UNTIMELY ACTS

Interactionists and labelling theorists have made actors central to a jointly constructed process of deviance. This article extends their arguments to the deviant act itself and suggests how uses and conceptions of time and temporality distinguish deviant acts from routine or other unconventional acts. It treats time systematically in relation to designations of deviance by, first, correlating timing with temporal structures; second, comparing and contrasting deviant acts with untoward and anomalous acts; third, discussing nine temporal dimensions involved in the construction of deviant acts by illustrating how diagnosticians identify problematic drinking; fourth, elaborating the use of these dimensions to deviance in general and to issues of legal and "universal wrongs" which imply a negotiated moral order in modern society.     

Negotiating the Lines of Contention: Counterframing and Boundary Work in the School of the Americas Debate1

Counterframing scholars typically identify counterframes that interpretively distinguish arguments among opponents. This approach assumes that counterframing strategy centers on directly countering the claims of protesters. In my in‐depth examination of the ongoing debate between protesters and officials of the former School of the Americas, I identify a form of counterframing that agrees with and embraces the moral alternatives implicit in accusers’ claims. I bring boundary construction theory into conversation with counterframing analysis to expand understanding of how framing and counterframing strategies revolve around the competition for common, moral resources. I explain that in the movement to close the School of the Americas, protesters’ claims have served as moral boundaries against which the targeted institution has redefined its objectives and programs. I introduce the concept of “boundary negotiation” to argue that counterframing strategy and success lie in the negotiation of moral boundaries called into question by social movements. I outline defensive and offensive modes of boundary negotiation and identify boundary negotiation as a mechanism driving the link between counterframing and demobilization.     

Deviant Acts by Complex Organizations: Deviance and Social Control at the Organizational Level of Analysis1

The study of deviance and social control can be expanded to recognize that (1) organizations, not just individuals, commit deviant acts, and (2) other organizations have responsibilities for preventing or controlling that deviance. This paper focuses on these phenomena. It defines organizational deviance, applies Blau and Scot?s cui bono taxonomy to suggest types of organizational deviance, provides a categorization of controller organizations by the types of deviance they control, and considers the social control of organizational deviance. The paper concludes by suggesting that organizational deviance should be among the theoretical, empirical, and methodological interests of an increasing number of contemporary sociologists.     

Criminalization and deviantization as properties of the social order

It is argued that deviance should be analyzed as a relative phenomenon in different and changing cultures, vis-a-vis change and stability in the boundaries of diverse symbolic-moral universes. Deviantization and criminalization are interpreted as the outcomes of negotiations about the nature of morality and legitimization to use, and the use of, power. The legitimization of power is conceptualized in terms of a moral order that in turn defines the boundaries of symbolic-moral universes. Problematic behavioural acts, which take place at the realm of the seams, where boundaries of different symbolic-moral universes meet and touch, or which are directed from the periphery of a symbolic-moral universe towards its centre and vice versa, and which involve challenges (use or abuse) of power and morality would fall in the area of deviance. A distinction is made between regular deviance where the element of power is typically implicit and the element of morality is much more salient, and political deviance where the elements of power and morality are both explicit. Political deviance is further divided into three categories: challenges to the rulers, challenges from the rulers and contests between symbolic-moral universes from different cultures. Conceptualizing deviance in this way enables us to interpret processes of deviantization and criminalization within the context of central social processes. The November 1944 assassination of Lord Moyne is used to demonstrate how the above theoretical approach can be utilized to develop a sociological interpretation of the case.     

Political trials and the social construction of deviance

In the 1960s and early 1970s deviance research, especially in the labeling perspective, was concerned with the question of how individuals or groups become defined as deviant. Since then, the political analysis of deviance has come to ask the more fundamental question of how deviance becomes constructed through political processes. A political trial is one particularly transparent situation in which narrower political processes for imputing deviance elicit more fundamental interpretations of political modes of deviance construction. In order to explore the workings of the deviance construction process, the present study examines the two defense strategies employed on behalf of the defendants in the trial of the Chicago 15, a group of thirteen men and two women who destroyed selective service files on the south side of Chicago in May, 1969. The first strategy is the previously studied “motivation defense,” wherein the moral righteousness of the defendants' purpose is pleaded as cause for their exculpation. The second is the unique “cultural insanity defense,” which asserts that the defendants were so profoundly deluded in their moral indictment of the government that the jury should return a verdict of culturally insane rather than criminally guilty. The first section of the paper summarizes the circumstances of the trial. The second and third sections analyze each of the two defense strategies, focusing on their legal and political logic and on the prosecution counter-strategies they engendered. The final section indicates a number of theoretical implications for the further development of the political model of political trials and of deviance construction in society at large.     

