Deviant and delinquent behavior are social norms. Difference between deviant and delinquent behavior. Deviant phenomena in the life of a teenager

ST. PETERSBURG INSTITUTE OF PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL WORK

_____________________________________________________________

Faculty of Applied Psychology.

Abstract on legal psychology on the topic:

Deviant and delinquent behavior of adolescents.

Forms of manifestation of behavioral disorders.

Evaluating any behavior always involves comparing it with some norm; problematic behavior is often called deviant.

Deviant behavior is a system of actions that deviate from the generally accepted or implied norm (mental health, rights, culture, morality).

Deviant behavior is divided into two broad categories. First, it is behavior that deviates from the norms of mental health, implying the presence of overt or hidden psychopathology. Secondly, this behavior is antisocial, violating some social and cultural norms, especially legal ones. When such actions are relatively minor, they are called offenses, and when they are serious and punishable by criminal law, they are called crimes. Accordingly, they talk about delinquent (illegal) and criminal (criminal) behavior.

Delinquency usually begins with school truancy and joining an antisocial peer group. This is followed by petty hooliganism, bullying of the younger and weaker, taking away small pocket money from children, stealing (for the purpose of riding) bicycles and motorcycles. Less common are fraud and petty speculative transactions that cause behavior in public places. This may be accompanied by “domestic thefts” of small amounts of money. All these actions while a minor are not grounds for punishment in accordance with the Criminal Code.

However, adolescents can exhibit greater delinquent activity and thus cause a lot of trouble. Typically, delinquency is the most common reason for proceedings in juvenile affairs commissions.

Adolescence in general and early youth in particular constitute a risk group.

Firstly, the internal difficulties of adolescence have an impact, starting with psychohormonal processes and ending with the restructuring of the self-concept. Secondly, the borderliness and uncertainty of the social status of adolescents.

Thirdly, contradictions caused by the restructuring of the mechanisms of social control: children's forms of control no longer operate, and adult methods that involve discipline and self-control have not yet developed or become stronger.

The overwhelming majority of adolescent delinquency has purely social causes—failures in upbringing, first and foremost. From 30 to 85% of delinquent adolescents grow up in an incomplete family, i.e. without a father, or in a deformed family - with a newly appeared stepfather, less often, with a stepmother.

The growth of delinquency among adolescents is accompanied by social upheavals, leading to fatherlessness and deprivation of family care.

Delinquency is not always associated with character anomalies or psychopathologies. However, with some of these anomalies, including extreme variants of the norm in the form of character accentuations, there is less resistance to the adverse effects of the immediate environment, and greater susceptibility to harmful influences.

The appearance of socially disapproved forms of behavior indicates a condition called social maladjustment. No matter how varied these forms are, they are almost always characterized by poor relationships with other children, which manifest themselves in fights, quarrels, or, for example, aggressiveness, defiant disobedience, destructive actions or deceit.

They may also include antisocial behavior such as theft, truancy and arson. There are important connections between these different behaviors. They manifest themselves in the fact that those children who were aggressive and cocky at early school age are more likely to show a tendency towards antisocial behavior as they grow older.

Social maladjustment syndrome is much more common among boys. This is clearly evident in cases of antisocial behavior.

Adolescents with so-called socialized forms of antisocial behavior are not characterized by emotional disorders and, moreover, they easily adapt to social norms within those antisocial groups of friends and relatives to which they belong. Such children often come from large families where inadequate educational measures are used and where antisocial behavior is learned from the immediate family environment.

On the contrary, a poorly socialized, aggressive child has very bad relationships with other children and with his family. Negativism, aggressiveness, insolence and vindictiveness are the main traits of his character.

All forms of deviant behavior naturally lead to violations of legal norms. Going beyond social rules, accompanied by extraordinary cruelty, is always suspicious as a possible mental anomaly.

Deviant and delinquent forms of behavior are an adaptation to the social and psychological realities of adolescence and youth, although condemned by society for their extremism.

Deviant phenomena in the life of a teenager.

No matter how different the forms of deviant behavior are, they are interconnected.

Drunkenness, drug use, aggressiveness and illegal behavior form a single unit, so that a young man's involvement in one type of deviant activity increases the likelihood of his involvement in another.

Unlawful behavior, in turn, although less severely, is associated with violations of mental health standards. To some extent, as already indicated, the social factors that contribute to deviant behavior coincide (school difficulties, traumatic life events, the influence of a deviant subculture or group).

Alcoholization (alcohol abuse) and early alcoholism.

A person is not born an alcoholic. Even a burdened heredity is just a prerequisite. For its implementation, a meeting between a person and alcohol is necessary. This meeting can be prepared not only by the microenvironment - family, immediate environment, but also by the macroenvironment - society, its institutions, including the school. This danger is very widespread in our country. According to one sample survey (F.S. Makhov, 1982), approximately 75% of those in VIII grade, 80% in IX, and 95% in X grades drank alcoholic beverages. This, of course, is not drunkenness, but the earlier a child is introduced to alcohol, the stronger and more stable his need for it will be.

