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Deviance Deviance is the violation of a social norm. It is impossible to define it exactly because not everyone agrees on what should be considered deviant behavior. According to functionalists, deviance is both negative and positive for a society. Functionalism sets the basis for 2 very important theories of deviance: strain theory and control theory. The strain theory states that deviance is more likely to occur when a gap exists between cultural goals and the ability …

…is the punishment. Most Americans think of crimes - acts of violation in statue laws - as including a small group of behaviors when in actuality, more than 2,800 acts are classified as federal crimes. There are 2 major sources for crime statistics in the US: the FBI and the Census Bureau. There are four different approaches to controlling crime: 1) deterrence, 2) retribution, 3) incarceration, 4) rehabilitation. As Isaac Asimov once said, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."