Behavioral Norms, Moral Norms, and Attachment: Problems of Deviance and Conformity

Abstract

The relationship among moral norms, perception of peer behavioral norms, and behavioral attachment of institutionalized delinquents is examined using hypothetical problem situations. The study finds that delinquent behavioral attachment is doubly deviant. It is deviant from their own private moral norms, which are generally socially acceptable, and from their perception of their peers' norms, which they believe to be more deviant than their own behavior. This supports the formulation of Sykes and Matza that delinquents hold private norms which are consistent with the dominant social norms but transmit miscues to their peers suggestive of a delinquent commitment. Indeed, our data suggest that the delinquent is often less deviant from his moral norms than his comparative reference group. The data are discussed in relationship to the contributions of such others as Cohen and Short, Baum and Wheeler, Empey, Kemper, Reckless, the Schwendingers, and Yinger.