“Revenge” and “Rescue”: Workplace Deviance in the Taxicab Industry*

This study explores taxicab drivers’ acts of “revenge” and “rescue,” some of which are expressive acts, while others are more instrumental. This article builds on earlier theories of workplace deviance, demonstrating how deviance can serve different purposes and expanding the concept of “deviance admiration” ( Heckert and Heckert 2004 ). It examines deviance in a circumstance—the taxicab industry—which introduces a tension between mandated conformity and necessary deviance: employees must conform to the employers’ rules and yet, to accomplish their jobs well, they need to abandon those rules occasionally. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this work has important practical applications for managers.     

The Scope of Political Conflict and the Effectiveness of Constraints in Contemporary Urban Protest*

This paper examines the effectiveness of the use of constraints (e. g., direct action tactics and violence) by protest groups. It is suggested that the development of theoretical understanding of protest movements requires that scholars turn their attention away from the question, “How effective is the use of constraints by protesters?” and instead address the more refined question, “Under what conditions is the use of constraints by protesters both most effective and least effective?” In pursuit of answers to this latter question, hypotheses are developed suggesting that the effectiveness of constraint utilization depends on the degree and direction of public (third party) involvement in the protest incident. An examination of 212 protests targeted at elected officials and public administrators in American cities during the period between 1960 and 1971 provides support for the following propositions. Constraint utilization will be most effective when third parties are either uninvolved in the protest or when they are involved and unsupportive of protester demands. Under these conditions, constraints may be effective resources enabling protesters to coerce targets into being responsive to their demands. Constraint utilization will be least effective when third parties are involved and supportive of protester demands or are attentive but initially neutral or divided in their support of the protesters. Under these conditions, the use of constraints may alienate those third parties who might otherwise be influential allies of the protesters.     

DISLOCATING MORAL ORDER AND SOCIAL IDENTITY IN CINEMATIC SPACE:

A certain type of film, the "genre stretcher," is of special interest to the sociology of deviance because it captures deviantizing discourse as if in a moment of crisis. A crisis in moral representation is at issue and with it the capacity for rendering symbolically coherent social action and cultural differentiation through narrative. This article investigates two instances of a genre stretcher— Tightrope (1983) and Cruising (1980)—and places analytic emphasis on interpreting their distinctive persona, the "inverted detective." This figure encases features of an emergent moral imagination in its condensation of certain conundrums, especially the problem of reinscribing deviance in a poststigma surround. The films thereby animate and trace out the implications of a discourse that was initiated by the 1960s and 1970s "revolt against stigma" they function as allegories of the relations between normality and deviance amid symbolic instability.     

Organizational Responses to Imputations of Deviance*

This paper proposes that the study of deviance be expanded to include organizations as actors to which deviance may be imputed. In contrast to traditional empirical studies which tend to emphasize powerless persons who passively accept attributions of deviance, this study focuses on powerful actors who actively defend themselves. Attention is focused on the types of accounts offered by one organization, the Central Intelligence Agency, in reaction to imputations of deviance to it at key times since its founding in the late 1940s. The various accounts have been aided by powerful third parties willing to use their resources in support of justifying and excusing claims by the CIA. As a result, the agency has escaped virtually unscathed from attempts to label it as deviant.     

Moral education as intercultural moral education

In a diverse country such as Peru, moral education should reflect social, cultural, political and spiritual dilemmas of both indigenous and non-indigenous peoples and their communities. To promote understanding and respect amongst people from different sociocultural backgrounds, moral education should encourage a dialogue between indigenous values and mainstream hegemonic values. In this article, we argue for the need to conceptualise moral education as intercultural. Against a common view that portraits indigenous people as incommensurable, that is, as trapped in their own radically different moral perspective, our own research in Shipibo-Konibo and Asháninka communities show that indigenous people display a moral point of view when analysing cultural traditions and practices. This moral point of view appears intertwined with their cultural values and ethnic identities and allows intercultural dialogue. In this vein, we argue for the need to incorporate intercultural moral conflicts and dilemmas into moral education to promote understanding and respect for others.     

The Network Structure of Crime

From theoretical physics to field‐driven anthropology, researchers are increasingly exploring how the connections among individuals, amoebas, brain cells, organizations, and institutions affect what we feel, think, and do. However, the application of social network analysis to the study of crime, deviance, and violence has arrived a bit late to this network turn in the social and behavioral science. I argue that this network turn in the social sciences be an important turning point in the study of crime and deviance, but only if taken as an opportunity to evaluate our core theoretical principles and consider new ways to understand and measure them. The goal of this essay is to take stock of the state of the field, while also providing a moment of pause to consider some fruitful ways of advancing this line of inquiry.     

Puritan perverts: notes on accusation

In the course of a variety of projects concerned with fundamentalism and evangelical Protestantism, a surprising number of claims about sexual misdemeanour have been collected. The fact that most of the individuals and movements accused of perversion were claimed to be, and were widely regarded as, puritanical in moral attitudes and behaviour suggests that the widespread distribution of such accusations calls for some explanation other than that they were made because they were true. This paper offers some preliminary thoughts on the appeal of claims of sexual deviance to those making the claims and to the audiences for such claims. As such it represents some introductory thoughts on what might be termed the sociology of accusation'.     

