Assignment 8: Is Anything "Absolutely" Deviant, or Is It All Relative? Consider This Recent Case!

Our instructor’s comments to introduce Chapter 8 invited us to consider whether there are things that we recognize as deviant that are not socially constructed, i.e., that are considered deviant in every setting? 

In other words, are there any acts that are so obviously improper, immoral, evil or bad that their wrongness “exists prior to socially created rules, norms, and customs, independently of people’s subjective judgments”?  In still other words, is there really any action that is deviant following the absolutism definition of deviance, or is all deviance defined following relativism? According to Newman, the relativism definition of deviance draws on the symbolic interactionism and conflict perspectives and holds that “deviance is not inherent in any particular act, belief, or condition; instead it is socially constructed, a creation of collective human judgments and ideas” (Newman, p. 225).  This is a sociological question. 

To consider this question, I looked at recent news reports and tried to find the most heinous crime possible.  I think that this one comes as close to pure evil as any:

On October 16, 2011, four mentally disabled adults, ages 29-41, were found imprisoned in a 6’ x 10’ boiler room in the basement of an apartment building in Philadelphia, PA.  They were chained to a boiler.  The room reeked of excrement because the only “bathroom” facility these victims were provided was a bucket.  The victims were discovered by the building’s owner who heard dogs barking behind the door and who noticed a locked basement door and more trash than usual on the property.  When the victims were found, they appeared distressed, malnourished, and confused.  The estimated mental capacity of these victims was that of a 10-year-old. One victim, a woman, had been missing since 2005!

How and why did these victims come to be imprisoned in a filthy basement boiler room? Police have arrested four people so far and charged them with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, trespassing, kidnapping, simple assault, reckless endangerment of persons, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment.  Philadelphia police say these are just the initial charges. Their motive?  Police say that the suspects, two women and two men, imprisoned these people to steal their Social Security checks.  Since this story broke, police have discovered that these four victims may just be the tip of the iceberg.  When they searched the suspects’ belongings, they found drivers licenses, Social Security cards, and power of attorney forms belonging to at least 50 people.  Police now think that the victims were from numerous states, including Florida, Virginia and Texas.  More recent news reports say that more victims have been found, including several children, including the 19-year-old niece of Linda Weston, age 51, one of the suspects. Weston’s niece, who was in Weston’s care for 10 years, was found severely malnourished, scarred and beaten.

A fairly complete account of this rapidly evolving crime can be found here: http://sct.temple.edu/blogs/murl/2011/10/20/tacony-dungeon-kidnapping-case-spirals-into-tangled-web-of-horror/ 

The Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey described this crime as
among the worst he has ever seen in his law enforcement career.  The Philadelphia mayor called it a tangled web of horror. Read and view their reactions here:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/10/19/understanding-the-basement-of-horrors-case/

This case deviance sounds about as purely evil, in absolutist terms, as one can imagine.  But is there any way that one can view this case in relativist terms?  It seems there is!  Linda Weston’s attorney has already said that his client does not understand the seriousness of the charges against her. He said that she is on suicide watch, and may not be competent to stand trial. Here is an account of the lawyer’s statements about his client’s mental state:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20125222-504083/lawyers-alleged-lead-phila-kidnapper-linda-weston-doesnt-understand-seriousness-of-charges/

This sounds like the “medicalization” of deviance Newman describes on p. 250-251 of our textbook.  The alleged perpetrator of these horrible crimes is a victim herself!  She is mentally ill, and “no longer a sinner, but a victim, someone whose behavior is an ‘illness’ beyond his or her control” as Newman writes about alcoholics (p. 251).

Another way this “absolutely” awful crime could perhaps be viewed in relativist terms may be seen by considering how societies have historically treated mentally challenged individuals.  In the not so distant past, even in this country, mentally challenged adults and children were often confined to institutions, called “idiots”, subjected to eugenics such as involuntary sterilization, and worse.  The public outrage at the treatment of mentally disabled individuals by Linda Weston and her gang may in itself prove that deviance is indeed socially constructed.  Inhumane treatment of mentally disabled in institutions in the past was government sanctioned.  Now inhumane treatment of such individuals in cases such as the recent one in Philadelphia draw condemnation by public officials in “absolutist” terms.  Proof, I guess, that deviance really is all relative!