Indiana Social Studies S.10.1

Social StudiesGrades 9–12Deviance and Social Control

The Standard

Define deviance and explore the functions deviance serves as identified by Emile Durkheim.

2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students define deviance as behavior a group treats as breaking its norms. They explain how responses can reinforce values, mark boundaries, bring people together, or prompt change.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given a case, students can name the norm broken and explain why the behavior may be seen differently in another setting. They can connect specific reactions to group unity, clearer rules, or social change.
Common Misconceptions: Students often equate deviance with crime or assume it always harms people. They may think an act is deviant everywhere, regardless of who sees it or where it happens. Some assume every rule violation leads to change.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: A student interrupts an assembly to protest a dress code. Define deviance, name the norm broken, and explain two possible social effects of the reaction.

Lesson moves

Give pairs cards showing a cut in the lunch line, a silent protest, and a dress code challenge; sort them by norm broken and likely reaction.
Ask: Why did a 1960 lunch counter sit-in challenge a social norm, and how did public reactions help change that norm?
Play reaction match: teams match responses on scenario cards to affirmed values, clearer boundaries, group unity, or changed rules.
Use your school's phone policy; ask students how a petition to change it might unite classmates or shift the rule.

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