Deviant behavior
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Deviant behavior is behavior that is a recognized violation of social norms. Formal and informal social controls attempt to prevent or minimize deviance. One such control is through the medicalization of deviance. It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant.
Crime, the violation of formally enacted law, is formal deviance while an informal social violation such as picking one's nose is an example of informal deviance. It also means not doing what the majority does or alternatively doing what the majority does not do. For instance, behaviors caused by cultural difference can be seen as deviance. It does not necessarily mean criminal behavior.
An example of a group considered deviant in the modern United States is the Ku Klux Klan. Milder examples include punks and goths.
See also
- Abnormal psychology
- Deviant sexual intercourse
- Deviant modernism
- Eccentricity
- Folk devil
- Human behaviour
- Juvenile delinquency
- Subculture
- Town fool