The peculiarity of the pharmacological effect of alcohol on the psyche is that, on the one hand, it, especially in large doses, suppresses mental activity, and on the other, especially in small doses, it stimulates it, removing conscious inhibition and thereby giving vent to suppressed desires and impulses . The process of forming attitudes towards alcohol, or, in short, an alcoholic attitude, is that the sign of the attitude can be “imprinted” in different ways, simultaneously separately, in combinations. These methods include the behavioral aspect of the attitude, when even a simple imitation of movements (filling glasses, making toasts, etc.) includes a whole associative series that fixes a positive sign. This process can occur completely unconsciously.

Patterns of drunkenness make it possible to find out the reasons for a teenager’s deviations:

a) Since intoxication reduces the feeling of anxiety experienced by the individual, drunkenness is more common where there are more socially tense and conflict situations.

b) Drinking is associated with specific forms of social control; in some cases they are a ritual, and in others they act as anti-normative behavior.

c) The main motive for drunkenness is the desire to feel and appear stronger; Drunk people try to attract attention to themselves, behave aggressively, violating norms of behavior.

d) Alcoholism is often rooted in internal conflict - the individual’s desire to overcome the feeling of dependence that weighs on him.

What contributes to adolescent alcoholism? By drinking, a teenager strives to extinguish the characteristic state of anxiety and at the same time get rid of excess self-control and shyness.

An important role is also played by the desire to experiment and especially by the norm of the youth subculture, in which drinking is a sign of masculinity and maturity, a means of initiating ordination of the drinker. It is group drinking that is the psychological milestone of initiation into group members.

The style of alcoholization adopted in the company begins to be perceived as natural, normal, finally forming psychological readiness for an uncritical perception of alcoholic customs. Alcohol becomes the norm. Over time, a rigid group structure with tendencies for antisocial activity is revealed.

The leading part of the group are persons registered with the police, with the inspectorate for minors with previous convictions. As a result, each new member of the group is doomed to undergo a “mandatory program” that begins with hooliganism and ends with relapses and delivery to a sobering-up center and serious offenses.

Concluding the essay on “alcohol education,” we emphasize the special responsibility of the family in the formation of an alcoholic attitude. The family can also act as a myth buster. The norms that it sets are particularly stable, because they are fixed before the critical ability matures. The family creates (or does not create) a margin of safety for the social attitudes that a teenager needs in later life.

Narcotism (drug use)- an extremely serious problem that has become widespread in the modern world. Drug abuse is typical for those groups of society that are in a state of anomie, i.e. individuals in these groups are deprived of socially significant ideals and aspirations, which is especially typical for adolescents. The phenomenon of anomie develops against the background of destructive phenomena in society, when young people do not see for themselves a clearly enough life scenario for the formation and development of personality. In the described situation, some young people find themselves unable to fulfill one of the leading life needs for self-realization and self-affirmation. These phenomena are accompanied by a negative emotional background, discomfort, and this last circumstance gives rise to the young man’s search for new means that would help cope with the crisis situation. The drug in this case is a means that temporarily gives the young person the illusion of well-being and emotional comfort. Further drug abuse is greatly facilitated by the individual biological prerequisites of the future drug addict.

Of course, drug use alone does not necessarily make a person a drug addict. There are different levels of drug addiction (A.E. Lichko, 1983):

Single or rare drug use;

Repeated use, but without signs of psychological or mental dependence;

Stage I drug addiction, when mental dependence has already formed, the search for a drug for the sake of obtaining pleasant sensations, but there is no physical dependence yet and stopping drug use does not cause painful withdrawal sensations;

Stage II drug addiction, when physical dependence has developed;

Stage III drug addiction – complete mental and physical degradation.

The first two stages of development are reversible; only 20% of adolescents belonging to the second level become drug addicts in the future. However, the degree of risk depends on age and the nature of the drug.

Like drunkenness, teenage drug use is associated with mental experimentation and the search for new, unusual sensations. According to the observations of narcologists, two-thirds of young people are first introduced to narcotic substances out of curiosity, a desire to find out what is beyond the forbidden. Sometimes the first dose is imposed by deception, under the guise of a cigarette or drink.

At the same time, this is a group phenomenon; up to 90% of drug addicts begin to use drugs in groups that gather in certain places.

In addition to the harm to health, drug use almost inevitably means that a teenager is involved in a criminal subculture, where drugs are purchased, and then he himself begins to commit increasingly serious offenses.

Illegal behavior of minors is most often expressed in aggressiveness and appropriation of someone else's property. Let's look at the first one.

Aggression as a manifestation of inability to adapt to the social environment clearly manifests itself between the ages of 10 and 13 years. It is expressed either in family fights when resolving conflicts, or in the beating of physically weak, insecure students deprived of parental protection.

At high school age, aggressiveness is observed mainly in boys, and much less often in girls. The aggression of young men usually differs in the following situations: when opposing themselves to children, adults, and the elderly;

in conflicts between individual youth groups; when regulating relationships within a youth group using physical force.

