social deviance research paper topics

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Front Psychol

Adolescent Deviance and Cyber-Deviance. A Systematic Literature Review

Smaranda cioban.

1 Faculty of Social Humanistic Studies, Doctoral School of Sociology, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania

Adela Răzvana Lazăr

2 Faculty of Social Humanistic Studies, Psychology Department, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania

Claudia Bacter

Adrian hatos, associated data.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Deviance is a complex phenomenon that influences aspects both at the macro and micro levels, extensively studied by social scientists The main objective of this article was to conduct a systematic literature review for clustering the topics on adolescent deviance and online deviance. Grounded in Pickering's and Byrne's guidelines and PRISMA protocol, we identified the most recurrent themes, theories and predictors in the 61 most-cited articles related to the concept of deviance from the database of Web of Science, as well as in 488 abstracts of representative papers. The results emphasized four main clusters of topics, namely, predictors of deviance, online deviance, socio-constructivist theories, and research based theories of deviant behavior. The findings highlighted that researchers frequently use strain theory, social learning, self-control, and social control theories in their studies. Our systematic literature review revealed also the most encountered predictors of deviance, which we have classified into five main categories: family patterns, socio-demographic aspects, socialization, victimization, and school and individual factors. For online deviance, family patterns, socio-demographic aspects, victimization, school and individual factors, and Internet and computer use have been determined to be the main groups of predictors. The present systematic literature review makes an important contribution to the understanding of deviance by presenting an overview of the phenomenon.

Introduction

From a multidisciplinary view, deviance is a topic of interest for social scientists as it concerns the violation of approved rules and established norms. As such, there is an abundance of published studies on this research topic, which, however, makes the process of understanding the phenomenon quite challenging.

Consistent with the age-crime curve approach (Moffitt, 1993b ; Shulman et al., 2013 ; Farrington, 2017 ) which sustains that teenagers engage into deviant behaviors more often than other categories, adolescence is worth considering in studying deviance. In addition, with the spread of Internet technology, a new type of deviant behavior emerged, which is known as cyber-deviance, particularly prevalent in adolescents' lives. As such, teenagers' online deviant behavior has become a matter of grave concern for parents, educators, and researchers.

The Concept of Deviance

The phenomenon of deviance occupies a central position in social science topics. It may be linked to morality, social order, and social inequality. Its genesis has been traced to the 1940s and is credited to Merton ( 1938 ) and Sellin ( 1938 ), scholars belonging to the Chicago School of Sociology. They defined deviance as a topic of analysis of socio-criminogenesis, a field that encompasses research in criminology, psychiatry, psychology, and sociology.

The wide range of fields interested in defining and studying deviance shows the level of complexity of this phenomenon. As Parsons ( 1951 ) emphasizes, deviance affects both the individual and the macrosystem, characterized by deviation from the moral and established rules that form the mainstream culture. According to the author, on an individual level, deviance represents the motivated tendency of an actor to behave in contradiction of one or more institutionalized social rules (Parsons, 1951 ). The behavior at the individual level has consequences at the social level. From a macro perspective, deviance is the opposite of social control. Hence, it represents the tendency to disbalance the social system, while social control mechanisms act to reestablish social equilibrium.

Social disapproval is an illustrative example of a social control mechanism. Therefore, deviant acts are not just rule-breaking, they are also behaviors that are against the societal or communal norms, which may trigger social disapproval (Clinard and Meier, 2015 ; Goode, 2016 ). Social disapproval is expressed by a lack of acceptance, isolation in a community, and social sanctions such as shame and guilt, which end up being accepted by community members as well as the individual as legitimate (Elias, 1978 ).

The mechanism of internalizing shame and guilt as a disciplinary practice is also a focus of Foucault's ( 1971 ) perspective that portrays deviance as normal and regulatory in society. With regards to presenting institutionalization and confinement as instruments to impose the rules of the dominant groups, Foucault ( 1971 , 2007 ) explains how the external discipline is transferred to a discipline that is imposed from within. An internalized, self-disciplinary power is under the threat of being exposed. From this perspective, deviants seem to be the marginalized ones, the ones to lose their power to hold onto their own values and are forced to accept societal norms through isolation, surveillance, and discipline. The individuals committing rule-breaking, deviants, may be disciplined harshly and, therefore, eventually become a non-deviant (Foucault, 1971 , 2007 ; Turkel, 1990 ). Complementary to Foucault's view, Durkheim ( 1938 ) characterizes deviance as being inevitable, present in any society, and necessary for its functioning.

Theories of Deviance

In the quest to understand the phenomenon of deviance, the question of whether deviant acts and, therefore, deviant individuals are born or is society the one that labels them as such arises. This is a central topic in the study of deviance, with essentialist and positivist approaches arguing that deviant individuals are born with specific traits that influence their behavior, whilst constructivist scholars contend that society marks individuals as deviant (Thio et al., 2013 ).

To expand on their idea of the presence of deviant traits in individuals, positivists attempted to identify specific characteristics of this phenomenon, which resulted in the formulation of many theories. The most common positivist theories include social learning theories (Bandura, 1978 ; Akers and Lee, 1999 ; Akers, 2017 ), strain theory (Cohen, 1955 ; Cloward, 1959 ), anomie theory (Merton, 1938 ), self-control theory (Akers, 1991 ; Hirschi and Gottfredson, 2000 ), deterrence theory (Gibbs and Erickson, 1975 ; Warr and Stafford, 1991 ), differential association theory (Sutherland et al., 1992 ). The inclination of an individual toward engaging in deviant acts is what distinguishes a deviant from a non-deviant. This framework traces back from the sociobiological, psychological, and criminological research of Italian naturalists who attempted to identify biological features or psychological traits unique to deviants (Lombroso-Ferrero, 1911 ). The biological orientation has now promoted more sophisticated approaches, assuming the presence of specific genes or genomic segments as proof of inclination toward addictive and risk-taking behaviors (Shostak et al., 2009 ; Linnér et al., 2019 ; Mills and Tropf, 2020 ). These studies belong to sociogenomics, a discipline that connects genetics and sociology (Udry, 1995 ; Duster, 2006a , b ; Mills and Tropf, 2020 ).

While positivist theorists claim that an act is seen as deviant because it breaks the norms of a particular society, constructivists notice that some acts are perceived as deviant only in a particular context but are not universally categorized as deviant and distinguished between deviance and crime. The most relevant constructionist theorists include labeling theories (Erikson, 1962 ; Lemert, 1967 ; Ben-Yehuda, 1990 ; Becker, 1995 , 2008 ), symbolic interactionism (Clinard and Meier, 2015 ), phenomenological theories (Matza and Blomberg, 2017 ), and social conflict theories (Foucault, 1971 ; Jensen et al., 1978 ; Mills, 1981 ; Hagan et al., 1985 ; Katz, 1988 ; Henry and Milovanovic, 1996 ; Milovanovic, 1996 ; Hagan and McCarthy, 1998 ). Constructivists argue that it is not the act that is deviant but society's act of labeling it as such that makes it deviant. In this sense, one has to acknowledge the role of cultural differences in labeling an act as deviant (Goffman, 1978 ; Clinard and Meier, 2015 ), although criminal acts are universally defined as deviant. Deviance is relative as it depends on the context in which it is judged and on how society labels a particular act or individual. Moreover, deviance is the result of a subjective experience, in that each person provides a certain meaning to the acts they are involved in. At the same time, deviance is voluntary, being regarded as an expression or choice of a person (Erikson, 1962 ; Ben-Yehuda, 1990 ; Becker, 2008 ).

In an integrative approach , Thio et al. ( 1978 ) argue that the two above-mentioned frameworks are complementary. Therefore, the authors distinguish between higher consensus deviance and lower consensus deviance. Higher consensus deviance includes acts that are generally perceived as deviant and cause major losses, while lower consensus deviance relates to acts that are seen as deviant by fewer persons because those acts cause minor losses (Thio et al., 2013 ).

The classification of deviant theories is related to many research areas. The present study focuses on the psychological and sociological aspects as they relate to deviance in teenagers. Specifically, psychologists analyze deviance from the point of individual characteristics. The main cause for deviant behavior is found strictly at the individual level and, in our case, at the adolescent stage. The most important psychological theories refer to psychoanalytic theories, such as, Freud's ( 2012 ), the cognitive development theory of Kohlberg and Hersh ( 1977 ), and the learning theory (Bandura and McClelland, 1977 ). Freud believes that all children are born with tendencies toward deviant behaviors, but appropriate socialization experiences can help them not become deviant. On the other hand, Kohlberg and Hersh ( 1977 ) claimed that there exist stages of moral development, with deviant adolescents being those who have failed to pass through the pre-conventional and conventional stages of moral development. According to Bandura, deviant behavior is learned by observation, imitation, and shaped by rewards and punishments (Bandura, 1971 , 1978 ; Bandura and McClelland, 1977 ).

On the other hand, sociologists study the emergence of deviance and its impact on societies, communities, or groups and develop theories that view the phenomenon on a wide scale (Bandura, 1971 , 1978 ; Bandura and McClelland, 1977 ). Hirschi's theories of social control (Hirschi, 1969 , 2017 ; Pratt and Cullen, 2000 ), the theory of differential association (Sutherland et al., 1992 ; Ogien, 2002 ), and Glaser's theory of differential identifications (Erikson, 1962 ; Glaser, 1971 ; Rowitz, 1981 ) present deviance as a result of group socialization. Considering the ideas of these orientations, deviance in teenagers is associated with family factors, peer group pressure, and school climate. Another perspective links deviant acts to status frustration. Thus, Cohen's subcultural theory contends that teenagers' deviant behavior is a tactic used by those with low social status and unsatisfactory social conditions to attain a higher social status in a short time (Cohen, 1955 , 2002 ; Barmaki, 2016 ). In addition, structural theorists view socioeconomic status as a predictor of deviant behavior, frequently encountered in middle-class teenagers (Hagan et al., 1985 ; Hagan, 1990 ; Hagan and McCarthy, 1998 ; Hagan and Foster, 2001 ). Therefore, deviance is a result of the antinomy between means and social aspirations, which is also a topic discussed by the anomie theory, with anomie being defined as the state of society characterized by a lack of norms and social values (Merton, 1938 ). Socio-constructivist theories that present deviance as a result of social judgment and labeling also have sociological orientations (Becker, 1995 , 2008 ; Yoder, 2011 ).

Types of Deviance

Along with formulating the theories to explain the general tendency of deviance, scholars have also distinguished specific types of inappropriate behavior. Deviance behavior ranges from serious offenses, classified as delinquent acts (such as property crime, violent crime, delinquency, drug and substance-related crime, white-collar crime, etc.) to minor antisocial acts that are not sanctioned by the penal system (Gorman-Smith et al., 1998 ).

With regards to adolescents' engagement in deviant behaviors, scholars focused on substance and alcohol use (Durkin et al., 2005 ; Maimon and Browning, 2012b ), marijuana use (Winfree and Griffiths, 1983 ; Akers and Cochran, 1985 ; McBroom, 1994 ; Ennett et al., 1997 ), school misconduct (Musgrave, 1980 ; Lepoutre, 2007 ; Peguero, 2011 )), self-injury (Adler and Adler, 2007 ; Brossard, 2014 ; Taylor and Ibanez, 2015 ; Long, 2017 ), self-harming behaviors such as eating disorders (Sischo et al., 2006 ), bullying (Juvonen and Graham, 2014 ; Tippett and Wolke, 2014 ).

A particular category of deviance, increasingly common nowadays, is cyber-deviance , which refers to the harmful activities happening in the digital sphere (Jewkes and Yar, 2013 ; Graham and Smith, 2019 ; Yar and Steinmetz, 2019 ). While the current understanding of deviance is rooted in Durkheim's ( 2002 ) definition of crime, the debate on cyber deviance (online deviance) can be traced back to Wall's ( 2001 ) conceptualization of cybercrime. According to Wall ( 2001 , p.2), it refers to an “occurrence of a harmful behavior that is somehow related to a computer, which generates a powerful response from the media, policy-makers, politicians, academics and the public.” This definition outlines two main characteristics of cybercrime, namely, the electronic environment and the impact related to the increased concern for cybersecurity. Arguing that Wall's definition of cybercrime is too broad, Yar and Steinmetz ( 2019 ) conceptualized cybercrime as a range of illicit activities related to information communication technologies. Therefore, cybercrime refers to online harmful activities sanctioned by formal laws. The other types of online disruptive activities are included under the umbrella term of cyber deviance, which relates to informal violations of laws (Jewkes and Yar, 2013 ; Graham and Smith, 2019 ; Yar and Steinmetz, 2019 ).

Nevertheless, like in the case of crime and deviance, there is no clear demarcation between cybercrime and cyber deviance. This is because norm-breaking behaviors may be included in the formal regulations at any time and certain behaviors that are sanctioned by law may not be regarded as deviant in all contexts. In the study of cyber deviance as occurring in the adolescent stage, scholars mostly focus on digital piracy (Udris, 2016 ), online harassment and computer hacking (Lee, 2018 ), cyberbullying (Hinduja and Patchin, 2010 ; Holt et al., 2012 ; Lee, 2018 ), sexting and online sexual exposure (Karaian, 2012 ; Garcia-Gomez, 2017 ; Dodaj et al., 2020 ).

The phenomenon of deviance has an extensive volume of literature that is organized in disparate clusters of studies on various specific types that arouse social concern on the one hand and a preoccupation with in-depth accounts of theoretical approaches on the other. Although extremely rich, the existing literature is narrow in terms of its focus, and there is a need for a more structured presentation of common topics by researchers in the field from a systematic point of view. Most of the reviews that follow a perspective rooted in social sciences (psychology, sociology, criminology, communication) relate to positive deviance (Albanna and Heeks, 2019 ; Alzunitan et al., 2020 ), workplace deviance (Götz et al., 2019 ; Arshad and Malik, 2020 ), and substance use. Other types of deviance under scrutiny are different types of aggression, antisocial disorders in adolescents, sexual offenses, sexual deviance, social deviance, white-collar crimes, delinquency, and cybercrime. With regards to the reviews conducted on the topic of deviance, the main topics of interest are specific forms of offline deviance, namely, drug use, alcohol abuse, violence, dating violence, sexual aggression, deviant sexual fantasies, illicit sexual behaviors, sexual deviance, ritualistic child abuse, pornography exposure, self-injury, etc. At the same time, researchers focus on different types of online deviance, such as cyberbullying (including adolescent cyberbullying), Internet-based radicalization, online sexual deviance, online negative user behavior, cyber dating abuse, social spamming, problematic social media usage, and problematic use of the Internet.

As far as our knowledge, there is no systematic review that covers the main theories of deviance from a psychological and sociological (including criminological) perspective. Still, comprehensive classifications of these theories are present in textbooks (Thio et al., 2013 ) and classical studies (Sagarin and Montanino, 1976 ; Short and Meier, 1981 ; Sampson and Laub, 1992 ; Birkbeck and Lafree, 1993 ; Moffitt, 1993b ; Feinberg, 2011 ). Focused on examining the literature regarding the human reinforcement learning process, the systematic review of Brauer and Tittle ( 2012 ) presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of 179 experimental sources and 67 peer-reviewed journal articles. Other theories related to deviance covered in the literature reviews are social learning theory, social control theory, differential association theory, life-course perspectives, social disorganization, strain theory, subcultural theory, social concern theory, routine activities theory or situational approaches, lifestyle exposure theory, arousal theory, criminology's situational approach, rational choice, delinquent problem-solving, deviance regulation theory, interactionist conception, neo-cognitive learning theory, gene-based evolutionary theory, desistance theories, neutralization theory, frustration theory, etc. In the majority of the literature reviews, deviance was not studied as a single phenomenon, but as it related to other factors such as religiosity (Adamczyk et al., 2017 ), family influence (parental communication (Roisko et al., 2014 ), parental styles (Ruiz-Hernández et al., 2019 ), parental control, family processes, family history of substance use), peer-related factors (peer influence (Leung et al., 2014 ), peer network, peer association, motivations of dissent in social groups), individual factors (animal cruelty (Chan and Wong, 2019a , b ; Longobardi and Badenes-Ribera, 2019 ), victimization and sexual victimization [(McGrath et al., 2011 ; Dennis et al., 2012 ; Engström, 2021 ), child maltreatment (Fitton et al., 2020 ), non-emotional callousness and impulsivity (Toro et al., 2020 ), motivational processes (Agnew, 1995 )]. Concerning online deviance, most of the systematic reviews refer to a specific type of behavior, which is cyberbullying (Kowalski et al., 2014 ; Watts et al., 2017 ; Vale et al., 2018 ; Rosa et al., 2019 ; Zych et al., 2019 ). While reviews on online deviance focus on main theories of deviance, the systematic reviews in the field of online literature focus on specific online behaviors and their correlates, including the predictors of offline deviance mentioned before, Internet access, and computer use. Of particular interest is the systematic review of Estévez et al. ( 2020 ), which provides a bridge between online and cyber-deviance by revealing similar patterns in the development of bullying and cyberbullying behavior. In this sense, the authors show that risk factors and protective factors of the two problematic behaviors mostly coincide.

Grounded on the previous analyses conducted in this field, our present systematic literature review inquires the following: How are the topics of deviance and online deviance covered in the in the field of social sciences?

In consideration of our question, the goal of this systematic review is to collate and summarize the literature on the field of deviance and online deviance, with a particular focus on teenagers' behaviors, and to achieve this purpose, the article proposes specific objectives in order to go beyond a panoramic understanding of the phenomenon. They are as follows:

• ➢ Identification of the main topics addressed in articles written on adolescent online and offline deviance until 2021;
• ➢ Comparing the psychological and sociological approaches on deviance and revealing overlaps;
• ➢ Highlighting the main predictors and indicators of online and offline deviance;

By systematically and qualitatively reviewing the literature in the field of deviance, we ultimately seek to gather the relevant findings on this field in a single paper and provide a better understanding of the same.

As the main method, the article employs the 15 steps of systematic quantitative literature review proposed by Pickering and Byrne ( 2014 ). We began by defining the topic, formulating research questions, and identifying the keywords. Then, we searched and analyzed the relevant articles. At the same time, we followed the guidelines of PRISMA Protocol (Moher et al., 2009 ; Page et al., 2021 ) for ensuring that articles are systematically and transparently reviewed.

For the comprehensive analysis carried out in this study, we implemented computational text analysis methods using KH Coder (Higuchi, 2016 ), which allowed us to explore almost 500 articles. We employed this software for identifying patterns in the data and comparing different datasets by constructing a coding schema, which may be further used for analyzing other datasets. The use of a reproducible review technique, followed in the present article, has the major benefit that it diminishes researchers' subjectivity in conducting a review.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

The present research attempts to examine a large dataset of articles on deviance and online deviance from the Web of Science database. The rationale behind choosing Web of Science was to include only objective peer-reviewed articles from specific fields. It also facilitates the selection of articles based on the field of study using its filtering options.

The inclusion criteria were:

• – Articles indexed in Web of Science
• – Studies about deviance
• – Language: English

The exclusion criteria used in the selection process consisted of:

• – Field: at least one of the three of them should be Sociology (Web of Science filter)
• – Studies that have an abstract available on the Internet in English language
• – For Dataset 1: Articles' impact: top cited filter and most cited for the full-text articles
• – For Dataset 2: Articles that refer to adolescent deviance (TS 2) and online adolescent deviance (TS 3) – for detail see section Stage 1 – Preparing the datasets

Considering the objective of this paper, for the analysis, we chose to include only those sources that have Sociology as one of their three focus fields. We employed this criterion in order to systematically narrow the extensive dataset while keeping focused on the impact of deviance in society. The included sources are articles, reviews, and book chapters in English, with an abstract. Furthermore, the sources belonging to the dataset have as one of their keywords “deviance” or “online deviance.” In terms of timeframe, we included in our systematic review the articles that were published between January 1975 and April 2021.

For objectively selecting the articles with the highest impact, we applied the highly cited articles filter on the previous results. Parallel to this dataset, we created a second dataset that included articles, reviews, and book chapters that also contain “deviance” and “adolescence” or “online deviance” and “adolescence” as their key focuses. In addition, all the selected sources were in English and had an abstract that was available for free.

The inclusion criteria were established to ensure the objectivity of sources selection and study replicability. As the main goal of our study was to offer an overview of the phenomenon of adolescent deviance, we did not use an extensive number of exclusion criteria.

Computational Text-Analysis Using KH-Coder

Based on the analysis model proposed by Pickering and Byrne ( 2014 ), our systematic analysis, which uses KH Coder, followed three main steps:

• ➢ Stage 1 – Preparing the datasets (includes steps 1 to 6 according to Pickering and Byrne, 2014 )
• ➢ Stage 2 – Identifying the coding schema (includes steps 7 and 8 according to Pickering and Byrne, 2014 )
• ➢ Stage 3 – Analyzing the bulk set of articles (includes steps 9 to 11 according to Pickering and Byrne, 2014 )
• ➢ Stage 4 – Presenting the main results (includes steps 12 to 15 according to Pickering and Byrne, 2014 ).

Stage 1 – Preparing the Datasets

Based on the above-mentioned terms, first, we made repetitive composed queries on the Web of Science database. For building our database, we chose words that referred to deviance in general, deviance as occurring in adolescence, and online deviance during teenage years.

The dataset was created by employing three main criteria (TS = Topic/Subject):

• TS1 = (devian * OR disruptive behavior OR immoral OR amoral OR harming practices OR incivility OR bad behavior OR harming behavior OR deviant behavior OR moral panic OR delinquency OR anomie OR immorality OR social disorder OR antisocial behavior);
• TS2 = (devian * AND adolescen * ) OR TS = (devian * AND teenage * ) OR TS = (devian * AND school * );
• TS3 = (Online devian * AND adolesc * ) OR TS = (Online devian * AND teenage * ) OR TS = (Cyber * AND adolesc * ) OR TS = (Cyber * AND teenage) OR TS = (Digital * AND adolesc * ) OR TS = (Digital * AND teenage * );

From the obtained results, we constructed two datasets, one with the most cited articles (full text based on all three criteria) and a larger one comprising only abstracts (focused on adolescent deviance – criteria 2 and 3).

Preparing Dataset 1

Based on the mentioned queries, we selected 10% of the most cited articles from the Web of Science database by filtering the obtained results on the field. In this step, we took into consideration the top-cited articles on deviance related to the field of sociology. After applying this filter for the first criterion, 21 sources were found.

For the second criterion, three articles belonging to the highly cited articles were identified, while for the third criterion, only one article could be found. The four articles were already included from the previous stage. For completing the database with relevant articles in the field of teenagers' engagement in deviant behavior, we decided to include the 21 most cited articles that correspond to these two criteria such that the number of articles is the same as that for the first criterion. Further, we removed the duplicates and were left with 61 articles.

Preparing Dataset 2

This dataset comprises abstracts focusing on deviance and online deviance in the teenage years as found in the articles complying with the second and third criteria. In this step, we introduced 488 abstracts (from the 515 sources initially selected, we excluded 27 as they were duplicates or had no abstract).

Stage 2 – Identifying the Coding Schema

The abstracts of 61 articles were used for developing the coding schema, an extensive process that involves the following steps:

• ➢ Employing the preliminary word frequency, the automatic process using KH Coder software for identifying the most frequent terms;
• ➢ Manually organizing the most frequent words identified in the first step in thematic codes;
• ➢ Automatically generating self-organizing maps of words by automatically classifying them through Jaccard similarity coefficient using a multiple iteration process;
• ➢ Automatically generating self-organizing maps of our thematic codes and comparing them with the previously obtained automatic codes;
• ➢ Developing the coding schema by adding new codes based on the literature; at this stage, we manually assigned the terms of the 61 abstracts to the existing codes and created new ones.

In the end, we obtained 33 codes. The coding schema was furtherly employed for computational text analysis.

Stage 3 – Analyzing the Complete Dataset

Using the coding schema, we analyzed the full text of the most cited sources (61 articles) using the KH Coder software (through correspondence analysis).

Next, we examined the results of applying the coding schema to a new dataset, as well as the 488 abstracts on deviance and online deviance.

Before effectively applying the coding schema, we conducted a preliminary analysis. This includes making automated queries focused on terms frequencies and manual analysis of the 488 sources. The manual exploration facilitated a comprehensive understanding, thereby facilitating the acquisition of an overview of the field covered, the type of analysis, and the theories addressed, as well as additional aspects that could not be captured with the KH Coder software.

Stage 1 – Preparing the Dataset

At this stage, we had 250,825 articles, out of which 2,874 are clustered in potentially relevant fields (e.g., sociology AND psychology; sociology; sociology AND criminology AND penology; sociology AND social issues).

For the second criteria, referring to adolescent deviance, we obtained a total of 3,800 sources and 374 results in the same potentially relevant fields.

For the third criterion, we obtained a total of 6,221 sources and 131 results in the same potentially relevant fields. The third criterion was more specific and included articles on online adolescent deviance.

To facilitate an understanding of the process, we present the outline of the methodological approach below ( Figure 1 ). The robustness of the schema was ensured by developing it based on PRISMA Protocol (Page et al., 2021 ); the employed PRISMA guidelines for Dataset 1 and Dataset 2 may be consulted in the Supplementary Material section.

The systematic literature review process.

The creation of the coding schema started by making queries to explore the relationships between words and their co-occurrences patterns. Then, we classified relevant terms into categories.

In the first phase of the analysis, we identified the most frequent words from the 61 abstracts. The list of the most common words includes “adolescent,” “health,” “social,” “online,” “school,” “family,” etc.

From the word association query, we defined the thematic categories.

Consequently, the word association revealed that there are seven major themes.

Next, we presented the main themes identified in the previous step and the frequency of the terms. With reference to the occurring medium, we distinguished the terms indicating the digital environment, namely, online (45), digital (41), Internet (39), technology (15), Facebook (10), ICT (9), computer (7), informational (6), cyber (5), and cyberspace (2), and the offline context: family (52), school (47), life (39), parent (24), neighborhood (14), physical (13), offline (110), country (5), and gentrification (7).

One interesting finding concerns the frequency of the health term (59), which seems, at first sight only, indirectly connected to deviance. The associated terms in this category include mental (18), stress (9), autism (7), autistic (6), anxiety (5), medical (5), stressor (5), disorder (4), harm (4), psychological (4), hospital (3), and fitness (3). Their occurrence may be the result of including a more general query in the selection criteria, which resulted in a high number of results (2,874 articles in sociology), even after applying the field filter.

The word frequency query also revealed the population of interest in the selected studies, namely, adolescent (71), child (31), youth (30), student (14), undergraduate (13), teenage (9), teenager (8), adolescence (5).

Moreover, the abstracts included in the dataset refer to specific behaviors perceived as deviant in the online and offline context. Hence, terms such as cyberbullying (10), sexting [sext (5), sexting (4), sexter (1)], suggest deviant behaviors online, while words such as bullying (12), harassment (10), violence (9), aggression (5), violent (4), grooming (2) indicate deviant offline behaviors. Along with specific deviant behaviors, the articles refer to deviance in general, comprising terms such as deviance (23), deviant (16), and deviancy (2). The way terms are employed changes if they are associated with the words digital, online , or cyber .

The last category revealed that most frequent words consist of terms reflecting delinquency, namely, delinquency (25), delinquent (7), crime (17), criminal (14), arrest (7), incarceration (9), imprisonment (5), desistance (4), criminological (3), and illicit (3).

At this stage, we compressed the dimensions into three main clusters by employing hierarchical cluster analysis with Jaccard distance, as shown in Figure 2 .

Hierarchical cluster analysis of the preliminary dimensions.

The first cluster included the terms related to the digital environment and online deviance. In the case of the second cluster, this included only terms related to health and mental health. The third one comprised the other codes, namely, offline context, adolescent, adolescent, offline deviance, and delinquency.

Improving the Initial Coding Schema

For assessing the reliability of the created coding schema, we prepared a self-organizing map of the words from the abstracts the created coding schema, we prepared a self-organizing map of the words from the abstracts ( Figure 3A ) and compared it with the self-organizing map of the preliminary codes ( Figure 3B ).

(A) Self-organizing map data set 1. (B) Self-organizing map data set 1.

The self-organizing map of abstracts partially reflected the map of codes that we developed, even if the employed colors did not coincide.

In the main clusters of the self-organizing map of abstracts, we identified key terms that relate to the distinguished dimensions (a. digital environment; b. offline context; 3. health and mental health, d. adolescent; 5. online deviance; 6. offline deviance; 7. delinquency). The other emerged category consists mostly of terms related to divide and inequality, including the issue of digital divide and differential access to resources (8). The least consistent category between those created using word frequency query is related to adolescence . Considering the finding of comparing the two figures generated from preliminary coding and self-organizing map of words, we reviewed the classification by manually coding each abstract.

