Responses to Deviance - and Social Groups

• NCJ Number: 80287
• Author(s): C Faugeron; G Moreau-Capdevielle; M Turmaine; K V Meter
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 175 pages
• Corporate Author: Services D'Etudes Penales et Criminologiques
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: French
• Country: France
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Deviance et controle social (Deviance and Social Control Series), number 28

Annotation

The study seeks to establish the nature of the relationship between attitudes toward deviant behavior and particular social groups.

Abstract

The sample consisted of 804 individuals carefully selected for the factors sex, socioeconomic status, and place of residence. The instrument used contains questions on various kinds of social control, behaviors requiring police intervention, general ideology, and characteristics of the respondent. Findings suggest that respondents' proximity to and identification with the individual committing deviant behavior modifies their view of what measure should be taken. Five trends are evident in the responses concerning intervention: two favor moderate intervention with institutional segregation; two, repression; and the last one, nonintervention. Two clear splits are evident with regard to ideological indicators and characteristics of the social groups. The first involves salaried and nonsalaried individuals with farmers, manufacturers and merchants, and the nonsalaried petty bourgeoisie opposing officials and students. The second contrasts individuals of stable status to those of unstable social standing, i.e., farmers, workers, and students to manufacturers and merchants, and officials. The first opposition differentiates the first two intervention tendencies, i.e., institutional segregation for fringe elements, familial intervention for minors, and nonrepressive intervention for professionals, from the other intervention forms as well as the liberal conformist attitudes from the radical reformist attitudes. The second opposition distinguishes the most and least interventionist individuals from the moderates. The relationship between intervention tendencies, ideological structures, and social groups is most marked for farm workers, manufacturers and merchants, the petty bourgeoisie, and officials. The noninterventionists do not have a clear social status, as they encompass workers, public officials, and teacher/students. Tables, graphs, and separate bibliographies for each chapter are supplied.