... 'deviant action is not an unknown, mystical force but that in fact 'we see that social rules, far from being fixed and immutable, are continually constructed anew in very situation.' Deviance according to deviance and labelling theories is the non-conformity with a set of norms accepted by a significant number of people in society. Early theorists had been biological and psychological in nature and located the cause of deviance in individual wrongdoing with nothing whatsoever to do with society. The theories were positivistic in that the believed and sought definitive causes of deviancy. Functional theories argues that a structural tension exists disturbing the normal functioning of society. This condition combined with a lack of moral regulation creates the environment where the individual turns to deviance. A critique is that it assumes that the norms are accepted universally. Conflict theories such as Marxism, argue that deviance arises due to class differentials and ...

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