Aggression towards younger people is usually expressed in ridicule of them, pushing them, slapping them on the back of the head, and sometimes in taking away small personal belongings and money. It can especially manifest itself against children who do not have a strong defender. Aggression in such cases is a means of mocking and condescending demonstration of one’s age superiority and physical strength. Aggression by older adolescents towards adults is often aimed at defining the boundaries of what is permitted in behavior and is of a demonstrative nature. It can manifest itself in deliberate violation of silence, objections to elders (often in a defiant, offensive form), clashes in places with the largest concentration of adults, and damage to public property. At the same time, young people carefully observe the behavior of adults and immediately react to it. A significant aggravation of the situation occurs when elders irritably and angrily demand to “call the hooligans to order” or fearfully distance themselves from the conflict. The older teen enjoys teasing these adults. Moreover, he regards even the possible subsequent punishment as unfair, because the teenager himself did not know in advance where this “experiment” would lead him. Therefore, teenagers in such cases blame adults for everything.

Aggression is often directed at an individual adult. More often this is observed in criminal behavior carried out by an entire youth group. The immediate impetus for it is usually made by strong emotions that have captured the entire group of young people. Often, as noted above, such emotions arise against the background of alcohol intoxication. In this state, schoolchildren have an increased desire to perform some unusual “dashing”, “brave” action. It can find a way out in an attack on a physically weak, drunk or elderly person.

Aggression can manifest itself in middle school students in clashes between separate groups. Disputes between teenage groups living in the neighborhood usually arise over territorial “spheres of influence,” clubs, cinemas, and discos. They try not to let rivals in there.

Finally, aggressiveness in regulating relationships in a group. It is associated with the establishment or preservation of a certain “order” in a particular youth association and is directed against “traitors and troublemakers”, as an edification to the hesitant and insecure. This usually happens when a certain informal group arises or collapses.

Teenage aggression is most often a consequence of general anger and low self-esteem as a result of experienced failures and injustices.

Victims of overprotection, spoiled mama's boys who did not have the opportunity to experiment and be responsible for their actions in childhood, also often display sophisticated rigidity; cruelty for them is a kind of fusion of revenge, self-affirmation and at the same time self-test.

Teenage vandalism, as a rule, are performed together in a group. The role of each individual is, as it were, erased, personal moral responsibility is eliminated. Antisocial actions committed jointly strengthen the feeling of group solidarity, which at the moment of action reaches a state of euphoria, which later, when the excitement passes, the adolescents themselves cannot explain in any way.

Negative phenomenon - appropriation of other people's things by teenagers, caused by their lack of ethical education or great spoilage. It should be noted that the appropriation of another person’s things among the vast majority of adolescent offenders is not associated with a focus on personal enrichment. Usually “alienations” are small. They are often committed in a fight, a hooligan attack on another person. “Winner's trophies” can be given away to friends and acquaintances. Such teenagers do not consider themselves thieves and, when detained, do not feel either shame or remorse.

The behavior of teenage girls who commit theft has its own characteristics.

In those families where there is no opportunity to have expensive toys, cosmetics, fashionable items of women's toilet, the need for theft is discovered. These also occur when living together in a dormitory.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in more serious, deliberately organized robbery-type attacks (with the aim of taking possession of property).

Alcohol, drugs, and vagrancy require money, which teenagers either don’t have or have little of, which pushes a group or individual teenagers to steal.

Has become widespread among teenagers vagrancy and running away from home, which are also for the most part committed collectively or under the influence of comrades. Since in order for a teenager to escape, he needs the help of his comrades in the yard company, in particular to study the area of ​​​​movement and establish contact with other vagabonds.

So called sexual crimes also take place in the lives of delinquent adolescents. The mechanisms of criminal sexual violence in adolescents depend on personal characterological characteristics and are divided into two groups: delinquents who commit crimes alone and those who commit crimes in a group (there are more of them).

Some of these teenagers show pronounced signs of premature puberty, others are leaders of criminal groups. Among the individual typological characteristics, one can note a pronounced imbalance of nervous processes, a high rate of aggressive tendencies, high emotionality, and sexual tension.

Character accentuations and inadequate self-esteem are diagnosed in the personality structure.

The moral and value orientation of the personality of a teenage rapist is an unstable system. Their ideas about morality and moral values ​​are clearly inadequate.

Real behavior also includes the so-called suicidal behavior and self-aggression. The latter is expressed in an attack on the integrity of one’s body and usually occurs once in the life of adolescents.

Auto-aggression is committed in a state of passion. Most often, but is caused by extremely negative life circumstances or significant moral instability. The reasons can be very diverse: quarrel, resentment, “self-defense” of the individual from the harsh influences of others, bravado, absence of loved ones. Auto-aggression is associated with the immaturity of the student’s assessment of the situation around him.

The problem of youth suicide, which was taboo for many years, has become relevant in the modern world.

Many attempts, especially among girls, are demonstrative in nature.

What psychological problems are behind youth suicides?

In psychological experiments, it has been shown more than once that in some people any failure causes involuntary thoughts of death. The death drive is nothing more than an attempt to resolve life’s difficulties by leaving life itself.

There is even a psychological personality type, which is characterized by a stable attitude, a tendency to escape from conflict-stressful situations, right up to the very last. The fate of people of this type is marked by the fact that suicide for them is the most likely type of death. The reason why a person commits suicide can be completely insignificant.

