deviance

Definition

deviance rate

(Adult / Slang)

Quote: R.T. Francoeur (ed.). The Complete Dictionary of Sexology (1995): ' A behavior, idea, or attitude, that is not in conformity with what is considered normal, standard, or ideal according to some authority or consensus. In criminology, deviance is narrowly defined as an infraction of legal norms. A more common broader usage refers to any deviation from a social norm. Until recently, deviant was also a technical and common term for paraphilic behavior. In Models of Madness, Models of Medicine (New York: Macmillan, 1974), M. Siegler and H. Osmond suggest five models of sexual deviance: (1) a religious model in which demonic possession or temptation leads to a sin that must be confessed, repented, and exorcised by a religious authority in order for the deviant to be saved; (2) a legal model in which the deviant's criminal behavior is punished and the criminal person rehabilitated by civil authorities if proved guilty; (3) a medical model in which an illness, due to some known or unknown natural cause, is treated by a physician to restore health to the sick person; (4) a psychoanalytic model in which arrested or impaired psychosexual development that has not been faced and resolved is symbolically acted out unconsciously in emotionally disturbed ways; and (5) a labeling model in which a group that cannot tolerate differences labels as criminal or sick those whose behavior differs from theirs, punishing the deviant, who has no rights. Resources: D. Downes and P. Rock, Understanding Deviance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982); 1. Taylor, P. Walton and J. Young, The New Criminology: For a Social Theor-y of Deviance (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973) '