The over‐Negativized conceptualization of deviance: A programmatic exploration

Abstract

It is the contention of this paper that past and current sociological conceptions of deviance are unduly limited in that they consider only negative conceptualizations of general deviance. The argument is advanced that sociologists are overdue to acknowledge the empirical existence of positive deviance and to incorporate the positive deviance into a broader, more general study of deviance. Since acknowledging positive deviance would highlight the inadequacy of conceptualizations limited to negative deviance only, guidelines for the beginnings of the solution to this problem are suggested. Suggestions are presented for reworking and reevaluating some of the basic definitional statements of (negative) deviance and some of the elemental aspects of the existing deviance paradigms in order to develop a more general field of study.