The Final Coding Schema

At this stage, we added specific codes to the preliminary classification for including the predictors of deviance, as well as of cyber-deviance mentioned in the abstracts and codes that relate to the main influencing factors. In the end, the final coding schema had 33 codes, with the most recurrent being predictors of deviance, school and education, socioeconomic status, age, children and adolescents, discipline and power relations, family factors ( Figure 4 ). The final codes were grouped into eight clusters using a self-organizing map with the Jaccard similarity coefficient query.

The coding schema.

Along with the substantive categories mentioned above, we identified terms referring to the main theoretical frameworks such as social learning, opportunity routine theories, differential association, normative theory, self-control, social control, strain theory, subcultural theories, life course theory, digital divide , and labeling theories . Moreover, we created specific codes for terms related to lifestyle (habitus lifestyle), health, and well-being.

For a better understanding of the resulting clusters, we generated a co-occurrence network of codes, which is based on the probability of two codes appearing in the same abstract. The network revealed correlations between the predictors of cyber-deviance, deviance, peer influence, children, school and education, delinquency, and deviance and digital environment ( Figure 5 ). At the same time, terms related to health, well-being, and neighborhood are negatively correlated to the items mentioned above. Figure 5 also reveals the connections among identity, inequality, neighborhood, and ethnicity codes.

Co-occurrence network of the most encountered codes as applied to abstracts.

After inspecting the correlations among codes, we considered the coding schema as final and employed it for the following analysis procedures.

Stage 3 – Analyzing the Complete Data Sets

Stage 3 consisted of applying the coding schema to the two established datasets (61 full text and 488 abstracts) and compared the results with the hierarchical word clusters through correspondence analysis and crosstabulations.

Dataset 1 (61 in Extenso Articles)

The analysis of the first dataset was conducted in four stages, consisting of correspondence analysis and crosstabulations of hierarchical clusters and the coding schema (unit of analysis: articles). The third stage consisted of examining the associations among 33 generated codes using a similarity matrix to identify overlaps. The last procedure involved creating a detailed network between predictors of interest in the field of deviance and online deviance.

The correspondence analysis revealed co-occurrent topics. This method revealed four latent groups of topics , namely, online deviance, identity, and communication in the online sphere, peer influence, and explanatory theories of deviance (See Figure 6 below). The first identified cluster mostly overlaps with the nodes related to online deviance, predictors of cyber-deviance, predictors of deviance, delinquency, and opportunity theories. At the periphery of this class, we found terms that refer to children, gender, age, and health. In total, the first group of topics includes 10 articles. The second group , which encompasses cluster 2 (3 articles) and 3 (14 articles), focuses on aspects related to identity and communication in the online sphere. The theory of the digital divide and the articles referring to well-being are also included in this group. The fourth cluster forms the third group on its own, and it includes 19 articles. For this cluster, the most representative codes are peer influence, ethnicity, differential association theory, and the subcultural approach. The last group is composed of clusters 5 (5 articles) and 6 (10 articles), and it presents an integrative view. Thus, as the main codes may show, articles that question the causes of deviance (social control, life-course theory, normative theory, and strain theory) and articles that focus on understanding deviance as a social construct (labeling theory, the relationship between lifestyle, deviance, and social inequality) belong to this category.

Correspondence analysis of codes and hierarchical clusters in extenso articles.

A more in-depth examination of the clusters is possible with the use of the crosstabulations available in KH Coder. The results of this examination allowed the identification of the most encountered codes and their statistical signification in establishing the clusters. Thus, the most frequent themes covered in the articles are predictors of deviance (61 articles), school education (60 articles), socioeconomic status (57 articles), age (55 articles), children& adolescents (55 articles ** 1 – present in clusters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), abstraction of power (55 articles * – present in clusters 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6), family influence (54 articles), deviance (53 articles ** – present in clusters 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6), health (52 articles), gender (52 articles), and identity (51 articles), as presented in Figure 7 .

Heat map of the in extenso articles.

The other codes that influenced the composition of the clusters are digital environment (46 articles ** – present in clusters 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6), online deviance (10 articles ** – present mostly in cluster 1), delinquency (40 articles ** – present mostly in clusters 1 and 4, and to a lesser extent in cluster 3, 5, and 6), differential association (10 ** - present mostly in cluster 4 in 9 articles and in 1 article from cluster 1), social control (23 ** - present mostly in cluster 4 in 13 articles and in clusters 3, 5 and 6), life-course theory (21 ** – present mostly in clusters 4 and 5 and to a less extent in clusters 3 and 6), digital divide (9 ** – present mostly in cluster 2 and to a less extent in clusters 1, 3, 4, and 5), normative theory (36 * – present in clusters 3, 4, 5, and 6) and strain theory (36 * – present mostly in clusters 3, 4, and 5 and to a less extent in cluster 1).

The similarity matrix of codes shows consistent overlaps among the nodes included in the coding schema. Thus, terms belonging to the codes, namely, predictors of cyber-deviance, deviance and predictors of deviance, family influence, school and education, gender, age, socioeconomic status, children, identity, abstraction of power, and delinquency, have a correlation value higher than 0.5. The most distinctive nodes have fewer occurrences, including online deviance, religious commitment, opportunity theories, differential association, self-control, subcultural theories, digital divide, life-course theory, and social control.

Further, we generated two networks, including the predictors of deviance and online deviance, for a more in-depth inquiry. The resulting networks facilitate the identification of the terms that are mainly associated with them.

As revealed by the presented network, the most encountered predictors for deviance are paternal incarceration, violent victimization, socialization, selection, parental deviance, socioeconomic status, family factors, parental control, parenting practices and monitoring, school factors, self-efficacy, peer affiliation, popularity, network friendship, self-control, alcohol and substance use, educational attainment, deviant exposure, delinquent parents, aggression, neighborhood disadvantage, risk, and others.

Given the grouping of predictors based on technical modularity shown in Figure 8 , we identified five main categories of predictors of deviance: family patterns (parental deviance, parental monitoring, paternal incarceration, parenting practices, etc.), socio-demographic aspects (SES difference, life style background and drug abuse, family background, etc.), socialization (low self-control, socialization process, selection process, etc.), victimization (violent victimization, risk, age and gender risk, life-course consequences, etc.) and school and individual factors (traditional bullying, school grades, adolescent self-efficacy, school drop-out, etc.).

Predictors of deviance grounded on modularity procedure.

In relation to cyber-deviance (see Figure 9 ), the frequent predictors for cyber deviance encompass the following: traditional bullying, offline victimization, parental abuse, alcohol and substance use, Internet access, Internet misuse, compulsive Internet use, substance use, online exposure, parental control, school factors, self-efficacy, socioeconomic status, parenting, digital inequality, information habitus, etc.

Predictors of cyber deviance grounded on modularity procedure.

With regards to the most common predictors of online deviance, they can be grouped into five categories: family patterns (parental abuse, parental deviance, family history and abuse, parenting style, etc.), socio-demographic aspects (gender and age effects, demographic and socio-economic, etc.), victimization (offline victimization, traditional bullying, physical and offline activities, exposure, etc.), school and individual factors (school problems, school bonding, school involvement, empathy, school perception, school behavior, prosocial involvement, etc.) and Internet and computer use (home Internet access, digital inequality, frequency usage of Internet, technology information habitus, etc.).

Dataset 2 (488 Abstracts)

The last stage of analysis recommended by Pickering and Byrne ( 2014 ) consists of adding the whole set of articles that correspond to the searching criteria.

The exploration of the second dataset required conducting preliminary analysis, considering its extensive dimension. Consequently, we added two additional stages, a manual assessment of the study field of research methods and a frequency query. The analysis of the second dataset was conducted in five stages: manual inspection of study field and research methods, word frequency, correspondence analysis of clusters and codes, crosstabulations of clusters and codes, and similarity matrix.

As mentioned already, the preliminary review was a manual analysis of 488 articles to gain an overview of the types of the articles. Note that, our first criterion of selection was the field of sociology. Thus, all 488 articles were from the field of sociology. Along with sociology, 143 articles were also from the field of psychology, 131 from the field of criminology, and 117 published in other fields such as education, communication, religion, health, biomedical, social sciences, etc.

Of the 488 sources analyzed, only a few ( 2 ) were systematic analyses; 16 were literature reviews; 16 were aimed at reviewing theories or theoretical issues in general; 348 used quantitative methods, 93 qualitative methods, and 13 a mixed approach (quantitative as well as qualitative methods).

From the complete dataset, the articles mostly approached strain theories, closely followed by social learning, self-control, and social control theories. Opportunities and routine theories, bonding theory, differential association theories, reinforcement theory, life-course perspectives, and social disorganization theory are other main perspectives.

The next stage consisted of generating a self-map analysis based on the terms' frequency and cluster identification ( Figures 10A,B )

(A) Self-organizing map Data set 2. (B) Self-organizing map Data set 2.

After employing word frequency and self-map analysis for data exploration, we examined the network among hierarchical clusters generated using the Ward technique with the Jaccard coefficient and the topics defined in our coding schema.

The inclusion of a higher number of sources in dataset 2 created a clearer demarcation between the observed categories. The classification suggests a structure of four groups of topics , similar to those identified in the first dataset. The specificity of the current classification makes it better at distinguishing socio-constructivist theories and the predictors of deviance. Thus, the main groups consist of predictors of deviance and cyber deviance (clusters 1 and 2), online deviance and digital environment (clusters 3 and 6), post-positivist and integrative theories of deviance (cluster 5), and a smaller group related to a constructional approach of deviance focused on identity, inequality, and power relations (cluster 4).

As Figure 11 illustrates, the first category, composed mostly of cluster 1 (116 abstracts) and cluster 2 (124 abstracts) data covers the codes, namely, family influence, peer influence, school and education, predictors of cyber-deviance, predictors of deviance, strain theory, religious commitment, self-control, social control, gender, social learning, differential association, opportunity theories, health, well-being, and socioeconomic status.

Correspondence analysis of codes as hierarchical clusters abstracts from the whole dataset.

A second category, which encompasses cluster 3 (23 abstracts) and cluster 6 (92 abstracts) data comprises terms related to online deviance, digital divide, digital environment, and age. It emphasizes aspects related to patterns of online communication and deviant behaviors in the cyber-environment.

The third class (72 abstracts of cluster 5) presents an integrative post-positivist approach to deviance and includes main theories such as social control, strain theory, life-course theory, subcultural theory, and social disorganization perspective (creating inequalities among neighborhoods as a cause of deviance). Considering that the main nodes of this class represent deviance and education, it may be assumed that this class investigates the relationship between deviance and education.

The last class presents a constructivist approach, including the following codes: labeling theories, inequality, identity, abstraction of power, habitus lifestyle, and normative theory (norms/normative theory). This class is weakly associated with the automatically constructed hierarchical clusters (a part of cluster 4 that is composed of 61 abstracts). As the figure shows, the categories of lifestyle and identity are located far from the main center, moving closer to class 2.

We proceed with inspecting the associations among hierarchical clusters with crosstabs, which allow us to indicate the recurrent themes ( Figure 12 ).

Crosstab bulk articles heatmap filtered.

The most frequent nodes in the 488 abstracts are children and adolescents (357 ** abstracts – present in all clusters, but in only a few abstracts in cluster 4), deviance (326 ** – present mostly in clusters 1, 2, 4, and 5 and in a few abstracts from the other clusters), school education (226 ** – present mostly in clusters 1, 2, 4, and 5), predictors of deviance (203 ** – present mostly in clusters 1, 2, and 6), family influence (140 * – present in clusters 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6), peer influence (138 ** – present in clusters 1, 2, 5, and 6), digital environment (135 ** – present mostly in clusters 3 and 6 and to a less extent in clusters 1, 2, 4, and 5), delinquency (134 ** – present mostly in clusters 1, 2, and 5 and to a less extent in clusters 3, 4, and 6), predictors of cyber-deviance (119 ** – present mostly in clusters 1, 2, and 6 and to a less extent in clusters 3, 4, and 5), gender (107 – present in every cluster), and health (101 – present in every cluster). The structure of clusters is also significantly influenced by the following topics: online deviance (13 ** mostly present in cluster 6), identity (87 ** – mostly present in clusters 3, 4, and 6 and to a less extent in clusters 1, 2, and 5), social learning (69 ** – mostly present in clusters 1 and 2), abstraction of power (73 ** – mostly present in clusters 3, 4, and 6 and to a less extent in clusters 1, 2, and 5), digital divide (8 ** – present in cluster 6), labeling theories (42 ** – mostly present in clusters 4, 5, and 6), lifestyle (36 ** – mostly present in clusters 3, 5 and 6 and to a less extent in clusters 1, 2, and 4), social control (35 * – mostly present in clusters 1 and 2), differential association (11 * – mostly present in cluster 1), neighborhood disadvantage (53 * – mostly present 2, 4, 5, and 6). While for the first dataset, the similarity matrix shows consistent overlaps among the codes included in the coding schema, the second dataset reveals consistent differences among the codes. Thus, the highest similarity values are between deviance – children and adolescents (0.535), children and adolescents – predictors of deviance (0.414), deviance – predictors of deviance (0.381), and peers influence – predictors of deviance (0.375).

Predictors of Deviance and Cyber-Deviance in Social Sciences

Given the high concern of researchers for the predictors of deviance and online deviance, we have provided a more detailed review of them predictors. Therefore, the present review attempted to provide more clarity on the most encountered predictors of deviance. To provide an understanding and an overview of this field, we considered it necessary to categorize these predictors, which are widely presented in the literature. The analyses presented show that the most common predictors of deviance relate to family patterns, socio-demographic aspects, socialization, victimization, and school and individual factors. Family, peer group, and school are the main social spaces of adolescents. In addition, considering the impact of the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies on socialization, identity formation, and leisure, we explored the predictors of offline and online deviance.

Family Patterns

Family relationships have a major influence on teenagers' level of engagement in deviant acts by loosening social constraints - Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber ( 1986 ), Thornberry ( 1987 ). Centered on the impact of parents' deviant behavior and attitudes on children's delinquency, deviant behaviors and attitudes paradigm analyzes family deviance, which includes family disorganization, parental involvement in lawbreaking acts and parental deviant values, and tolerating attitude related to dishonesty and criminality, as major risk factors of engagement in deviant conducts. According to the disruption paradigm, conflicts between parents, the absence of a parent, parent separation, and divorce affect children's conduct directly and indirectly. Variables such as inappropriate parenting practices and parental supervision (Sampson and Laub, 1992 , 1994 ; Zhang and Messner, 1995 ; Wiesner and Shukla, 2018 ) and family structure aspects including broken home, household size, sibling rank, and family environment (LeFlore, 1988 ) are worthy to be taken into consideration while studying deviance in general and teenagers' deviance, in particular. The relationship between parents is considered a very important factor in adolescents' engagement in deviant acts. The better the parents' relationship and the more they provide a peaceful environment for their child to grow up in, the less likely they are to engage in deviant acts (Lu et al., 2020 ). Harsh parental discipline (Hong et al., 2017 ), depression, and school engagement are other risk factors of deviance in teenagers (Lin and Yi, 2016 ) related to family deviance and family functioning.

Socio-Demographic Aspects

Researchers indicate a link between living in a certain area of a city and deviance. Grounded on the seminal work of Wilson ( 2012 ) regarding the criminalization process of people living in poor neighborhoods, the underclass , sociologists have noticed that there is a high rate of crimes and delinquency in such disadvantaged neighborhoods, which are inhabited by jobless people. The link between deviancy and the neighborhood context represents a factor that mediates the link among peer influence, family context, and deviance (Sampson and Laub, 1997 ; Sampson et al., 2002 ; Hwang and Sampson, 2014 ; Billings and Hoekstra, 2019 ). In addition, the structural inequality mirrored by urban topology is amplified by network effects (DiMaggio and Garip, 2012 ). Recently, network research scientists also demonstrated that income inequality is correlated to network fragmentation, which implies that an increase in social and income inequality is visible when social network fragmentation interacts with neighborhood distribution (Tóth et al., 2021 ).

Socialization

Association with deviant peers is related to the engagement in deviant and delinquent behavior (Agnew, 1991 ; Warr and Stafford, 1991 ; Sutherland et al., 1992 ; Matsueda and Anderson, 1998 ; Haynie and Osgood, 2005 ; Akers, 2017 ). The inquiry of whether one is deviant because one belongs to a deviant group, encompassed in the socialization theories (Agnew, 1985 , 1991 ; Warr and Stafford, 1991 ; Dishion and Tipsord, 2011 ; Lin and Yi, 2016 ; Akers, 2017 ; McGloin and Thomas, 2019 ; Schwartz et al., 2019 ), or whether one chooses to be a part of a group with antisocial behavior because of a personal inclination for deviance, known as selection mechanism (Matsueda and Anderson, 1998 ; Haynie and Osgood, 2005 ; Barnes et al., 2006 ; Schwartz et al., 2019 ; Gallupe et al., 2020 ), helps capture this causal relationship.

Contrary to the perception of social learning theorists that deviance is a result of socialization with peers that have antisocial behavior, social control theorists hold that getting involved in crimes is a process that does not require any learning (Hirschi, 1969 ; Hirschi and Gottfredson, 2000 ; Costello and Zozula, 2016 ). A slightly different approach is taken by routine activity theorists who hold that deviant friends provide more opportunities to engage in norm-breaking and law-breaking activities (Osgood et al., 1996 ; Haynie and Osgood, 2005 ; Boman et al., 2019 ; Hoeben et al., 2021 ). Considering Giordano's observations regarding the need to explain peer relations from a multidimensional perspective (Giordano, 2003 ), researchers assess the impact of conflict (Boman and Mowen, 2019 ) and friendship quality (Poulin et al., 1999 ; Boman et al., 2019 ) on deviant behaviors of individuals.

Victimization

Researchers (Gorman-Smith et al., 1998 ) have established that there are significant associations among the profiles of offenders and patterns of family involvement, with non-offenders being more likely to have families with minimal problems, with serious chronic offenders belonging to families with many problems, such as issues of neglect, and with escalating offenders having a conflictual family background that is characterized by disruption. In the case of escalating offenders, the influence of family functioning toward engaging in deviant acts seems to be corroborated with peer deviance, the authors conclude. Researchers proved that peer offending represents a more powerful predictor of cyber-deviance, in general, and cyberpiracy, in particular, than low self-control (Lee, 2018 ; Lee et al., 2018 ). In the case of cyberbullying, exposure to risky online content and cyberbullying victimization, along with gender, school grade, school control, and perception of cyberbullying factors have significant impacts (Bae, 2021 ).

School and Individual Factors

As Davies ( 1995 , 1999 ) emphasizes, the socio-economic background is a weak predictor of deviance, while difficulties with school, operationalized as lower grades and the likeness to drop out of school, strongly predict engagement in deviant acts. Despite the way the causal relationship between academic failure and deviance is questioned (Phillips and Kelly, 1979 ), there is no doubt that school deviance correlates to academic underachievement. Researchers have found that socioeconomic status, cultural capital, and social capital have an impact on academic results, even after controlling for family characteristics (DiMaggio, 1982 ).

Regarding school success and academic achievements, (Hatos, 2010a , b ; Hatos and Bǎlţǎtescu, 2013 ) identified socioeconomic status, school engagement, and leisure style as individual-level predictors. The authors also identified classroom level – the proportion of students with fathers with higher education – and school-level predictors – average achievement of the school students and school type. As the author explained, school-level variables account for the largest variance (Hatos, 2010b ). In this sense, the differences between schools concerning students' backgrounds and teachers correlate with educational achievements. Consequently, students with lower grades are nested together with low satisfaction with regard to school and lower socioeconomic status. These groups are mostly composed of boys (Hatos, 2010b ).

Welsh et al. ( 1999 ) present evidence of school deviance predictors at multiple levels, namely, age, race, gender, school involvement, belief in rules, and positive peer association at the individual level and school size, student perception of school climate, and school at the community level. A recently published analysis (Dullas et al., 2021 ) shows that adolescent boys are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior or more serious deviant acts, while adolescent girls are more often perpetrators of minor deviant acts.

Internet and Computer Use

Lee ( 2018 ) identifies two main theoretical frameworks that explain the occurrence of online deviant behaviors: self-control and social learning theory. Rooted in the general theory of crime, self-control theory asserts that individuals with low-level control have a higher chance of engaging in online deviant acts such as computer piracy, online exposure to sexually explicit materials, online harassment, and cyber deviance in general (Holt et al., 2012 , 2015 ). Moreover, teenagers who have a higher sensation-seeking attitude have a positive attitude toward risk-taking and most often indulge in illegal downloading of music, games, and sexual content (Weisskirch and Murphy, 2004 ). Deviant peer affiliation partially mediates the link between adolescent sensation seeking and internet gaming addiction (Tian et al., 2019 ).

Association with deviant peers, including online interaction with virtual peers, is the main predictor of cyber-deviance (Bossler and Holt, 2009 ; Burgess-Proctor et al., 2009 ; Bossler et al., 2011 ; Holt et al., 2012 ; Lee, 2018 ). Subcultural theorists explain the mechanisms through which cyberspace assists in justifying engagement in deviant acts such as computer hacking and digital piracy, transferring social relationships from offline to online, and creating communities and shared norms (Holt, 2007 , 2020 ; Holt and Copes, 2010 ; McCuddy and Esbensen, 2020 ).

Rooted in Bourdieu and Weber's theories, the theory of digital divide holds that the Internet amplifies the existent social inequalities, with people lacking digital skills (second-level digital divide) and the opportunities for making effective use of them if they acquired (third-level digital divide) left behind (DiMaggio and Hargittai, 2001 ; DiMaggio et al., 2001 ; Van Dijk and Hacker, 2003 ; DiMaggio and Garip, 2012 ; Barbovschi and Balea, 2013 ; Van Deursen and Van Dijk, 2015 ; Van Deursen et al., 2015 ; Scheerder et al., 2017 ; Hatos, 2019 ; Van Dijk, 2020 ).

Computer proficiency and technology use correlate with cyber deviant acts, including hacking, digital piracy, and online harassment (Lee, 2018 ). Therefore, we can conclude that the digital world is a field where actors attempt to gain social, symbolic, and digital capital to ensure and justify their power (Ragnedda and Muschert, 2013 ; Lindell, 2017 ; O'Neil and Ackland, 2020 ).

Starting from the question how the topics of deviance and cyber-deviance are covered in social sciences, the present review gathers the relevant findings on the field in order to create a comprehensive account of the phenomenon. As we have presented in the results section, our systematic literature review involved the analysis of two databases, namely 61 sources in extenso (Dataset 1) and 488 abstracts (Dataset 2). We chose to review the 61 articles in extenso in order to understand in more detail the most common themes and the main predictors of deviance. These issues could not be reflected so accurately by only the abstract analysis. The articles in extenso give us detailed information with a smaller number of sources, and in addition, the extrapolation of the analysis to the database of 488 abstracts allows us a holistic understanding of the phenomenon of deviance. The analysis of a higher number of articles in dataset 2 also facilitated the inclusion of more recent articles that do not have a consistent number of citations yet, with articles addressing more specific aspects of deviance. It may be noticed that the most cited articles are those that deal with classical theories of deviance.

A more detailed assessment of the results of in extenso articles highlights that the main themes in the 61 most cited articles published in the Web of Science database on the topic of deviance among adolescents refer to the predictors of deviance (61 articles), as a category in which all predictors are included such as school education, socioeconomic status, as well as two important categories that also represent predictors but taken as separately.

By holistically examining the two datasets, we provided an overview of the field. As compared to other systematic reviews focused only on a specific field of deviance (McGrath et al., 2011 ; Brauer and Tittle, 2012 ; Longobardi and Badenes-Ribera, 2019 ; Estévez et al., 2020 ), we analyzed the deviance in a general manner. This was possible by using computational text analysis, method which allowed an accurate screening of nearly 500 sources. As related to this aspect, a first objective consisted of identifying the main topics approached in the literature on deviance. From our knowledge, this objective was not addressed by any other systematic reviews. This method revealed four latent clusters of topics: explanatory theories of the causes of deviance (social learning, social control, subcultural theories), socio-constructionist theories (labeling theory, power theory, conflict theory), predictors of deviance (gender, socioeconomic status, family influence, family background, peers' affiliation) and online deviance (frequency of Internet use, digital divide).

With regards to the objective of revealing the most frequently encountered themes, our review shows that the phenomenon of deviance is explained grounded on the classical theories. The researchers choose between explanatory theories such as: differential association, routine activities and opportunities theories, social learning, social control, social disorganization, anomie and strain theories, subcultural theories, power relations, and neutralization and deterrence theories (Benda and Corwyn, 1997 ; Wagner et al., 2004 ; Wallace et al., 2007 ; Dolliver and Rocker, 2017 ; Meldrum et al., 2020 ), or socio-constructionist - symbolic interactionism, labeling theory, phenomenological theory, critical discourse analysis, cultural theories, framing theory, convenience theory, and post-modernist theories (Giordano et al., 2009 ; Herman-Kinney and Kinney, 2013 ; Gottschalk, 2018 , 2020 ; Barmaki, 2021 ) or even the integrative ones, respectively social disorganization theory and life-course theories (Apel and Sweeten, 2010 ; Peguero, 2011 ; Payne and Welch, 2016 ; Gostjev and Nielsen, 2017 ). Consequently, our review showed that most of the analyzed studies centered on the predictors and correlates of deviance . It highlights their focus on revealing and characterizing the predictors of deviance, mainly using strain theory (Aseltine et al., 2000 ; Cheung and Cheung, 2010 ; Adamczyk, 2012 ; Bruno et al., 2012 ; Scheuerman, 2019 ), social control (Free, 1992 ; Woodward et al., 2001 ; Jang, 2002 ; Byrd et al., 2015 ), social learning theories (Barnes and Farrell, 1992 ; Benda, 1994 ; Winfree et al., 1994 ; Terrell, 1997 ; Regnerus, 2002 ), or routine opportunity theories (Osgood et al., 1996 ; Marcum et al., 2010 ; Maimon and Browning, 2012b ; Ragan et al., 2014 ; Yuan and McNeeley, 2018 ). As we observed from the manual analysis of the 488 articles, this is mainly done through quantitative analysis; 348 articles out of 488 were examined using quantitative methods. Furthermore, there is a significant concern for online deviance and online deviant behaviors (Marcum et al., 2010 ; Oksanen et al., 2014 ; Rafalow, 2015 ; Vejmelka et al., 2017 ; Mesch, 2018 ; Tomczyk, 2018 ; Chester et al., 2019 ; Granic et al., 2020 ; Semenza, 2021 ). The extensive number of identified studies focused on online deviance and adolescents is connected to the popularity of Internet among teenagers and compulsive use of it (Wachs et al., 2015 ; Kapoor et al., 2017 ; Ohannessian and Vannucci, 2020 ). In addition, with the spread of Internet technology, teenagers' online deviant behavior has become a matter of grave concern for parents, educators, social workers and researchers.

As related to the second objective , we observed an overlap between psychological and sociological approaches, with researchers making use of predictors at individual and social levels to explain deviance. Hence, theories such as differential reinforcement, social learning, problem-behavior, social bond theory, self-control theory, rational choice theory, differential social support, terror management theory, theories of maturation, and psychanalytic theories represent interdisciplinary perspectives that are of interest both for sociologists and psychologists. At the same time, our research revealed theories developed both by sociologists and criminologists to explain the nature of deviant behavior, including differential association, routine activities and opportunities theories, social control, social disorganization, anomie and strain theories, subcultural theories, power relations, and neutralization and deterrence theories. In addition, the dataset contained articles concerning the social construction of deviance, encompassing theories, such as: symbolic interactionism, labeling theory, phenomenological theory, critical discourse analysis, cultural theories, framing theory, convenience theory, and post-modernist theories.