Popular literature sometimes states that nine-tenths of adolescent delinquents grow up in criminogenic and weak families. In fact, such families account for 30-40% of crime. The connection between delinquency and family structure is exaggerated: two-thirds of adolescents grow up in two-parent families. There is no clear connection between criminal behavior and a certain style of family upbringing - a lack of parental warmth and attention or, conversely, overprotection.

The influence of youthful delinquency itself on the fate of an adult is also ambiguous. The more severe a teenager's delinquent behavior is, the more likely he is to engage in it as an adult. However, statistically, average delinquency in most adolescents ceases with age.

Bibliography:

Vasiliev V. L. Legal psychology. - St. Petersburg, 1997

Kon I. S. Psychology of high school students. - M., 1980

Craig G. Developmental Psychology. - St. Petersburg, 2001

1. Deviant behavior teenagers (5)

   Coursework >> Sociology

   ... deviant And delinquent behavior teenagers in psychology 1.1. Forms of manifestation of violations behavior 1.2. Psychological factors of inability to educate teenagers Chapter II. Deviant behavior and personality 2.1. Deviant ...

2. Deviant behavior teenagers (3)

   Abstract >> Psychology

   Between deviant behavior and personality teenager. I Problem deviant And delinquent behavior teenagers in psychology. 1.1. Forms of manifestation of violations behavior. Evaluation of any behavior Always...

3. Deviant behavior teenager as a social and pedagogical problem

   Abstract >> Psychology

   ... deviant behavior…………………………………………….6 Causes and consequences deviant behavior teenagers……………9 1.3. Forms deviant behavior ... behavior use special terms such as " delinquency" And " deviance". Under delinquent behavior ...

Characteristics of deviant behavior

In some modern studies, the concept of “deviant behavior” is often correlated with another type of behavior – delinquent. But in reality, these concepts, despite their consonance and some identity, still do not coincide.

Deviant human behavior is a multifaceted concept. On the one hand, it is defined as a human act, an action that does not correspond to generally accepted and formal norms and standards in society. On the other hand, deviant behavior is a special social phenomenon that is expressed in mass forms of human behavior and activity. At the same time, these forms also do not correspond to the officially established norms and standards that have developed in a particular society.

It is important to realize that deviation is a deviation, but it may not always be negative. Therefore, there are two types of deviations from social norms:

• Positive deviations from social norms, which are aimed at getting rid of outdated and irrelevant standards and norms. This contributes to a qualitative change in the social system, without which society cannot further develop and reach a completely new level of its development.
• Negative deviations from social norms - in other words, they are called dysfunctional, since they can disorganize the social system and lead it to inevitable destruction. This, in turn, becomes the cause of deviant behavior of members of society who are dissatisfied with the current circumstances and strive with all their strength and actions to demonstrate their dissatisfaction.

Figure 2. Forms of deviant behavior. Author24 - online exchange of student works

Deviant behavior can be of several types:

• Firstly, it is innovation, which involves agreement with the general goals of society, but at the same time the denial of generally accepted methods that could help achieve these goals;
• Secondly, ritualism is associated with the denial of the goals of a particular society and the absurd exaggeration of ways to achieve them;
• Thirdly, retreatism is the refusal of a person or group of people from socially approved goals and, accordingly, the rejection of traditional and customary ways of achieving them.

The last type of deviant behavior is rebellion. He denies both goals and methods of achieving goals, but at the same time strives to replace them with completely new ones. Rebels include revolutionaries who strive for a radical disruption of all social relations. At the same time, they can offer new ways to achieve goals, or they can simply destroy old ones without the possibility of alternatives.

Figure 3. Causes of deviant behavior. Author24 - online exchange of student works

The essence of delinquent behavior

Delinquent behavior is also a social behavior of a person, which is manifested in his actions. This can be any action or inaction in relation to the current situation. Delinquent behavior can cause harm to an individual or to society as a whole.

Note 1

Unlike deviant behavior, delinquent behavior is more of a misdemeanor than a conscious crime.

Figure 4. Delinquent behavior. Author24 - online exchange of student works

Adolescent delinquency is of great interest. At this age, a person most often commits various offenses, both intentional and unconscious. The increase in such offenses and the lack of prevention can lead to the fact that delinquent behavior will be perceived by a person as the norm. As a result, in adulthood this will lead to an increase in the proportion of serious violent crimes that will be committed by the same people who have not undergone preventive classes or educational conversations.

More often, delinquent behavior is presented in the form of causing harm. This is due to the encroachment of dilinquent on a person, his rights and freedoms. This also includes property that he can ruin, following any of his own motives. Various types of delinquent behavior, despite their relative innocence in comparison with deviant behavior, are still condemned by society. They are formalized by the state in legal norms by describing the features that characterize them and defining them as offenses. For delinquent acts, the law establishes a variety of types of social or criminal responsibility (which rarely goes beyond administrative responsibility and community service).

There are several types of delinquent behavior:

• Firstly, delinquent behavior includes administrative offenses - violation of traffic rules, petty hooliganism. Smoking or drinking alcohol in public places is also considered an administrative offense.
• Secondly, a disciplinary offense is delinquent - an unlawful, guilty and deliberate failure to fulfill one’s labor duties. Such delinquent offenses entail disciplinary liability, which is provided for in labor legislation.

