Contravention takes many forms and is expressed in delaying tactics, in denouncing, thwarting, frustrating others, and in spreading rumors and “smears” and conducting whispering campaigns. The use of the stereotype, especially one that emphasizes the negative qualities of a person or category, is a most common instrument of contravention.

Contravention is not sociologically significant if it is restricted merely to a person-to-person basis. When two neighbors spread idle gossip about one another, it may not be sociologically serious. However, contravention is often carried on in an organized manner between larger categories of population, between different religious group, social classes, races, and between organized management and organized labor.