AMPLIFICATION OF DEVIANCE

Sociologyindex, Deviant Behavior, Sociology Books 2011, Amplification of Deviance,

Developed by Leslie Wilkens, the term 'Social Amplification of Deviance' is used more frequently in Britain. Deviance amplification refers to the unintended outcome of moral panics or social policies designed to prevent or reduce deviance.

A media hype phenomenon, 'Amplification of Deviance' or 'deviancy amplification spiral' refers to an exagerated cycle of reporting on particular antisocial behavior.

Typically, the attention given to deviance by the media and moral entrepreneurs serves to attract new recruits and provides them with a definition of what the public expects, thus amplifying the amount of deviance in society.

Because of such 'amplification of deviant behavior', insignificant problems gain significance and uncommon events begin to look common. Media keeps people motivated and informed on such events. The 'deviancy amplification spiral' glamorizes and increases deviant behavior by making it acceptable.

In the book, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, Stanley Cohen wrote that moral panics usually include what he called a deviancy amplification spiral. In folk devils and moral panics, certain groups periodically become the focus of moral panics. They are labelled as being outside the central core values of our consensual society and as posing a particular threat to them. The groups investigated by Cohen were the Mods and Rockers. The 'central core values' which such groups transgress against are argued to be the norms and values which serve the interests of the dominant classes. The media whips up a moral panic which is coupled with calls for strengthening the forces of law and order.

African Delinquency as Social Amplification of Deviance 
Foreign Title: Delinquance africaine comme amplification sociale de la deviance 
Journal: Revue internationale de criminologie et de police technique Volume:35 Issue:2 
It proposes instead, a look at statistical and morphological aspects of the problem and at the workings of criminal justice and child protection services. It finds labeling effects arising from inappropriately criminalized behaviors, from the discretionary practices of arrest and prosecution authorities, and the absence of diversion alternatives. Particularly in the cultural milieu of African communities, judges should not be making disposition decisions regarding status offenders and other less serious forms of juvenile deviance. A model is proposed, whereby child protection committees would function within their communities and, in coordination with medical and social assistance agencies, prescribe appropriate intervention measures in line with indigenous customs. A variety of measures should be available, including temporary placement with another branch of the extended family and individualized forms of community service, reparation, and restitution. A total of 39 footnotes are given.

Cycles of Deviance: Structural Change, Moral Boundaries, and Drug Use, 1880-1990 
J E Hawdon - Journal: Sociological Spectrum Volume:16 Issue:2 Dated:(April-June 1996) Pages:183-207
Abstract: The model tracks changes in the structure of deviance, explains when a boundary crisis will develop, clarifies how the amplification of deviance eventually ends, and explains how deviant behaviors sometimes become acceptable. The historical data support the explanation that changing moral definitions and rates of behavior depend on demographic and economic changes in society. The two drug epidemics that occurred in the United States since 1880 occurred when structural change expanded pluralism. Contrary to the common view, moral panics were waged after these epidemics began to subside rather than during them. In fact, the findings indicate that the rates of deviance as a socially constructed definition vary inversely with the objective number of persons engaging in the particular behavior. Figure, footnotes, and 91 references (Author abstract modified) - ncjrs.gov/app/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=169223

Aggregation and amplification of marginal deviations in the social construction of personality and maladjustment 
GIAN VITTORIO Caprara, Philip G. Zimbardo
Correspondence to GIAN VITTORIO Caprara, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Universita di Roma, La Sapienza, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy - www3.interscience.wiley.com
Abstract: Some social maladjustment in children is understood from a new perspective focusing on the cyclical interaction between personality variables and social psychological processes in the development of risk mechanisms. A profile of originally marginal deviations between a child and peers on selected behavioural tasks and personality functioning is a risk indicator of eventual significant perturbations in social adjustment. The aggregation of reciprocal effects between the child's behaviour and the reactions of teachers and peers becomes amplified over time into increasingly greater deviations and more negative reactions. Our multi-causal model centres the at-risk child within a complex psycho-social system and identifies a series of processes that influence behaviour along this path of transformation from marginal to significant social deviation. Empirical support for aspects of this model is emerging from a long-term, longitudinal study with Italian school children.  

Labeling the Labelers: A Quasi-Experiment Examining the Deviance Amplification Hypothesis at the Organizational-Level
Ward, Jeffrey
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY
Abstract: The two main testable hypotheses of labeling theory, the “status characteristic hypothesis” and the “deviance amplification hypothesis”, are derived from the conflict perspective and the symbolic interactionist tradition, respectively. This paper focuses on the latter hypothesis and extends the labeling framework to the organizational-level. Symbolic interactionist labeling theorists attempt to answer the question: “what happens to the individual after being labeled” (Paternoster and Iovanni, 1989)? By extending labeling theory to the organizational-level, the central question becomes: “what happens to the organization after being labeled?” More specifically, do organizations that are labeled amplify their deviant behavior? This paper utilizes Lemert’s sequence of interaction process to illustrate that it is possible to label an organization, in this case a police agency, as deviant. More importantly, this paper tests the deviance amplification hypothesis at the organizational-level using a quasi-experimental design.