Such offenses include: absenteeism for an unexcused reason, showing up at work in poor condition, under the influence of drugs or toxic substances, and violating labor safety rules.

If delinquent behavior is not corrected in time, then a rather negative picture will emerge: a person who perceives his behavior as the norm will continue to commit crimes, only more serious ones. The normality of such

Deviant behavior is the behavior of people that does not correspond to generally accepted values ​​and norms.

Deviant behavior is the commission of actions that contradict the norms of social behavior in a particular community. The main types of deviant behavior include, first of all, crime, alcoholism and drug addiction, as well as suicide and prostitution. According to E. Durkheim, the likelihood of behavioral deviations increases significantly with the weakening of normative control occurring at the level of society. In accordance with R. Merton's theory of anomie, deviant behavior arises primarily when socially accepted and set values ​​cannot be achieved by some part of this society. In the context of the theory of socialization, people whose socialization took place in conditions of encouragement or ignoring of individual elements of deviant behavior (violence, immorality) are prone to deviant behavior. In the theory of stigmatization, it is believed that the emergence of deviant behavior becomes possible simply by identifying an individual as socially deviant and applying repressive or corrective measures against him.

Delinquent behavior (from Latin delictum - misdemeanor, English - delinquency - offense, guilt) - antisocial illegal behavior of an individual, embodied in his actions (actions or inactions), causing harm to both individual citizens and society as a whole.

21. Social control is divided into two types:

§ self-control- application of sanctions committed by the person himself, aimed at himself;

§ external control- a set of institutions and mechanisms that guarantee compliance with generally accepted norms of behavior and laws.

External control happens:

§ informal - based on the approval or condemnation of relatives, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, as well as public opinion, which is expressed through customs and traditions or the media;

§ formal - based on the approval or condemnation of official authorities and administration.

In modern society, in a complex society, in a country of many millions, it is impossible to maintain order and stability by informal methods, since informal control is limited to a small group of people, which is why it is called local. On the contrary, formal control applies throughout the country. It is carried out by agents of formal control - persons specially trained and paid for performing control functions, bearers of social statuses and roles - judges, law enforcement officers, social workers, church ministers, etc. In traditional society, social control was based on unwritten rules. For example, in a traditional rural community there were no written norms; The church was organically woven into a unified system of social control.

In modern society, the basis of social control is the norms recorded in documents - instructions, decrees, regulations, laws. Formal control is exercised by such institutions of modern society as the courts, education, the army, production, the media, political parties, and the government. The school controls us through examination grades, the government - through the system of taxation and social assistance to the population, the state - through the police, the secret service, state television channels, press and radio.

Depending on the sanctions applied, control methods are:

§ straight rigid; the instrument is political repression;

§ indirect hard; instrument - economic sanctions of the international community;

§ straight soft; instrument - the effect of the constitution and the criminal code;

§ indirect soft; tool - the media.

Organizations control:

§ general (if the manager gives a subordinate a task and does not control the progress of its implementation);

§ detailed (if the manager intervenes in every action, corrects, etc.); such control is also called supervision.

Supervision is carried out not only at the micro level, but also at the macro level.

At the macro level, the subject exercising supervision is the state - police stations, informant service, prison guards, escort troops, courts, censorship.

An organization and society as a whole can be overwhelmed by a huge number of regulations. In such cases, the population refuses to comply with the norms, and the authorities are not able to control every little detail. However, it has long been noted: the worse the laws are implemented, the more of them are published. The population is protected from regulatory overloads by their non-compliance. If most of the people targeted by a particular norm manage to circumvent it, the norm can be considered dead.

People will definitely not comply with the rules or circumvent the law:

§ if this norm is disadvantageous to them, contradicts their interests, causes more harm than good;

§ if there is no strict and unconditional mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the law for all citizens.

Mutually beneficial orders, laws, regulations and social norms in general are convenient in that they are executed voluntarily and do not require additional staff of controllers.

Each norm must be covered by an appropriate number of sanctions and control agents.

Citizens are responsible for the execution of the law provided that they:

§ equal before the law, despite differences in status;

§ are interested in the operation of this law.

The American sociologist of Austrian origin P. Berger proposed the concept of social control, the essence of which boils down to the following (Fig. 1). A person stands in the center of diverging concentric circles representing different types, types and forms of social control. Each lap is a new control system.

Circle 1 - outer - political-legal system, represented by a powerful state apparatus. Against our will, the state:

§ collects taxes;

§ calls for military service;

§ forces you to obey your rules and regulations;

§ if he deems it necessary, he will deprive him of freedom and even life.

Circle 2 - morals, customs and mores. Everyone is watching our morality:

§ morality police - can put you behind bars;

§ parents, relatives - use informal sanctions such as condemnation;

§ friends - they will not forgive betrayal or meanness and may break up with you.

Circle 3 - professional system. At work, a person is constrained by a mass of restrictions, instructions, professional responsibilities, business obligations that have a controlling effect. Immorality is punished by dismissal from work, eccentricity by loss of chances to find a new job.

