So after seeing noah on saturday and telling me that I should post the paper I'm writing for my sociology of deviance class I decided hell why not? here it is? enjoy... or not.

I assert that rave culture constitutes a deviant subculture as its participants are often in conflict with dominant cultural values or norms regarding what is acceptable recreational behavior. These participants would seem to often suffer feelings of alienation or rather boredom in their everyday lives, and look to raves or raving as a method of retreating temporarily without fear of being sanctioned for their “misconducts”.

Raves or the act of raving could be considered deviant from several different perspectives. The first and most obvious relates to formal normative orders regarding drug usage, in which ravers find themselves in direct violation of the criminal normative order. There is also a frequent if not blatant disregard for rules within the setting of raves themselves, as minors have little to no difficulty gaining entry to establishments which may be serving alcohol – this could constitute a misdemeanor offense and serve as a basis for judging one as being delinquent.

Besides violations of formal normative orders as aforementioned, there is also a consistent violation of informal normative orders concerning folkways or orthodoxy. The rampant promiscuous sex that goes on within the community could easily be labeled sinful and unorthodox. It might even be possible to label certain behavior as “sick” or in violation of Nancy Heitziq’s medical normative order in case of sexual predators who may be attending parties with the sole desire of drugging or finding drugged up young girls (or boys) to take home with them. The idea of going out at midnight and returning the following day around noon constitutes a nocturnal lifestyle which may also be seen as deviant in itself from the objective standpoint that people work or go to school during the day, and sleep during the evening. The informal dress code consisting of ridiculously large clothing and an abundance of plastic jewelry that one witnesses at raves, also suggests a degree of alienation and rejection of dominant cultural values concerning what is normal by its sheer contradiction with conventional apparel.

Concerning behavior at raves, there is a not so subtle abundance of drug use if not binge drinking where sober people often find themselves constituting a minority. It follows suit that as a result of the plethora of intoxicated people, there is also a considerable amount of people who “hook up” at raves, many of which actually go to raves for this very reason (by “hooking up” I am referring to those who engage in sexual endeavors either during or after any given party with little to no prior familiarity with said person). Another consistency to be noted in rave behavior is the element of dancing. Dancing at raves is taken seriously in the sense that a majority of people attend with intentions to “dance the night away” but it is important to note that styles of dance may vary as much as the participants themselves and concerning the steps and format of the dance, there is little to none besides the basic prerequisite of moving with the music.

The inconsistencies in rave behavior are largely dependent of the subgenre of electronic music being hammered through the skulls of its participants, and so vary drug choice, dance styles, clothing styles, and methods of approaching the opposite sex. For example, at a happy hardcore party (a loud, cheesy type of techno based on a 4/4 time signature at high speeds) one might find several hundred kids (ages 15-20) bouncing up in down decked out “to the max” in plastic jewelry sucking on pacifiers to calm the quenching of their jaw while at a typical drum and bass party (a more sophisticated format of electronic based on compound time signatures or “breakbeats”) , one is more likely to find people aged of 20 to 30 years standing around nodding their heads or tapping their feet whilst drinking beer, smoking weed, or doing cocaine in the bathroom – again not so subtly. The point is that while these elements may vary in accordance with the subgenre of music, drug usage, “hooking up”, spending time with friends or making new ones, and dance remain a consistent characteristic of rave behavior in general.

A final consistency to be noted in rave behavior is the group mentality that exists at any party. As a consequence of this group mentality, certain norms, roles, and patterns of behavior are developed and maintained. It might be considered normative that in attending parties, one demonstrates intentions of intoxicating themselves although as I aforementioned this may not always be the case, and the choice of intoxicants may be genre-specific. There is a distinct informal normative order concerning what is appropriate to wear in terms of clothing: The clothes that one chooses to wear serve to identify that person as either a typical raver (candy kid, junglist, electroclash, etc), an impostor of sorts (if one attempts to meet the informal dress code but fails) or someone who just happened to drop in to see what all the commotion was about. These elements could be considered folkways surrounding the rave subculture.

