deviance is...

[timewood]

According to my Sociology textbook Essentials of Sociology...A Down to Earth Approach :

"Sociologists us the term deviance to refer to any violation of norms, whether the infraction is as minor as jaywaling, as serious as murder, or humorous...

This deceptively simple definition takes us to the heart of the sociological perspective on deviance, which sociologist H. Becker identified this way: It is not the act itself, but the reaction to the act that make something deviant. "

What may be deviant in one society, may be conformist in the next.

"Sociologists ust the term deviance nonjudgmentally, to refer to any act to which people respond negatively. When socilogists us this term, it does not mean that they agree that an act is bad, just that people judge it negatively, To sociologists, then, all of us are deviants of one sort or another, for we all violate norms from time to time."