The Purpose of Deviance

By Evan

If people generate their personalities through exposure to others within their societies, where does deviance from the social norms come, and what purpose does it serve in society? Deviance seems to exist so that societies can adapt to changes in the world or because the deviants must deviate or die. The deviance does in fact seem to come from society itself, in effect creating the paradox that the deviants are conforming to what society has encouraged them to be by deviating.

If there were no deviance in the world, society would be rigid and unchanging, simply because no one would think differently from the society at large. The problem with this is that while the society might run smoothly as it is for the present, it will be too rigid to survive unforseen changes. The deviants provide the ideas to change society so that it can survive new challenges. Any problem that has never occurred will need some degree of creativity to solve. If some intrepid Homo-erectus had conformed to the way his simple society worked and not worked out how to make fire, our society would not exist and we would all still be primitive hunter-gatherers or not be here at all. Consider the society to be like a human body, the parts need to be differentiated from each other, or we would all be formless blobs of goo. A formless blob of goo would not be able to accomplish very much, so we need to have body parts that serve specific functions. Therefore deviants are a vital part of society.

If it is accepted that deviance is necessary, then what precisely causes it? One possibility is that society actually encourages deviance subtly so that it must exist. Despite the fact that people are expected to conform to the norms of society, individuality is very highly emphasized as well. Perhaps the conflict between these two principles that are both prominent within society gives rise to deviance. Those that choose conformity from up the majority and obey the norms, except that they are deviants to a degree because by conforming they have somewhat diminished their individuality. Their deviance, however can be ignored because they themselves are not usually aware of their conformism and being the majority, shall not be seriously stigmatized. The major deviants are those who choose individuality over conformism. They still conform to society to a degree but they do things that distinguish them as deviants. Good examples of these sorts of deviants would be the hippies. These particular deviants will probably be derided by the majority usually, unless of course they produce something that is helpful to the society as a whole.

Another aspect of deviance that exists within society is crime. Crime is a deviance from the norms of society because either the people in question have no choice in the matter, or imagine that they have no choice in the matter. They feel they are incapable of taking the normal route that society tells them that they should take and so they attempt to reach the same general goals as the law-abiding citizens but bypass the rules that usually constrain the journey. Society needs deviance in order to continue to survive. Conformity inevitably leads to stagnation and death as soon as the first unforseen circumstance occurs. These deviants that society needs spring forth due to society's emphasis on individuality and despite the necessity of their existence are often looked upon with scorn or at least not taken seriously. The unwelcome deviants, the criminals, exist because of a need they have to take shortcuts to achieve the goals that society says they should have.

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