Just as there are folkways regarding norms at raves, there are also morés and taboos which govern said behaviors. Raver’s typically like to sum them up with the acronym “PLUR” or Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. To elaborate, participants at raves are expected to be friendly and cordial to one another at all times, to refrain from judging others for their faults, and above all to never engage in physical violence of any sort as it pollutes the “vibe”. These norms are morés or rules to raving in the sense that a violation of them, is viewed as an offense to the rave community as a whole and sanctions may include expulsion from the party, or the possibility of being shunned from ones peers within the community.

There are also distinct roles played by the participants at raves. They may be summed up as the following: “Newbies” or spectators – people who are attending a rave for their first time, “party kids” – people who attend regularly and most frequently engage in drugs, promiscuous sex, and dancing and who constitute the majority of rave attendees, dealers – people who may have an interest in raving but also attend parties as a means of finding abundant clientele for their illegitimate enterprises, Djs – the people who play the music, and promoters – the people who invest their money to throw the events either for monetary benefit or for the love of parties themselves.

As both norms, and roles clearly exist at raves, sufficient evidence exists to say that raves do constitute a subculture. The norms serve to govern the behaviors which ensue at parties, while the roles played by the participants aid in the socialization of new attendees as well as the maintenance of these norms, the end result being an intricate system of patterned and learned behavior, and therefore a subculture.

Because rave behavior really only occurs within the rave setting itself, the establishment in which any given party takes place is an essential prerequisite for a rave. It would be very difficult to throw a rave without first having a sound system, dj gear, lights and a venue to populate. Typically speaking, venues within the city limits are either clubs being rented, large loft spaces, or community spaces such as bingo halls, and church basements. Outside the city, raves may be found in woodsy park type areas, summer camps, abandoned factories, or makeshift easy assemble/disassemble buildings similar to military housing. In any case, the setting offers a semi-controlled environment shielded from the view of the public which would probably not approve of the events unfolding. Security is often lax, a token of sorts serving primarily as a basis for maintaining the legitimacy of a party, thus keeping police out. As security is lax, ravers find themselves enabled to have a good time with little to no hassle in terms of the many rules they’re breaking – especially those concerning drugs. To prove my point further it may be interesting to note that one of the men working security at the door to the rave I attended on Saturday asked me if I knew where to find him some “peach”, or street speed in pill format.

As the setting of rave behavior is of paramount importance and the primary prerequisite for any given party, it is difficult to say that non-participants exist at parties, unless you include security and venue owners. Let me explain: In order to gain entry to a party one must either pay the ticket price, or somehow be affiliated with the production either as a dj, or a promoter . In any case, entry to the rave implicitly means that one is participating in one way or another in rave behavior. It could be posited that non-participants exist as in the case of security and club owners if one considers that they are there working as opposed to partying.

Nonetheless, they still constitute an integral part of the setting and are necessary elements for a rave to take place. To an even lesser extent one could also argue that a spectator or someone who came for the sole purpose of investigating a rave is not a participant, but again, by paying cover charges, they are consequently participating in the maintenance and development of said rave. Thus I maintain that non-participants do not really exist concerning rave behavior, and therefore we cannot evaluate their reactions to it.

After interviewing several different ravers (I posit that the Hawthorne effect holds no weight in the context of my observations) on their opinions regarding deviance and the notion of labels placed on rave culture I arrived at an interesting conclusion I had not expected. All of them argued that they were not deviants while at the same time agreeing that their behavior was unorthodox and unacceptable in terms of dominant cultural norms. They also demonstrated sociological competence, in that they were attending school, college, or working jobs – I even bumped into one other person like myself doing a photo journal for some class. They viewed their conflict with the greater society lightly, and while rejecting certain folkways concerning what is appropriate recreational behavior, they were not anarchists or rebels seeking to change the nature of society itself or utopians trying to create a new one. This seems a perfect illustration of primary deviance in the sense that ravers do not view their rave identity as their primary identity and most seem to live perfectly normal lives outside of the rave setting.

The concept of sanctionless norms seems to be of some significance as well in the sense that these ravers escape stigma resulting from labels ascribed by the public as the public does not have the opportunity to see them on an individual level, hence the negative connotation of “raver” cannot be properly applied to any given individual unless he/she explicitly acknowledges this secondary identity. To conclude, I assert that because the norms being violated within the setting of the rave subculture, are sanctionless norms, in the sense that their violation has little impact on the general public, ravers are enabled to keep the status of their deviance as primary as opposed to becoming engulfed in this deviant role.