Consistent to the literature, our review identified five main categories of predictors ( the third objective addressed) that influence the engagement of teenagers in online and offline deviant behaviors, namely: family patterns, socio-demographic aspects, victimization, school and individual factors, Internet and computer use. The most employed predictors for explaining deviance include: family characteristics, family background, peer affiliation, school factors, school results, religion, risk attitude, religion, risk factors, victimization (Dukes and Lorch, 1989 ; Bahr et al., 1993 ; Aseltine, 1995 ; Benda and Corwyn, 1997 ; Amato and Fowler, 2002 ; Bjarnason et al., 2005 ; Haynie and Osgood, 2005 ; Chapple et al., 2014 ; Corkin et al., 2015 ; Buehler, 2020 ). At the same time, most of the longitudinal studies that we analyzed deal with the topic of delinquency follow a life-course perspective (Uggen and Kruttschnitt, 1998 ; Macmillan, 2001 ; Giordano et al., 2002 ; Kirk and Sampson, 2013 ; Salvatore and Markowitz, 2014 ; Pratt et al., 2016 ). As the papers analyzed show, online deviance has similar predictors with offline deviance, fact that suggests a continuity between the two. Still, the engagement into online deviance has some specific predictors, such as: frequency of internet use, patterns of internet use, computer skills, with digital divide theory as a main paradigm (Broos and Roe, 2006 ; Hinduja and Patchin, 2008 ; Clark, 2009 ; DiMaggio and Garip, 2012 ; Lindsay and Krysik, 2012 ; Chen et al., 2017 ; Chan and Wong, 2019a , b ). Moreover, the articles analyzed on online deviance focus on the influence of lifestyle and the issue of identity (Zhao, 2005 ; Robinson, 2009 ; Karaian, 2012 ; Harvey et al., 2013 ; Barmaki, 2021 ).

Taking everything into consideration, our results show that social scientists employ classical theories of deviance for understanding the nature of the phenomenon and are particularly concerned with identifying the predictors and the interactions between them as related to online and offline deviance.

Limitations

The results of this study need to be interpreted with caution. In this sense, we recommend future researchers conduct more in-depth systematic text review analyses based on other search queries that permit the identification of relevant articles on the study of deviance and cyber-deviance in the period of adolescence. Considering the present research, we state some limits related to the number of analyzed texts, code creation, and interpretation and computational constraints. First, in the last stage of analysis, we decided to select only the articles that responded to the second and third criteria as the number of articles that fit the first criterion was consistently large. We chose to use this approach because of computational limits as employing text searches on 488 articles exceeds the capacity of our computer memory.

Considering that for the last two criteria, the in extenso articles were selected only on the basis of the number of citations; the studies selected in the first dataset include a higher number of classical sources and, therefore, possibly excluded some recent impact articles.

Another limit relates to subjective code creation. However, the data was automatically clustered for diminishing the potential bias. The revealed clusters were compared to the data that are classified based on the designed codes.

This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on the phenomenon of online and offline adolescent deviance grounded in the main findings reported in the studies published in the Web of Science database until April 2021.

For the analysis, we decided to use a validated methodology – the systematic quantitative literature review method described by Pickering and Byrne ( 2014 ), with additional tools from the PRISMA model. For reliability and systematic inquiry, the reviews were performed using the KH Coder software.

Our systematic literature review provides a clearer picture of adolescent deviance. At the same time, the differences and overlaps among the sociological and psychological approaches to the phenomenon were clarified. Psychologists and sociologists often take an interdisciplinary approach to explain the phenomenon of deviance. The most employed theories consist of strain theory, social learning, self-control, and social control theories.

The results of the research analyzed showed that the most frequently encountered themes in the area of deviance, can be grouped in four main topics: predictors of deviance, online deviance, socio-constructivist theories, and explanatory theories of the nature of deviant behaviors.

The present systematic literature review emphasized that the main categories of predictors in the case of deviance consist of family patterns, socio-demographic aspects, socialization, victimization, and school and individual factors. The study of online deviance needs to consider the existing digital divides. Along with the digital divide, the study of online behavior must examine the types of online capital and their interdependence with the offline world. Specific to online deviance, in addition to the predictors related to the above-mentioned offline context, the use of the internet and computer skills also have a significant impact in explaining the deviance phenomenon.

The paper asserts that deviance and online deviance are interrelated phenomena that can be explained by distinct theoretical approaches. As the study may show, the online sphere does not represent just the medium where activities or behaviors take place. Rather, it deepens the existing social inequalities, amplifying the differences attributed to social status. Moreover, deviance in the online environment is mostly studied in relation to children, teenagers, and youth, since the Internet is quite popular among these age groups.

We believe that the present systematic literature review makes an important contribution to the understanding of deviance by presenting an overview of the phenomenon. The findings of this literature review are useful for experts in the fields of psychology, sociology, and other related fields. The methods and software used for source analysis (Pickering and KH Coder) allowed us to identify the most relevant predictors of deviance and the most common themes for approaching the phenomenon. Our methods may also be applied to the research of experts of other fields who are interested in studying a specific phenomenon, as it allows a significant number of sources to be included in the analysis.

Data Availability Statement

Author contributions.

SC and AH were responsible for designing the research. AH and CB supervised the data analysis and the manuscript writing. SC contributed to the data coding and analysis. SC and AL wrote the first draft of this manuscript. CB and AL contributed to the conceptualization of the study, to editing, and to revising the manuscript. All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

This work was partial funded by Project 123008, SmartDoct – High quality programs for doctoral and post-doctoral students of Oradea University, for the increase of relevance in research and innovation, in the context of the regional economy, project financed by Human Capital Operational Program 2014-2020.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

1** < 0.01

* < 0.05.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.748006/full#supplementary-material

