Social Construction Of Deviance Essay

Many people wonder what the term deviance means. Deviance is created by society and for deviant to take place there are four conditions that would be needed. You need roles, a violator, an audience, and a negative reaction. It states “The degree to which others will respond to a given act as deviant varies greatly” (Becker,20,68). Throughout the semester we learned that something is deviant when it is not accepted by society. A person who conforms to being deviant is breaking rules that society have adapted as a norm. Deviance is established by those

"...social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction creates deviance, and by applying those roles to particular people and labelling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by other of rules and sanctions to an 'offender. ' The deviant is one to whom that label has been successfully applied; deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label."

While Psychology looks for reasons within the individual to explain deviant behaviors (genetic predispositions, personality disorders, etc.), Sociology looks for explanations outside the individual in relation to social experiences and factors . Deviance is the violation of norms and it varies from culture to culture. The textbook claims that “In the broadest sense, deviance refers to the socially disapproved behavior - the violation of some agreed-on norm that prevails in a community or in society at large” (Newman,2006,pg. 236). However it's not the act but the reactions to the act that make something deviant. In sociology there are two types of deviances, there is formal and informal. Some Formal examples of deviance would be murder, rape, robberies, physical assault, or some other form of crime. While informal deviances would be burping loudly, passing gas and, picking your nose in

Deviance is what is considered a violation of cultural norms, and is something that is frowned upon due to social norms. Society attempts to regulate people's thoughts and behaviors for social control. There is a huge connection between the two because deviance varies with cultural norms, people become deviant when others define them as such and both norms and the definition given involve social power. Lets take the example of Brent Staple; new to New York, and was a graduate student who had been an avid nightwalker. Mr. Staples became painfully aware that society had seen him as deviant, because when they looked at him all they saw was a black man wearing bulky clothes late at night walking around ready to attack someone. They

Deviance is a violation of social norms, that is behavior that is known as violating expected rules and norms. And is not always punishable the social setting in which it occurs should be understood.

The word deviance as described by (Merriam-Webster Dictionary-online. 2014), denotes “an abnormal and strange or unacceptable behavior”, however, sociologist define deviance as simply any violations of society’s norms. This means that deviance can have a multitude of ranges from something a person or society

Crime is generally defined to violate the criminal law which then deals with the punishment through the legal system. Deviance is a much wider and unclear impression than crime, which makes it more difficult to define. Deviance exists in relation to what considered "normal" in society. Crime and deviance crash in various categories since criminal acts are often viewed as deviant acts.Which makes the two go back to back when comparing their differences.Then there’s the question we as individuals often ask ourselves,why do people break the law?There are several reasons to why people break the law or commit other deviant non-law violating acts due to how society tends to treat them.Consequently, if you take a look at how society treats one another,

In our society, we have constructed an abundance of concepts such as gender, time, race, and the meaning of animals. Another concept that we have constructed is deviance. The formal definition of deviance is the fact or state of departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social behavior. This is constructed because by defining what is normal or what the accepted standards are, society defines what is deviant. This also means that deviants are constructed. This concept was originally used by sociologists to encompass crime, mental illness, drug use, and sexual misbehavior. This is an important concept to understand because of how prominent in our society it is. It is also important because it varies from society to society.

Deviance is any behavior that violate social principles and values resulting in specific prohibition ( https://www.timeshighereducation.com ) but this behavior can vary over time and place ,what may be deviant in one society won’t be in another or it may even be a desirable behavior ,social norms are continually evolving depending on culture religion world affairs …

Great post! You did a nice job defining deviance as a whole. A theory closely associated with this term is labeling theory. Labeling theory is one of the most important approaches to understanding deviant and criminal behavior within sociology. Labeling theory begins with the assumption that no act is intrinsically criminal. Definitions of criminality are established by those in power through the formulation of laws and the interpretation of those laws by police, courts, and correctional institutions. Deviance is therefore not a set of characteristics of individuals or groups, but rather it is a process of interaction between deviants and non-deviants and the context in which criminality is being interpreted. Again great post!

All over the world people are committing crimes, violent crime or property crime. Most of the time the crime is not exposed because the people in the community do a good job of covering it up or even working together to prevent the crime from happening. A crime is something that may not be considered illegal but it may very well be shameful or wrong which makes a crime deviant. The Crime in Chicago is considered Deviance because it goes against the social norm and the values and expectations of the city (Macionis).

Deviance can be described as a violation of social norms, this violation can vary in extremity but nevertheless is still a violation (Henslin 158). Deviant actions are described based on the reaction of society towards the action, this means that deviant acts can differ from person to person based on opinions. Deviant acts in themselves don't always have to be negative but are given a negative connotation due to society's opinion on the actions. Socialization creates these norms that keep order, deviance is the destruction of this order.

When defining deviance, it’s a behavior that is recognized as violating expected rules and norms and behavior that departs significantly from social expectations. In the sociological perspective on deviance, there is subtlety that distinguishes it from our commonsense understanding of the same behavior. Sociologists stress social context, not just individual behavior. That is, deviance is looked at in terms of group processes, definitions, and judgments, and not just as unusual individual acts. Sociologists who study deviance and crime look into cultural norms, how they change over time, how they are enforced, and what happens to individuals and societies when norms are broken.

In Calhoun and Conyers’ (2006) article, A Sociology of Deviance in the New Millennium, they discussed the decline of deviant behavior as a result of more open-minded perspectives of people. In more recent years society has seemed to be more lenient on unusual behaviors so defining deviance has become a very “gray” area. Also, Calhoun and Conyers believe that the “…study of deviant behavior needs to be reframed to effectively rise to its past prominence” (2006). In their article (Calhoun & Conyers, 2006) they also brought up the aspect of cultural relativism versus deviance and since the United States is becoming progressively diverse the leniency of deviance has broadened.

Deviance is the fact or state of diverging from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behavior. In our lives we have all done deviant act, but some people have done more deviant acts than others. They are formal or informal acts. Some examples of deviant acts many of us have done are cheating on an exam, drinking alcohol although you may not be 21. But the more serious acts are robbery, rape, theft and assault. There are four major perspectives of deviance in society. Socialization and structure opportunity which is the idea of “differential learning” meaning there are people who learn at different rates. Functionalist perspective means that things exist in society because they have a function. In terms of deviance, it’s functional and we need it to live. Society needs people to be deviant in order to know what the rules are. Deviance and crime are necessary we need it to construct the social norms; the norms become more evident in its occasional violation. In other words, we need people to break the rules in order for people to know what the rules are. Conflict models message is certain groups maintain their status by using resources and preventing lower groups from moving up in the social hierarchy. Deviance arises out of the tension between economic, religious social classes. People in power define what is considered deviant. The labeling theory focuses on if one is deviant if successful defined as such. A survey was conducted in our class and the