Cooperation Among Deviants

1
Cooperation Among Deviants

• When weve looked at deviant groups weve found
  that groups vary in size and complexity.
• When deviant acts involve groups, there must be
  some level of cooperation between the members,
  and the ability to be flexible towards unexpected
  events (police interference) because often the
  nature of the deviant acts themselves are
  unstructured and unregulated.

2
Transfer of Goods or Services

• -  The cooperation usually involves some sort of
  transfer of illicit good (pornography, weapons,
  drugs) or the giving of deviant services (a
  fencing ring, sexual services, medical services
  steroids, illegal abortion, prescription drugs).
• - Some cooperative deviant acts may be a series
  of trades instead of money, although deviant
  sales involves trading goods for money.
• - For some groups, these deviant acts, and the
  subsequent exchanges allow for one or more of the
  members to earn their entire living from it.

3
Women in Outlaw Biker Clubs as a Form of
Cooperation

• For the deviant act that does not generally
  involve money, lets look at the role of women in
  outlaw biker clubs.
• -  The exchanges in this type of cooperative
  deviant behavior involve a series of trades.
• - Both men and women enter the outlaw gang for
  mutual benefit, the lifestyle values, and forming
  close ties with those who have similar views
  towards society and goals.

4
Womens Role in Biker Clubs

• Historically, the group of outlaw bikers has been
  stratified between men and women, with the women
  in the subordinate role.
• What has been found is that women are usually in
  one of two roles THE MAMA and THE OLD LADY.
• Mamas are considered the property of the entire
  club. She had to be available to any brother for
  sex or services equally. She often wore her own
  set of colors that signified that she was
  property of the club.

5
The Ol Lady

• The old lady referred to girl friends or wives
  who wore a jacket that indicated who she belonged
  to. Since those who were married were only
  married in the eyes of the club, the man could
  divorce, leave or trade off his wife at any time.
  
• Sometimes old ladies are auctioned off,
  prostituted out or made to become a topless or
  nude dancer to make money for her old man.
• Even those women, who held square jobs, would
  turn their money over to her man when she got her
  paycheck.

6
Why would a woman join?

• For a woman to enter into the club, she often had
  to have sex with the entire group as her
  initiation. This could involve pulling a train
  which could also serve as a punitive act for
  perceived disobedience.
• So why do some women want to be a part of a biker
  gang? Wed think that from this type of behavior
  towards them, gangs would have a shortage of
  women. Not so.

7
Why Join cont.

• Some women just love motorcycles too and
  understand that if they joined a club, then that
  type of behavior was going to happen. Were not
  talking about women who love motorcycles, but
  dont join a club, so they arent subject to the
  same treatment
• Other research shows that some of these women are
  attracted to the Macho male. In their opinion,
  other males were game players. They felt that
  with bikers, what you see is what you get. They
  symbolize freedom and strength
• The third factor identified was low self-esteem.
  Many of these women felt that it was their duty
  to support their man no matter what. That they
  werent worth any better

8
So what is the exchange?

• Women often get what they desire as mentioned
  before, and the men receive services and
  support. Without either group, this exchange
  doesnt take place.
• An interesting aspect of women in outlaw biker
  gangs, is the ironic viewing of themselves as
  free! They live under the domination of the male
  members, therefore it is possible that this is an
  excellent illustration of socialization. However,
  should we as researchers view them based upon our
  way of thinking, or allow them to define
  themselves in that its their choice

9
Negotiating Deviance

• Cooperation between deviants often involves some
  type of negotiation.
• Whether it is money in the exchange, or services,
  both parties must come to an agreement before the
  desired outcome can take place.
• The outcome of research shows that the bargaining
  strategies used were similar to those of
  legitimate negotiations

10
The Act of Negotiation

• Lets use used car sales as an example.
• The customer comes in looking around to see if
  they might want to make any purchases
• The sales person hurries over to see if they can
  be the one to make the sale
• The interchange that takes place is a series of
  push-pull interactions designed to benefit the
  salesperson with the appearance of the customer
  making all the decisions

11
Can this process be applied to other deviance?

• In the erotic dancing industry, we see the same
  process.
• Previous research had looked at dancing in terms
  of norms, club motif, and customer goals.
• From this research it was called counterfeit
  intimacy.
• The interaction between customer and dancer is
  flexible.

12
Cooperation between customer and dancer

• In general, men control the macromanipulation of
  institutions and rules, so women respond by
  attempting to control the micro world through
  interpersonal relationships, behaviors and
  practices
• The dancer is similar in that she controls the
  interpersonal dynamics of the interaction, but
  it is still the man who controls the money which
  influences the behavior. Therefore in many
  regards the woman who is a dancer is even more at
  a disadvantage than women in general.

13
Negotiating Tools

• For this example, the man typically has his money
  by which to negotiate.
• The dancer has counterfeit intimacy.
• If the negotiation process breaks down, both
  parties are disappointed.
• Therefore, cooperation must take place for the
  exchange to happen.