• Adamczyk A. (2012). Understanding delinquency with friendship group religious context . Soc. Sci. Q. 93 , 482–505. 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00839.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Adamczyk A., Freilich J. D., Kim C. (2017). Religion and crime: a systematic review and assessment of next steps . Sociol. Relig. 78 , 192–232. 10.1093/socrel/srx012 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Adler P. A., Adler P. (2007). The demedicalization of self-injury - From psychopathology to sociological deviance . J. Contemp. Ethnogr. 36 , 537–570. 10.1177/0891241607301968 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Agnew R. (1985). Social control theory and delinquency: a longitudinal test . Criminology 23 , 47–61. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00325.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Agnew R. (1991). The interactive effects of peer variables on delinquency . Criminology 29 , 47–72. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1991.tb01058.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Agnew R. (1995). Testing the leading crime theories - an alternative strategy focusing on motivational processes . J. Res. Crime Delinq. 32 , 363–398. 10.1177/0022427895032004001 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Akers R. L. (1991). Self-control as a general theory of crime . J. Quantit. Criminol. 7 , 201–211. 10.1007/BF01268629 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Akers R. L. (2017). Social Learning and Social Structure: A General Theory of Crime and Deviance . Militon Park: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• Akers R. L., Cochran J. K. (1985). Adolescent marijuana use - a test of 3 theories of deviant-behavior . Deviant Behav. 6 , 323–346. 10.1080/01639625.1985.9967683 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Akers R. L., Lee G. (1999). Age, social learning, and social bonding in adolescent substance use . Deviant Behav. 20 , 1–25. 10.1080/016396299266579 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Albanna B., Heeks R. (2019). Positive deviance, big data, and development: a systematic literature review . Electr. J. Inform. Syst. Devel. Count. 85 :e12063. 10.1002/isd2.12063 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Alzunitan M., Edmond M., Alsuhaibani M., Samuelson R., Schweizer M., Marra A. (2020). Positive deviance in infection prevention and control: a systematic literature review . J. Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 31 , 1–8. 10.1017/ice.2020.1256 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Amato P. R., Fowler F. (2002). Parenting practices, child adjustment, and family diversity . J. Marr. Fam. 64 , 703–716. 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2002.00703.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Apel R., Sweeten G. (2010). The impact of incarceration on employment during the transition to adulthood . Soc. Prob. 57 , 448–479. 10.1525/sp.2010.57.3.448 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Arshad M., Malik M. A. R. (2020). Workplace deviance: a systematic literature review and future agenda . Acad. Manag. Proc. 2020 :12473. 10.5465/AMBPP.2020.12473abstract [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Aseltine R. H. (1995). A reconsideration of parental and peer influences on adolescent deviance . J. Health Soc. Behav. 36 , 103–121. 10.2307/2137219 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Aseltine R. H., Gore S., Gordon J. (2000). Life stress, anger and anxiety, and delinquency: an empirical test of general strain theory . J. Health Soc. Behav. 41 , 256–275. 10.2307/2676320 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bae S.-M. (2021). The relationship between exposure to risky online content, cyber victimization, perception of cyberbullying, and cyberbullying offending in Korean adolescents . Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 123 :105946. 10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.105946 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bahr S. J., Hawks R. D., Wang G. (1993). Family and religious influences on adolescent substance-abuse . Youth Soc. 24 , 443–465. 10.1177/0044118X93024004007 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bandura A. (1971). Social Learning Theory . New York, NY: General Learning Corporation. [ Google Scholar ]
• Bandura A. (1978). Social learning theory of aggression . J. Commun. 28 , 12–29. 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1978.tb01621.x [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bandura A., McClelland D. C. (1977). Social Learning Theory . Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. [ Google Scholar ]
• Barbovschi M., Balea B. (2013). Closing the gap, are we there yet? Reflections on the persistence of second-level digital divide among adolescents in Central and Eastern Europe , in The Digital Divide: The Internet and Social Inequality in International Perspective , eds Ragnedda M., Muschert G. W. (London, Routledge; ), 179–192. Available online at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:693036/FULLTEXT01.pdf#page=200 [ Google Scholar ]
• Barmaki R. (2016). On the origin of the concept of “Deviant Subculture” in criminology: W. I. Thomas and the Chicago School of Sociology . Deviant Behav. 37 , 795–810. 10.1080/01639625.2016.1145023 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Barmaki R. (2021). Erving goffman's view of “Deviance”: “Self” and “Society” as the sources of deviancy and conformity . Deviant Behav. 42 :845. 10.1080/01639625.2019.1658845 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Barnes G. M., Farrell M. P. (1992). Parental support and control as predictors of adolescent drinking, delinquency, and related problem behaviors . J. Marr. Fam. 54 , 763–776. 10.2307/353159 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Barnes G. M., Hoffman J. H., Welte J. W., Farrell M. P., Dintcheff B. A. (2006). Effects of parental monitoring and peer deviance on substance use and delinquency . J. Marr. Fam. 68 , 1084–1104. 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00315.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Becker H. S. (1995). Moral Entrepreneurs: The Creation and Enforcement of Deviant Categories. Deviance: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach . Herman, MO: General Hall, 169–178. Available online at: https://books.google.ro/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wGbhKS3BvqMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA169&dq=moral+entrepreneurs+Becker&ots=Zbg8G5R1nl&sig=KdvkKlyUhwG2aDtE0sA-YfxNUTs&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=moral%20entrepreneurs%20Becker&f=false [ Google Scholar ]
• Becker H. S. (2008). Outsiders . New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. [ Google Scholar ]
• Benda B. B. (1994). Testing competing theoretical concepts - adolescent alcohol-consumption . Deviant Behav. 15 , 375–396. 10.1080/01639625.1994.9967980 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Benda B. B., Corwyn R. F. (1997). Religion and delinquency: the relationship after considering family and peer influences . J. Sci. Study Relig. 36 , 81–92. 10.2307/1387884 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ben-Yehuda N. (1990). The Politics and Morality of Deviance: Moral Panics, Drug Abuse, Deviant Science, and Reversed Stigmatization . Albany, NY: SUNY Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Billings S. B., Hoekstra M. (2019). Schools, Neighborhoods, and the Long-Run Effect of Crime-Prone Peers (No. w25730) . Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research. Available online at: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w25730/w25730.pdf [ Google Scholar ]
• Birkbeck C., Lafree G. (1993). The situational analysis of crime and deviance . Ann. Rev. Sociol. 19 , 113–137. 10.1146/annurev.so.19.080193.000553 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bjarnason T., Thorlindsson T., Sigfusdottir I. D., Welch M. R. (2005). Familial and religious influences on adolescent alcohol use: a multi-level study of students and school communities . Social Forces 84 , 375–390. 10.1353/sof.2005.0088 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Boman J. H., Agnich L., Miller B. L., Stogner J. M., Mowen T. J. (2019). The “other side of the fence”: a learning- and control-based investigation of the relationship between deviance and friendship quality . Deviant Behav. 40 , 1553–1573. 10.1080/01639625.2019.1596451 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Boman J. H., Mowen T. J. (2019). Unpacking the role of conflict in peer relationships: implications for peer deviance and crime . Deviant Behav. 40 , 882–895. 10.1080/01639625.2018.1443779 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bossler A. M., Holt T. J. (2009). On-line activities, guardianship, and malware infection: an examination of routine activities theory. Int. J. Cyber Criminol . 3 , 400–420. Available online at: http://www.cybercrimejournal.com/bosslerholtijcc2009.pdf [ Google Scholar ]
• Bossler A. M., Holt T. J., May D. C. (2011). Predicting online harassment victimization among a juvenile population . Youth Soc. 44 , 500–523. 10.1177/0044118X11407525 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Brauer J. R., Tittle C. R. (2012). Social learning theory and human reinforcement . Sociol. Spect. 32 , 157–177. 10.1080/02732173.2012.646160 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Broos A., Roe K. (2006). The digital divide in the playstation generation: self-efficacy, locus of control and ICT adoption among adolescents . Poetics 34 , 306–317. 10.1016/j.poetic.2006.05.002 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Brossard B. (2014). Fighting with oneself to maintain the interaction order: a sociological approach to self-injury daily process . Symb. Inter. 37 , 558–575. 10.1002/symb.118 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bruno T. L., Butters J. E., Erickson P. G., Wekerle C. (2012). Missed conceptions: a gendered extension of early conception among street youth . Deviant Behav. 33 , 550–565. 10.1080/01639625.2011.636698 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Buehler C. (2020). Family processes and children's and adolescents' well-being . J. Marr. Fam. 82 , 145–174. 10.1111/jomf.12637 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Burgess-Proctor A., Patchin J. W., Hinduja S. (2009). Cyberbullying and online harassment: Reconceptualizing the victimization of adolescent girls , in Female Crime Victims: Reality Reconsidered , eds Garcia V, Clifford J., Muraskin R. (Prentice Hall: ), 153–175. [ Google Scholar ]
• Byrd K. M., Kahle L. L., Peguero A. A., Popp A. M. (2015). Social control and intersectionality: a multilevel analysis of school misconduct, location, race, ethnicity, and sex . Sociol. Spect. 35 , 109–135. 10.1080/02732173.2014.1000552 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chan H. C., Wong D. S. W. (2019a). Traditional school bullying and cyberbullying perpetration: examining the psychosocial characteristics of hong kong male and female adolescents . Youth Soc. 51 , 3–29. 10.1177/0044118X16658053 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chan H. C., Wong R. W. Y. (2019b). Childhood and adolescent animal cruelty and subsequent interpersonal violence in adulthood: a review of the literature . Aggres. Violent Behav. 48 , 83–93. 10.1016/j.avb.2019.08.007 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chapple C., Vaske J., Worthen M. G. F. (2014). Gender differences in associations with deviant peer groups: examining individual, interactional, and compositional factors . Deviant Behav. 35 , 394–411. 10.1080/01639625.2014.855098 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chen L., Ho S. S., Lwin M. O. (2017). A meta-analysis of factors predicting cyberbullying perpetration and victimization: from the social cognitive and media effects approach . New Media Soc. 19 , 1194–1213. 10.1177/1461444816634037 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chester K. L., Magnusson J., Klemera E., Spencer N. H., Brooks F. (2019). The mitigating role of ecological health assets in adolescent cyberbullying victimization . Youth Soc. 51 , 291–317. 10.1177/0044118X16673281 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cheung N. W. T., Cheung Y. W. (2010). Strain, self-control, and gender differences in delinquency among chinese adolescents: extending general strain theory . Sociol. Perspect. 53 , 321–345. 10.1525/sop.2010.53.3.321 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Clark L. S. (2009). digital media and the generation gap qualitative research on US teens and their parents . Inform. Commun. Soc. 12 , 388–407. 10.1080/13691180902823845 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Clinard M. B., Meier R. F. (2015). Sociology of Deviant Behavior . Toronto, ON: Nelson Education. [ Google Scholar ]
• Cloward R. A. (1959). Illegitimate eans, anommie, and deviant behavior . Am. Sociol. Rev. 24 , 164–176. 10.2307/2089427. Available online at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2089427 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cohen A. K. (1955). Delinquent Boys; The Culture of the Gang . Glencoe, Il: The Free Press. Available online at: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1955-07594-000 [ Google Scholar ]
• Cohen S. (2002). Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers . London: Psychology Press; Routledge. P. 280. Available online at: https://books.google.ro/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eDhPbH9roU4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&ots=4L5x7TsBhO&sig=P_VeGvMODxpc0BMLXLEE-_WbmKw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false [ Google Scholar ]
• Corkin D., Wiesner M., Reyna R. S., Shukla K. (2015). The role of deviant lifestyles on violent victimization in multiple contexts . Deviant Behav. 36 , 405–428. 10.1080/01639625.2014.935690 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Costello B. J., Zozula C. (2016). Peer influence: mechanisms and motivations . Deviant Behav. 39 , 94–110. 10.1080/01639625.2016.1260387 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Davies S. (1995). Reproduction and resistance in canadian high schools: an empirical examination of the willis thesis . Br. J. Sociol. 46 , 662–687. 10.2307/591577 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Davies S. (1999). Subcultural explanations and interpretations of school deviance . Aggress. Violent Behav. 4 , 191–202. 10.1016/S1359-1789(97)00053-0 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Dennis J. A., Khan O., Ferriter M., Huband N., Powney M. J., Duggan C. (2012). Psychological interventions for adults who have sexually offended or are at risk of offending . Cochrane Database Syst. Rev. 12 :CD007507. 10.1002/14651858.CD007507.pub2 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• DiMaggio P. (1982). Cultural capital and school success: the impact of status culture participation on the grades of US high school students . Am. Sociol. Rev. 47 , 189–201. 10.2307/2094962 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• DiMaggio P., Garip F. (2012). Network effects and social inequality . Ann. Rev. Sociol. 38 , 93–118. 10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102545 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• DiMaggio P., Hargittai E. (2001). From the “digital divide” to “digital inequality”: Studying Internet Use as Penetration Increases . Princeton: Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 4–2. [ Google Scholar ]
• DiMaggio P., Hargittai E., Neuman W. R., Robinson J. P. (2001). Social implications of the internet . Ann. Rev. Sociol. 27 , 307–336. 10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.307 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Dishion T. J., Tipsord J. M. (2011). Peer contagion in child and adolescent social and emotional development , in Annual Review of Psychology , eds. Fiske S. T., Schacter D.L., Taylor S.E.. (Palo Alto: Annual Reviews; ), 189–214. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Dodaj A., Sesar K., Jerinic S. (2020). A prospective study of high-school adolescent sexting behavior and psychological distress . J. Psychol. 154 , 111–128. 10.1080/00223980.2019.1666788 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Dolliver M. J., Rocker D. L. (2017). Addressing a divide in the conceptualization of the gender-crime relationship: a comparative test of gender and sex using general strain theory . Deviant Behav. 39 , 1552–1565. 10.1080/01639625.2017.1410619 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Dukes R. L., Lorch B. D. (1989). Concept of self, mediating factors, and adolescent deviance . Sociol. Spect. 9 , 301–319. 10.1080/02732173.1989.9981892 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Dullas A. R., Yncierto K. D., Labiano M. A., Marcelo J. C. (2021). Determinants of a variety of deviant behaviors: an analysis of family satisfaction, personality traits, and their relationship to deviant behaviors among filipino adolescents . Front Psychol . 12 :645126. 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645126 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Durkheim E. (1938). The Rules of Sociological Method , 8th Edn. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Durkheim E. (2002). Regulile metodei sociologice (The Rules of the Sociological Method) . Polirom: English Edition. [ Google Scholar ]
• Durkin K. F., Wolfe T. W., Clark G. A. (2005). College students and binge drinking: an evaluation of social learning theory . Sociol. Spect. 25 , 255–272. 10.1080/027321790518681 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Duster T. (2006a). Comparative perspectives and competing explanations: taking on the newly configured reductionist challenge to sociology . Am. Sociol. Rev. 71 , 1–15. 10.1177/000312240607100101 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Duster T. (2006b). Lessons from history: why race and ethnicity have played a major role in biomedical research . J. Law Med. Ethics. 34 , 487–496. 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2006.00060.x [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Elias N. (1978). The Civilizing Process . Oxford: Blackwell. [ Google Scholar ]
• Engström A. (2021). Conceptualizing lifestyle and routine activities in the early 21st century: a systematic review of self-report measures in studies on direct-contact offenses in young populations . Crime Delinq. 67 , 737–782. 10.1177/0011128720937640 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ennett S. T., Flewelling R. L., Lindrooth R. C., Norton E. C. (1997). School and neighborhood characteristics associated with school rates of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use . J. Health Soc. Behav. 38 , 55–71. 10.2307/2955361 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Erikson K. T. (1962). Notes on the sociology of deviance . Soc. Prob. 9 , 307–314. 10.2307/798544 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Estévez E., Cañas E., Estévez J. F., Povedano A. (2020). Continuity and overlap of roles in victims and aggressors of bullying and cyberbullying in adolescence: a systematic review . Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 17 :7452. 10.3390/ijerph17207452 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Farrington D. P. (2017). Integrated Developmental and Life-Course Theories of Offending . New York, NY: Transaction Publishers. [ Google Scholar ]
• Feinberg S. L. (2011). Defining deviance: a comparative review of textbooks in the sociology of deviance . Teach. Sociol. 39 , 382–387. 10.1177/0092055X11418684 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fitton L., Yu R., Fazel S. (2020). Childhood maltreatment and violent outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies . Trauma Viol. Abuse 21 , 754–768. 10.1177/1524838018795269 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Foucault M. (1971). Madness and Civilization . London: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• Foucault M. (2007). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison . Durham: Duke University Press, 445–471. [ Google Scholar ]
• Free M. D. (1992). Religious affiliation, religiosity, and impulsive and intentional deviance . Sociol. Focus 25 , 77–91. 10.1080/00380237.1992.10570608 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Freud S. (2012). The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud . [S.I.]: New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group. [ Google Scholar ]
• Gallupe O., Boman J. H., Nash R., Castro E. D. (2020). Deviant peer preferences: a simplified approach to account for peer selection effects . Deviant Behav. 41 , 1143–1156. 10.1080/01639625.2019.1597321 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Garcia-Gomez A. (2017). Teen girls and sexual agency: exploring the intrapersonal and intergroup dimensions of sexting . Media Culture Soc. 39 , 391–407. 10.1177/0163443716683789 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gibbs J., Erickson M. (1975). Major developments in sociological study of deviance . Ann. Rev. Sociol. 1 , 21–42. 10.1146/annurev.so.01.080175.000321 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Giordano P. C. (2003). Relationships in adolescence . Ann. Rev. Sociol. 29 , 257–281. 10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100047 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Giordano P. C., Cernkovich S. A., Rudolph J. L. (2002). Gender, crime, and desistance: toward a theory of cognitive transformation . Am. J. Sociol. 107 , 990–1064. 10.1086/343191 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Giordano P. C., Longmore M. A., Manning W. D., Northcutt M. J. (2009). Adolescent identities and sexual behavior: an examination of anderson's player hypothesis . Soc. Forces 87 , 1813–1843. 10.1353/sof.0.0186 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Glaser D. (1971). Social Deviance . Chicago, IL: Markham Publishing Company. [ Google Scholar ]
• Goffman E. (1978). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life . London; Hammondsworth: Penguin Books. [ Google Scholar ]
• Goode E. (2016). Deviant Behavior . Milton Park: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• Gorman-Smith D., Tolan P. H., Loeber R., Henry D. B. (1998). Relation of family problems to patterns of delinquent involvement among urban youth . J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 26 , 319–333. 10.1023/A:1021995621302 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gostjev F. A., Nielsen A. L. (2017). Speaking the same language? English language fluency and violent crime at the neighborhood level . Sociol. Q. 58 , 111–139. 10.1080/00380253.2016.1246901 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gottschalk P. (2018). Empirical study of convenience theory: a student elicitation on white-collar crime . Deviant Behav. 39 , 747–757. 10.1080/01639625.2017.1305203 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gottschalk P. (2020). Theory of convenience: determinants of white-collar crime intention . Deviant Behav. 41 , 1431–1439. 10.1080/01639625.2019.1624101 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Götz M., Bollmann G., O'Boyle E. H. (2019). Contextual undertow of workplace deviance by and within units: a systematic review . Small Group Res. 50 , 39–80. 10.1177/1046496418790044 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Graham R. S., Smith S. K. (2019). Cybercrime and Digital Deviance . New York, NY: Taylor and Francis; Routledge. Available online at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781351238090/cybercrime-digital-deviance-roderick-graham-shawn-smith [ Google Scholar ]
• Granic I., Morita H., Scholten H. (2020). Beyond screen time: identity development in the digital age . Psychol. Inquiry 31 , 195–223. 10.1080/1047840X.2020.1820214 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hagan J. (1990). The structuration of gender and deviance: a power-control theory of vulnerability to crime and the search for deviant role exits . Can. Rev. Sociol Revue Can. Sociol. 27 , 137–156. 10.1111/j.1755-618X.1990.tb00448.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hagan J., Foster H. (2001). Youth violence and the end of adolescence . Am. Sociol. Rev. 66 , 874–899. 10.2307/3088877 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hagan J., Gillis A. R., Simpson J. (1985). The class structure of gender and delinquency: toward a power-control theory of common delinquent behavior . Am. J. Sociol. 90 , 1151–1178. 10.1086/228206 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hagan J., McCarthy B. (1998). Mean Streets: Youth Crime and Homelessness . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Harvey L., Ringrose J., Gill R. (2013). Swagger, ratings and masculinity: theorising the circulation of social and cultural value in teenage boys' digital peer networks . Sociol. Res. Online 18 , 57–67. 10.5153/sro.3153 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hatos A. (2010a). The (little) effect that parents' labour emigration has on their children's school performance: a study of secondary school students in Oradea (Romania) . New Educ. Rev. 20 , 85–96. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hatos A. (2010b). Multilevel analysis of academic achievements of upper secondary students in a Romanian city . Studia Univ. Babes-Bolyai-Sociol. 55 , 89–116. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hatos A. (2019). The Impact of digitalization on educational achievement: a literature review from a sociological perspective . Calitatea Vieţii 30 , 3–16. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hatos A., Bǎlţǎtescu S. (2013). Family structure and school results: multivariate analysis of answers of teenage students in a Romanian city . Child Indic. Res. 6 , 281–295. 10.1007/s12187-012-9169-z [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Haynie D. L., Osgood D. W. (2005). Reconsidering peers and delinquency: how do peers matter? Soc. Forces 84 , 1109–1130. 10.1353/sof.2006.0018 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Henry S., Milovanovic D. (1996). Constitutive Criminology: Beyond Postmodernism . SAGE Publications Limited. [ Google Scholar ]
• Herman-Kinney N. J., Kinney D. A. (2013). Sober as deviant: the stigma of sobriety and how some college students “stay dry” on a “wet” campus . J. Contemp. Ethnogr. 42 , 64–103. 10.1177/0891241612458954 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Higuchi K. (2016). KH Coder 3 Reference Manual . Kioto: Ritsumeikan University. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hinduja S., Patchin J. W. (2008). Cyberbuilying: an exploratory analysis of factors related to offending and victimization . Deviant Behav. 29 , 129–156. 10.1080/01639620701457816 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hinduja S., Patchin J. W. (2010). Bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide . Arch Suicide Res. 14 , 206–221. 10.1080/13811118.2010.494133 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hirschi T. (1969). A control theory of delinquency . Criminol. Theory Select. Classic Read. 1969 , 289–305. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hirschi T. (2017). Causes of Delinquency . Milton Park: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hirschi T., Gottfredson M. R. (2000). In defense of self-control . Theor. Criminol. 4 , 55–69. 10.1177/1362480600004001003 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hoeben E. M., Osgood D. W., Siennick S. E., Weerman F. M. (2021). Hanging out with the wrong crowd? The role of unstructured socializing in adolescents' specialization in delinquency and substance use . J. Quant. Criminol . 37 , 141–177. 10.1007/s10940-019-09447-4 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Holt T. J. (2007). subcultural evolution? Examining the influence of on- and off-line experiences on deviant subcultures . Deviant Behav. 28 , 171–198. 10.1080/01639620601131065 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Holt T. J. (2020). Subcultural theories of crime , in The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyberdeviance , eds. Holt T. J., Bossler A. M. (Cham: Springer International Publishing; ), 513–526. [ Google Scholar ]
• Holt T. J., Bossler A. M., Malinski R., May D. C. (2015). Identifying predictors of unwanted online sexual conversations among youth using a low self-control and routine activity framework . J. Contemp. Crim. Justice 32 , 108–128. 10.1177/1043986215621376 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Holt T. J., Bossler A. M., May D. C. (2012). Low self-control, deviant peer associations, and juvenile cyberdeviance . Am. J. Crim. Justice 37 , 378–395. 10.1007/s12103-011-9117-3 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Holt T. J., Copes H. (2010). Transferring subcultural knowledge on-line: practices and beliefs of persistent digital pirates . Deviant Behav. 31 , 625–654. 10.1080/01639620903231548 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hong J. S., Kim D. H., Piquero A. R. (2017). Assessing the links between punitive parenting, peer deviance, social isolation and bullying perpetration and victimization in South Korean adolescents . Child Abuse Neglect 73 , 63–70. 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.09.017 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hwang J., Sampson R. J. (2014). Divergent pathways of gentrification . Am. Sociol. Rev. 79 , 726–751. 10.1177/0003122414535774 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Jang S. J. (2002). Race, ethnicity, and deviance: A study of Asian and non-Asian adolescents in America . Sociol. Forum 17 , 647–680. 10.1023/A:1021081524775 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Jensen G. F., Erickson M. L., Gibbs J. P. (1978). Perceived risk of punisment and self-reported delinquency . Soc. Forces 57 , 57–78. 10.2307/2577626 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Jewkes Y., Yar M. (2013). Handbook of Internet Crime . London; New York, NY: Taylor and Francis; Routledge. Available online at: https://books.google.ro/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GSPhAQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Handbook+of+internet+crime&ots=gX4wJHZCFp&sig=vJEENuBLBZ_2vRw4eWL8QRS_0yI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Handbook%20of%20internet%20crime&f=false [ Google Scholar ]
• Juvonen J., Graham S. (2014). Bullying in schools: the power of bullies and the plight of victims . Annu. Rev. Psychol. 65 , 159–185. 10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115030 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kapoor K. K., Tamilmani K., Rana N. P., Patil P., Dwivedi Y. K., Nerur S. (2017). Advances in social media research: past, present and future . Inform. Syst. Front. 20 , 531–558. 10.1007/s10796-017-9810-y [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Karaian L. (2012). Lolita speaks: ‘Sexting,’ teenage girls and the law . Crime Media Culture 8 , 57–73. 10.1177/1741659011429868 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Katz J. (1988). Seductions of Crime: Moral and Sensual Attractions in Doing Evil . New York, NY: Basic Books. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kirk D. S., Sampson R. J. (2013). Juvenile arrest and collateral educational damage in the transition to adulthood . Sociol. Educ. 86 , 36–62. 10.1177/0038040712448862 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kohlberg L., Hersh R. H. (1977). Moral development: a review of the theory . Theory Pract. 16 , 53–59. 10.1080/00405847709542675 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kowalski R. M., Giumetti G. W., Schroeder A. N., Lattanner M. R. (2014). Bullying in the digital age: a critical review and meta-analysis of cyberbullying research among youth . Psychol. Bull. 140 , 1073–1137. 10.1037/a0035618 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lee B. H. (2018). Explaining cyber deviance among school-aged youth . Child Indic. Res. 11 , 563–584. 10.1007/s12187-017-9450-2 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lee B. H., Paek S. Y., Fenoff R. (2018). Factors associated with digital piracy among early adolescents . Child. Youth Serv. Rev. (2017) 86 , 287–295. 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.02.002 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• LeFlore L. (1988). Delinquent youths and family . Adolescence 23 , 629–642. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lemert E. M. (1967). Human Deviance, Social Problems, and Social Control . Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall. [ Google Scholar ]
• Lepoutre D. (2007). School Deviance and Social Control. An Ethnography of Youths at School . [ Google Scholar ]
• Leung R. K., Toumbourou J. W., Hemphill S. A. (2014). The effect of peer influence and selection processes on adolescent alcohol use: a systematic review of longitudinal studies . Health Psychol. Rev. 8 , 426–457. 10.1080/17437199.2011.587961 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lin W. H., Yi C. C. (2016). Family and school strains and their effects on adolescent deviance in taiwan: a mediating study . Youth Soc. 48 , 496–520. 10.1177/0044118X13499595 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lindell J. (2017). Bringing field theory to social media, and vice-versa: network-crawling an economy of recognition on facebook . Social Media Soc. 3 :752. 10.1177/2056305117735752 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lindsay M., Krysik J. (2012). Online harassment among college students a replication incorporating new internet trends . Inform. Commun. Soc. 15 , 703–719. 10.1080/1369118X.2012.674959 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Linnér R. K., Biroli P., Kong E., Meddens S. F. W., Wedow R., Fontana M. A., et al.. (2019). Genome-wide association analyses of risk tolerance and risky behaviors in over 1 million individuals identify hundreds of loci and shared genetic influences . Nat. Genet. 51 , 245–257. 10.1038/s41588-018-0309-3 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Loeber R., Stouthamer-Loeber M. (1986). Family factors as correlates and predictors of juvenile conduct problems and delinquency . Crime Just. 7 , 29–149. 10.1086/449112 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lombroso-Ferrero G. (1911). Criminal man: according to the classification of Cesare Lombroso . New York, NY; London GP: Putnam. [ Google Scholar ]
• Long M. (2017). ‘We’re not monsters … we're just really sad sometimes:' hidden self-injury, stigma and help-seeking . Health Sociol. Rev. 27 , 89–103. 10.1080/14461242.2017.1375862 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Longobardi C., Badenes-Ribera L. (2019). The relationship between animal cruelty in children and adolescent and interpersonal violence: a systematic review . Aggress. Viol. Behav. 46 , 201–211. 10.1016/j.avb.2018.09.001 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lu H., Chen Q., Xie C., Liang Q., Wang L., Xie M., et al.. (2020). Interparental conflict and delinquency among chinese adolescents: parental knowledge as a mediator and deviant peer affiliation as a moderator . Fornt Psychol . 11 :1775. 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01775 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Macmillan R. (2001). Violence and the life course: the consequences of victimization for personal and social development . Ann. Rev. Sociol. 27 , 1–22. 10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.1 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Maimon D., Browning C. R. (2012a). Underage drinking, alcohol sales and collective efficacy: informal control and opportunity in the study of alcohol use . Soc. Sci. Res. 41 , 977–990. 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.01.09 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Maimon D., Browning C. R. (2012b). Underage drinking, alcohol sales and collective efficacy: informal control and opportunity in the study of alcohol use . Soc. Sci. Res. 41 , 977–990. 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.01.009 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Marcum C. D., Higgins G. E., Ricketts M. L. (2010). Potential factors of online victimization of youth: an examination of adolescent online behaviors utilizing routine activity theory . Deviant Behav. 31 , 381–410. 10.1080/01639620903004903 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Matsueda R. L., Anderson K. (1998). The dynamics of delinquent peers and delinquent behavior . Criminology 36 , 269–308. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1998.tb01249.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Matza D., Blomberg T. G. (2017). Becoming Deviant . Milton Park: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• McBroom J. R. (1994). Correlates of alcohol and marijuana use among junior-high-school students - family, peers, school problems, and psychosocial concerns . Youth Soc. 26 , 54–68. 10.1177/0044118X94026001003 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• McCuddy T., Esbensen F.-A. (2020). The role of online communication among gang and non-gang youth , in Gangs in the Era of Internet and Social Media . (Berlin: Springer; ), 81–104. [ Google Scholar ]
• McGloin J. M., Thomas K. J. (2019). Peer influence and delinquency . Ann. Rev. Criminol. 2 , 241–264. 10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024551 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• McGrath S. A., Nilsen A. A., Kerley K. R. (2011). Sexual victimization in childhood and the propensity for juvenile delinquency and adult criminal behavior: a systematic review . Aggress. Violent Behav. 16 , 485–492. 10.1016/j.avb.2011.03.008 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Meldrum R. C., Patchin J. W., Young J. T. N., Hinduja S. (2020). Bullying victimization, negative emotions, and digital self-harm: testing a theoretical model of indirect effects . Deviant Behav . 1–9. 10.1080/01639625.2020.1833380 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Merton R. K. (1938). Social structure and anomie . Am. Sociol. Rev. 3 , 672–682. 10.2307/2084686 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Mesch G. S. (2018). Parent-child connections on social networking sites and cyberbullying . Youth Soc. 50 , 1145–1162. 10.1177/0044118X16659685 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Mills C. W. (1981). The Power Elite [1956] . New York, NY; London: Oxford University Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Mills M. C., Tropf F. C. (2020). Sociology, genetics, and the coming of age of sociogenomics . Ann. Rev. Sociol. 46 , 553–581. 10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054756 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Milovanovic D. (1996). Postmodern criminology: mapping the terrain . Just. Q. 13 , 567–610. 10.1080/07418829600093121 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Moffitt T. E. (1993a). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: a developmental taxonomy . Psychol. Rev. 100 , 674–701. 10.1037/0033-295X.100.4.74 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Moffitt T. E. (1993b). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: a developmental taxonomy . Psychol. Rev. 100 , 674–701. 10.1037/0033-295X.100.4.674 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Moher D., Liberati A., Tetzlaff J., Altman D. G., Group P. (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement . PLoS Med. 6 :e1000097. 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Musgrave P. W. (1980). Schools, pupils and deviance - Barton, L, Meighan, R . Br. J. Sociol. Educ. 1 , 221–225. 10.1080/0142569800010207 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ogien A. (2002). Sociologia devianţei . Romania: Editura Polirom. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ohannessian C. M., Vannucci A. (2020). Social media use and externalizing behaviors during early adolescence . Youth Soc. 53 , 871–893. 10.1177/0044118X20901737. Available online at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0044118X20901737?journalCode=yasa [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Oksanen A., Hawdon J., Holkeri E., Nasi M., Rasanen P. (2014). Exposure to Online Hate Among Young Social Media Users . Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. [ Google Scholar ]
• O'Neil M., Ackland R. (2020). Online field theory , in Second International Handbook of Internet Research , eds. Hunsinger J., Allen M. M., Klastrup L. (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; ), 445–467. [ Google Scholar ]
• Osgood D. W., Wilson J. K., O'Malley P. M., Bachman J. G., Johnston L. D. (1996). Routine activities and individual deviant behavior . Am. Sociol. Rev. 61 , 635–655. 10.2307/2096397. Available online at: http://faculty.washington.edu/matsueda/courses/587/readings/Osgood%20et%20al.%201996%20Routine%20Activities.pdf [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Page M. J., McKenzie J. E., Bossuyt P. M., Boutron I., Hoffmann T. C., Mulrow C. D., et al.. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews . BMJ 372 :n71. 10.1136/bmj.n7 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Parsons T. (1951). The Social System . New York, NY, US: Free Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Payne A. A., Welch K. (2016). The centrality of schools in the lifecourse: the case for focusing on school-related influences in developmental theory and research . Deviant Behav. 37 , 748–760. 10.1080/01639625.2015.1071134 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Peguero A. A. (2011). Immigration, schools, and violence: assimilation and student misbehavior . Sociol. Spect. 31 , 695–717. 10.1080/02732173.2011.606726 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Phillips J. C., Kelly D. H. (1979). School failure and delinquency which causes which? Criminology 17 , 194–207. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1979.tb01286.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Pickering C., Byrne J. (2014). The benefits of publishing systematic quantitative literature reviews for PhD candidates and other early-career researchers . Higher Educ. Res. Dev. 33 , 534–548. 10.1080/07294360.2013.841651 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Poulin F., Dishion T. J., Haas E. (1999). The peer influence paradox: friendship quality and deviancy training within male adolescent friendships . Merrill Palmer Q. 45 , 42. [ Google Scholar ]
• Pratt T. C., Barnes J. C., Cullen F. T., Turanovic J. J. (2016). I suck at everything”: crime, arrest, and the generality of failure . Deviant Behav. 37 , 837–851. 10.1080/01639625.2016.1147809 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Pratt T. C., Cullen F. T. (2000). The empirical status of Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime: a meta-analysis . Criminology 38 , 931–964. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2000.tb00911.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rafalow M. H. (2015). n00bs, Trolls, and Idols: Boundary-Making among Digital Youth . Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ragan D. T., Osgood D. W., Feinberg M. E. (2014). Friends as a bridge to parental influence: implications for adolescent alcohol use . Soc. Forces 92 , 1061–1085. 10.1093/sf/sot117 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ragnedda M., Muschert G. W. (2013). The Digital Divide: The Internet and Social Inequality in International Perspective . New York, NY: Taylor and Francis; Routledge. Available online at: https://books.google.ro/books?hl=en&lr=&id=OgYx8URCnU4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=The+Digital+Divide:+The+Internet+and+Social+Inequality+in+International+Perspective&ots=uNQ_zCdjAn&sig=p8qCxJ4M0fXzarpIJmgB6mBdtyo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=The%20Digital%20Divide%3A%20The%20Internet%20and%20Social%20Inequality%20in%20International%20Perspective&f=false [ Google Scholar ]
• Regnerus M. D. (2002). Friends' influence on adolescent theft and minor delinquency: a developmental test of peer-reported effects . Soc. Sci. Res. 31 , 681–705. 10.1016/S0049-089X(02)00010-8 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Robinson L. (2009). A taste for the necessary a bourdieuian approach to digital inequality . Inform. Commun. Soc. 12 , 488–507. 10.1080/13691180902857678 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Roisko R., Wahlberg K. E., Miettunen J., Tienari P. (2014). Association of parental communication deviance with offspring's psychiatric and thought disorders. A systematic review and meta-analysis . Eur. Psychiatry 29 , 20–31. 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2013.05.002 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rosa H., Pereira N., Ribeiro R., Ferreira P. C., Carvalho J. P., Oliveira S., et al.. (2019). Automatic cyberbullying detection: a systematic review . Comput. Hum. Behav. 93 , 333–345. 10.1016/j.chb.2018.12.021 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rowitz L. (1981). A sociological perspective on labeling in mental retardation . Mental Retard. 19 , 47–51. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ruiz-Hernández J. A., Moral-Zafra E., Llor-Esteban B., Jiménez-Barbero J. A. (2019). Influence of parental styles and other psychosocial variables on the development of externalizing behaviors in adolescents: a sytematic review . Eur. J. Psychol. Appl. Legal Context. 11 , 9–21. 10.5093/ejpalc2018a11 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sagarin E., Montanino F. (1976). Anthologies and readers on deviance . Contemp. Sociol. J. Rev. 5 , 259–267. 10.2307/2064065 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Salvatore C., Markowitz M. W. (2014). Do life course transitions and social bonds influence male and female offending differently? Gender contrasts and criminality . Deviant Behav. 35 , 628–653. 10.1080/01639625.2013.867727 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sampson R. J., Laub J. H. (1992). Crime and deviance in the life course . Ann. Rev. Sociol. 18 , 63–84. 10.1146/annurev.so.18.080192.000431 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sampson R. J., Laub J. H. (1994). Urban poverty and the family context of delinquency - a new look at structure and process in a classic study . Child Dev. 65 , 523–540. 10.2307/1131400 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sampson R. J., Laub J. H. (1997). A life-course theory of cumulative disadvantage and the stability of delinquency . Dev. Theor. Crime Delinq. 7 , 133–161. [ Google Scholar ]
• Sampson R. J., Morenoff J. D., Gannon-Rowley T. (2002). Assessing “neighborhood effects”: social processes and new directions in research . Ann. Rev. Soc. 28 , 443–478. 10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141114 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Scheerder A., Van Deursen A. J. A. M., Van Dijk J. A. G. M. (2017). Determinants of Internet skills, uses and outcomes. A systematic review of the second- and third-level digital divide . Telemat. Inform. 34 , 1607–1624. 10.1016/j.tele.2017.07.007 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Scheuerman H. L. (2019). Intersectionality and crime: an exploratory look at how gender and race influence responses to injustice associated with strain . Deviant Behav. 40 , 1349–1371. 10.1080/01639625.2018.1512218 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Schwartz J. A., Solomon S. J., Valgardson B. A. (2019). Socialization, selection, or both? The role of gene-environment interplay in the association between exposure to antisocial peers and delinquency . J. Quant. Criminol. 35 , 1–26. 10.1007/s10940-017-9368-3 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sellin T. (1938). Culture conflict and crime . Am. J. Sociol. 44 , 97–103. 10.1086/217919 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Semenza D. C. (2021). Cross-modal peer polyvictimization and teen dating violence . Deviant Behav. 42 , 130–145. 10.1080/01639625.2019.1656743 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Short J. F., Meier R. F. (1981). Criminology and the study of deviance . Am. Behav. Sci. 24 , 462–478. 10.1177/000276428102400309 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Shostak S., Freese J., Link B. G., Phelan J. C. (2009). The politics of the gene: social status and beliefs about genetics for individual outcomes . Soc. Psychol. Q. 72 , 77–93. 10.1177/019027250907200107 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Shulman E. P., Steinberg L. D., Piquero A. R. (2013). The age-crime curve in adolescence and early adulthood is not due to age differences in economic status . J. Youth Adolesc. 42 , 848–860. 10.1007/s10964-013-9950-4 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sischo L., Taylor J., Martin P. Y. (2006). Carrying the weight of self-derogation? Disordered eating practices as social deviance in young adults . Deviant Behav. 27 , 1–30. 10.1080/016396290968371 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sutherland E. H., Cressey D. R., Luckenbill D. F. (1992). Principles of Criminology . Lanham: Altamira Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Taylor J. D., Ibanez L. M. (2015). Sociological approaches to self-injury . Sociol. Compass 9 , 1005–1014. 10.1111/soc4.12327 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Terrell N. E. (1997). Street life - aggravated and sexual assaults among homeless and runaway adolescents . Youth Soc. 28 , 267–290. 10.1177/0044118X97028003001 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Thio A., Taylor J. D., Schwartz M. D. (1978). Deviant Behavior . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. [ Google Scholar ]
• Thio A., Taylor J. D., Schwartz M. D. (2013). Deviant Behavior . London: Pearson. [ Google Scholar ]
• Thornberry T. P. (1987). Toward an interactional theory of delinquency . Criminology 25 , 863–892. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1987.tb00823.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tian Y., Yu C., Lin S., Lu J., Liu Y., Zhang W. (2019). Sensation seeking, deviant peer affiliation, and internet gaming addiction among chinese adolescents: the moderating effect of parental knowledge . Front Psychol . 9 :2727. 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02727 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tippett N., Wolke D. (2014). Socioeconomic status and bullying: a meta-analysis . Am. J. Public Health 104 , 48–59. 10.2105/AJPH.2014.301960 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tomczyk Ł. (2018). Digital piracy among adolescents-scale and conditions , in New Trends and Research Challenges in Pedagogy and Andragogy , eds Tomczyk L., Ryk A., Prokop J. (Kraków: Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny w Krakowie; ). 10.24917/9788394156893.5 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Toro R., García-García J., Zaldívar-Basurto F. (2020). Antisocial disorders in adolescence and youth, according to structural, emotional, and cognitive transdiagnostic variables: a systematic review . Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 17 :3036. 10.3390/ijerph17093036 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tóth G., Wachs J., Di Clemente R., Jakobi Á., Ságvári B., Kertész J., et al.. (2021). Inequality is rising where social network segregation interacts with urban topology . Nat. Commun. 12 :1143. 10.1038/s41467-021-21465-0 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Turkel G. (1990). Michel foucault: law, power, and knowledge . J. Law Soc. 17 , 170–193. 10.2307/1410084 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Udris R. (2016). Cyber deviance among adolescents and the role of family, school, and neighborhood: a cross-national study . Int. J. Cyber Criminol. 10 , 127–146. 10.5281/zenodo.163393 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Udry J. R. (1995). Sociology and biology: what biology do sociologists need to know? Soc. Forces 73 , 1267–1278. 10.1093/sf/73.4.1267 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Uggen C., Kruttschnitt C. (1998). Crime in the breaking: gender differences in desistance . Law Soc. Rev. 32 , 339–366. 10.2307/827766 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Vale A., Pereira F., Gonçalves M., Matos M. (2018). Cyber-aggression in adolescence and internet parenting styles: a study with victims, perpetrators and victim-perpetrators . Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 93 , 88–99. 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.06.021 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Van Deursen A. J. A. M., Van Dijk J. A. G. M. (2015). Toward a multifaceted model of internet access for understanding digital divides: an empirical investigation . Inform. Soc. 31 , 379–391. 10.1080/01972243.2015.1069770 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Van Deursen A. J. A. M., Van Dijk J. A. G. M., Ten Klooster P. M. (2015). Increasing inequalities in what we do online: a longitudinal cross sectional analysis of Internet activities among the Dutch population (2010 to 2013) over gender, age, education, and income . Telemat. Inform. 32 , 259–272. 10.1016/j.tele.2014.09.003 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Van Dijk J. A. G. M. (2020). The Digital Divide . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. [ Google Scholar ]
• Van Dijk J. A. G. M., Hacker K. (2003). The digital divide as a complex and dynamic phenomenon the multifaceted concept of access . Inform. Soc. 19 , 315–326. 10.1080/01972240309487 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Vejmelka L., Strabic N., Jazvo M. (2017). Online activities and risk behaviors among adolescents in the virtual environment . Drustvena Istrazivanja 26 , 59–78. 10.5559/di.26.1.04 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wachs S., Junger M., Sittichai R. (2015). Traditional, cyber and combined bullying roles: differences in risky online and offline activities . Societies 5 , 109–135. 10.3390/soc5010109 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wagner M., Dunkake I., Weiss B. (2004). Truancy. An empirical analysis of the deviant behavior of pupils . Kolner Zeitschrift Fur Soziologie Und Sozialpsychologie 56 :457. 10.1007/s11577-004-0074-4 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wall D. (2001). Crime and the Internet . Milton Park: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• Wallace J. M., Yamaguchi R., Bachman J. G., O'Malley P. M., Schulenberg J. E., Johnston L. D. (2007). Religiosity and adolescent substance use: the role of individual and contextual influences . Soc. Prob. 54 , 308–327. 10.1525/sp.2007.54.2.308 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Warr M., Stafford M. (1991). The influence of delinquent peers: what they think or what they do? Criminology 29 , 851–866. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1991.tb01090.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Watts L. K., Wagner J., Velasquez B., Behrens P. I. (2017). Cyberbullying in higher education: a literature review . Comput. Hum. Behav. 69 , 268–274. 10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.038 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Weisskirch R. S., Murphy L. C. (2004). Friends, porn, and punk: sensation seeking in personal relationships, internet activities, and music preference among college students . Adolescence 39 , 189–201. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/friends-porn-punk-sensation-seeking-personal/docview/195943947/se-2?accountid=8027 [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Welsh W. N., Greene J. R., Jenkins P. H. (1999). School disorder: the influence of individual, institutional, and community factors . Criminology 37 , 73–115. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1999.tb00480.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wiesner M., Shukla K. (2018). Family deviance, self-control, deviant lifestyles, and youth violent victimization: a latent indirect effects analysis . Victims Offend. 13 , 504–525. 10.1080/15564886.2017.1381211 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wilson W. J. (2012). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Winfree L. T., Backstrom T. V., Mays G. L. (1994). Social-learning theory, self-reported delinquency, and youth gangs - a new twist on a general-theory of crime and delinquency . Youth Soc. 26 , 147–177. 10.1177/0044118X94026002001 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Winfree L. T., Griffiths C. T. (1983). Social-learning and adolescent marijuana use - a trend study of deviant behavior in a rural middle school . Rural Sociol. 48 , 219–239. [ Google Scholar ]
• Woodward L., Fergusson D. M., Horwood L. J. (2001). Risk factors and life processes associated with teenage pregnancy: results of a prospective study from birth to 20 years . J. Marr. Fam. 63 , 1170–1184. 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2001.01170.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Yar M., Steinmetz K. F. (2019). Cybercrime and Society . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. [ Google Scholar ]
• Yoder R. S. (2011). Labelling Conflict Theory: Inequality and Deviance . Bristol: Polity Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Yuan Y., McNeeley S. (2018). Fear of crime and behavioral adaptations: testing the effects of fear of violence on unstructured socializing with peers . Deviant Behav. 39 , 1633–1646. 10.1080/01639625.2017.1410625 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhang L., Messner S. F. (1995). Family deviance and delinquency in China . Criminology 33 :359. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1995.tb01182.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhao S. Y. (2005). The digital self: through the looking glass of telecopresent others . Symbol. Interact. 28 , 387–405. 10.1525/si.2005.28.3.387 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zych I., Baldry A. C., Farrington D. P., Llorent V. J. (2019). Are children involved in cyberbullying low on empathy? A systematic review and meta-analysis of research on empathy versus different cyberbullying roles . Aggress. Violent Behav. 45 , 83–97. 10.1016/j.avb.2018.03.004 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Social Psychological Perspectives on Deviance

• First Online: 01 January 2013

Cite this chapter

• Howard B. Kaplan Ph.D. 4 ,
• Feodor A. Gostjev M.A. 5 &
• Robert J. Johnson Ph.D. 5  

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

15k Accesses

3 Citations

Social psychological perspectives on deviance provide discussions of the nature of deviance and explanations of the definition, antecedents, or consequences of deviance that implicate both personal (behavioral or intrapsychic) and social (interpersonal, group, macrosocial) structures and processes. In this chapter we draw on empirical research and theoretical works conducted in various subfields of social science and on an integrative theory of deviant behavior first fully developed by Kaplan (Patterns of juvenile delinquency, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1984) and modified over the course of several decades. While it was not possible to present every theoretical perspective that addresses our social psychological understanding of some aspect of deviant behavior, those perspectives that are widely regarded as most productive as well as a representative sample of the range of perspectives that persist in the literature have been presented. The chapter concludes with some suggestions for ways to advance the social psychological study of deviance in the future.

Howard B. Kaplan, 2003 (original version revised posthumously by Feodor A. Gostjev and Robert J. Johnson). The theoretical foundation laid out by Howard Kaplan is left largely intact from its original publication. This chapter is revised from the earlier version primarily in two ways. First, as Howard noted recently to one of the co-authors, he had renewed a conversation with others about the application of a general theory of deviance to the field of criminology. This chapter extends that conversation. Second, we expand the chapter to include more discussion about the implications for a wider range of methodological issues and how they can be advance or informed by the foundations of the theory. Some of these were mentioned briefly in the original, and Kaplan himself was well-known for his interest in these methodological advances particularly as they related to longitudinal research. We were honored to be asked (by Diane Kaplan) and entrusted with this task (by John Delamater and Amanda Ward) to revise the chapter for this edition of the handbook. However much the reader finds this chapter falls short of the goals to remain faithful to the original theory and indicate its wider applicability both substantively and methodologically, they should attribute it to our shortcomings in the efforts at revision and not necessarily the scholarly strength and merit of the original chapter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime
• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Marshall B. Clinard: Sociology of Deviant Behavior

Deviance: Social Change and Control

The Critical Role of Deviance in Society

Adler, F. (1975). Sisters in crime: The rise of the new female criminal . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Google Scholar  

Agnew, R. (1992). Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Criminology, 30 , 47–87.

Agnew, R. (2006). Pressured into crime: An overview of general strain theory . Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Company.

Agnew, R. (2011). Toward a unified criminology: Integrating assumptions about crime, people and society . New York: New York University Press.

Agnew, R., & White, H. R. (1992). An empirical test of general strain theory. Criminology, 30 , 475–500.

Akers, R. L. (1985). Deviant behavior: A social learning approach (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Akers, R. L. (1998). Social learning and social structure: A general theory of crime and deviance . Boston: Northeastern University Press.

Akers, R. L. (2000). Criminological theories: Introduction, evaluation and application . Los Angeles: Roxbury.

Akers, R. L., La Greca, A. J., Cochran, J., & Sellers, C. (1989). Social learning theory and alcohol behavior among the elderly. The Sociological Quarterly, 30 , 625–638.

Akers, R. L., & Lee, G. (1996). A longitudinal test of social learning theory: Adolescent smoking. Journal of Drug Issues, 26 , 317–343.

Barak, G. (1998). Integrating criminologies . Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Becker, H. S. (1953). Becoming a marihuana user. The American Journal of Sociology, 59 , 235–242.

Becker, H. S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in sociology of deviance . New York: Free Press.

Bonger, W. (1969). Criminality and economic conditions [1916]. Abridged with an introduction by Austin T. Turk. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Braithwaite, J. (1989). Crime, shame, and reintegration . Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Browning, C. R., Feinberg, S. L., & Dietz, R. D. (2004). The paradox of social organization: Networks, collective efficacy, and violent crime in urban neighborhoods. Social Forces, 83 , 503–534.

Burgess, R. L., & Akers, R. L. (1966). A differential association-reinforcement theory of criminal behavior. Social Problems, 14 , 128–147.

Bursik, R. J., Jr. (1988). Social disorganization and theories of crime and delinquency: Problems and prospects. Criminology, 26 , 519–551.

