1. Wider Origins of the Deviant Act Immediate Origins of the Deviant Act
Crime and Deviance
The New Criminology
Wider Origins of the Deviant Act
Immediate Origins of the Deviant Act
The Actual Act
Outcome of the Social Reaction to a Deviant's Further Action
Wider Origins of the Deviant Reaction
Immediate Origins of a Social Reaction
The Nature of the Deviant Process as a Whole
Teaching Notes
The New Criminology
The New Criminology: Taylor, Walton and Young (1973)
Wider Origins of the Deviant Act
(A theory of culture)
To understand deviance we must understand how structures of inequality, power and ideology operate in Capitalist society, whereby concepts of deviance are shaped at a very general. For example, 250 years ago to own black slaves in England was a sign of success; in contemporary Britain slave ownership is illegal.
Immediate Origins of the Deviant Act
(A sense of subculture)
This involves understanding the specific relationship between the people involved in a particular act. An individual’s cultural background is, for example, a significant factor in explaining their conformity or deviance. We must, therefore, understand how people are socialised - someone whose family background, for example, is steeped in racist ideology may be more likely to commit race-hate crimes than someone who has no such family background.
The Actual Act
What people do is as important as what they believe. It’s possible, for example, to believe in white racial superiority without ever committing an act of racial violence. We need, therefore, to understand the factors surrounding any decision to deviate - which involves understanding the rational choices and offender makes.
Immediate Origins of a Social Reaction
(Subcultural reactions)
How people react to what someone does is crucial, both in terms of physical reaction (revulsion, disgust, congratulation…) and how they label the behaviour (deviant or non deviant) in terms of particular (subcultural) standards. The reaction of control agencies such as the media and the police will also be significant.
Wider Origins of the Deviant Reaction
(Society’s reaction)
This examines how the (labelled) deviant “reacts to the reaction of others”; do they accept or reject the deviant label, for example? Do they have the power to deflect any social reaction (something related to the individual’s structural location in society, conditioned by factors such as class, gender, age and mental competence?
Outcome of the Social Reaction to a Deviant's Further Action:
How the deviant “reacts to the social reaction” is significant on both a psychological (contempt, remorse and so forth) and social level - such as the ability or otherwise to mobilise forces (such as favourable articles in the press or the best lawyers) to defend / rationalise the original behaviour.
The Nature of the Deviant Process as a Whole
We must look at the “process as a whole” (as outlined above) and the connections between each of the dimensions. ©

2. The New Criminology: Decoded
Crime and Deviance
The New Criminology: Decoded
A theory of culture
A sense of subculture
The Actual Act
Society’s reaction
Deviant reaction
Subcultural reaction
The Nature of the Deviant Process as a Whole ©