Kltsuse JI. Societal reaction to deviant behavior: problems of theory [PDF]

Kltsuse i I. Societal reaction to deviant behavior: problems of theory and method. Social Probl. ... The responses of. 7

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This Week’s Citation Classic®

CC/NUMBER 21

Kltsuse i I. Societal reaction to deviant behavior: problems of theory and method. Social Probl. 9:247-56, 1962. [Department of Sociology, Northwestern University. Evanston, ILl

The research that formed the basis for “Societal reaction to deviant behavior” was an expression of this view. That this paper has acquired the citation record it has is, I assume, related to the fact that the issue of the definition of “deviant behavior” was so fundamental to the theoretical reformulation of the field, and this research was the first attempt to study the social process of the definition and treatment of behaviors and persons as deviant. The choice of the label “homosexual” as the illustrative case in point was theoretically strategic in that at the time of the study (1958), more than a decade before the term “gay” became a household word, “everyone knew” John I. Kitsuse that homosexuals were deviant. It was Adla. E. Stevenson College popularly assumed (an assumption reUniversity of California flected in the social-science literature) Santa Cruz, CA 95064 that “homosexuality” was uniformly defined, identified, and negatively May 8, 1986 sanctioned. The broad variability recorded among the subjects interviewed The early 1960s marked the begin- with regard to the definition and treatning of a lively theoretical develop- ment of “homosexuals” underlined the ment in what has come to be known as methodological principle of documentthe sociology of deviance. The estab- ing “the actor’s point of view” in the delished formulations (particularly the viance-defining process, calling for a functionalist “social disorganization shift in focus of study from the pretheory” associated with Robert K. Mer- sumed deviant and hislher behavior to ton)1 were subjected to critical exami- those who impute deviance to them. nation by the early postwar cohorts of By the 1980s, the “labeling” perspecyoung sociologists. In the context of tive on deviance had become an estabthe socially mobile, highly differentiat- lished if not dominant view in the field. ed, densely urbanized, postindustrial It has generated a substantial research societies, the assumption of a consen- literature of investigations, not only of sus with regard to definitions of partic- the social differentiation of individuals ular forms of “deviant behavior” was as deviant, but also the processes by attacked as highly problematic. This which deviant social categories are procritical stance toward the established duced and institutionalized in systems literature on deviance stimulated a the- of control. Further, this theoretical orioretical view identified by the term “la- entation has stimulated a parallel and beling” or “symbolic interactionist” influential development in the broader and, more recently, “social construc- field 2of the sociology of social problems. tionist.” In contrast to conventional approaches to the study of deviant behavior, a shift in the focus of theory and research is proposed from investigations of deviant forms of behavior to the processes by which persons come to be defined as deviant by others. “Homosexual behavior” is used illustratively to document the behavior forms that are interpreted as deviant, and the processes by which persons who manifest such behavior are defined and treated as deviant. The responses of 75 interview subjects are reported, which, contrary to expectations derived from the literature, reflect a wide range of variability with regard to definitions of “homosexual behavior” and the direction and intensity of reactions to behaviors so 5 defined. [The Social Sciences Citation Index 5 (SSCI ) indicates that this paper has been cited in over 140 publications.]

1. Meno~R K. Social structure and anomie. Amer. Soc. Rev. 3:6”2-82, 1938. Cited 180 times since 1955.) 2. Kftsu,e J I. Coming out all o~er:deviants and the politics of social problems. Social Probi. 2B~I-l3.1980.

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