Major Types of Deviance

H. M. Johnson conducted research on social deviance and found the four major types of deviance that occur in society.

• Innovation
• Ritualism
• Retreatism
• Rebellion

1. Innovation:

Society develops certain norms and values, rules and regulations in order to carry out the task rationally. Here, the actors should be hard workers, disciplined, honest, and dedicated towards their duties and obligations for achieving the goal.

Innovation occurs when people remain committed to economic success but reject legitimate methods. Innovators use alternative methods, including criminal ones, to achieve legitimate ends.

Thus, innovation often leads to crimes such as theft, burglary, and embezzlement as well as drug dealing, illegal gambling, and prostitution.
Although these activities do not always come from disadvantaged backgrounds, those who directly provide them very often do.

Such as profitable activities can appear attractive to those who cannot find a job or whose wages fall below the poverty level.

Norms, values, folkways, rules, and regulations are cultural standards within which the activities are to be accomplished by the actors. For instance, weak students cheat from books, guess papers, and notes for passing an exam, the criminals collect a good amount of money by using abduction, corruption, stealing, and doing black business.

2. Ritualism:

People who reject the success goal but remain loyal to institutional means. Mindlessly follow the organizational rules. They follow every small detail of the rules but are uncommitted to the process.

The ritualists regard rules as sacred. By using sugar-coated achieving they tend to spend their time rather than innovating new ideas for achieving the goal. Just they do their work for the sake of their duties.

The bureaucrats tend to do lip service rather than performing their duties end obligations with new zeal and innovation. If a professor does not engage his students in discussions, just provides old notes and does not make them understand, does not engage his students in research works and presentation that is a ritualistic task he is performing. The majority of our bureaucrats are ritualistic rather than becoming honest public servants.

3. Retreatism:

Retreatism (Reject both Means and Goal). In this category Merton places ‘dropout of Society’ Hobos, Alcoholic, Drugs Addicts.

The corrupted and arrogant people do not obey the norms and values, rules and regulations. They are unable to get success honestly. Simply, the rejection of norms and social values is retreatism.

It is a kind of passive rejection of the goal of success and of respectable occupational activities. For example; drug addicts, chronic drunkards, hooligans, and criminals violate the social norms and seek their ends by using unhealthy means.

4. Rebellion

Merton gives the name special Category to this as (New name New goal category). These people’s purpose is not to attain society’s goal, the seek to change society, or at least to express a complaint about the fairness of Society. Seek alternatives to modify and replace by new.

The Rebellions seek some reconstruction in the existing order. They totally became against the existing political, educational and religious system. They feel superior rather than the conventional social system.

For example; they attempt at the complete destruction of the social order and want to replace it with another. ‘Boko haram’ of Nigeria, ‘Taliban’ of Afghanistan, and ‘Maoist Chhapamars’ of India and Nepal are some illustrations of rebellions.

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