Classifications of deviance
- Conformity: Total conformity involves accepting both society’s goal and the legitimate means of achieving them. Examples: the young man or woman who gets a good education, fined such good job and takes the right step up the educational ladder is conforming to both the goals of financial success and the legitimate means for achieving the goals. Conformity is the only non-deviant response.
- Innovation: It is a kind of deviant behavior characterized by acceptance of one or more cultural goals but rejection of the approved means of achieving them. The innovator would use new, illegitimate means of obtaining wealth- Blackmail, white-collar crimes.
- Ritualism: Deviant behavior characterized by rejection of one or more cultural goals but rigid adherence to the approved means of achieving those goals.
- Retreatism: Deviance characterized by rejection of one or more cultural goals and the approved means of achieving those goals. Retreatism occurs when a person rejects both goals and means. Examples of retreatists are people who are totally outside society such as psychotics, and drug edicts.
- Rebellion: rebellion like retreatism, involve the rejection of both goals and means. But rebellion substitutes new goals and means for the old ones. The rebels develop an ideology that creates new goals and means. An example could be women’s property right.