On the Sociology of Deviance Kai T. Erikson

On the Sociology of Deviance Kai T. Erikson

1. Communities = families, whole cultures, nations, small groups

   • boundary maintaining
     • maintained by behavior of community members
     • community boundaries established and reestablished during these confrontations
     • can change with leadership changes, shift in community mood, with new generations
   • members stay in close contact
   • members feel special
   • retains a cultural integrity
   • official, policing agents will confront persons (deviants) whose activities have moved outside of the margins of the group
     • could take the form of criminal trials, excommunitcaiton hearings, courts-martial, psychiatric case conferences
     • confrontations attract attention
   • Communities, institutions perpetuate deviance
     • hospitals, prison, similar agencies
     • even teaching each other deviant career
       • "the lewd inflame the more modest; the audacious harden the timid. Everyone fortifies himself as he can against his own remaining sensibility; endeavoring to practice on others the arts thatt are practiced on himself; and to gain the applause of his worst associates by imitating his manners.
     • we are a people who don't deviants to change very much
   • deviant sanctions performed using ceremonies
     • ceremonies are almost impossible to reverse
     • deviant rushed into deviant position dramatically but removed with barely a word of public notice
     • deviant returns home with stigmas and community distrust and community apprehension