Sociology › Section G · Deviance, crime, and social control › Topic G.1

Deviance and social control

Every group has rules, and every group has members who break them. Sociologists ask who decides what counts as rule-breaking, how groups push people back into line, and why some deviance turns out to be useful.

In this topic

  • Deviance in everyday life
  • Setting, audience and actor
  • Deviance changes over time
  • Deviance and crime
  • Social control and sanctions
  • Worked example: classifying sanctions
  • Stigma
  • Medicalisation
  • Durkheim: deviance is normal
  • Worked example: paint on a wall
  • Common mistakes to avoid
  • Key takeaways

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