How marginal deviations grow into chronic deviance

We offer a theory of marginal deviations that articulates the processes through which initial behavior that is only slightly deviant from the norm gets transformed into more serious antisocial outcomes. We present evidence that, of the one third of the population that is marginally deviant, about one fourth (or 8% of the total population) becomes seriously deviant over time. Hypothesized factors in this transformation involve the child actor, peer observer–judges, and social transactions between them in processes that derive from self-fulfilling prophecies and dynamic systems theory. Hypotheses and studies are proposed to address the circumstances and processes that determine whether a marginal deviation will be bought back to the norm (through assimilation and attenuation) or accelerated to severe deviance (through accommodation and amplifi- cation).