Bursik, R. J., Jr., & Grasmick, H. G. (1993). Neighborhoods and crime: The dimensions of effective community control . Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Carr, P. J. (2003). The new parochialism: The implications of the Beltway case for arguments concerning informal social control. The American Journal of Sociology, 108 , 1249–1291.

Chambliss, W. J. (1974). The state, the law, and the definition of behavior as criminal or delinquent. In D. Glaser (Ed.), Handbook of criminology (pp. 7–43). Chicago: Rand McNally.

Chesney-Lind, M., & Pasko, L. (2004). The female offender: Girls, women, and crime (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Cloward, R. A., & Ohlin, L. E. (1960). Delinquency and opportunity . Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

Cohen, A. K. (1955). Delinquent boys: The culture of the gang . Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

Cohen, L. E., & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activities approach. American Sociological Review, 44 , 588–608.

Cornish, D. B., & Clarke, R. V. (Eds.). (1986). The reasoning criminal: Rational choice perspectives on offending . New York: Springer.

Daly, K., & Chesney-Lind, M. (1988). Feminism and criminology. Justice Quarterly, 5 , 497–535.

DeFleur, M. L., & Quinney, R. (1966). A reformulation of Sutherland’s differential association theory and a strategy for empirical verification. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 3 , 1–22.

Durkheim, E. (1895/1938). The rules of sociological method . New York: Free Press.

Elliott, D. S., & Ageton, S. (1980). Reconciling race and class differences in self-reported and official estimates of delinquency. American Sociological Review, 45 , 95–110.

Erikson, K. T. (1966). Wayward puritans: A study in the sociology of deviance . New York: Wiley.

Evans, D. T., Cullen, F. T., Dunaway, R. G., & Burton, V. S., Jr. (1995). Religion and crime re-examined: The impact of religion, secular controls, and social ecology on adult criminality. Criminology, 33 , 195–224.

Farrell, R. A., & Swigert, V. L. (1982). Deviance and social control . Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company.

Gibson, C. L., Sullivan, C. J., Jones, S., & Piquero, A. L. (2010). “Does it take a village?” Assessing neighborhood influences on children’s self-control. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 47 , 31–62.

Giordano, P. C., Cernkovich, S. A., & Rudolph, J. (2002). Gender, crime, and desistance: Toward a theory of cognitive transformation. The American Journal of Sociology, 107 , 990–1064.

Giordano, P. C., Schroeder, R., & Cernkovich, S. A. (2007). Emotions and crime over the life course: A neo-Meadian perspective on criminal continuity and change. The American Journal of Sociology, 112 , 1603–1661.

Gottfredson, D. C., McNeill, R. J., III, & Gottfredson, G. D. (1991). Social area influences on delinquency: A multilevel analysis. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 28 , 197–226.

Gottfredson, M., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime . Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

Hagan, J. (1994). Crime and disrepute . Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Haynie, D. L. (2001). Delinquent peers revisited: Does network structure matter? The American Journal of Sociology, 106 , 1013–1057.

Heimer, K. (2000). Changes in the gender gap in crime and women’s economic marginalization. In G. LaFree (Ed.), Criminal justice 2000: The changing nature of crime (Vol. 1, pp. 427–483). Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.

Hewitt, J. P. (1970). Social stratification and deviant behavior . New York: Random House.

Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Hirschi, T. (2004). Self-control and crime. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 537–552). New York: The Guilford Press.

Kaplan, H. B. (1972). Toward a general theory of psychosocial deviance: The case of aggressive behavior. Social Science & Medicine, 6 , 593–617.

Kaplan, H. B. (1975). Self-attitudes and deviant behavior . Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear.

Kaplan, H. B. (1980). Deviant behavior in defense of self . New York: Academic.

Kaplan, H. B. (1984). Patterns of juvenile delinquency . Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Kaplan, H. B. (1986). Social psychology of self-referent behavior . New York: Plenum Press.

Kaplan, H. B. (1995). Drugs, crime, and other deviant adaptations. In H. B. Kaplan (Ed.), Drugs, crime, and other deviant adaptations: Longitudinal studies (pp. 3–46). New York: Plenum Press.

Kaplan, H. B. (1996). Psychosocial stress from the perspective of self theory. In H. B. Kaplan (Ed.), Psychosocial stress: Perspectives on structure, theory, life-course, and methods (pp. 175–244). San Diego, CA: Academic.

Kaplan, H. B., & Halim, S. (2000). Aggression and self-derogation: Moderating influences of gender race/ethnicity, and stage in the life course. Advances in Life Course Research, 5 , 1–32.

Kaplan, H. B., & Johnson, R. J. (1992). Relationships between circumstances surrounding initial illicit drug use and escalation of drug use: Moderating effects of gender and early adolescent experiences. In M. Glantz & R. Pickens (Eds.), Vulnerability to drug abuse (pp. 299–358). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Kaplan, H. B., & Johnson, R. J. (2001). Social deviance: Testing a general theory . New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

Kaplan, H. B., & Lin, C.-H. (2000). Deviant identity as a moderator of the relation between negative self-feelings and deviant behavior. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 20 , 150–177.

Kaplan, H. B., & Peck, B. M. (1992). Self-rejection, coping style, and mode of deviant response. Social Science Quarterly, 73 , 903–919.

Kaplan, H. B., & Tolle, G. C., Jr. (2006). The cycle of deviant behavior: Investigating intergenerational parallelism . New York: Springer.

Katz, J. (1988). Seductions of crime: Moral and sensual attractions to doing evil . New York: Basic Books.

Kobrin, S. (1951). The conflict of values in delinquency areas. American Sociological Review, 16 , 653–661.

Krohn, M. D. (1986). The web of conformity: A network approach to the explanation of delinquent behavior. Social Problems, 33 , S81–S93.

Laub, J. H., & Sampson, R. J. (2003). Shared beginnings, divergent lives: Delinquent boys to age 70 . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Lauritsen, J. L., Heimer, K., & Lynch, J. P. (2009). Trends in the gender gap in violent offending: New evidence from the national crime victimization survey. Criminology, 47 , 361–400.

Lemert, E. M. (1967). Human deviance, social problems, and social control . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Liebow, E. (1967). Tally’s corner: A study of Negro street corner men . Boston: Little Brown and Comapny.

Lind, A. W. (1938). Island community: A study of ecological successions in Hawaii . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (1999). The labeling theory of mental disorder (II): The consequences of labeling. In A. V. Horwitz & T. L. Scheid (Eds.), A handbook for the study of mental health: Social contexts, theories, and systems (pp. 361–376). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1986). Family factors as correlates and predictors of juvenile conduct problems and delinquency. In M. Tonry & N. Morris (Eds.), Crime and justice (Vol. 7, pp. 29–149). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Luckenbill, D. F. (1977). Criminal homicide as a situated transaction. Social Problems, 25 , 176–186.

Massoglia, M., & Uggen, C. (2010). Settling down and aging out: Toward an interactionist theory of desistance and the transition to adulthood. The American Journal of Sociology, 116 , 543–582.

Matsueda, R. L., Kreager, D. A., & Huizinga, D. (2006). Deterring delinquents: A rational choice model of theft and violence. American Sociological Review, 71 , 95–122.

Merton, R. K. (1938). Social structure and anomie. American Social Science Review, 3 , 672–682.

Messerschmidt, J. W. (1993). Masculinities and crime: Critique and reconceptualization of theory . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Messner, S. F., Krohn, M. D., & Liska, A. E. (1989). Theoretical integration in the study of deviance and crime . New York: State University of New York Press.

Metzl, J. (2009). The protest psychosis: How schizophrenia became a black disease . Boston: Beacon.

Nye, I. F. (1958). Family relationships and delinquent behavior . New York: Wiley.

Park, R. E. (1915). The city: Suggestions for the investigation of human behavior in the city environment. The American Journal of Sociology, 20 , 577–612.

Paternoster, R. (1985). Assessments of risk and behavioral experience: An explanatory study of change. Criminology, 23 , 417–436.

Paternoster, R., & Pogarsky, G. (2009). Rational choice, agency and thoughtfully reflective decision making: The short and long-term consequences of making good choices. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 25 , 103–127.

Paternoster, R., Saltzman, L. E., Waldo, G. P., & Chiricos, T. G. (1983). Perceived risk and social control: Do sanctions really deter? Law and Society Review, 17 , 457–480.

Pattillo, M. E. (1998). Sweet mothers and gangbangers: Managing crime in a black middle-class neighborhood. Social Forces, 76 , 747–774.

Piquero, A. R., Paternoster, R., Pogarsky, G., & Loughran, T. (2011). Elaborating the individual difference component in deterrence theory. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 7 , 335–360.

Pratt, T. C., & Cullen, F. T. (2000). The empirical status of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime: A meta-analysis. Criminology, 38 , 931–964.

Quinney, R. (1970). The social reality of crime . Boston: Little, Brown.

Quinney, R. (1980). Class, state, and crime . New York: Longman.

Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Application and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Reckless, W. C. (1961). A new theory of delinquency and crime. Federal Probation, 25 , 42–46.

Reckless, W. C. (1967). The crime problem (4th ed.). New York: Appleton.

Reckless, W. C., Dinitz, S., & Murray, E. (1956). Self-concept as an insulator against delinquency. American Sociological Review, 21 , 744–746.

Reiss, A. J. (1951). Delinquency as the failure of personal and social control. American Sociological Review, 16 , 196–207.

Rossi, P. H., Waite, E., Bose, C. E., & Berk, R. E. (1974). The seriousness of crimes: Normative structure and individual differences. American Sociological Review, 39 , 224–237.

Rymond-Richmond, W. (2006). Transforming communities: Formal and informal mechanisms of social control. In R. D. Peterson, L. J. Krivo, & J. Hagan (Eds.), The many colors of crime: Inequalities of race, ethnicity, and crime in America (pp. 295–312). New York: New York University Press.

Sampson, R. J. (2012). Great American city: Chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sampson, R. J., & Bartusch, D. J. (1998). Legal cynicism and (subcultural?) tolerance of deviance: The neighborhood context of racial differences. Law and Society Review, 32 , 777–804.

Sampson, R. J., & Groves, W. B. (1989). Community structure and crime: Testing social-disorganization theory. The American Journal of Sociology, 94 , 774–802.

Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Sampson, R. J., Laub, J. H., & Wimer, C. (2006). Does marriage reduce crime? A counterfactual approach to within-individual causal effects. Criminology, 44 , 465–509.

Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W., & Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277 , 918–924.

Schwartz, J., Steffensmeier, D., Zhing, H., & Ackerman, J. (2009). Trends in the gender gap in violence: Reevaluating NCVS and other evidence. Criminology, 47 , 401–426.

Sellin, T. (1938). Culture conflict and crime (Bulletin 41). New York: Social Science Research Council.

Shaw, C., & McKay, H. D. (1942). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Shoemaker, D. J. (2000). Theories of delinquency: An examination of explanations of delinquent behavior (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Skogan, W. G., & Maxfield, M. G. (1981). Coping with crime: Individual and neighborhood reactions . Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Stark, R. (1987). Deviant places: A theory of the ecology of crime. Criminology, 25 , 893–909.

Stylianou, S. (2003). Measuring crime seriousness perceptions: What have we learned and what else do we want to know. Journal of Criminal Justice, 31 , 37–56.

Sutherland, E. H. (1937). The professional thief . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sutherland, E. H. (1947). Principles of criminology (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott.

Sykes, G. M., & Matza, D. (1957). Techniques of neutralization: A theory of delinquency. The American Journal of Sociology, 22 , 664–670.

Taylor, I., Walton, P., & Young, J. (1973). The new criminology . New York: Harper & Row.

Thornberry, T. P., & Krohn, M. D. (2000). The self-report method for measuring delinquency and crime. In D. Duffee (Ed.), Criminal justice 2000: Measurement and analysis of crime and justice (Vol. 4, pp. 33–83). Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.

Tittle, C. R. (1980). Sanctions and social deviance: The question of deterrence . New York: Praeger.

Tittle, C. R. (1994). The theoretical basis for inequality in formal social control. In G. S. Bridges & M. A. Myers (Eds.), Inequality, crime, and social control (pp. 221–252). Boulder, CO: Westview.

Tittle, C. R. (1995). Control balance: Toward a general theory of deviance . Boulder, CO: Westview.

Tittle, C. R., & Paternoster, R. (2000). Social deviance and crime . Los Angeles: Roxbury.

Turk, A. T. (1964). Prospects for theories of criminal behavior. Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Sciences, 55 , 454–461.

Turner, J. C. (1975). Social comparison and social identity: Some prospects for intergroup behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 5 , 5–34.

Ulmer, J. T., & Wilson, M. S. (2003). The potential contributions of quantitative research to symbolic interactionism. Symbolic Interaction, 26 , 531–552.

Vold, G. B. (1958). Theoretical criminology . New York: Oxford University Press.

Wikström, P.-O. H. (2006). Linking individual, setting, and acts of crime: Situational mechanisms and the explanation of crime. In P. H. Wikström & R. J. Sampson (Eds.), The explanation of crime: Contexts, mechanisms, and development . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Wilson, J. Q., & Herrnstein, R. J. (1985). Crime and human nature . New York: Simon & Schuster.

Wilson, J. Q., & Kelling, G. L. (1982). Broken windows. The Atlantic Monthly, 249 , 29–38.

Wirth, L. (1945). Human ecology. The American Journal of Sociology, 50 , 483–488.

Wright, B. R., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (1999). Low self-control, social bonds, and crime: Social causation, social selection, or both. Criminology, 37 , 479–514.

Yarrow, M. R., Schwartz, C. G., Murphy, H. S., & Deasy, L. C. (1955). The psychological meaning of mental illness in the family. Journal of Social Issues, 11 , 12–24.

Zimring, F. E. (1971). Perspectives on deterrence (NIMH monograph series on crime and delinquency issues). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Zimring, F. E., & Hawkins, G. (1973). Deterrence . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Sociology, Mary Thomas Marshall Professor of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77840, USA

Howard B. Kaplan Ph.D.

Department of Sociology, University of Miami, 5202 University Dr., Merrick 120, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA

Feodor A. Gostjev M.A. & Robert J. Johnson Ph.D.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feodor A. Gostjev M.A. .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

University of Wisconsin, Madison Dept. Sociology & Rural Sociology, MADISON, Wisconsin, USA

John DeLamater

Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Amanda Ward

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Kaplan, H.B., Gostjev, F.A., Johnson, R.J. (2013). Social Psychological Perspectives on Deviance. In: DeLamater, J., Ward, A. (eds) Handbook of Social Psychology. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_19

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_19

Published : 06 June 2013

Publisher Name : Springer, Dordrecht

Print ISBN : 978-94-007-6771-3

Online ISBN : 978-94-007-6772-0

eBook Packages : Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Social Sciences (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_19
• Corpus ID: 227070961

Social Psychological Perspectives on Deviance

• H. B. Kaplan
• Published 2013
• Psychology, Sociology

10 Citations

I will put my law in their minds: social control and cheating behavior among catholics and protestants, the cultural agency-model of criminal behavior, does exclusion from normative peer groups in early adolescence predict the development of substance use problems in early adulthood, theorizing morality in context, segunda revisión de la escala de conducta disocial: el factor del grafiti, violent behavior and social network antisocial and prosocial behaviors.

• Highly Influenced

Past, present or future?: the effects of temporal focus on employees' discretionary behaviors

Delivering difference: ‘unbelonging’ among us platform parcel delivery workers, learning from noisy and delayed rewards: the value of reinforcement learning to defense modeling and simulation, parental incarceration, identity, and adult children's antisocial behavior, 131 references, toward a general theory of psychosocial deviance: the case of aggressive behavior., drugs, crime, and other deviant adaptations, social deviance: testing a general theory, gender, crime, and desistance: toward a theory of cognitive transformation1, techniques of neutralization: a theory of delinquency., emotions and crime over the life course: a neo‐meadian perspective on criminal continuity and change1, coping with crime: individual and neighborhood reactions, social area influences on delinquency: a multilevel analysis, legal cynicism and (subcultural) tolerance of deviance: the neighborhood context of racial differences, deviant identity as a moderator of the relation between negative self-feelings and deviant behavior, related papers.

Showing 1 through 3 of 0 Related Papers

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

•  We're Hiring!
•  Help Center

Sociology Of Deviance

• Most Cited Papers
• Most Downloaded Papers
• Newest Papers
• Last »
• Sociology of Crime and Deviance Follow Following
• Criminology Follow Following
• Prison Abolition Follow Following
• Abolitionism Follow Following
• Internal Communication Follow Following
• Sociology Follow Following
• Criminology/sociology of Deviance Follow Following
• Critical Social Theory Follow Following
• Cultural Criminology Follow Following
• Critical Criminology Follow Following

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• Academia.edu Journals
•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Call to +1 844 889-9952

94 Deviance Research Topics & Essay Examples

📝 deviance research papers examples, 🏆 best deviance essay titles, 🎓 simple research topics about deviance, ❓ deviance research questions.

• Gender Influence on Deviant Acts Psychology essay sample: The relation between gender and deviant behavior provides that the person's gender can be a factor contributing to their involvement in "anti-social activities."
• Deviant Behavior Through the Social Norms' Concept Psychology essay sample: In the paper, deviant behavior is perceived as actions that do not comply with norms or standards officially or actually established in a particular society.
• Deviant Behaviors and Its Types and Examples Psychology essay sample: Society will seek to either understand that behavior or avoid the behavior. It is important to note either way: a person will always get negative views from society.
• Deviant Behavior: Workplace Bullying Psychology essay sample: This paper aims to explore workplace bullying in terms of conflict and labeling theories to better understand its causes and nature.
• Destructive Behaviour Prevention Psychology essay sample: This essay seeks to briefly describe how to avoid destructive behaviours that affect human health in the short term or long-term.
• Deviance and Crime in Colleges and Universities Psychology essay sample: The study will be examining the causes of this behavior and the possible impact on learners and other stakeholders.
• The Deviant Behavior of Freshmen in College Psychology essay sample: Deviant behavior among freshmen is a serious problem which has to be handled. This behavior often leads to disease, pregnancy and fights that results in expulsion.
• Becker’s Labeling Theory: Advantages and Disadvantages Psychology essay sample: This paper will examine and criticize Becker's labeling ideas in detail to demonstrate their advantages and disadvantages.
• Drug Peddling: The Form of Social Deviance Psychology essay sample: This paper will highlight drug peddling as a form of social deviance and apply the strain theory to elucidate the formation of this behavior.
• Positive Behavior Support Psychology essay sample: The paper states that deviant behavior is quite a big problem for teachers and students. This approach aims to develop a strategy for teachers.
• Social Deviation Influence on Teenage Alcoholism Psychology essay sample: This paper will analyze the influence of social deviation on the development of adolescent alcoholism and consider this problem from a theoretical point of view.
• Deviant Behavior, Crimes, and Justice: Perceptions and Reflections Psychology essay sample: The paper describes deviance as any conduct, trait, or belief that breaches social norms in a particular society or group.
• Deviant Behavior Related to Stress and Strain Psychology essay sample: With the knowledge of new alternatives to self-destructing actions, people could adopt new behavior patterns and activate feelings of excitement and joy.
• The Phenomenon of the Deviation Psychology essay sample: Deviation is a social phenomenon that is characterized by actions or behaviors that contradict or violate the norms of society.
• What Role Does Deviance Play in Everyday Life? Psychology essay sample: Deviance is interpreted as a social issue since such conduct abuses the regulating assumptions of a defined group.
• Conformity, Nonconformist Deviance and Learning Perspective Psychology essay sample: The three universal human nature methodologies are conformity, nonconformist deviance, and the learning perspective.
• Gun Violence as Social Deviation Psychology essay sample: Gun violence, especially in the form of mass shootings, is promoted by a sense of hopelessness and hostility towards peers that seem to be more successful.
• The Collective Behavior Deviations Psychology essay sample: The following paper provides an analysis of the collective behavior that deviates from society's normative conduct.
• Can Deviation Lead to Progress? Psychology essay sample: In societies with settled norms, deviants are traditionally stigmatized and marginalized, however, their behavior plays a crucial role in historical development.
• Disruptive Behavior in Primary School Psychology essay sample: This disorder includes manifestations of destructive, aggressive, oppositional, and antisocial behavior. DBD is associated in the long term with impaired communication with peers.
• Deviant Behavior and the Commitment of Crime Psychology essay sample: Though deviance is considered to be something dangerous and is in some ways connected with committing crimes, deviant behavior is not the same thing as a crime.
• The Concepts of Deviance and Crime Psychology essay sample: Deviations are defined as a divergence from socially accepted standards and norms. Crime is an act that must be criticized and punished by society.
• The Positive Role of Social Deviance Psychology essay sample: The paper states that social deviance plays a positive role in society as it opens channels of discussion, inclusivity, freedom, and truth.
• The Problem of Deviant Behavior: Case Description and Diagnoses Psychology essay sample: The specialists can observe the problem of deviant behavior in the described case, which requires professional approaches to develop specific forms of its implementation.
• Deviance: Construction, Definition, Benefits, and Influence
• Adult Deviance and Conduct Disorder
• Theories and Perspectives on Crime and Deviance
• Deviance Beyond the Conventional Norm
• Individual and Social Influences That Lead to Deviations From the Dominant Group Norms
• Deviance and Its Consequences
• The Relationship Between Depression, Abusive Supervision, and Organizational Deviance
• Deviance: Abuse and Tertiary Victimization
• Biological and Social Deviance
• Deviance and Dissent: A Sociological Approach to Terrorism
• Crime, Deviance and Jail Systems
• Biological Explanations and Social Constructionist Theories of Deviance
• Deviant Beliefs and Cognitive Deviance
• Religion Deviance and Social Control
• Bullying: Criminal Deviance and Social Control
• Celibacy and Sexual Deviance by Priest
• The Theory of Atavism for the Study of Criminal Deviance
• Changing Definition and Perceptions of Sexual Deviance
• Child Abuse and Social Deviance
• Basic Sociological Theories of Crime and Deviance
• Controlling Deviance With the Death Penalty
• Core Self-Evaluations and Workplace Deviance
• Deviance and the Correctional System
• Corporate Deviance and Corporate Social Responsibility
• Covert and Overt Stigmatizations Related to Social Deviance
• Deviance and Its Effect on Society
• Creating Sustainable Work Environments by Developing Cultures That Diminish Deviance
• Crime and Deviance Criminological Concepts
• Deviance: Anomie and the Promotion of Order in the State
• Criminal Justice, Discrimination, and Political Deviance
• The Contribution of Label Theory to the Understanding of Crime and Deviance
• Cyber Deviance Among Adolescents
• Delinquency and Deviance Traits in Children
• Deviance Among Adolescents and Their Social Environment
• Deviance and Crime From a Sociological Theoretical Perspective
• Mental Illness as a Form of Deviance
• Deviance and Social Stigma
• Different Interpretations of Deviance for Different Contexts
• Deviance: Mental Illness and Homelessness
• Deviance, Psychiatry and Cultural Relativism
• What Are the Possible Causes of Deviance Behavior?
• Can Deviance Be Positive?
• What Is “Labeling Theory” for the Study of Crime and Deviance?
• Are There Any Roles for Social Conformity and Deviance in Poverty?
• What Are the Types of Deviant Behavior?
• How Does Deviance and Social Control Affect Youth?
• What Is a Social Deviance?
• What Are the Strengths of Psychological Approaches to the Study of Deviance?
• Can a Leader’s Style Change the Situation of Organizational Deviance?
• What Are Examples of Deviance in the Workplace?
• How Does Gender Affect Crime and Deviance?
• What Sociological Theories Explain the Ethnic Aspect of Deviance?
• How Useful Are Marxist Explanations of Crime and Deviance?
• What Is the Relationship Between Deviation and Labeling?
• What Is Cyber Deviance?
• How to Explain Subcultural Crime and Deviance in Society?
• Is Deviance a Rebellion Against the Group Norms of the Dominant Culture?
• What Sociological Classes Describe Deviance?
• How Does Durkheim’s Theory Explain Social Deviations?
• What Are the Types of Deviance in Terms of Acceptance or Rejection of Social Goals?
• What Is Primary and Secondary Deviation?
• Does Deviance Always Lead to Criminal Activity?
• Can Increased Control Over Minor Forms of Deviance Lead to a Reduction in Serious Crime?
• What Factors Prevent a Person From Deviant Behavior?
• Does the Close Connection of the Individual With Society Keep Him From Deviance?
• Are Genetic Causes Responsible for Social Deviance?
• What Are the Mental Explanations for Criminal Offending and Deviance?
• How Does America’s Social Structure Cause Deviance?
• What Is the Impact of Formal Deviation on Society?
• How Can Crime and Deviance Be Seen as Functional for Society?

Cite this page

Select style

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

PsychologyWriting. (2024, May 24). 94 Deviance Research Topics & Essay Examples. https://psychologywriting.com/topics/deviance-research-topics/

"94 Deviance Research Topics & Essay Examples." PsychologyWriting , 24 May 2024, psychologywriting.com/topics/deviance-research-topics/.

PsychologyWriting . (2024) '94 Deviance Research Topics & Essay Examples'. 24 May.

PsychologyWriting . 2024. "94 Deviance Research Topics & Essay Examples." May 24, 2024. https://psychologywriting.com/topics/deviance-research-topics/.

1. PsychologyWriting . "94 Deviance Research Topics & Essay Examples." May 24, 2024. https://psychologywriting.com/topics/deviance-research-topics/.

Bibliography

PsychologyWriting . "94 Deviance Research Topics & Essay Examples." May 24, 2024. https://psychologywriting.com/topics/deviance-research-topics/.

Penn State University Libraries

Soc 406: sociology of deviance.

• Managing your search
• Background Resources

Introduction

Google & google scholar, library databases, start here (scholarly library databases), finding by citedness, finding other library databases, journal review articles.

• Legal Resources
• Finding Reports
• Evaluating Resources

How to Read a Scholarly Article

By now you have probably read many scholarly articles.  However, this three-page summary by Frederique Laubepin will be worth your time and effort to read.  It is concise with some excellent insight.

How to Read (and Understand) a Social Science Journal Article  (only 3 pages).  By Frederique Laubepin Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2013.

Very simply put, these two engines are created by computer programs that send out robots that scrape information from websites that allow them to collect information.  The robots bring the information back to Google and dump this information into a central repository. 

Google Scholar differs from Google, because the robots only scrape and report information from “scholarly sites” such as academic institutions, scholarly associations, and publishers.   Thus, creating a different and smaller pool of information.

Let’s go ahead and do a quick search in   Google and see how this plays out.

Video: Moving from Google to Google Scholar . This video simply demonstrates how Google moves you seamlessly into a smaller pool of information called Google Scholar.

Why is it important for you to understand how Google and Google Scholar are created?

• Google can only scrape information from websites that allow it access
• Information is organized by an automated computer algorithm which significantly affects the types of searches you can do and the results you get.
• They are only one of many tools at your disposal 

Video: Connecting Google Scholar to your Library Account: A Tangent .   You may notice when you click on a title in your results list that the site may ask you to pay to access this information. As a member of Penn State, you should never pay for a resource using Google Scholar. The following video shows you how to select and save your settings in your browser.  

Go ahead and open up  Google Scholar and follow along.

What is a library database?

The Library uses the term ‘database’ to describe a searchable online resource. Usually, the Library pays for access, however, some databases are free to use.

Why would you want to search a library database?

• Comprehensiveness:  many library databases do not allow Google or other search engines to scrape information off of their site.  In sum, this would be fiscal suicide.  You should simply see Google as one place among many to search.
• Efficiency:  the smaller more focused universe of information allows the searcher to focus their search in a core set of publications of a particular discipline or a specific format of information.
• Value-added connections:  databases provide more ways through tagging for a searcher to make connections between information to enhance their searching techniques.  

THE BIG FIVE

It is impossible to list all of the potentially relevant library databases for the interdisciplinary topics covered in an applied demography program.  However, you should be aware of these five databases as you work through your program.  The following set of videos will discuss some searching strategies for finding scholarly articles for your annotated bibliography.

