ПРОБЛЕМИ ФУНКЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ЗУМОВЛЕНОСТІ ОБ’ЄКТИВНОЇ ПРИРОДИ СОЦІАЛЬНИХ ДЕВІАЦІЙ

Problem setting. Human actions and deeds that tend to deviate from institutionalized expectations are becoming less predictable, contrary to existing cultural and moral norms, social rules and responsibilities in a given society, and can be seen as a potential threat to the social order. That is why the need to analyze the problem of the nature of mass deviations is relevant.Recent research and publications analysis. The results of scientific investigations of deviant behavior as a social phenomenon have found theoretical justification in the numer- ous works of sociologists, conflictologists, philosophers, culturologists, psychologists, jurists: I. Bakum, K. Bartol, G. Becker, R. Blackborn, T. Garasimov, J. D. Downs, P. Rock and Y. McLaughlin, I. Zhdanova, T. Zelinskaya, M. Inderbitsin, K. A. Bates, R. R. Heine,N. Kivenko, Z. Kisil, R.-V. Kisil, J. Kleiberg, L. Kozer, L. Kotlyarova, A. Crossman, C. Lom- broso, E. Manuylov, Y. Kalinovsky, N. Martyniuk, V. Mendelevich, T. Parsons, B. Tkach,K. Horne, E. Erickson and many others.Paper objective – disclosure of the functional conditionality of the objective nature of deviation as a social phenomenon inherent in any society.Paper main body. A methodological distinction between deviance as a system of cer- tain individual and social anti-values has been made. The methodological basis of this distinction was the comparative analysis of nonconformist (“fundamental deviation”) and aberrant (“appropriate deviation”) behavior proposed by R. Merton. It is shown how the morphogenesis of aberrant behavior forms the mechanism of transition of individual anti- values into social ones. Initially, aberrations remain in the private sphere and have no social consequences, but over time, deviations spread, especially when most people see that violators thrive and become a “role model” (according to R. Merton), and the devia- tion becomes regular. The next step – common in society aberrant behavior seeks to weaken or even destroy the legitimacy of institutional norms in force in the system, result- ing in the institutionalization of deviations. This is due, firstly, to the regular nature of aberrations, secondly, the transition of deviations from the private to the public, thirdly, the well-established “social mechanics” of deviations and, finally, the rarity of penalties for aberrant behavior or its symbolic sanctions. As a result, three variants of institutional- ized deviations are formed: “normative erosion”, which is assoc