Key Takeaways
Although deviant labels are sticky and difficult to shake, it is sometimes possible for an individual to turn what could have been a negative identity into a positive one. John Kitsuse (1980) calls this tertiary deviance.
For example, someone may justify stealing a loaf of bread or a wallet, complaining that the prices of these are criminally high.
Lemert (1951) was one of the first to define the concept of primary andsecondary deviance.
Example of Tertiary Deviance
Tertiary deviance can have both positive and negative effects. One example of tertiary deviance creating positive effects on people within a society comes in the form of social movements, such as movements to accept the rights of gay and transgender people.
Through much of the 20th century, homosexuality was most often outlawed, sometimes with serious criminal punishments. Those who expressed homosexuality were labeled as deviant ooutsiders, and sjunned from mainstream society.
As a result, homosexuality transitioned from being considered a crime or disease to being socially acceptable and celebrated.
Laws alsoo changed, allowing people to marry those of the same sex, so that their spouses may receive the same benefits as heterosexual couples (Sorensen & Siemensen, 2006).
His strategy is to circle on the question sheet the identifying letters next to the answers that he feels are correct and then, after all such circling is completed, to fill in the corresponding spaces on his answer sheet.
At that point, he plans on taking up more difficult questions.
However, an hour has elapsed, and the student is reading the fourty-fifth question of sixty. He is running out of time.
Although he is certain that the answer is A; however, he notices a person in the test who has filled in the letter b. He changes his answer to B, which, coincidentally, happens to be the correct answer.
In both cases, he islabelingdeviant behavioras nondeviant (Mele, 1987).
References
Lemert, E. (1951). Primary and secondary deviation. Crime.Critical concepts in sociology, 3,603-607.
Lemert, E. M. (1967).Human deviance, social problems, and social control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall.
Martino, L. (2017).Concepts of primary and secondary deviance.
Mele, A. R. (1987). Intentional Action and Wayward Causal Chains: The Problem of Tertiary Waywardness. Philosophical Studies:An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 51(1), 55–60.
Paternoster, R., & Iovanni, L. (1989). The labeling perspective and delinquency: An elaboration of the theory and an assessment of the evidence.Justice Quarterly,6(3), 359-394.
Rosenberg, M. J. (2010). Lemert, Edwin M.: Primary and secondary deviance.Encyclopedia of criminological theory, 551-553.
Sorensen, A. M., & Siemsen, C. (2006). Identity Radicalization, Fragmentation and Re-assimilation.Californian Journal of Health Promotion, 4(4), 41-51.
Weitz, R. (1985). From accommodation to rebellion: Tertiary deviance and the radical redefinition oflesbianism.” In J. Kitsuse and J. Schneider (Eds.),Studies in the sociology of social problems,pp.140-161. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Saul McLeod, PhD
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester
Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Charlotte NickersonResearch Assistant at Harvard UniversityUndergraduate at Harvard UniversityCharlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.
Charlotte NickersonResearch Assistant at Harvard UniversityUndergraduate at Harvard University
Charlotte Nickerson
Research Assistant at Harvard University
Undergraduate at Harvard University
Charlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.
