Not All Deviance is Criminal: Deviance in Everyday Life and the Development of a Non-Criminal Deviance Scale

The field of deviance generally encompasses two major forms of deviant behavior: Formal and informal deviance. Formal deviance refers to acts that violate a law, while informal deviance refers to acts that violate a social norm. Yet, as a total proportion of deviance in a given society, formal deviance–crime–is rare. While the focus on crime is warranted, it has resulted in far less quantitative assessment and understanding of informal deviance. The goal of this study is to develop and test a quantitative scale called the non-criminal deviance scale (NCDS). Drawing from expert evaluations, we create a 13-item NCDS, then test it against theoretically informed covariates using a sample of 780 young adults. Findings reveal key constructs (e.g. self-control, age) influence variations in the NCDS. Results demonstrate that much like scales used in crime research, non-criminal deviance can also be captured quantitatively via a scale. Given the relatively common nature of informal deviance–particularly compared to formal deviance–this is a crucial first step in understanding general patterns in non-criminal deviant behaviors.