Video: Using library databases to find scholarly literature .  This video will demonstrate how to find scholarly articles in the library database Sociological Abstracts by showing you how to:

• Limit and expand your search using facets to find scholarly literature
• Understand the difference between searching anywhere versus field searching
• Discuss how you can retrieve the relevant articles.
• Show you what information you need to write a proper citation

Video: Using the thesaurus feature in a library database to refine your search.   This video will demonstrate how to use a thesauri in a library database to refine your search by showing you how to:

• How to access and use the thesaurus in your search
• See relationships between tags: narrower, broader, related
• Understand what it means to explode a tag
• EconLit This link opens in a new window particularly useful resource if you are doing research on issues with economic impact. more... less... EconLit provides citations, with selected abstracts, to the international publications on economics since 1969. EconLit covers a broad range of document types, including journal articles, books, dissertations, and articles in collective works.
• Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window important scholarly resource for the social sciences particularly useful of societal issues and policy. more... less... CSA Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,700 serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Records added after 1974 contain in-depth and nonevaluative abstracts of journal articles.
• PsycINFO (via ProQuest) This link opens in a new window published in cooperation with APA this resource can be useful for discovering information that focuses on the individual psyche. more... less... PsycINFO provides access to international literature in psychology and related disciplines. Unrivaled in its depth of psychological coverage and respected worldwide for its high quality, the database is enriched with literature from an array of disciplines related to psychology such as psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work. Nearly all records contain nonevaluative summaries, and all records from 1967 to the present are indexed using the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.
• ERIC (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window focus on education at all levels great source for social deviance within the context of education. more... less... ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) is the major database for education literature, sponsored by the U.S. Department. of Education. The same database content is available on many platforms.

Look at the References!

If you discover a relevant scholarly article on topic it is essential to take a look at the references.  Often this will lead you to other important articles that can potentially be of equal or more importance that then the article in-hand.

Why is that?  Scholarly articles have a built in process called the literature review.  Literature reviews provide you with a summary of research on the topic and the context for a particular author(s) own research.  

Find who Cites our Author(s) Article  

Below is an example of a citation map from the Social Science Citation Index of demographers Jennifer Van Hook and Jennifer Glick's 2007 article "Immigration and living arrangements: Moving beyond economic need versus acculturation" in the journal Demography 44(2): 225-249.  It visually shows you the publications that were cited in the article as well as 43 other publication that cited them.  

So how do we find this future literature?  

Most database have some type of limited "cited by" feature.  However, the most important database that scholars use for this type of search are Web of Science and its suite of citation indexes.   

• Web of Science This link opens in a new window Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, BIOSIS Citation Index, Data Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. more... less... Web of Science provides access to: the Science Citation Index Expanded 1900-present; the Social Sciences Citation Index 1956-present; and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index 1975-present. Web of Science indexes articles from thousands of journals and also indexes the citations used in those articles, thus allowing the user to see which papers have cited a core paper, and how many times a paper was cited in a given time period. Covers published content is almost every discipline.
• Google Scholar This link opens in a new window Google Scholar is also a convenient computer generated option for finding "cited by" or future materials. It has the added advantage of including books in its "cited by" feature. All you need to do is copy and paste the title of the article in Google Scholar. more... less... Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Once you set your institutional preferences, links to full-text, if available at Penn State, should appear.

It is impossible to list all of the potentially relevant databases for many of the interdisciplinary topics covered in an applied demography program.  Below are two suggestions:  

Use the Library Subject Guides

A simple way is to explore other relevant library subject guides that have been created by disciplinary experts.   

Video: Using a mult-subject library database to identify library subject databases.     This video will use a technique using the multi-disciplinary subject indexes Academic Search Complete and Proquest Multiple Databases to identify other relevant subject indexes not listed in the Applied Demography Guide.

Both of these publishers provide access to a suite of over 80 disciplinary subject indexes as well as a number of collection databases listed in the University Libraries databases.

• Academic Search Complete (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window Academic Search Complete allows you to search over 40 subject indexes at one time. It can be a useful interdisciplinary tool. more... less... Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format.
• ProQuest (Multiple Databases) This link opens in a new window The publisher Proquest allows you to search 46 subject databases. more... less... Searches multiple ProQuest products, indexing 5,000+ magazines, journals, and newspapers. Keywords: news, New York Times, current events, contemporary issues, hot topics, English 15, CAS 100.

What is a review journal?  A review journal in academic publishing is an academic journal devoted to the review of progress of empirical research in some particular area or topic during a preceding period often through the means of its publishing review articles.

IMPORTANT TIP: when you browse a particular journal online, the publisher will often designate whether or not the publication is a review article, editorial or research article.  If you discover an article using a search engine or library database and have doubts. Sometimes browsing the journal will help you determine how it is designated by the publisher.  

EXPLORE: if you want to explore some journals click on the link to see a list of CORE journal for criminology and criminal justice .

• Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window Annual Reviews provide summaries of cutting edge research across a wide range of disciplines. The Annual Review of Criminology, Annual Review of Law and Social Sciences, and the Annual Review of Political Science will be the most useful for your project. However, it can be useful to search across the disciplines. more... less... Since 1932, Annual Reviews has offered comprehensive, timely collections of critical reviews written by leading scientists. Annual Reviews volumes are published each year for 29 focused disciplines within the Biomedical, Physical, and Social Sciences.

• Annual Review of Law and Social Science The Annual Review of Law and Social Science, in publication since 2005, strives to enhance the understanding of the complex connections between law, culture, social structure, and society by focusing on social scientific studies of law and law-like systems of rules, institutions, processes, and behaviors.
• Crime and Justice: A Review of Research This whole title is a review of the latest international research, providing expertise to enhance the work of sociologists, psychologists, criminal lawyers, justice scholars, and political scientists. The series explores a full range of issues concerning crime, its causes, and its cures. In both the review and the thematic volumes, Crime and Justice offers an interdisciplinary approach to address core issues in criminology.
• Criminology and Public Policy Policy journal of the American Society of Criminology. If you browse the journal you will see some articles designated as "Policy Essays". The function essentially as review articles.
• << Previous: Background Resources
• Next: Legal Resources >>
• Last Updated: Jul 11, 2024 8:44 AM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/UP/SOC_406

Sociology of Deviance Research Paper

View sample sociology research paper on sociology of deviance. Browse other research paper examples for more inspiration. If you need a thorough research paper written according to all the academic standards, you can always turn to our experienced writers for help. This is how your paper can get an A! Feel free to contact our custom writing service for professional assistance. We offer high-quality assignments for reasonable rates.

Deviance is the concept chosen by sociologists to encompass a variety of forms of human conduct that have been defined or reacted to by members of a social system as wrong, bad, immoral, illegal, or worthy of condemnation or punishment, and the sociology of deviance is the study of the social forces and processes involved in the formulation of such evaluative standards, violations of those standards, and reactions to such violations. The specific subject matter typically includes the study of behaviors defined as illegal (crime and delinquency) and forms of conduct that are disapproved or stigmatized by a sizeable proportion of members of a society such as suicide, mental illness, some forms of sexuality, and certain forms of alcohol and drug use. Although the concept has become a derogatory public term, sociologists originally adopted the concept as a more objective and neutral conceptual category than those in use by the public.

Academic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services

Get 10% off with 24start discount code.

The discipline of criminology, defined as the study of law making, law breaking, and reactions to law breaking, and the sociology of deviance both encompass illegal conduct, but the sociology of deviance is unique in its concern for themes and principles that are supposed to apply to a variety of violations of shared standards. Indeed, the most significant scholarship in the early evolution of the sociology of deviance was Émile Durkheim’s ([1897] 1951) study Suicide. Although suicide has been treated as a crime in some societies at some times, it is not encompassed in contemporary categories of criminal conduct, and it is not studied by criminologists. However, suicide and suicidal behavior remain of interest in the sociology of deviance. Moreover, because it is not limited to behaviors defined by criminal statutes, the sociology of deviance encourages consideration of the possible relationships among different forms of deviance. For example, Durkheim hypothesized that homicide and suicide acted like two different “streams” of deviance with nations that had high suicide rates having low homicide rates. Similarly, when questions are asked about the relationships between such behaviors as criminal violence and noncriminal forms of deviance such as mental illness and alcohol use, a search for answers bridges the study of “deviance” and the study of “crime.” In short, the sociology of deviance encompasses the study of relationships among criminal and noncriminal violations of shared evaluative standards (norms) as well as the search for general principles or themes that apply to deviance in general.

Basic Themes and Theories

The most basic themes in the sociology of deviance include the observations that (1) the specific forms or instances of conduct that fall in such categories vary over time and among societies (cultural and temporal relativity), (2) there is greater social consensus on the impropriety of some forms of behavior than others (variable normative consensus), (3) some members and groups within the system have more influence on definitions and reactions to specific forms of deviance than others (power and moral enterprise), and (4) involvement in forms of disapproved conduct are not randomly distributed but are shaped by variable socialization, social learning, social control mechanisms, and other social influences and constraints. Every textbook on the sociology of deviance incorporates and builds on some version of these basic themes.

In addition to core themes, there is a general consensus on categories of distinct sociological theories of deviance. Three categories of theories concerned with “causes” of criminal and noncriminal forms of deviance that seek to explain measurable, observable variations in deviant conduct have dominated sociological discourse: (1) social disorganization, (2) cultural conflict-differential association, and (3) structural-cultural strain. Each of these three types of theories has distinct characteristics and each focuses on different features of society, groups, and categories of people in the attempt to explain real behavioral differences. In addition to these causal theories, at least two major types of perspectives have been critical of the focus on “causes” and the emphasis on measurable variations in conduct: (4) social constructionism and (5) radical and feminist theories.

When the concept of social disorganization was introduced, it was considered to be the underlying condition that explained the convergence of a variety of forms of deviant conduct in identifiable ecological territories. It was applied to the explanation of crime, delinquency, and other social problems by sociologists at the University of Chicago in the early 1900s. Rapid growth and change were viewed as “disorganizing” or “disintegrative” forces contributing to a breakdown in the teaching and learning of “social rules” (Thomas and Znaniecki 1927). Edwin Sutherland (1934) invoked the concept of social disorganization to explain increases in crime that accompanied the transformation of preliterate and peasant societies where “influences surrounding a person were steady, uniform, harmonious and consistent” to modern Western civilization, which he believed was characterized by inconsistency, conflict, and “un-organization” (p. 64). Although criminal and delinquent conduct were central to the development of the theory, Robert E. L. Faris (1948) extended the concept of social disorganization to explain “social pathologies,” including crime, suicide, mental illness, mob violence, and suicide.

By 1939, Sutherland (1939) had modified his theory and proposed an explanation that emphasized (1) conflicting definitions of appropriate and inappropriate conduct as key to the distribution of crime among social settings and (2) differential association with people communicating conflicting definitions explained variations in criminality. Sutherland’s systematic elaboration of a theory of both crime and criminality in a set of nine fundamental propositions earned him honors as the most influential theoretical criminologist of the twentieth century. Applied to delinquency, the central proposition of differential association was simply that “a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law (Sutherland 1947:76 ) . Although his propositions dealt with criminal and delinquent conduct, the theory emphasized normal mechanisms of symbolic interaction that applied to all forms of behavior (deviant and nondeviant). By the late 1930s, the notion that certain areas of cities were criminogenic because they were disorganized had been replaced by the notion that such areas were differentially organized. High-rate areas had different traditions or competing and conflicting subcultural traditions. With his work on Culture, Conflict and Crime in 1938, the criminologist Thorsten Sellin played a major role in reinforcing the shift away from social disorganization and toward conflicting subcultural norms in the explanation of crime.

A distinct theoretical tradition emphasizing a specific type of disorganization was elaborated by Robert K. Merton in 1938. Merton expanded on Durkheim’s argument that economic crises and fluctuations could drive people to suicide because rules regulating behavior become unstable, and ambitions get out of step with reality. Applying a similar logic, Merton argued that high rates of deviance are generated in anomic social systems where there is a strong emphasis on economic success coupled with inequality in opportunity to realize success legitimately. The pursuit of success by illegal “innovative” means is viewed as one adaptation to this form of disorganization. Illegal innovation in pursuit of commonly shared success goals is viewed as a common lower-class response to frustrated ambitions, but Merton argued that there are other ways to adapt as well. Some people might adapt to strain by giving up the pursuit of success goals and retreating through the use of drugs, suicide, or mental illness. Still others might rebel and attempt to change the system. The logic of Merton’s theory with its emphasis on widely shared goals coupled with unequal opportunity is the basis for designating it as a “strain” theory. Other theorists have followed the same logic introducing other forms of discrepancy between goals and means as a source of frustrated ambitions.

In one form or another, these basic theories have endured and are reflected in contemporary theories that assume real variations in measurable forms of conduct to be explained by measurable features of the social world. Modern “social control” and “self-control theories (e.g., Hirschi 1969; Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990) share features with social disorganization theory in that they emphasize the absence of social and personal constraints as the crucial variables in the explanation of criminal and noncriminal deviance. Such theories focus on all forms of force and fraud and view noncriminal forms of rule breaking as early indicators of the absence of control. Modern social learning theory elaborates on Sutherland’s work (see Akers 1977, 1998; Akers and Jensen 2003, forthcoming), differentiating a variety of distinct learning mechanisms that have separable consequences for deviance. The mechanisms apply to both nondeviant behavior as well as to crime and delinquency and other forms of deviance. Finally, modern versions of Merton’s theory emphasize concepts such as “institutional anomie” (Messner and Rosenfeld 1997) and “general strain” (Agnew 1992), and both institutional anomie and general strain theorists attempt to specify different types of deviant responses to frustrating circumstances. New ideas have been introduced, but the basic explanatory frameworks provided by these three traditions have endured for more than six decades.

Constructionist, Radical, and Feminist Critiques

As noted above, these “causal” theories assume that there are real, observable variations in conduct that violate discernable shared norms that can be explained by measurable features of society, groups, and/or people. However, a popular perspective on deviance for the last 30–40 years focuses on the construction and application of deviant labels and their consequences for those so labeled. This perspective has been called “labeling theory,” “constructionist theory,” and “interactionist theory.” Although there is no one authoritative definition of the perspective, the basic characteristics are widely understood by sociologists. A very simple definition of social constructionism in the study of deviance is expressed in Rubington and Weinberg’s (2005) statement that social constructionists take deviance as “subjectively problematic” as opposed to “objectively given” (pp. 1–2). Goode (1994) proposes that “to the constructionist, definitions have no absolute, objective validity” and that “ reality depends on perspective, and perspective is to a degree arbitrary ” (pp. 32–33). Warren and Karner (2005) propose that “the logic of qualitative inquiry” is social constructionist and specify the two basic assumptions of that logic as embracement of the view that “the analysis of society is made from some standpoint or perspective that informs the analysis” and that “social constructionists use qualitative methods to try to understand the meanings that people bring to social worlds they inhabit and construct” (p. 4).

The typical approach to delineating the features of the constructionist perspective is to contrast it with an opposing, “traditional,” and “quantitative” alternative referred to under terms such as absolutism, realism, naturalism, or positivism. When taken to the extreme, the alleged positivist takes for granted that the problems or problem people studied are really “out there” and that people fall in such judgmental categories because they have violated widely accepted societal norms. Because these problems and problem people are assumed to be real, positivists ask what other measurable characteristics of people or their social world determined that reality. Although researchers adopting such methodological approaches may not see themselves as “positivists,” the quantitative search for “causes” and correlates of deviant behavior based on survey or agency data at the micro, meso, or macro level are generally defined by constructionists as the central feature of that epistemology.

The constructionist critique shares many features in common with another critique that emerged first in challenges by “radical criminologists” and later in challenges by advocates of “feminist” perspectives. Both British and American criminologists (see Taylor, Walton, and Young 1973, 1975; Platt 1975; Quinney 1975; Chambliss and Mankoff 1976) mounted radical challenges to traditional criminological theories and methods and located the source of societal problems in the capitalist political and economic systems. Crime among the disadvantaged was an outcome of their economic marginality. With little or nothing to lose, few promising alternatives, and continual pressures to prove one’s worth through material possessions, criminality becomes a relatively rational and attractive choice. Radical critics also believed that the focus of criminology on street crimes and the crimes of the powerless detracted from attending to more fundamental criminogenic problems in society such as inequality and racism. Like the constructionist, they challenged the value of data presumed to measure real behavioral differences and questioned the results of research using quantitative methodologies. A basic argument was that criminological research has served the interests of ruling classes to the disadvantage of other groups, and that the data and methods used were biased as well.

Feminist critiques have extended that argument and criticize the focus of research on males as well as the natural science methodologies dominating the sociological study of deviance. They extended the critique of traditional methods to include biases in the features of the female world studied by criminologists and deviance researchers (see Daly and Chesney-Lind 1988; Daly 1994; ChesneyLind and Shelden 2004). Radical critics chastise criminologists for ignoring “upperworld” crime and the differential enforcement of laws by social class. Feminist critics argue that female crime has been ignored and that many observed patterns are products of differential law enforcement by gender. They also argue that theories developed to explain male crime and delinquency ignore dimensions of the female world and female experiences that are relevant to the explanation of low rates for violence and serious property crime as well as survival strategies such as prostitution and running away.

Some critics of traditional emphases in the sociology of deviance have proposed that the subject matter should be conduct and social arrangements that violate “the historically determined rights of individuals” (Schwendinger and Schwendinger 1975). Rather than studying “nuts,” “sluts,” and “perverts” (Liazos 1972:132), radical critics of the normative definitions of deviance invoke a specific set of norms defining justice or “rights” as the most “objective” and “universal” standard for judging the severity of problematic behavior. Such definitions invoke notions of natural law in which humans have rights that can be used to determine justice and injustice, and such standards are viewed as universal. The range of situations encompassed by their rights perspective includes characteristics of social systems as well as individual conduct. For example, a social system in which punishment is affected by the power and resources that people or organizations have would be considered deviant from a rights perspective. If members of a social system are defined as having “rights” to a living wage, a social system where that right is ignored would be deviant. Those advocating a rights or justice perspective often emphasize inalienable, self-evident, or universal rights, and such rights may be defined as including nonhuman life.

Proposed Innovations

This brief introduction to major features of the sociology of deviance reveals a sociological specialty characterized by widely shared themes as well as continuity between classic versions of theories and more contemporary applications. There are often heated debates about the strengths and weaknesses of different concepts, methodologies, and key subject matter, but these features can be found for any area of specialization in sociology. Yet there are claims that the field is dying. Colin Sumner (1994) subtitled his overview of The Sociology of Deviance as “An Obituary,” and Joel Best (2004:ix) provides evidence that the use of the concept of deviance in general sociology journals has been declining since its peak in the 1970s. Goode (2004) proposes that concerns about “political correctness” have led many scholars to avoid the term deviance because it has become a public concept used to stigmatize and “pathologize” certain forms of conduct. Goode also states that he is “convinced that the field of the sociology of deviance is not as theoretically innovative as it once was and that “fewer influential ‘big’ ideas are being generated within its ranks” (p. 114).

Although there is no way to discern whether recent proposals will succeed as influential “big ideas,” three attempts to be theoretically innovative in the sociology of deviance in recent years will be outlined here because they deal with the scope of the concept of deviance and propose new or modified conceptions of deviance: (1) proposed expansion of the concept of deviance to include “admired deviance” and “positive deviance,” (2) Tittle and Paternoster’s (2000) elaboration of deviance as violations of “middle-class norms,” and (3) Tittle’s development of a “control-balance” theory encompassing a wide range of forms of deviance.

Positive Deviance, Admired Deviance, and Negative Deviance

Deviance textbooks routinely note that behavior that might be considered as conforming to social norms (e.g., striving for recognition, working hard, trying to please others) can result in expressions of disapproval and negative labels (nerd, geek, egghead, rate-buster, brown nose, etc.). Attempts to abide by norms governing appropriate appearance can move into the realm of deviance (e.g., eating disorders, steroid use, obsessions with cleanliness).

When forms of behavior, appearance, or expression that are socially approved take on properties or qualities that are disapproved or worthy of social condemnation, then they fall within the realm of topics encompassed by the study of deviance. Moreover, conduct that violates normative standards may be admired by certain audiences (e.g., clever con operations).

Recognition that conduct that is consistent with normative standards can be reacted to negatively and that conduct that appears deviant may be reacted to positively has become a central tenet in arguments for expanding the sociology of deviance to include “positive deviance” and “admired deviance.” Heckert and Heckert (2004) propose that “positive deviance” is “overconformity that is responded to in a confirmatory fashion” such as saints and Congressional Medal of Honor winners, and “deviance admiration” occurs when people positively evaluate deviance (e.g., outlaws, social bandits, Robin Hood). They argue that the category a person falls in will vary among groups with teachers admiring “gifted” students and peers regarding them as “rate busters.” They also propose that “it is important to analyze why underconformity or nonconformity can result in positive evaluations (deviance admiration) or negative evaluations, depending on the era, place, or social group involved” and that “the same is true for over-conformity” (p. 213).

Although the attempt to create a new typology in which evaluations are independent of “deviance” is clearly “innovative,” the concept of positive deviance has yet to be widely accepted as an advancement in the field for several reasons. First, Best (2004) argues that the wider the range of people and activities encompassed under the concept of deviance, the more difficult it will be to identify any common principles that would justify a sociology of deviance (p. 34). Second, the key questions that are raised as examples of the heuristic utility of such a typology, including admired and positive deviance, have been asked without such concepts. The fact that the same behaviors are reacted to differently by different groups is central to the shared theme of “relativity.” Conduct can be defined negatively but still be admired if there are other collective standards governing the way in which it is violated. Limiting deviance as a concept to disapproved behavior or normviolating behavior eliciting negative reactions does not preclude asking why some forms of approved behavior can come to be disapproved by certain groups in certain situations. Nor does it preclude asking how some forms of conformity can elicit positive evaluations from certain groups while others elicit negative evaluations. Third, the designation of positive deviance as overconformity that is positively evaluated and deviance admiration as underconformity or nonconformity that is positively evaluated leaves an important question unanswered. How are conformity, nonconformity, and underconformity to be determined? Heckert and Heckert appear to be reintroducing the statistical deviation conception of deviance that has been so widely rejected by sociologists. Determination of “over-” and “under-” conformity requires some sort of “social evaluation” unless they are to be determined in purely statistical terms. The meaning of “over” when attached to “conformity” is determined by evaluative standards or negative reactions, which places it under the traditional designation of deviance.

Another argument introduced as part of the rationale for the concept of positive deviance is the widely cited notion that deviance can serve positive functions. Deviance textbooks routinely draw on Durkheim’s arguments and Dentler and Erickson’s (1959) article on the functions of deviance in groups to highlight the irony that bad events can have “good” (functional) consequences. Crime is used as an example in that a criminal event can bring people together and enhance group solidarity. However, the logic of such arguments is rarely scrutinized and becomes part of an unquestioned academic folklore of the sociology of deviance. The sole exception is “The Function of Crime Myth,” in which Bob Roshier (1977) stresses the importance of maintaining distinctions between sociological concepts of deviance and social control. He proposes that the functions attributed to “deviance” turn out to be the functions of “social control.” The typical argument that crime or deviance serves functions in bringing the community together, enhancing solidarity, is a claim about the rejection of deviance (a form of social control), not the functions of deviance as defined independent of that reaction. It is the recurring response to a threat that is functionally explained, not the threat itself (see Jensen 1988).

“Middle-Class” Norms

Because “norms” are central to definitions of deviance as norm-violating behavior, there is considerable merit to recent attempts to more precisely define the standards that are violated. Such standards seem obvious when the focus is on serious crimes, killing of one’s self, use of harmful substances, and some forms of bizarre behavior indicative of mental illness. However, there has been little attention paid to delineating the types of norms violated. A major step in that direction is Tittle and Paternoster’s (2000) work on Social Deviance where they attempt to delineate “middle-class” norms and the behaviors that violate these norms. They propose 10 dominant norms: group loyalty, privacy, prudence, conventionality, responsibility, participation, moderation, honesty, peacefulness, and courtesy.

Their interpretation of each norm cannot be specified here, but the merits and problems in such a list should be addressed. One of the merits is that such a list facilitates recognition of the complications involved in determining whether specific instances of behavior fit in a category of normative violations. For example, group loyalty may call for behaviors that conflict with other “norms” such as honesty, conventionality, and responsibility. The sociology of deviance would benefit from a grounded specification of societal norms and their application to different situations.

The problem with such an attempt at this point in time is that no methodology for determining such normative standards has been attempted or proposed. Tittle and Paternoster (2000) do not provide any research data of any kind to justify their list. Moreover, they note that the lower class shares many, if not most, of these norms but provide no data to support any particular social distribution, nor any specific reason for calling them “middle class.” How do these “norms” compare with other normative systems such as Elijah Anderson’s (1999) Code of the Street? Code of the Street includes prohibitions against ratting and expectations for group loyalty as well as expectations that youth will physically defend themselves from affronts to their personal honor. Which “middle-class norms” are shared by males and females, blacks and whites, the advantaged and disadvantaged? Categorizing them as “middle class” will strike many sociologists as rather arbitrary.

Control Balance Theory

A feature of Merton’s typology of types of deviance that is often overlooked is that he defined conformity as goaloriented compliance with prescribed standards. Conformity to prescribed standards when no rational end appeared to be served was a form of deviance, “ritualism.” People who rigidly adhere to rules even when such conformity has little purpose (e.g., rigid adherence to bureaucratic rules, obsessive cleanliness, some forms of “mental illness”) fell in a “deviant” category. “Real” conformity was purposive behavior.

Charles Tittle (1995) has adopted a similar strategy in that he proposes six types of deviance that can be contrasted with “conscious recognition of the rules with studied obedience” (conformity): submission, defiance, predation, exploitation, plunder, and decadence. He argues that people are least likely to be deviant when their “control ratio” is balanced, that is, when the amount of control they wield is in balance with the amount of control wielded over them. Hence, when a person has no freedom of action and no way to exert control, deviance takes the form of “submission.” Submission is viewed by Tittle as deviance because the individual is not willfully obedient (e.g., battered wives who submit). In contemporary American society, submission is likely to be negatively evaluated.

Those people who are moderately controlled by others but have a small amount of autonomy are likely to be “defiant,” to express anger about their circumstances, or to willfully attempt to escape. Predatory deviance (e.g., theft, rape, assault) is more likely among those who are less subject to control but have some autonomy. All three of these (submission, defiance, and predation) occur among people with control deficits. In contrast, people who have power surpluses also engage in deviance, but it takes different forms. Those with small surpluses exploit others, those with modest surpluses plunder others, and those with the largest surpluses adopt decadent lifestyles.

Tittle supports his theory with examples and attempts to apply the theory to explaining variations among sociodemographic groups in types of deviance. At this point in time, appropriate operationalization of the concepts has not been established nor have the techniques for identifying covert forms of deviance such as submission been specified. However, Tittle’s theory does address issues that distinguish control-balance theory from theories of crime in that different forms of deviance are proposed to be generated by different combinations of the same underlying mechanisms.

Directions for the Future

The themes, theories, and issues discussed above provide the background for several proposals that the author believes will reinvigorate the sociology of deviance in the twenty-first century. The author believes that the best tactics for a revitalization include the following: (1) a “properties of deviant phenomena” approach to conceptions of deviance; (2) empirical demonstrations that the study of noncriminal deviance improves understanding of criminal conduct; (3) a more precise elaboration and application of basic sociological concepts, forces, and processes that justified the invention of a sociology of deviance; (4) expanded efforts to bridge specialties within sociology; and (5) a careful assessment of the qualitative-quantitative tensions in the field through an organized dialogue about methodology accurately representing both positivistic and qualitative approaches.

Properties of Deviant Phenomena

To this point, several different conceptions of “deviance” have been introduced, including statistical deviation, behavioral violations of norms, labeled people and conduct, violations of rights, positively and negatively evaluated over, non-, and underconformity, and violations of middle-class norms. Although sociologists do not intend for the concept to be an expression of personal disapproval, the fact that the public has come to use the term as a derogatory label has led some critics to question the value of the concept. Among sociologists, statements that a form of conduct violates widely shared norms are not intended to be an endorsement of public derogation and censure.

Unfortunately, many sociologists have contributed to the reification of the concept as a derogatory public term rather than a scholarly concept. A typical opening discussion in textbooks on “deviance” or “deviant behavior” approaches the concept not as a theoretical or organizing concept central to a scholarly field of study but as a reified term in popular culture. For example, one of the most popular textbooks on deviant behavior begins with an example of a badly overweight woman and asks whether she “is deviant for being overweight.” The question is answered by noting that “some people would say yes, but others would say no” and that “some would say that it is her tormentors . . . who are deviant” (Thio 2004:3). Such statements are lead-ins to the common observation that there is “a great deal of disagreement among people as to what they consider deviant” (p. 4). Such introductions can be traced back at least as far as J. L. Simmons’s (1969) work, where he reported the results of a study where he asked, “Who is deviant?” He found so many different answers that he concluded, “So deviance, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder” (pp. 3–4). Of course, to fully qualify as a form of deviance as defined by sociology, the phenomena so designated has to violate a widely shared social norm (i.e., there has to be more than one “beholder”). Direct questions about what is “deviant” reify the concept as a public category and ignore its scholarly origins.

