Deviant behavior is behavior that is a recognized violation of social norm. Formal and informal social controls attempt to prevent or minimize deviance. One such control is through the medicalization of deviance. It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant.Crime, the violation of formally enacted law, is formal deviance while an informal social violation such as picking one's nose is an example of informal deviance. Deviance can also means not doing what the majority does or alternatively doing what the majority does not do. For instance, behaviors caused by cultural difference can be seen as deviant (this does not necessarily mean criminal behavior).There are three broad classic sociological studies on deviant behavior which are structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and power conflict theory.
Early theories of deviance
The Classical School of criminology and the Italian School (along with criminal anthropology) are two early theo