years of supervised probation. In the US, the median time spent in prison for someone convicted of car theft is 21 months and the median sentence for robbery is 71 months. One of the arguments for a more lenient sentencing of corporate crime is the lack of a direct victim—but are corporate crimes truly victimless?

In 2001, Enron, an energy company based in Houston, TX filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Former CEOs of Enron, Kenneth Lee Lay (1942-2006) and Jeff Skilling (1953) were accused of a number of securities fraud, federal felony, and related charges. While Lay died before his scheduled sentencing while vacationing in Colorado, Skilling is currently serving a 24-year, 4-month prison sentence. Skilling was found guilty of insider trading. He sold $60 million worth of his shares in the company leading prosecutors to believe that he sold them with the knowledge of the impeding bankruptcy of Enron. The Enron scandal has changed the public sentiment towards corporate crime. The accounting firm Arthur Andersen was also found guilty of obstructing justice by shredding documents relating to the Enron scandal and their “questionable” accounting allowed Enron to hide millions of dollars of debt (BBC 6/12/2002). Former employees lost their pensions funds and retirement saving with the Enron.

Investigation into Enron's role in the California energy crisis in 2006 has also showed how aside from the insider trading and federal counts of fraud that the CEOs were found guilty of, audiotapes also showed how Enron asked power companies to “take plants offline at the height of the California energy crisis—in order to make money (Democracynow.org).” After California deregulated its energy market in 2000, a trader from Enron was taped as rejoicing about forest fires, which cut power supplies and raised energy prices. Traders were caught on tape telling power producers to “go ahead and shut her down”, meaning the plants in order to drive up prices (CBS 6/1/2004). Is it a crime to artificially increase prices of electricity? Did Enron “steal” money from Californians? One of the interesting aspects of corporate crime and victims is the indirect consequences of corporate crimes. Unlike a street crime such as robbery wherein the crime is more clear-cut, corporate crimes are more complex in measuring the level of damage done. For the conflict perspective however, corporate crimes are not victimless.

Another example of how power and culture dictate what is considered wrong in society is terrorism and which groups governments officially refer to as terrorists. Under Ronald Reagan, the Taliban were referred to as "freedom fighers", when they were fighting the Russians out of Afghanistan. But they soon became terrorists when they won. School shooting are not considered terrorist acts, but a sign of deterriorating mental health...the list goes on.

An example of a symbolic interactionist perspective interpretation of deviance is labeling theory. Developed by Howard Becker (1928) labeling theory looks at deviance through the interaction between those who are committing an action and those who find that action deviant. Thus, it is not that insider trading as a form of deviance that is important, but it is how people react to it that makes it deviant. When the public got a hold of Kim Kardashian's sex tape, her career and fame sky rocketed. Imagine if a person of less prominence had a sex tape distributed to the public? Would that person get the same benefits? If a group of teenagers are hanging out in a parking lot in an affluent neighborhood and listening to music, passersby would probably not think of these kids as delinquents. Take the same situation but change the setting. For example, the same group of teenagers doing the same thing, but hanging out in the middle of a poor neighborhood. These kids would probably be considered a menace. Setting is important in determining whether an action or people are delinquent or not.

In a vicious cycle, once a person is associated with a certain deviant behavior, he/she will be treated with skepticism by those around, which will then further perpetuate deviant behavior. In his work on mental illness, David L. Rosenhan in “On Being Sane In Insane Places” best captures how our assessment of deviance is guided by our interactions. The study shows how once a person is perceived as insane, actions, that might be seen as "normal" if done by other people, will be interpreted differently by professionals. Give it a read.

• Social Construction
• Formal sanctions
• Informal sanctions
• Public Punishment
• The Panopticon
• Merton's Typology of Deviance
• Conflict Perspective and Deviance
• Terrorism
• Labeling Theory