Control of the professional system is of great importance, since the profession and position decide what an individual can and cannot do in non-working life, which organizations will accept him as members, what his circle of acquaintances will be, in which area he will allow himself to live, etc. .

Circle 4 - social environment, namely: distant and close, unfamiliar and familiar people. The environment makes its own demands on a person, unwritten laws, for example: the manner of dressing and speaking, aesthetic tastes, political and religious beliefs, even the manner of behaving at the table (an ill-mannered person will not be invited to visit or will be rejected from home by those who value good manners).

Circle 5 - closest to the individual - private life. The circle of family and personal friends also forms a system of social control. Social pressure on the individual here does not weaken, but, on the contrary, increases. It is in this circle that the individual establishes the most important social connections. Disapproval, loss of prestige, ridicule or contempt among loved ones have much greater psychological weight than the same sanctions coming from strangers or strangers.

The core of private life is the intimate relationship between husband and wife. It is in intimate relationships that a person seeks support for the most important feelings that make up the self-image. To put these connections on the line is to risk losing yourself.

Thus, a person must: yield, obey, please, by virtue of his position, everyone - from the federal tax service to his own wife (husband).

Society in its entirety suppresses the individual.

It is impossible to live in society and be free from it.

22.​ The concept of social community

The concept of social communities

Social communities are one of the social subsystems, a group of people who have common social characteristics, occupy the same social position, are united by joint activities or have common goals, cultural needs, political, ideological and other value orientations.
The diversity of social communities is quite impressive. Sociological research has proven that the majority of citizens in every country interact with various communities. This fact explains the real interests and motives of behavior of citizens, as well as the conditions for stability or, conversely, instability of the entire society as a whole.
Social communities include: ethnic, professional, territorial, gender, age, regional, educational and other associations of people.
Practice shows that a person’s attitude towards existing communities is an indicator of his social activity, civic position and democracy. The more communities a citizen belongs to, the more useful a participant in society he is, since these are politically active individuals who participate in solving public issues and can influence the resolution of many significant situations.

Features of social communities

social communities are not an abstract concept, they really exist and can be identified through observation;

the number of people who are counted in social communities is not amenable to arithmetic calculation, but it is an integral association;

the emergence of social communities refers to the satisfaction of the needs, interests and motivations of the participants.

Reasons for the formation of social communities

similarity, proximity of people's living conditions;

similar needs and interests;

unity of views and approaches to solving some or many problems;

a sense of benefit from interactions and other collaborations;

informal assignment of participants to a given community.

Typology of social communities

By size:
1) Large social communities. These associations include: employees, entrepreneurs, farmers, environmentalists, opponents of military action.
Large social communities have significant influence, and therefore arouse interest among sociologists. Due to their significant numbers, communities can spread influence over large territories.
2) Small social communities. These include families, department employees, groups of students in educational institutions, graduates, and associations of residential building owners.
Small communities are of interest to sociology, since in some cases large mass public organizations and movements emerge on their basis, playing an important role in the democratization of social relations.

By degree of organization:
1) Low-organized communities that arise to jointly solve a limited problem, and as it is solved, they cease to exist. For example: voters of a party, participants in social movements.
2) Rigidly organized communities. They are distinguished by the presence of a clear program, governing bodies, and continuity of activities. Examples could be: social movements, political parties, etc. Often communities with a rigid organization arise on the basis of poorly organized communities.

Social communities are distinguished by a wide variety of types and forms, for example, according to the following characteristics:

in terms of quantitative composition - from two or three people to tens and even hundreds of millions;

by duration of existence - from several minutes to many millennia;

according to basic system-forming characteristics - professional, territorial, ethnic, demographic, sociocultural, religious, etc.

Large social communities

Large social communities are, as a rule, groups of thousands of people with territorial boundaries and an uncertain qualitative and quantitative composition (for example, class, territorial, professional, religious, ethnic communities, etc.). The emergence and functioning of large social communities occurs on the basis of common social connections. These connections, as a rule, are situational and indirect in nature of solidarity interaction (for example, a solidarity meeting of Vorkuta miners in support of striking Kuzbass miners; a protest meeting (demonstration) of Arab students in Moscow condemning the US-British aggression in Iraq).

Large social communities are more characterized not by social contacts (direct interaction of its members), but by indirect social connections. And the larger the social community (in terms of the number of members, the territory it occupies), the less opportunities its members have for direct interaction.

In addition to the presence of general social characteristics for classifying oneself as a member of a particular social community, the self-awareness (self-determination) of a particular individual is of no small importance. For example, in an open democratic society, a person, as a rule, can choose his place of residence, occupation, profession, religion, ideology, etc. An individual’s desire to participate in the activities of a particular social community largely depends on the expected reward (material or moral ), which he can receive in the future.

23. Large social group- a quantitatively unlimited social community that has stable values, norms of behavior and social-regulatory mechanisms (parties, ethnic groups, industrial, industrial and public organizations).