Such initiations of students into the study of deviants, deviance, or deviant behavior are popular because they facilitate discussions of the wide range of people and behaviors that are disapproved or stigmatized by different “publics” and highlight the “relativity” of deviance. However, as a guide for the development of the sociology of deviance in the twenty-first century, the first recommendation to be made in this section is to reassert the disciplinary origins of the concept and to initiate a new discussion of relationship among different scholarly depictions of deviance. At a minimum, the study of public use of the term should be distinguished from sociological use.

Because some scholarly conceptions of deviance were generated in critical evaluations of deficiencies in the normative definition, different conceptions are viewed as competing with one another. For example, the “reactive” conception of deviance is depicted as “a property conferred upon that behavior by the people who come into direct or indirect contact with it” (Erickson 1966:6).

The focus is not on what offenders are “doing” or have done but on how people and conduct come to be defined or labeled in certain ways. This conception does lead sociologists to pay attention to issues that are ignored when the normative definition is the exclusive definition. The important subject matter is the invention, selection, and manipulation of beliefs that define conduct as bad, sinful, criminal, or the like and the selection of people into those categories. On the other hand, audiences are likely to confer some form of public label based on learned normative standards. The emphasis may be shifted, but normative standards cannot be dismissed as part of the process.

Instead of debating the “best” or most useful definition of deviance, it should be recognized that each conception highlights distinct issues and questions about properties of deviant phenomena. One of the most consequential advances in the physical sciences was the recognition that light can be analyzed as either waves or particles. Similarly, the phenomena encompassed under diverse conceptions of deviance have several distinct and variable properties. Reactivists and constructionists point to the types of group conflicts, negotiations, and decisions that are made in the process of designating episodes, events, behaviors, and people as instances of some type of deviance such as crime, sin, or evil. This “reactive” component of deviant phenomena can obey its own principles quite independent of the behavioral component. A normative perspective directs attention to a behavioral foundation in that actual conduct in violation of legal or social norms is one of the best predictors for designations of people as criminal by different audiences, and activities that violate widely shared norms as well as beliefs about rights have a long history of prohibition in legal codes. Yet the variable nature of legal and social norms as well as legal designations of rights precludes a stable yardstick for evaluating good and evil, justice and injustice. Self-evident human rights might provide a more universal standard for such decisions, but that approach does not eliminate disagreement on the exact nature of those self-evident standards nor on the proper adjudication among conflicting standards when rights are in conflict. Using the traditional definition of deviance (disapproved violations of shared norms) as an anchor, a variety of important questions can be asked without demanding a newer or broader definition of deviance. For example, instead of creating new categories of positive deviance or admired deviance, the focus should be on identifying the specific normative standards that define otherwise conforming behavior as inappropriate or lead to admiration of otherwise “deviant” conduct. Rather than creating a “typology,” sociologists should be asking how behavior that appears to conform to normative standards can come to be disapproved and should be seeking to discern the norms that are violated when people “over conform.”

One direction for research on the normative foundation for designations of deviant phenomena is a delineation of a specific category of norms that dominates public evaluations of social arrangements and personal experiences, “rights” or “justice norms.” The notion of “rights” as the foundation for defining the appropriate subject matter of the study of deviance and social problems does not negate the value of the traditional definition. In fact, the basic questions asked from a rights perspective do not require a new vocabulary. The view that there is a set of justice norms defining rights that are widely shared in human societies is an empirical question as is the suspicion that they vary systematically among categories of people and over time. Variations in the extension of such rights to nonhuman life have yet to be established.

Questions about the link between purely “statistical” deviation or variation and deviance as violations of shared normative standards can be asked without introducing any new definition. For example, most youth have shoplifted at some time, but are still likely to define such behavior as a violation of widely shared property norms. Yet there has been very little discussion or research on how norms are sustained when the vast majority of members of a system violate them. In their work on “Techniques of Neutralization,” almost half a century ago, Sykes and Matza (1957) proposed specific “situational excuses” that moderated or “neutralized” the constraining influence of more general norms. Their theory is one of the few that recognizes normative complexity and conflicting norms as important features of a widely shared cultural landscape. The delineation of the mechanisms that allow people to violate standards that they appear to share has received very little attention in more contemporary work. Similarly, the normative standards that transform statistically rare behavior at the “positive” pole of variation into disapproved behavior are yet to be investigated.

Bridging Forms of Deviance

Criminology has flourished as a distinct discipline because it focuses on behaviors that are defined by legal statutes and where there is considerable consensus on their “deviant” qualities. However, the sociology of deviance encompasses a wide range of behaviors and characteristics that are not encompassed by law and where there are quite variable opinions. Moreover, many of those noncriminal, but deviant behaviors, have their own “specialists.” In view of such specialization, the major task confronting the sociology of deviance is the development of theories that apply across types and/or the specification of the circumstances that structure the forms that deviance can take. In short, proponents of a sociology of deviance have to demonstrate that knowledge or information across types matters.

This argument is far from new and, in fact, was central to the classic founding scholarship in the sociology of deviance, Émile Durkheim’s ([1897] 1951) Suicide. Durkheim’s basic arguments about suicide have been modified and applied in one form or another to “deviance” in general and to crime in particular. The most cited work in criminology in the twentieth century was Hirschi’s (1969) Causes of Delinquency, and Hirschi drew heavily on Durkheimian ideas about the deviance-inhibiting consequences of moral and social integration. Merton (1938) also drew on Durkheim in the development of his structural-strain theory of deviance, and Agnew (1992) and Messner and Rosenfeld (1997) continue to build on a Mertonian framework.

However, such applications have been made without recognizing that Durkheim proposed that the explanation of some forms of deviance were caused by contrary circumstances. He specifically argued that homicide was generated by the circumstances that were the opposite of those generating suicide. Yet his ideas on suicide were extended to property crime, violence, and a variety of forms of force and fraud with no attempt to address the fact that he proposed contrary causal conditions.

The only sociologists who have followed Durkheim’s lead on this issue are various “stream” theorists who have proposed hypotheses about the “direction” of lethal violence (see Unnithan et al. 1994; Batton and Ogles 2003). Such ideas have not been central to criminology for the simple reason that self-directed lethal violence is not illegal. Yet if Durkheim’s speculation is correct, rates of homicide may not be independent of rates of suicide. Were that shown to be the case, then criminological models of murder would need to address other forms of noncriminal deviance to adequately explain homicide.

How might this reintegration and demonstration of the vitality of a sociology of deviance as an integrating discipline be accomplished? Given the enduring accolades of the Durkheimian tradition, one tactic would be to build on the basic framework suggested by his stream analogy. What forms of deviance flow together, and which represent separate streams? If they flow from a common source, what diverts them into separate streams? This analysis could begin with suicide and homicide since there is already a body of research literature dealing with this issue. How do the two forms of lethal violence relate to one another in modern times? What are the features of social systems that structure different rates of lethal violence? Is Durkheim’s speculation about religious passion as a source of high homicide rates but low suicide rates correct? By focusing on specific issues involving distinct forms of deviance, the importance of an integrated study of “disparate” forms of deviance may be revealed a few steps at a time.

The fact that a wide range of phenomena can be categorized under the same conceptual rubric does not mean that the explanations will be the same or that the forms of deviance will all be positively correlated with one another. Conceptual similarity does not mandate causal isomorphism. Consider two forms of “deviance” where the causal mechanisms at work would appear to be quite disparate, such as serial murder and suicide. They are both included in Tittle and Paternoster’s chapter on “individualized deviance.” Murder was categorized under violations of privacy in their violations of middle-class norms, and suicide was categorized under violations of norms of “participation.”Yet when constructing specific chapters in their book on social deviance, serial murder and suicide are categorized together because they are both instances of individualized deviance. There may be several theoretical and empirical reasons for dealing with these types of deviance in the same chapter but only one similarity is noted, and the relevance of their normative scheme for identifying communalities is never discussed. Other than their designation as “individualized,” possibilities of shared and distinct features of these different forms of deviance are not specified.

When shared properties of disparate forms of deviance are addressed, however, interesting new ideas begin to emerge. Does serial murder share more in common with suicide than other forms of murder? “Normal murders” generated in social situations of interpersonal conflict, sexual competition, and/or defense of honor and territory differ markedly from “abnormal murders” carried out in secrecy with sequences of isolated victims. Is serial murder distributed across states differently than normal murder? Is its distribution more similar to suicide than normal murder? Again, the sociology of deviance can reassert its independence and theoretical originality by addressing the relationships among different forms of deviance.

Specification and Application of Basic Sociological Concepts

One of the themes shared by all sociological perspectives on deviance whether positivistic, constructionist, or radical is that forms of disapproved conduct are shaped by variable socialization, social learning, and social control mechanisms among other forces. Such concepts are introduced rather casually, as if their specific meaning were firmly established. Yet “social control” is used to refer to Hirschi’s social bond theory of deviance, “reactions to deviance” (see Black 1979), and Jack Gibbs’s (1981, 1989, 1994) definition, in which social control refers to attempts by one or more individuals to manipulate the behavior of another individual or individuals by or through a third party (by means other than a chain of command).

Not only are there diverse conceptions of social control, but virtually no attention has been paid to distinguishing among the three “social” variables, social ization, social control, and social learning. In fact, “socialization” is the least discussed of the three in the sociology of deviance, Since John DeLamater’s 1968 discussion of the three forms of socialization and their relevance to distinct theories of deviance, there has been no attempt to clearly identify the meaning of the concept and how to distinguish it from other concepts. The concept can be more clearly specified, however, by adopting Gibbs’s strategy for defining social control. If socialization refers to “attempts” to do “something,” the key question becomes “What is being attempted?” Focusing on attempts to “socialize” someone else, a plausible definition would be that socialization refers to attempts to “teach” something to someone. A person may attempt to “learn” something from someone as well. Such attempts are social in two different senses. Just as social control refers to a type of interaction or relationship among people, socialization is “social” as well. However, socialization can be argued to be “doubly” social because it involves attempts to teach and/or learn something social as well.

Socialization refers to attempts to teach or learn the values and norms appropriate to social roles. Moreover, key social roles tend to be defined in terms of specific social institutions. For example, parents may attempt to teach a child how to be a “good” son or daughter, a “good” brother or sister, a “good” person, or a “good” citizen. Teachers attempt to teach students how to be a “good” student, a “good” citizen, and a “good” classmate. Ministers and religious personnel attempt to teach how to be a “good” Muslim, or a “good” Christian, a “good” Jew, and so on. The specific content of attempts to teach or learn rolerelated values and norms may differ or conflict with other role expectations. In addition, such attempts may not occur or/and some types of attempts may be more effective than others. Authoritarian parental teaching styles may be less effective than styles that allow two-way communication. Parents who engage their children in discussions of roles, norms, and values are likely to be more effective than those who demand unquestioning obedience.

If socialization is defined in such terms, then it can be distinguished from “social control” as defined by Gibbs, Hirschi, or Black, and from social learning as delineated by Akers. One of Gibbs’s types of control is “referential” control, where one party attempts to influence a second party by invoking “reference” to shared normative authority. In fact, he argues that “referential” control attempts are most likely to be successful when there is consensus on a normative framework. If socialization refers to attempts to teach or learn that normative framework, then socialization can affect attempts at referential social control as well as their probability of success. Similarly, socialization would be linked to two of Hirschi’s social bonds, “belief,” which is measured as acceptance of conventional normative standards, and “commitment,” which is measured in terms of pursuit of conventional value-laden goals. Finally, as defined here, socialization would be most specifically linked with Akers’s normative learning mechanism in social learning theory.

Establishing Links with Other Sociological Specialties

In addition to the integration of specialties dealing with distinct forms of deviance and a more precise differentiation of sociological concepts, the sociology of deviance can be revived by reasserting its links to other specialties within sociology itself. In a review of the empirical status of social learning theory, Akers and Jensen (forthcoming) argue that the links between various theories of deviance and basic sociological concepts characterizing sociology in general have been lost. One reason for this loss is the tendency for contemporary criminologists to fall in one of two camps, one emphasizing variations over time and space among societies and social units at the aggregate level (sometimes called “nonreductionist”) and the other gathering data from individuals, couching their theories as “social psychological.” Continual warnings about the “ecological fallacy” (Robinson 1950), the erroneous extension of findings about variations at the ecological level to variations among individuals, have discouraged sociologists and criminologists from attempting to bridge those levels. Sociological variables and processes that may vary over time and space are treated as virtually irrelevant to understanding variation in behavior among individuals. At the individual level, researchers may measure “moral beliefs,” or “social bonds” that explain variation in samples of individuals, while nonreductionists focus on aggregate properties of social systems such as inequality, welfare policies, and institutional weaknesses. There is virtually no effort by scholars operating in the two “traditions” to propose how transitions can be made between these levels, and those advocating a nonreductionist approach give the impression that the two cannot be bridged.

One means of reintegration would be to combine the development of theories that demonstrate the relevance of knowledge about one form of deviance for fully understanding other forms with specific attention, theoretically and empirically, to related concepts in other specialties. For example, Nachman Ben-Yehuda (1981a, 1981b, 1985) points out that the European witch craze falls under the rubric of collective behavior (i.e., a “craze”). However, not only is there little discussion of what type of collective behavior it was (e.g., a “panic” versus a “craze”), but the fact that it was carried out through courts means that it takes on the properties of attempted social control through institutional machinery, characteristics that would disqualify it as a form of “collective behavior.” On the other hand, when the relevance of concepts of deviance, social control, and collective behavior for understanding the early-modern search for witches are considered together, a new set of questions are likely to be asked. Can waves of court processing involve “paniclike” processes? Are such waves of processing responses to panic in the general public? Were the targets of attacks on witches women who engaged in witchcraft, women in competition with men, women who violated gender norms, or random victims? When such questions are asked, ideas from a wide range of sociological specialties need to be considered.

Bridging the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide

When the concept of a “panic” is introduced into the discussion of “deviance,” it not only raises questions that require bridging sociological specialties but also leads to further discussion of social constructionism. One of the most common types of evidence used to highlight the constructionist position is any indication of a tenuous or fabricated “reality” as the impetus for defining a social problem, defining problematic people, or applying definitions and labels to specific people. In fact, the most impressive “deconstruction” of a problem from such a perspective is a demonstration that the alleged reality is a total fabrication or a dramatic distortion of some real-world events. Socially constructed myths can be exposed when information on the actual events that prompt the moral enterprise defining a problem can be shown to be an overdramatization or an overreaction to those events.

A common research theme in constructionist research is to examine the role of the media or the use of the media by various interest groups in the invention or definition of a social problem. Social constructionists can make a strong case for the view that “ reality depends on perspective, and perspective is to a degree arbitrary ” by demonstrating disparities among measures of reality. For example, Shelden, Tracy, and Brown (2001) state that data on gang-related articles in newspaper and magazines “demonstrates that media reporting of events does not always conform to reality” (p. 3). The specific pattern leading to that conclusion was the decline in news coverage “in recent years,” coupled with “steady growth in the number of gangs and the number of gang members” in “surveys of law enforcement agencies.” The gang problem could be interpreted as declining in one source of subjective imagery while remaining constant, or even increasing, using data pertinent to an alternative “subjective” reality.

In fact, the concept of a “moral panic” was introduced by social constructionists to encompass situations where the public, political, and media reactions to a troublesome event or “problem” appears to far exceed the actual magnitude or any changes in the magnitude of the problem (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 1994a, 1994b). The rediscovery of the “gang problem” in the 1980s is depicted by McCorkle and Miethe (2002) under the rubric of Panic: The Social Construction of the Gang Problem, and their analysis emphasizes the fabrication of many aspects of the problem. News about cocaine use among athletes is depicted as a problem fabricated through media hype with little or no relation to actual drug use (Reinarman and Levine 1989). Similar arguments have been proposed for problems ranging from the search for Satanists and witches in preschools (Richardson, Best, and Bromley 1991) to child abuse data (Best 1990) to the “crack-baby panic” (Logan 1999).

Constructionists’positions can range from interpretations where the problem is a virtual fabrication to milder forms where variations in some “measurable” form of “real-world” phenomena are allowed to enter into the social construction of the social problem. For example, Ben-Yehuda (2001) proposes what he calls “contextual constructionism,” a constructionist position that allows consideration of an “objective” foundation for deviance and social problems: Contextual constructionism argues that while deviance and social problems are the results of “claim-making” activities, the so-called objective dimension can be assessed and evaluated by an expert based on some form of scientific evidence (http://sociology.huji.ac.il/ben-yehuda).

This contextual approach does open the door for integrating two styles of research. Whenever a claim is made that a particular situation is a moral panic or a fabricated problem, it is incumbent on those making such claims to clearly demonstrate that there was no surge or wave of real-world events that prompted a panic. Similarly, it is incumbent on sociologists using positivist methods to ask to what degree a public or media reaction was an “overreaction” to any discernible change in behavior. Both the claim that it was primarily a social construction as well as any counterclaim that there was sone form of “objective” foundation require attention to data of some kind.

This research paper began with a reminder of basic sociological principles or themes shared by scholars with otherwise divergent perspectives on specific definitions and the appropriate subject matter for the sociology of deviance. Every textbook in the sociology of deviance highlights similar broad themes, identifies basic epidemiological perspectives, and introduces critical perspectives that challenge traditional theories. Indeed, the issues that were identified as “in need of” attention for progress in the sociology of deviance are academic and scholarly, and the discipline can survive quite well without addressing them.

However, there are features of the field that need attention to reinvigorate “sociological” interest in the specialty and generate new theoretical and research issues. Instead of debating about the best definition of deviance, the focus should be on interrelationships among properties of deviant phenomena when conceived of in different ways. Moreover, there has been far too little attention to basic sociological concepts, how they differ, and where they overlap. Similarly, specific attention to the relation between the properties of phenomena of interest to scholars in the study of deviance and their properties when viewed through conceptual lenses from other fields of sociology (e.g., collective behavior, social control) could reinvigorate sociological interest in the field.

Given the popularity and growth of criminology as an independent and interdisciplinary field of study, the findings that would reassert the importance of a sociology of deviance would be empirical demonstrations that a full understanding of crime requires an understanding of other forms of noncriminal deviance. Indeed, Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime is actually a general theory of deviance in that it proposes positive relationships between forms of noncriminal deviance or rule breaking and criminal force and fraud. The “latent trait” emphasized in their theory is a general propensity for rule breaking. Akers’s social learning theory has been a general theory of deviance from its beginning, and Merton’s theory was a theory of deviance as well. An exclusive focus on behaviors defined as criminal or delinquent is not consistent with the major theories.

Within the specialty, the most important issue for progress in the twenty-first century is a rapprochement between social constructionist perspectives and perspectives that assume some measure of real variation in forms of deviance over time and among people and territories. Whether this perspective is called “contextual constructionism” or some other term, the hypothesis that there are measurable “positivist” foundations for forms of conduct defined as problematic within a society should be part of a modified constructionist approach to the study of deviance. Instead of rejecting each other’s methods as inadequate for a proper understanding of deviance, a cooperative dialogue between quantitative and qualitative researchers may yield the types of new ideas that prominent theorists believe to be in such short supply.

Bibliography:

• Agnew, Robert. 1992. “Foundation for a General Strain Theory of Crime and Delinquency.” Criminology 10:47–87.
• Akers, Ronald L. 1977 . Deviant Behavior. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Akers, Ronald L. 1998. Social Structure and Social Learning: A General Theory of Crime and Deviance. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
• Akers, Ronald L. and Gary F. Jensen, eds. 2003. Social Learning and the Explanation of Crime. Advances in Criminological Theory. 11. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
• Akers, Ronald L. and Gary F. Jensen. Forthcoming . “Empirical Status of Social Learning Theory of Crime and Deviance: The Past, Present, and Future . ” In Taking Stock: The Status of Criminological Theory, 15, edited by F. T. Cullen, J. P. Wright, and K. R. Blevins . New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
• Anderson, Elijah. 1999. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. New York: W. W. Norton.
• Batton, C. and R. Ogles. 2003. “‘Who’s It Gonna Be—You or Me?’ The Potential of Social Learning for Integrated Homicide-Suicide Theory.” Pp. 85–108 in Social Learning and the Explanation of Crime, edited by R. L. Akers and G. F. Jensen. New Brunswick, NJ: Transactions.
• Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. 1981a. “The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries: A Sociologist’s Perspective.” American Journal of Sociology 86:1–30.
• Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. 1981b. “Problems Inherent in SocioHistorical Approaches to the European Witch-Craze.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 20:326–38.
• Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. 1985. Deviance and Moral Boundaries. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. 2001. Academic staff statement at Web site for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Retrieved October 4, 2004 (http://sociology.huji.ac.il/ben-yehuda% 20research.html).
• Best, Joel. 1990. Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child Abuse. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Best, Joel. 2004. Deviance: Career of a Concept. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
• Black, Donald. 1976. The Behavior of Law. New York: Academic Press.
• Black, Donald. 1979. “Common Sense in the Sociology of Law.” American Sociological Review 44:18–27.
• Chambliss, William J. and Michel Mankoff, eds. 1976. Whose Law? What Order? New York: John Wiley.
• Chesney-Lind, M. and R. G. Shelden. 2004. Girls, Delinquency, and Juvenile Justice . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
• Daly, K. 1994. Gender, Crime, and Punishment. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Daly, and M. Chesney-Lind. 1988. “Feminism and Criminology.” Justice Quarterly 5:497–538.
• DeLamater, J. 1968. “On the Nature of Deviance.” Social Forces 46:445–55.
• Dentler, Robert and Kai Erickson. 1959. “The Functions of Deviance in Groups.” Social Problems 7(Fall):94–197.
• Durkheim, Émile. [1897] 1951. Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Translated by J. A. Spaulding and G. Simpson. New York: Free Press.
• Erickson, K. 1966. The Wayward Puritans. New York: Wiley.
• Faris, Robert E. L. 1948 . Social Disorganization. New York: Ronald Press.
• Gibbs, Jack P. 1981. Norms, Deviance, and Social Control. New York: Elsevier.
• Gibbs, Jack P. 1989. Control: Sociology’s Central Notion. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
• Gibbs, Jack P. 1994. A Theory about Control. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Goode, Erich. 1994. Deviant Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Goode, Erich. 2004. “The ‘Death’ Macguffin Redux: Comments on Best.” Deviant Behavior 25:493–509.
• Goode, Erich and Nachman Ben-Yehuda. 1994a. Moral Panics:The Social Construction of Deviance. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
• Goode, Erich and Nachman Ben-Yehuda. 1994b. “Moral Panics: Culture, Politics, and Social Construction.” Annual Review of Sociology 20:149–71.
• Gottfredson, Michael R. and Travis Hirschi. 1990. A General Theory of Crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Heckert, A. and D. Heckert. 2004. “Using a New Typology of Deviance to Analyze Ten Common Norms of the United States Middle-Class.” The Sociological Quarterly, 45:209–28.
• Hirschi, Travis. 1969. Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Jensen, Gary F. 1988. “Functional Research on Deviance: A Critical Analysis and Guide for the Future.” Deviant Behavior 9:1–18.
• Liazos,Alex. 1972. “Nuts, Sluts, and Perverts: The Poverty of the Sociology of Deviance.” Social Problems 20:103–20.
• Logan, E. 1999. “The Wrong Race, Committing Crime, Doing Drugs and Maladjusted for Motherhood: The Nation’s Fury over Crack Babies.” Social Justice 26:115–38.
• McCorkle, Richard C. and T. D. Miethe. 2002. Panic: The Social Construction of the Street Gang Problem. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Merton, Robert K. 1938. “Social Structure and Anomie.” American Sociological Review 3:672–82.
• Messner, Steven and R. Rosenfeld. 1997. “Political Restraint of the Market and Criminal Homicide: A Cross-National Application of Institutional Anomie Theory.” Social Forces 75:1393–416.
• Platt,Anthony. 1975. “Prospects for a Radical Criminology in the USA.” Pp. 95–112 in Critical Criminology, edited by I. Taylor, P. Walton, and J. Young. London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Quinney, Richard. 1975. “Crime Control in Capitalist Society: A Critical Philosophy of Legal Order.” Pp. 181–202 in Critical Criminology, edited by I. Taylor, P. Walton, and J. Young. London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Reinarman, C. and H. Levine. 1989. “The Crack Attack: Politics and Media in America’s Latest Drug Scare.” Pp. 115–37 in Images of Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems, edited by J. Best. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
• Richardson, J. T., J. Best, and D. G. Bromley. 1991. The Satanism Scare. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
• Robinson, W. S. 1950. “Ecological Correlations and the Behavior of Individuals.” American Sociological Review 15:351–57.
• Roshier, B. 1977. “The Function of Crime Myth.” Sociological Review 25:309–23.
• Rubington, Earl and M. Weinberg, eds. 2005. Deviance: The Interactionist Perspective. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
• Schwendinger, Herman and Julia Schwendinger. 1975. “Defenders of Order or Guardians of Human Rights?” Pp. 113–47 in Critical Criminology, edited by I. Taylor, P. Walton, and J. Young. London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Sellin, Thorsten. 1938. Culture, Conflict and Crime. New York: Research Council.
• Shelden, R., S. K. Tracy, and W. B. Brown. 2001. Youth Gangs in American Society. 2d ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning.
• Simmons, J. L. 1969. Berkeley, CA: Glendessary Press.
• Sumner, C. 1994. The Sociology of Deviance: An Obituary. New York: Continuum.
• Sutherland, Edwin H. 1934 . Principles of Criminology. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott.
• Sutherland, Edwin H. 1939 . Principles of Criminology. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott.
• Sutherland, Edwin H. 1947 . Principles of Criminology. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott.
• Sykes, Gresham M. and David Matza. 1957. “Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency.” American Sociological Review 22:664–70.
• Taylor, I., P. Walton, and J. Young. 1973. The New Criminology. New York: Harper & Row.
• Taylor, I., P. Walton, and J. Young. 1975. Critical Criminology. London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Thio, Alex. 2004. Deviant Behavior. 7th ed . Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
• Tittle, C. R. 1995. Control Balance: Toward a General Theory of Deviance. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Tittle, C. R. and R. Paternoster. 2000 . Social Deviance and Crime. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury.
• Thomas, William I. and Florian F. Znaniecki. 1927. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. New York:Alfred A. Knopf.
• Unnithan, N. P., Lynn Huff-Corzine, Jay Corzine, and Hugh Whitt. 1994. The Currents of Lethal Violence: An Integrated Model of Suicide and Homicide. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Warren, Carol A. B. and T. X. Karner. 2005. Discovering Qualitative Methods. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury.

ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER

Research Paper Guide

Sociology Research Topics

Last updated on: Dec 30, 2023

Great Sociology Research Topics & Ideas (2024)

By: Nathan D.

Reviewed By: Jacklyn H.

Published on: Dec 21, 2021

You need to choose a topic for your sociology research paper, but you have no clue where to start?

There is nothing more important than choosing the right one. After all, students must write an interesting and engaging  research paper  that grabs their readers’ attention from beginning through the end. So, if they want them hooked, they'll be compelled to read on.

To ensure that you're always on track with the process, we have divided topics into categories. Browse through this and choose the one that is both relevant and interesting.

Are you looking for the most interesting sociology research paper topics? Below we have collected some interesting topics and ideas. Our experts analyzed all these fascinating topics and picked only ones that are relevant to your needs. So, there’ll be something here, whether it's a new perspective on an old issue or just inspiration.

On this Page

Sociology Research Topics for College Students

• The concept of social mobility and its modern development
• Discuss the problems of third world countries
• How does single parenting impact the life of the children?
• Promotion of multiple cultural traditions
• The perception of friendship and dependability among college students
• How can clean eating change a person's life for the better?
• Gamesmanship and its influence on young people
• Are there any peculiarities of parenting in LGBT families?
• The role of the family in the formation of the child’s personality
• Impact of leadership style on labor efficiency

Sociology Research Topics for High School Students

• What are the effects of online communication on social skills?
• Does consumption of meat affect our environment?
• The most iconic feminist movements in the US
• The patriarchal nature of the modern political sphere
• What causes the problem of young people’s attitude towards their future?
• What is the impact of globalization on different cultures?
• The impact of musical education and music on teenagers
• Race and gender stereotypes represented on TV
• Should females have the same workplace rights as male workers?
• What is the difference between religion and spiritualism?