Bad Sports: Explaining Sport Related Deviance

While sometimes dismissed as an unimportant subject for analysis, the study of sport has offered important insights into our social world. Yet the academic study of sport‐related deviance has not kept pace with the explosion of popular media products regarding deviance in sport over the past four decades. This can be explained in part by the sheer diversity of sport related deviance which defies applying a singular theoretical explanation. A number of approaches from the sociology of sport and other social sciences offer useful ways of making sense of sport related rule‐breaking while also providing valuable insights into larger questions regarding crime and deviance. This paper reviews three contemporary perspectives used in the study of sport deviance: deviant overconformity, moral panics and consumptive deviance. Drawing from exemplary studies of performance‐enhancing drug use, hooligan violence, and sport celebrity scandals, I highlight the ways in which these perspectives offer a “sociological corrective” to media misrepresentations as well as insights that extend beyond sport and into contemporary social issues including race and gender relations, economic inequalities, crime, youth violence, and celebrity culture. I conclude by addressing new developments and avenues for future research.     

Developing Virtuous Children: A Theological Perspective

This paper examines various predominant moral theories and their impact on moral education. It makes a case that of these theories, virtue ethics can best handle not only the large, contemporary moral issues but also the mundane moral choices that we make day to day. It also stresses that because virtue ethics includes in its purview not only actions but also intentions, dispositions, attitudes, etc., it offers many insights into how to help children develop the capacity to make moral decisions.     

Developing Virtuous Children: A Theological Perspective

This paper examines various predominant moral theories and their impact on moral education. It makes a case that of these theories, virtue ethics can best handle not only the large, contemporary moral issues but also the mundane moral choices that we make day to day. It also stresses that because virtue ethics includes in its purview not only actions but also intentions, dispositions, attitudes, etc., it offers many insights into how to help children develop the capacity to make moral decisions.     

The Micro System of Deviance in Intimate Relationships*

Deviance in intimate relationships may lie as much within the micro system of such relationships as it does within the personalities of the actors involved. Using a Parsonsian framework, it is argued that the strain of systemically disequilibrated relationships can produce deviant personality adaptations which, in turn, intensify conflict and deviance in those relationships. It is also proposed that a reciprocal quality exists to such maladaptations, with each member of the dyad contributing to the amplification of a stable system of deviant behavior patterns within the relationship. Because the patterns of maladaptive dyads spill over into parent-child relationships, they have implications for understanding intergenerational transmission of deviance between intimates.     

Kindergarten teachers promote the participation experience of African Asylum-Seeker families

African asylum seekers live in Israel in the realities of poverty, racism, and personal insecurity. From a sociological point of view, Participation is taking part in social processes, interacting with people, texts and technologies and it may affect all areas of life. This is a qualitative-interpretive study that examines through interviews the participation experience from the perspective of eight African couples and six Israeli kindergarten teachers. The findings indicate: (1) Increasing the parents' sense of belonging, (2) Increasing the cultural participation, (3) Increasing community cohesion. Findings reveal a tension between the parents' desire to be involved and my reality of poverty and working around the clock that prevents their presence in educational activities. Under such complex conditions, kindergarten teachers worked to establish a positive personal relationship, strengthen the parents' sense of ability, overcome language barriers, and cultivate a sense of belonging from a perception that increasing participation would help them deal with integration challenges and livelihoods social rejection. The study has a theoretical and practical contribution, and its findings may be used by educators and policymakers regarding principles for action to promote the experience of participation and involvement of parents in educational settings.     

THIS PROTEST WILL BE TWEETED

This article examines the use of Twitter at protests surrounding the G20 meetings held in Pittsburgh, PA in September 2009. Based on work on information communication technologies and protest, and on more recent work on Twitter usage at protests, we develop several hypotheses about the content of tweets during protests. Most significantly, we argue that Twitter is a widely available mobile social networking tool that can be used to reduce information asymmetries between protesters and police. Examining the content of 30,296 tweets over a nine-day period, we find that protesters frequently used Twitter to share information, including information about protest locations, as well as the location and actions of police, which is information that was formerly monopolized by the police. Twitter use may be creating a new dynamic in protester and police interaction toward information symmetries. We conclude by identifying implications for policing practices and for protesters.     

The Role of Public Confessions in Show Trials: An Analysis of the Moscow Show Trials

Authority figures may organize show trials featuring public confessions when they are faced with deep rooted contradictions within the social order and want to increase their legitimacy, delegitimize defendants, and justify increased social control in society. An analysis of the court report of the Moscow Show Trials found that these public confessions frame conflicts rooted in contradictions within the social order as acts of deviance that can be resolved with additional social control. The public confessions accomplished this using four main themes: establishing credibility, labeling the defendants as deviant, endorsing the power holder, and demonstrating closure.