Deviation is a deviation from generally accepted values ​​and norms in the process of social interaction. It is considered only in terms of the degree to which the established standards of a group or community are met or not met. Depending on whether they cause this or that harm to society or, on the contrary, bring benefit, they distinguish culturally approved(constructive) and culturally frowned upon(destructive) types of deviation. The first include genius, heroic deeds, sporting achievements, and leadership abilities. In traditional societies, approved deviations include hermitage, religious fanaticism, and a hyper-ascetic lifestyle. Culturally disapproved deviations include those actions and those types of social activities that cause harm to society and, at a minimum, cause condemnation.

Youth criminals, hermits, ascetics, hardened sinners, saints, geniuses, innovative artists, murderers - all these are people who deviate from generally accepted norms. Not attending a church service is also a kind of deviation from the position of an unbeliever.

Approved deviation one way or another is rewarded. Forms of remuneration: cash payments, granting privileges, increasing status or prestige. Disapproved deviation entails condemnation, punishment(up to and including imprisonment) isolation(up to expulsion from the country) or treatment.

Deviation performs two functions: bringing a group together and setting boundaries between what is acceptable and what is not. Incorrigible deviants are subject to prison isolation or hospitalization. They serve as a lesson for others. Punishment for wrongdoing strengthens norms and law and order. In most societies control deviant behavior asymmetrical: deviations in the bad direction are condemned, and deviations in the good direction are approved. Depending on whether the deviation is positive or negative, all forms of deviation can be placed on a continuum:

If we carry out a statistical calculation, it turns out that in normally developing societies and under normal conditions, each of these groups will account for approximately 10–15% of the total population. On the contrary, 70% of the population are “solid average” - people with insignificant deviations (Fig. 7.13).

Rice. 7.13.

The Gaussian curve is a universal means of expressing the quantitative distribution in society of mass social properties, signs, traits, phenomena, processes, etc.

Although most people behave in accordance with the laws most of the time, they cannot be considered absolutely law-abiding, i.e. social conformists.

There are various approaches to the problem of deviations.

• Structural approach developed by E. Erickson. He found that the proportion of deviants in the population remained approximately constant in all eras. Deviance increases during periods of dramatic social change, when the criteria for what is considered deviance are revised. In quiet times, on the contrary, the system of social control itself changes.
• Within symbolic internationalism E. Lemert and G. Becker created stigma theory asserting that deviation is the result of a negative assessment from the community, an offensive label.
• Differentiated Capability Concept R. Claward and L. Oulin argue that it is very attractive for an individual to use the role model of behavior of successful deviants.

The history of the sociological development of the problem begins with E. Durkheim. He believed that deviations play a positive role at the societal level, contributing to the preservation of social order. Crime is a necessary part of all societies. It provides an important service in that it generates social consensus in opposition to it. All members of society come together to express their outrage at the crime, thereby developing closer bonds among themselves. Through group consensus, social order is strengthened. When deviants are punished, citizens form a community of solidarity that strengthens their beliefs.

After Durkheim, research developed in three main directions:

• 1) theoretical and methodological (M. Weber, P. A. Sorokin, T. Parsons);
• 2) interdisciplinary - sociologists and lawyers (M. Halbwachs, W. Thomas, F. Znaniecki), as well as representatives of conflict theory (L. Coser, R. Dahrendorf), psychoanalysis and social ethology;
• 3) a special sociological theory that originated in the depths of structural functionalism (T. Parsons, R. Merton).

Domestic sociologists, following Robert Merton, recognize the existence of five types of behavioral reactions.

• 1. Subordination(conformal behavior): acceptance of goals and means.
• 2. Innovation(reformism): acceptance of goals, elimination of means.
• 3. Ritualism: rejection of goals, acceptance of means.
• 4. Retreatism(withdrawal): rejection of neither ends nor means.
• 5. Mutiny: rejection of goals and means and replacing them with new goals and means.

In a strict sense, the second, fourth and fifth types of behavior are considered deviant from the norm. In accordance with R. Merton's theory of anomie, deviance occurs when socially accepted and set values ​​cannot be achieved by some part of society.

Deviant behavior- a system of actions that deviate from a social norm accepted or implied by the majority of the population and do not entail criminal, administrative or disciplinary punishment. Deviant behavior is a type of deviant behavior, its mild form.

Deviant behavior is especially common in adolescents. The reasons for this are social immaturity and the physiological characteristics of the developing organism. They manifest themselves in the desire to experience curiosity, thrills, insufficient ability to predict the consequences of their actions, and an exaggerated desire to be independent. A teenager often does not meet the requirements that society places on him; he is not ready to fulfill certain social roles to the extent that others expect this from him. In turn, he believes that he is not receiving from society what he has the right to expect. The contradiction between the biological and social immaturity of adolescents, on the one hand, and the demands of society, on the other, serves as a real source of deviation.

Sociologists have established a trend: a person assimilates patterns of deviant behavior the more often he encounters them and the younger his age. Violations of social norms by young people can be serious and frivolous, conscious and unconscious. All serious violations, whether conscious or not, that fall under the category of unlawful act are considered delinquent behavior.

Delinquent behavior- This is deviant behavior, which in its extreme manifestations constitutes criminal actions. In legal practice delinquency is understood in two meanings.