FORMAL PROCESSING AND FUTURE DELINQUENCY: DEVIANCE AMPLIFICATION AS SELECTION ARTIFACT
DOUGLAS A. SMITH, RAYMOND PATERNOSTER
Law & Society Review, Vol. 24, 1990
Does referring a case to juvenile court or diverting it affect a person's future delinquent/criminal behavior? Labeling theory suggests that it does, arguing that formal processing by the juvenile justice system is part of a deviance amplification process that ultimately results in increased criminal/delinquent activity. But critics point out that a higher rate of future offending among those referred to court, often interpreted as evidence supporting the deviance amplification argument, could be nothing more than a selection artifact. Specifically, those referred to juvenile court may have more attributes that are related to future offending than do those who are diverted from the system. Under this scenario, differences between these groups in later offending could simply reflect preexisting differences in criminal propensity. This article discusses approaches for testing the deviance amplification argument against the alternative hypothesis of a selection artifact.
INTRODUCTION
Labeling theorists ( Lemert, 1951; Becker, 1963) contend that social reactions to initial or primary deviance may restrict one's ability to maintain a conventional lifestyle. Limitations arise because being labeled may create barriers to legitimate employment or lead to social censure from conventional others. This process, described by Tannenbaum ( 1938 : 19-20) as the "dramatization of evil," increases the likelihood that the labeled person will become more involved in and committed to a deviant line of activity than he or she was before the labeling experience.

Religiosity and Delinquency over Time: Deviance Deterrence and Deviance Amplification.
Peek, Charles W.; And Others
Social Science Quarterly, v66 n1 p120-31 Mar 1985
Abstract: Both cross-sectionally and over time, religiosity deters self-reported delinquent conduct in a national panel of White high school males interviewed as sophomores, juniors, and seniors. However, decreases from high sophomore religiosity are associated with greater senior delinquency. (Author/RM)

The Politics of Deviance and Terror
Lauderdale, Pat
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Abstract: Is the leader of loose-knit bands of hit-and-run killers of British soldiers a terrorist? Or, is he a revolutionary hero or freedom fighter? What is your view of George Washington? And, what is your assessment of Nat Turner who executed Virginia slave owners and their families in 1830? Is the Jewish ‘terrorist' in Palestine in 2003 significantly different from the Palestinian ‘terrorist' in Israel in 2003?
How do we go about answering such questions? What conditions lead someone to be defined as a terrorist versus a freedom fighter? The sociology of deviance also can be viewed as the study of stratification and social mobility, rather than only the shift of moral boundaries resulting in the amplification or creation of deviance (see Gould, 2002 on status hierarchies). "Deviants" often struggle to overcome their positions at the bottom of a status hierarchy, and/or others attempt to shift the balance of power (Cummins, 1994).
In his research on moral boundaries, Ben-Yehuda (1985) reveals some of the processes by which people attempt to legitimate their own views and actions of themselves or others while trying to neutralize negative ones. Moreover, as Collins (1975: 17) suggested long ago, we might consider that "the next step clearly must be to abolish the field of deviance entirely, to link its materials with what is known of general explanations of stratification and politics ."

Cycles of Deviance: Structural Change, Moral Boundaries, and Drug Use, 1880-1990
J E Hawdon
Sociological Spectrum Volume:16 Issue:2 Dated:(April-June 1996) Pages:183-207
Abstract: The model tracks changes in the structure of deviance, explains when a boundary crisis will develop, clarifies how the amplification of deviance eventually ends, and explains how deviant behaviors sometimes become acceptable. The historical data support the explanation that changing moral definitions and rates of behavior depend on demographic and economic changes in society. The two drug epidemics that occurred in the United States since 1880 occurred when structural change expanded pluralism. Contrary to the common view, moral panics were waged after these epidemics began to subside rather than during them.

African Delinquency as Social Amplification of Deviance
G Houchon
Revue internationale de criminologie et de police technique Volume:35 Issue:2 Dated:(April-June 1982) Pages:147-164
Abstract: It proposes instead, a look at statistical and morphological aspects of the problem and at the workings of criminal justice and child protection services. It finds labeling effects arising from inappropriately criminalized behaviors, from the discretionary practices of arrest and prosecution authorities, and the absence of diversion alternatives. Particularly in the cultural milieu of African communities, judges should not be making disposition decisions regarding status offenders and other less serious forms of juvenile deviance. A model is proposed, whereby child protection committees would function within their communities and, in coordination with medical and social assistance agencies, prescribe appropriate intervention measures in line with indigenous customs. A variety of measures should be available, including temporary placement with another branch of the extended family and individualized forms of community service, reparation, and restitution.

Aggregation and amplification of marginal deviations in the social construction of personality and maladjustment
GIAN VITTORIO Caprara, University of Rome, Italy
Philip G. Zimbardo, Stanford University, USA
Abstract: Some social maladjustment in children is understood from a new perspective focusing on the cyclical interaction between personality variables and social psychological processes in the development of risk mechanisms. A profile of originally marginal deviations between a child and peers on selected behavioural tasks and personality functioning is a risk indicator of eventual significant perturbations in social adjustment. The aggregation of reciprocal effects between the child's behaviour and the reactions of teachers and peers becomes amplified over time into increasingly greater deviations and more negative reactions. Our multi-causal model centres the at-risk child within a complex psycho-social system and identifies a series of processes that influence behaviour along this path of transformation from marginal to significant social deviation. Empirical support for aspects of this model is emerging from a long-term, longitudinal study with Italian school children.

THE ROLE OF TELEVISION NEWS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOL VIOLENCE AS A "MORAL PANIC"
Donna Killingbeck, Eastern Michigan University
Abstract: This work examines the representation of school shootings in the television news media and how these representations have contributed to the construction of school violence as a "moral panic." A review of the literature as it pertains to the media and the social construction of moral panics is provided as well as an overview of the news making process. The discussion is situated within Stanley Cohen’s stages of a "moral panic." The article concludes that the presentation of specific events (i.e., school shootings) and elements of popular culture have contributed to increasing levels of fear, misguided political policy, and the development of an industry focused on school violence. In addition, an integrative, broader definition of school violence is suggested.

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