The categories of "deviant act" and
"criminal conduct" overlap. Deviant acts are divided into two categories: those of
formal and informal deviance. Formal deviance is synonymous with crime whereas informal deviance
refers to the breaking of social conventions or taboos.
Acts of formal
deviance, which are also crimes, therefore, would include, murder, robbery, theft and assault.
Acts of informal deviance might include a huge range of behavior which is generally frowned
upon, from having an extramarital affair, using corporal punishment on one's children, or
talking to oneself in public.
It is clear that formal and informal deviance
both vary according to the society in which the act takes place. In some Islamic countries, such
as Saudi Arabia, adults who consume alcohol or women who wear revealing clothing are guilty of
criminal conduct/formal deviance. In most Western societies, these behaviors are not even
instances of informal deviance but are entirely socially accepted.
Formal and
informal deviance also both change over time. The usual pattern is that a criminal/formally
deviant act will be legalized but will then remain informally deviant for some time before
becoming generally accepted. However, this means that, even within a society, there will be some
communities which still regard the behavior as informally deviant even after it has been
accepted by others.
For instance, homosexual activity was illegal in many
Western countries well within living memory (in the United Kingdom, it was decriminalized in
1967). After legalization, many people and communities continued to regard homosexual behavior
as informally deviant and some still do so while others do not regard it as deviant at all. This
highlights another important difference: criminal conduct/formal deviance is a matter of fact (a
behavior is either illegal or it isn't), while informal deviance may be generally agreed but
contains some element of opinion.
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