Mickey’s other forms of deviance, such as the con-artistry he displays throughout the film, his heavy drinking, and his constant obsession with getting his mum a nice caravan, could probably be explained in similar ways, but his boxing career provides the clearest example. Still, it is profitable to consider his bargaining, as it allows some discussion regarding the formation of the deviant subculture to which he belongs, and why these disreputable business practices are necessary for the Travelers. The Travelers are a (occasionally) nomadic group who aren’t able to be catalogued, sorted, and surveilled in the same way sedentary populations are (Mulcahy 308). This fosters distrust between the Travelers and the sedentary groups they interact with, and it means Travelers can’t participate in things like public education, social security and welfare. It also makes it nearly impossible for Travelers to find any sort of legal employment. As a result, Travelers are,  on average, less educated, less literate, have higher unemployment rates, and score worse on a host of other measures of social health (Mulcahy 311). This leads to a self-perpetuating cycle in which Travelers are seen as disreputable, harassed by law enforcement, and excluded from society, which necessitates deviant activity in order to survive, which leads to more distrust and social exclusion. The cycle goes on and on until eventually the Travelers have built a community where a large source of income revolves around making shady deals and running cons on people. Mickey grew up in this society, and as a result he learned how, when, and why to make these shady deals, much as described in the previous paragraph about his learning about boxing.
Mickey isn’t the only deviant character in the film, though. Among the abundance of other deviant characters are Sol and Vinny, the pawn brokers who robbed Bricktop’s bookie, and their getaway driver Tyrone. Shortly after the robbery, Bricktop finds Tyrone, attacks him with dogs, and demands to know where Sol and Vinny are. In the next scene, Bricktop arrives at the pawn shop enraged, threatening to chop them up and feed them to pigs. As Bricktop’s goons are shoving the three of them into body bags, they inform him about the humongous diamond and promise to get it for him in exchange for their lives. Their actions here and for the rest of the film are explicable using strain theory. Strain theory holds that deviance is used as a coping mechanism for strain, or as a way to avoid a threatened strain. Within general strain theory, strain takes three forms: removal of positive stimuli, presentation of negative stimuli, or the inability to achieve a desired goal (Thio 8). It would seem, to me at least, that the threat of a gruesome and painful death constitutes the presentation of a negative stimulus. This negative stimulus leads to a negative affective state, fear, which leads to further antisocial behaviour. Tyrone’s betrayal, the admission about the diamond, and all of the deviant and criminal acts the trio commit throughout the rest of the movie, then, are a desperate attempt to alleviate the strain caused by Bricktop’s death threats. The strain generated by death threats is a powerful tool, indeed. Not only do the pawn brokers confront bullet-tooth Tony, a very very scary man, armed with nothing but fake guns, but later after they’ve got the diamond, Vincent asks Sol why they don’t just take it and leave, becoming incredibly rich in the process. The response he gets is ‘Because life's too short, Vincent, and it'll get a lot fucking shorter if Bricktop wishes it to be.’. These men, who earlier were willing to rob a bookie and kidnap a stranger for a mere ten thousand pounds (about 12,500 US dollars) are completely unwilling to cross Bricktop even though the reward would be worth several million pounds. Instead they try to deliver it but are foiled, and soon afterwards many characters die, including Bricktop. Sol and Vinny are saved from death at Bricktop’s hands, but are arrested at the end of the movie with two corpses in the back of their car. 