Delinquent offenses include administrative offenses, expressed in violation of traffic rules, petty hooliganism (foul language, obscene language in public places, offensive harassment of citizens and other similar actions that violate public order and tranquility of citizens), as well as absenteeism without good reason by students , appearing at work in a state of alcoholic, drug or toxic intoxication, drinking alcoholic beverages, violating labor safety rules, etc. Persons who commit such offenses are subject to liability under civil law. Delinquent acts also include acts committed by children, adolescents and young people that are insignificant or not serious from the point of view of criminal law, i.e. not punishable by criminal law.

Delinquent behavior is a type of deviant behavior, its rigid form. An even more severe form is criminal behavior. Delinquent and deviant behavior are related to each other as species and genus, part and whole. Any delinquency is deviant behavior, but not all deviant behavior can be classified as delinquent. The recognition of deviant behavior as delinquent is always associated with the actions of the state represented by its bodies authorized to adopt legal norms that establish in legislation a particular act as an offense.

The list of delinquent behavior of schoolchildren, according to foreign and domestic sociologists, usually includes such offenses as: not returning home at night, drinking alcohol, pestering adults, fighting, illegally possessing weapons, inflicting grievous bodily harm on someone with a bladed weapon, stealing, skipping classes, smoking marijuana, leaving school, taking pocket money from other schoolchildren, disturbing order in public places, damaging public property, writing or drawing on walls, etc.

Adolescent delinquency usually begins with school absenteeism and joining an antisocial peer group. They are followed by petty hooliganism, bullying of the younger and weaker, confiscation of pocket money from children, theft (for the purpose of riding) bicycles and motorcycles, fraud and petty speculative transactions, defiant behavior, home theft of small amounts of money. According to the UN, about 30% of all young people take part in some kind of illegal activity, 5% commit serious offenses.

An analysis of approaches to defining the concept of “deviant behavior” in domestic and foreign psychology, as well as in the ideas of other sciences (sociology, medicine, criminology, etc.) was undertaken by S. V. Bogdanova in her dissertation research. “Regardless of science, all authors, speaking about deviant behavior, highlight deviations from social and legal norms of society,” she writes. At the same time, differences are also indicated: “In sociology, this is an act, an action; in medicine - a system of actions; in psychology - stable behavior of the individual; in pedagogy - a specific way of changing social norms and expectations; in criminology - crime as a social phenomenon."

With reference to Yu. Kleiberg, S.V. Bogdanova points out that “some researchers believe that we should talk about any deviations from social norms approved by society, others propose to include in this concept only violations of legal norms, and others – various types of social pathology ( murder, drug addiction, alcoholism, etc.), fourth - social creativity."

Ya. I. Gilinsky was the first to draw attention to the positive nature of deviations: “Deviations... are a universal form, mechanism, method of variability, and, consequently, of life activity, development of each system” [Cit. from: 48. P. 109]. O. S. Osipova notes that the boundaries between positive and negative forms of deviant behavior are fluid in time and social space.

According to E. Durkheim, the likelihood of behavioral deviations increases significantly with the weakening of normative control occurring at the level of society. In accordance with R. Merton's theory of anomie, deviant behavior arises, first of all, when socially accepted and set values ​​cannot be achieved by some part of this society. In the context of the theory of socialization, people who are socialized in conditions of encouragement or ignorance of certain elements of deviant behavior (violence, immorality) are prone to deviant behavior. In the theory of stigmatization, it is believed that the emergence of deviant behavior becomes possible simply by defining a rotivid as socially deviant and applying repressive or corrective measures against it.

In English, crime is denoted by the word “crime”, and the term “ delinquency" - "delinquency" has a broad meaning. This is an offense, an act of delinquent behavior, a misdemeanor.

Delinquent called "offender", "criminal". These are young repeat offenders, “primary delinquents” convicted for the first time for juvenile delinquency, adolescents with police contacts but released with an official warning, and adolescents with “bad behavior.” Delinquent behavior(from Lat. Delictum - misdemeanor, English - delinquency - offense, guilt) - antisocial and unlawful behavior of an individual, embodied in his actions (actions or inactions) that harm both individual citizens and society as a whole

Here it should be noted that delinquency is close to the concept of deviance. Deviation(from lat. Deviatio) – deviation in human behavior from generally accepted norms, and deviant behavior - committing acts that contradict the norms of social behavior in a particular community. Thus, the leading sign of deviant behavior in the broadest sense is deviation from socially accepted norms, rules, and traditions.

But compared to delinquency, this concept does not include a serious violation of the law that entails criminal punishment. A characteristic feature of deviant behavior is cultural relativism. For some, smoking and drinking alcohol is the norm, for others it is a deviation.

So, deviance and delinquency– two forms of deviation of behavior from existing norms in society. The first form is relative, and the second is more significant. Therefore, they are interconnected. The roots of delinquency should in many cases be sought in the deviance that precedes it.

Criminology considers the phenomenon of delinquency as if in isolation from other phenomena in society. Sociology studies delinquents within the framework of ongoing social processes. This could be, for example, a process such as a certain psychological pressure on an individual to achieve material success from society. Or the process of social isolation of a delinquent may lead to re-committing crimes.

The main types (forms) of deviant behavior include, first of all, crime, alcoholism and drug addiction, vagrancy, begging, suicide, and prostitution.