Norms, Deviance, and Social Control: A Mathematical Elaboration of Concepts

This paper translates into mathematical form an elementary verbal theory of the relationships of the concepts of norms, deviance, and social control. Implications of the theory are explored by using the equations of the model and the variance-covariance structure of the variables in the model. The concepts of amount of deviance and degree of regulation are explored. Strategies for studying deviance controlling feedback systems are suggested.