Sociology Research Topics on Crime

• Race and the criminal justice system
• Does the crime rate depend on the neighborhood?
• Capital punishment in the justice system
• Can stricter laws make gun possession safer?
• Why is capital punishment common among men than women?
• How does integrating civil laws in society prevent crime?
• What are the differences between murder and homicide?
• The link between aggressive behavior and crime
• Civil and criminal cases: How to differentiate?
• Imprisonment psychological effect

Sociology Research Topics on Family

• Sibling relationships during old age
• What social success do children from the middle class achieve?
• What are the consequences of divorce on children?
• The work of nannies and expectations of employers
• Family differences across ethnic groups and races
• Family counseling: why is it so important?
• How do nontraditional families affect childhood?
• Importance of family life education in reproductive health
• Importance of marriage
• Challenges faced by family lawyers

Paper Due? Why Suffer? That's our Job!

Sociology Research Topics on Gender

• Gender Stereotypes in media/workplace/region
• How do women in sport fight for equality?
• Gender profiling in the millennial world
• Gender inequality on the job
• What are some important women’s rights in different countries?
• The gender differences in the education and professional career
• How to get out of an abusive relationship?
• Do men make better leaders?
• Explain the purpose of gender mainstreaming
• Childfree movement and gender

Sociology Research Topics on Mental Health

• Compare an introvert behavior vs. extrovert behavior
• Opportunities and challenges in mental health treatment
• Is mental health treatment becoming less stigmatized?
• Social issues related to the determinants of modern healthcare
• What social factors lead to poor health conditions in NYC?
• Which gender has the most mental illness, men or women?
• Healthy and unhealthy ways of coping with stress
• Impact of competitive sports on kids' mental health
• Differentiate between short and long-term memory
• The educational and healthcare opportunities depend on the income.

Sociology Research Topics on Social Media

• Does social media lead to depression and anxiety?
• How do modern films provoke violence among people?
• Why is blogging one of the latest professions?
• Does social media promote narcissism?
• Do social groups spread or kill stereotyping?
• LinkedIn is a major platform of the social networks
• What are the types of political propaganda on social sites?
• Social movements bring peace to the country
• The culture of photography on social media.
• Impact of gender stereotypes in the media on society

Sociology Research Topics on Deviance

• Death of the sociology of deviance?
• Deviance research methods
• What is deviance?
• Deviance and crime
• Organizational deviance
• Addiction and dependency
• Deviance theories
• Abominations of the body
• Collective Deviance
• Body modification

Medical Sociology Research Topics

• What are the social effects of mental disorders?
• The development of new ways of treatment
• Medical and sociological research: issues and methods
• Top three ways to improve health care for the elderly.
• Mental illness and social status
• The role of globalization in healthcare access.
• Can happiness cure diseases?
• How should a doctor-patient relationship be?
• What are the better ways to cure depression?
• The ethical side of communication between the nurse and the patient

Urban Sociology Research Topics

• Communities and neighborhoods
• Neighborhood effects and community change
• Methods in Urban Sociology
• Urban issues in developing world
• Urban poverty and the city
• Sociological perspectives on urban life
• Urban planning and change
• Socioeconomic status and health and of youth.
• Urban life and health
• Sociology and globalization

Tough Essay Due? Hire Tough Writers!

Easy Sociology Research Topics

• Relationship between race and educational levels
• How has marriage changed in the United States?
• How to understand the symptoms of grief?
• Significant signs of substance use problem
• Migration intentions of student youth.
• The difference in serving sizes over time
• The most common stereotypes about Islam
• Is shopping a sociological practice?
• How can racism affect the growth of the economy in a given country?
• The attitude of students to the chosen profession

Interesting Sociology Research Topics

• Which form of government can explain social science in a better way?
• Does the environment impact our society?
• How does foreign education influence further professional success?
• Impact of sociological studies on students
• The religious basis of the social development
• Does writing a research paper on the topics of race nationality impact society?
• Discuss the solution to stop terrorism in the United States.
• Differences in suicidal behavior in male and female college students
• Why do some young people believe in magic?
• The challenges of preschool education at home

Take your sociology research paper to the next level with these topics. They're sure to keep you on track and help produce a top-notch and engaging research paper.

You can customize or combine these topics the way you want. But if something still confuses and puzzles about which topic would be best for your paper, we're here to help.

At  5StarEssays.com , we know that your time is valuable and can't be wasted on a boring paper. So leave it to the pros at our essay writing service and get the perfect work on time.

Feel free to contact us now and get professional ‘ write essay for me? ’ help at affordable rates.

Education, Literature

Nathan completed his Ph.D. in journalism and has been writing articles for well-respected publications for many years now. His work is carefully researched and insightful, showing a true passion for the written word. Nathan's clients appreciate his expertise, deep understanding of the process, and ability to communicate difficult concepts clearly.

Was This Blog Helpful?

Keep reading.

• How to Write a Research Paper - Writing Guide & Examples

• 20+ Thesis Statement Examples for Research Papers

• Learn How to Write an Abstract - Steps & Examples

• How to Write a Literature Review: Steps and Outline

• How to Start a Research Paper - 9 Simple Steps

• Psychology Research Topics - 170+ Ideas for Your Paper

• How to Write a Hypothesis - A Step-by-Step Guide

• Writing a Research Proposal - Outline, Format, and Examples

• Good Research Paper Topics & Ideas for Students

• Good History Research Paper Topics For Your Help

• How to Cite a Research Paper with the Help of Examples

• How to Write a Research Methodology in 10 Simple Steps

• Research Paper Outline - Basic Format & Sample

• Research Paper Example: Samples to Write a Research Paper

People Also Read

• mla format paper
• scholarship essay writing
• personal statement examples
• dissertation writing
• reflective essay topics

Burdened With Assignments?

Advertisement

• Homework Services: Essay Topics Generator

© 2024 - All rights reserved

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Examining the role of organizational culture on citizenship behavior: the mediating effects of environmental knowledge and attitude toward energy savings.

1. Introduction

2. theoretical framework and hypotheses argumentation, 2.1. organizational culture, 2.2. environmental knowledge, 2.3. attitudes toward energy saving, 2.4. organizational citizenship behavior, 3. methodology, 3.1. research area and study population, 3.2. procedure and participants, 3.3. measures, 4.1. data analysis, 4.2. structural model assessment, 4.3. mediation analysis, 5. discussion, 6. conclusions, 6.1. practical implications, 6.2. theoretical implications, 6.3. limitations, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

• Ahmed, Umair, Mahmoud Radwan Hussein AIZgool, and Syed Mir Muhammad Shah. 2019. The impact of green human resource practices on environmental sustainability. Polish Journal of Management Studies 20: 9–18. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ajzen, Icek. 1991. The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50: 179–211. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ajzen, Icek. 2002. Constructing a TPB Questionnaire: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations. Available online: http://www.people.umass.edu/aizen/pdf/tpb.measurement.pdf (accessed on 10 July 2024).
• Aldrin, Neil, and Kuncomo Teguh Yunanto. 2019. Job Satisfaction as a mediator for the influence of transformational leadership and organizational culture on organizational citizenship behavior. The Open Psychology Journal 12: 129–34. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Al-Madadha, Amor, Ahmad Samed Al-Adwan, and Fida Amin Zakzouk. 2021. Organizational culture and organizational citizenship behaviour: The dark side of organizational politics. Organization 54: 36–48. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Al-Swidi, Abdullah Kaid, Hamid Mahmood Gelaidan, and Redhwan Mohammed Saleh. 2021. The joint impact of green human resource management, leadership and organization culture on employees’ green behaviour and organizational performance. Journal of Cleaner Production 316: 128112. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ang, Soon, Linn Van Dyne, and Christine Koh. 2006. Personality correlates of the four-factor model of cultural intelligence. Group and Organization Management 31: 100–23. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Arumi, Mira Sekar, Neil Aldrin, and Tri Ratna Murti. 2019. Effect of organizational culture on organizational citizenship with organizational commitment as a mediator. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science 8: 124–32. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Arya, Bhavana, and Shiromi Chaturvedi. 2020. Extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Explain Energy Saving Behaviour. Environmental and Climate Technologies 24: 516–28. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Azmy, Ahmad. 2021. Implications of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational culture on organizational citizenship behaviour in electrical professional organizations in Indonesia. International Journal of Applied Business Research 3: 151–68. [ Google Scholar ]
• Badawy, Tarek Aly, Juana Cecilia Trujillo-reyes, and Marian Magdy Hussein. 2017. Exploring the relationship between organizational culture, organizational citizenship behavior, and job satisfaction: A comparative study between Egypt and Mexico. International Journal of Management and Administrative Sciences 4: 1–15. [ Google Scholar ]
• Baron, Reuben M., and David A. Kenny. 1986. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51: 1173. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Belaïd, Fateh, and Haitham Joumni. 2020. Behavioral Attitudes towards Energy Saving: Empirical Evidence from France. Energy Policy 140: 111406. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Beltrán Gallegos, José David, Mauricio Quintero Ríos, Dahiana López García, and Sandra Ximena Carvajal Quintero. 2021. Challenges and recommendations for the massification of energy management systems in Colombian industry. Scientia et Technica 26: 425–33. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Berki-Kiss, Daniel, and Klaus Menrad. 2022. The role emotions play in consumer intentions to make pro-social purchases in Germany–an augmented theory of planned behavior mode. Sustainable Production and Consumption 29: 79–89. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bortolotti, Thomas, Stefania Boscari, and Cheng-Yong Xiao. 2024. Leveraging organizational culture to create competitive value from environmental practices. International Journal of Production Economics 272: 109252. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Brammer, Stephen, Stefan Hoejmose, and Kerry Marchant. 2012. Environmental management in SMEs in the UK: Practices, pressures, and perceived benefits. Business Strategy and The Environment 21: 423–34. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Brick, Cameron, Kristian S. Nielsen, Sebastian Berger, Laura Henn, Kimberly S. Wolske, Florian Lange, Daniel Hanss, Jan M. Bauer, Alaa Aldoh, Maien S. M. Sachisthal, and et al. 2024. Current research practices on pro-environmental behavior: A survey of environmental psychologists. Journal of Environmental Psychology 97: 102375. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Camacho, Luis J., Michael Pasco, Moises Banks, Randall Pasco, Marisela Almanzar, Alvin Rodriguez, Akinlawon Amoo, and Nelda Rosima. 2023. Understanding Employees’ Energy Saving in the Workplace: DR and the Philippines’ Realities. Journal of Risk and Financial Management 16: 49. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Cameron, Kim S., Robert E. Quinn, Jeff Degraff, and Anjan V. Thakor. 2014. Competing Values Leadership: Creating Value in Organizations . San Francisco: British Library. [ Google Scholar ]
• Canova, Luigina, and Anna Maria Manganelli. 2020. Energy-Saving Behaviours in Workplaces: Application of an Extended Model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Europe’s Journal of Psychology 16: 384–400. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Carmeli, Abraham, Ari Dothan, and Dev Kumar Boojihawon. 2023. Engagement in Sustainability Behaviors in Normative Social and Utilitarian Economic-Driven Organizations. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 59: 155–76. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Carrico, Amanda R., and Manuel Riemer. 2011. Motivating Energy Conservation in the Workplace: An Evaluation of the Use of Group-Level Feedback and Peer Education. Journal of Environmental Psychology 31: 1–13. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chams, Nour, and Josep García-Blandón. 2019. On the Importance of Sustainable Human Resource Management for the Adoption of Sustainable Development Goals. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 141: 109–22. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chang, Hsiu-Hua, and Jing-Wen Su. 2021. Sustainable consumption in Taiwan retailing: The impact of product features and price promotion on purchase behaviors toward expiring products. Food Quality and Preference 96: 104452. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chen, Chun-Hsi Vivian, and Yu-Cheng Chen. 2021. Assessment of Enhancing Employee Engagement in Energy-Saving Behavior at Workplace: An Empirical Study. Sustainability 13: 2457. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Costantini, Arianna, Evangelia Demerouti, Andrea Ceschi, and Riccardo Sartori. 2022. Implementing Job Crafting Behaviors: Exploring the Effects of a Job Crafting Intervention Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 58: 477–512. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Daily, Bonnie F., James W. Bishop, and Nalini Govindarajulu. 2009. A conceptual model for Organizational Citizenship Behavior directed toward the environment. Business & Society 48: 243–56. [ Google Scholar ]
• Fatoki, Olawale. 2023. Antecedents of Workplace Energy Saving Behaviour: An Integration of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Norm Activation Model. International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy 13: 394–403. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gajdzik, Bożena, Radosław Wolniak, Rafał Nagaj, Brigita Žuromskaitė-Nagaj, and Wieslaw Wes Grebski. 2024. The influence of the global energy crisis on energy efficiency: A comprehensive analysis. Energies 17: 947. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gao, Lan, Shanyong Wang, Jun Li, and Haidong Li. 2017. Application of the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior to Understand Individual’s Energy Saving Behavior in Workplaces. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 127: 107–13. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• García-Sánchez, Isabel-María, Nicola Raimo, and Filippo Vitolla. 2021. Are Environmentally Innovative Companies Inclined towards Integrated Environmental Disclosure Policies? Administrative Sciences 11: 29. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gaskin, James, and John Lim. 2016. Model Fit Measures. AMOS Plugin. Gaskination’s Stat Wiki. Available online: https://statwiki.gaskination.com/index.php?title=Main_Page (accessed on 10 July 2024).
• Ghose, Amitabha, and Bibhas Chandra. 2020. Models for predicting sustainable durable products consumption behaviour: A review article. Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective 24: 81–89. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gold, Andrew H., Arvind Malhotra, and Albert H. Segars. 2001. Knowledge Management: An Organizational Capabilities Perspective. Journal of Management Information Systems 18: 185–214. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gong, Mengfeng, Yuan Gao, Lenny Koh, Charles Sutcliffe, and John Cullen. 2019. The Role of Customer Awareness in Promoting Firm Sustainability and Sustainable Supply Chain Management. International Journal of Production Economics 217: 88–96. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Graham, Jill W. 1991. An Essay on Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 4: 249–70. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hair, Joe F., G. Tomas, M. Hult, Christian M. Ringle, and Marko Sarstedt. 2017. A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) . Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. ISBN 9781483377445. [ Google Scholar ]
• Haron, Sharifah A., Laily Paim, and Nurizan Yahaya. 2005. Towards Sustainable Consumption: An Examination of Environmental Knowledge among Malaysians. International Journal of Consumer Studies 29: 426–36. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Henseler, Jörg, Christian M. Ringle, and Marko Sarstedt. 2015. A New Criterion for Assessing Discriminant Validity in Variance-Based Structural Equation Modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 43: 115–35. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hofstede, Geert. 1984. Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values . Newbury Park: Sage Publications. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ibtissem, Mustapha H. 2010. Application of Value Beliefs Norms Theory to the Energy Conservation Behaviour. Journal of Sustainable Development 3: 129–39. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• International Energy Agency. 2022. Energy Efficiency 2022—Analysis. Available online: https://www.iea.org/reports/energyefficiency-2022 (accessed on 20 July 2024).
• Ip-Soo-Ching, Jean Marie, and Suzanne Zyngier. 2015. The Rise of “Environmental Sustainability Knowledge” in Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship: An IT-Enabled Knowledge-Based View of Tourism Operators. In Hospitality, Travel, and Tourism: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications . Edited by Information Resources Management Association. Hershey: IGI Global, pp. 221–38. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Isensee, Carmen, Frank Teuteberg, Kai-Michael Griese, and Corrado Topi. 2020. The Relationship between Organizational Culture, Sustainability, and Digitalization in SMEs: A Systematic Review. Journal of Cleaner Production 275: 122944. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Joachim, Onuoha Iheanyichukwu, Norhaya Kamarudin, Godwin Uche Aliagha, and Kalu Joseph Ufere. 2015. Theoretical Explanations of Environmental Motivations and Expectations of Clients on Green Building Demand and Investment. IOP Conference Series. Earth and Environmental Science 23: 12010–25. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Khan, Naseer Abbas, Ali Nawaz Khan, and Summan Gul. 2019. Relationship between Perception of Organizational Politics and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Testing a Moderated Mediation Model. Asian Business & Management 18: 122–41. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kim, Soo Hyun, and Yoo-Kyoung Seock. 2019. The roles of values and social norm on personal norms and pro-environmentally friendly apparel product purchasing behavior: The mediating role of personal norms. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 51: 83–90. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kim, Woo Gon, Sean McGinley, Hyung-Min Choi, and Charoenchai Agmapisarn. 2020. Hotels environmental leadership and employees’ organization citizenship behaviour. International Journal of Hospitality Management 87: 1–12. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kline, Rex B. 2015. Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling . New York: Guildford Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kollmuss, Anja, and Julian Agyeman. 2002. Mind the Gap: Why Do People Act Environmentally and What Are the Barriers to pro-Environmental Behavior? Environmental Education Research 8: 239–60. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kumar, Bipul, Ajay K. Manrai, and Lalita A. Manrai. 2017. Purchasing Behaviour for Environmentally Sustainable Products: A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Study. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 34: 1–9. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lee, Kibeom, and Natalie J. Allen. 2002. Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Workplace Deviance: The Role of Affect and Cognitions. Journal of Applied Psychology 87: 131–42. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Lee, Stacy H. N., and Jung Ha-Brookshire. 2018. The Effect of Ethical Climate and Employees’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior on U.S. Fashion Retail Organizations’ Sustainability Performance. Corporate Social-Responsibility and Environmental Management 25: 939–47. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lee, Yi-Fang, Hoang Bao Ngoc Nguyen, and Hsiu-Te Sung. 2022. Energy Literacy of High School Students in Vietnam and Determinants of Their Energy-Saving Behavior. Environmental Education Research 28: 907–24. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Li, Da, Xiaojing Xu, Chien-fei Chen, and Carol Menassa. 2019. Understanding Energy-Saving Behaviors in the American Workplace: A Unified Theory of Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability. Energy Research & Social Science 51: 198–209. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Linnenluecke, Martina K., and Andrew Griffiths. 2010. Corporate Sustainability and Organizational Culture. Journal of World Business 45: 357–66. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liu, Chinhung, and Yahui Wu. 2020. The Impact of Value-Belief-Norm Theory and Technology Acceptance Model on Use Intention of Green Design Packaging. International Journal of Business and Management 15: 158–72. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lopes, José Rafael Nascimento, Ricardo de Araújo Kalid, Jorge Laureano Moya Rodríguez, and Salvador Ávila Filho. 2019. A New Model for Assessing Industrial Worker Behavior Regarding Energy Saving Considering the Theory of Planned Behavior, Norm Activation Model and Human Reliability. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 145: 268–78. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• MacCallum, Robert, Taehun Lee, and Michael W. Browne. 2010. The Issue of Isopower in Power Analysis for Tests of Structural Equation Models. Structural Equation Modeling 17: 23–41. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Malhotra, Naresh K. 2021. Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation . London: Pearson. [ Google Scholar ]
• Manuel, Candida Duarte, Carla Rebelo Magalhães, Claudia Maria Huber, Lukáš Smerek, Artur Fernandes Costa, and José Ribeiro Alves. 2024. Cross-Cultural Adaptation of a Questionnaire Measuring Organizational Citizenship Behavior towards the Environment. Administrative Sciences 14: 57. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Molina-Azorín, Jose F., Juan José Tarí, Jorge Pereira-Moliner, María D. López-Gamero, and Eva M. Pertusa-Ortega. 2015. The Effects of Quality and Environmental Management on Competitive Advantage: A Mixed Methods Study in the Hotel Industry. Tourism Management 50: 41–54. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Nauges, Céline, and Sarah Ann Wheeler. 2017. The Complex Relationship Between Households’ Climate Change Concerns and Their Water and Energy Mitigation Behaviour. Ecological Economics 141: 87–94. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Nonaka, Ikujiro, and Hirotaka Takeuchi. 1996. The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Long Range Planning 29: 592–92. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Okwata, Phoebe Akoth, Susan Wasike, and Kifleyesus Andemariam. 2022. Effect of Organizational Culture Change on Organizational Performance of Kenya Wildlife Service Nairobi National Park. Administrative Sciences 12: 139. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Organ, Dennis W. 1988. Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Good Soldier Syndrome . Lexington: Lexington Books. [ Google Scholar ]
• Organ, Dennis W., and Katherine Ryan. 1995. A meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational citizenship behavior. Personnel Psychology 48: 775–802. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Organ, Dennis W., Philip M. Podsakoff, and Scott B. MacKenzie. 2006. Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences . Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Paillé, Pascal, and Nicolas Raineri. 2015. Linking Perceived Corporate Environmental Policies and Employees Eco-Initiatives: The Influence of Perceived Organizational Support and Psychological Contract Breach. Journal of Business Research 68: 2404–11. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Panda, Tapan Kumar, Anil Kumar, Suresh Jakhar, Sunil Luthra, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes, Ipek Kazancoglu, and Sonali Sitoshna Nayak. 2020. Social and environmental sustainability model on consumers’ altruism, green purchase intention, green brand loyalty and evangelism. Journal of Cleaner Production 243: 118575. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pardo Martínez, Clara Inés. 2015. Energy and sustainable development in cities: A case study of Bogotá. Energy 92: 612–21. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Patwary, Ataul Karim, Arshian Sharif, Roslizawati Che Aziz, Mohamad Ghozali Bin Hassan, Arsalan Najmi, and Muhammad Khalilur Rahman. 2023. Reducing Environmental Pollution by Organisational Citizenship Behaviour in Hospitality Industry: The Role of Green Employee Involvement, Performance Management and Dynamic Capability. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International 30: 37105–17. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Perez, Jhon Jairo, Luis Hernando Correa, Poul Alberg Østergaard, and Pedro Cabrera. 2024. Assessment of energy consumption, environmental effects and fuel costs of the bus rapid transit system in Bogotá (Colombia). Clean Energy 8: 34–47. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pérez Estébanez, Raquel. 2024. An Approach to Sustainable Enterprise Resource Planning System Implementation in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Administrative Sciences 14: 91. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pham, Nhat Tan, Quyen Phu Thi Phan, Zuzana Tučková, Nga Vo, and Lien H. L Nguyen. 2018. Enhancing the Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment: The Roles of Green Training and Organizational Culture. Management & Marketing (Bucharest, Romania) 13: 1174–89. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Podsakoff, Philip M., Michael Ahearne, and Scott B. MacKenzie. 1997. Organizational Citizenship Behavior and the Quantity and Quality of Work Group Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 82: 262–70. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Podsakoff, Philip M., Scott B. MacKenzie, Julie Beth Paine, and Daniel G. Bachrach. 2000. Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A Critical Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature and Suggestions for Future Research. Journal of Management 26: 513–63. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Qalati, Sikandar Ali, Naveed Akhtar Qureshi, Dragana Ostic, and Mohammed Ali Bait Ali Sulaiman. 2022. An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Understand Factors Influencing Pakistani Households’ Energy-Saving Intentions and Behavior: A Mediated–Moderated Model. Energy Efficiency 15: 40. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Quiceno, Grace, Claudia Álvarez, Raúl Ávila, Óscar Fernández, Carlos Jaime Franco, Martin Kunc, and Isaac Dyner. 2019. Scenario analysis for strategy design: A case study of the Colombian electricity industry. Energy Strategy Reviews 23: 57–68. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Raczyńska, Magdalena, and Krzysztof Krukowski. 2019. Organisational Culture as a Determinant of Business Process Management in the Community Offices in Poland. Administrative Sciences 9: 96. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rhoades, Linda, and Robert Eisenberger. 2002. Perceived Organizational Support: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Applied Psychology 87: 698–714. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sahyoni, Kadek Tira, and Wayan Dge Supartha. 2020. The effect of organizational culture, organizational commitment and job satisfaction on organizational citizenship behaviour. American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research 4: 425–32. [ Google Scholar ]
• Schein, Edgar H. 2010. Organizational Culture and Leadership . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [ Google Scholar ]
• Scherbaum, Charles A., Paula M. Popovich, and Scott Finlinson. 2008. Exploring Individual-Level Factors Related to Employee Energy-Conservation Behaviors at Work. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 38: 818–35. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Si, Hongyun, Ze Yu, Qi Jiang, Yimeng Shu, Wenwen Hua, and Xiaoyan Lv. 2022. Better future with better us: Exploring young people’s energy-saving behavior based on norm activation theory. Frontiers in Public Health 10: 1042325. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Sinaga, Hendrik Gomar, Asmawi Moch, Adji Madhakomala, and Adji Suratman. 2018. Effect of change in management, organizational culture and transformational leadership on employee performance PT. AdhyaTirta Batam (PT. ATB). International Review of Management and Marketing 8: 15–23. [ Google Scholar ]
• Smederevac-Lalic, Marija, David Finger, Imre Kovách, Mirjana Lenhardt, Jesilaveta Petrovic, Vesna Djikanovic, Daniela Conti, and Jelle Boeve-de Pauw. 2020. Knowledge and environmental citizens. In Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship for 21st Century Education . Edited by Andreas Ch Hadjichambis, Pedro Reis, Jan Činčera, Jelle Boeve-de Pauw, Niklas Gericke and Marie-Christine Knippels. Environmental Discourses in Science Education. Cham: Springer, vol. 4. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Smith, C. Ann, Dennis W. Organ, and Janet P. Near. 1983. Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature and Antecedents. Journal of Applied Psychology 68: 653–63. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Steg, Linda. 2008. Promoting household energy conservation. Energy Policy 36: 4449–53. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Steg, Linda, and Charles Vlek. 2009. Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behaviour: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda. Journal of Environmental Psychology 29: 309–17. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tang, Zhenya, Merrill Warkentin, and Le Wu. 2019. Understanding Employees’ Energy Saving Behavior from the Perspective of Stimulus-Organism-Responses. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 140: 216–23. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Temminck, Elisha, Kathryn Mearns, and Laura Fruhen. 2015. Motivating Employees towards Sustainable Behaviour. Business Strategy and the Environment 24: 402–12. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tenbült, Petra, Nanne K. Vries, Ellen Dreezens, and Carolinen Martijin. 2008. Intuitive and explicit reactions toward “new” food technologies: Attitude strength and familiarity. British Food Journal 110: 622–35. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tucker, Leadyard R., and Charles Lewis. 1973. A reliability coefficient for maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika 38: 1–10. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ullman, Jodie B. 2006. Structural Equation Modeling: Reviewing the Basics and Moving Forward. Journal of Personality Assessment 87: 35–50. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Van den Berg, Peter T., and Celeste P. M. Wilderom. 2004. Defining, Measuring, and Comparing Organisational Cultures. Applied Psychology 53: 570–82. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Vidal-Salazar, María Dolores, Eulogio Cordón-Pozo, and Vera Ferrón-Vilchez. 2012. Human Resource Management and Developing Proactive Environmental Strategies: The Influence of Environmental Training and Organizational Learning. Human Resource Management 51: 905–34. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Vijayasarathy, Leo R. 2004. Predicting Consumer Intentions to Use On-Line Shopping: The Case for an Augmented Technology Acceptance Model. Information and Management 41: 747–62. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wang, Qian-Cheng, Ke-Xin Xie, Xuan Liu, Geoffrey Qi Ping Shen, Hsi-Hsien Wei, and Tian-Yi Liu. 2021. Psychological Drivers of Hotel Guests’ Energy-Saving Behaviours—Empirical Research Based on the Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour. Buildings 11: 401. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wang, Sheng, and Raymond A. Noe. 2010. Knowledge Sharing: A Review and Directions for Future Research. Human Resource Management Review 20: 115–31. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zelezny, Lynnette C., and P. Wesley Schultz. 2000. Psychology of promoting environmentalism: Promoting environmentalism. Journal of Social Issues 56: 365–71. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zhao, Shuliang, Rui Zhang, and Qingjun Li. 2024. How does organizational culture affect eco-innovation? Empirical evidence from the individual and organizational perspective. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Click here to enlarge figure

Share and Cite

Camacho, L.J.; Litheko, A.; Pasco, M.; Butac, S.R.; Ramírez-Correa, P.; Salazar-Concha, C.; Celine, P.C. Examining the Role of Organizational Culture on Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Environmental Knowledge and Attitude Toward Energy Savings. Adm. Sci. 2024 , 14 , 193. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14090193

Camacho LJ, Litheko A, Pasco M, Butac SR, Ramírez-Correa P, Salazar-Concha C, Celine PC. Examining the Role of Organizational Culture on Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Environmental Knowledge and Attitude Toward Energy Savings. Administrative Sciences . 2024; 14(9):193. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14090193

Camacho, Luis J., Alpheaus Litheko, Michael Pasco, Susan R. Butac, Patricio Ramírez-Correa, Cristian Salazar-Concha, and Paula C. Celine. 2024. "Examining the Role of Organizational Culture on Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Environmental Knowledge and Attitude Toward Energy Savings" Administrative Sciences 14, no. 9: 193. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14090193

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals