Deviance: Social Control Essay

“Deviance in sociological context describes actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms including formally-enacted rules (e.g., crime) as well as informal violations of social norms.”

Deviance and its control then involve a process of social definition which involves the response from others to an individual's behavior which is how an individual views himself.

Deviance is defined as “a violation of social norms”. Society expects everyone to know and recognize the social norms that are deemed acceptable. But where do we as a whole recognize that often times than not, a lot of individuals are not able to comply with these norms due to certain situations that prohibit them from doing so, no matter how hard they try.

Deviance is the behavior and the standards of expectations of a group or society. It is also behavior that is considered dangerous, threatening or offensive. The people that are deviant are often labeled to be weirdos, oddballs, or creeps. In the United States, people with tattoos, drug addicts, alcoholics, and compulsive gamblers are all considered deviant. Sociologists believe that everybody is deviant from time to time. They believe each person will violate a social norm in certain situations. People are considered deviant if they don't stand for the national anthem at a sports event, dress casually to a fancy restaurant, or skip classes. One category of deviance is Crime. Crime is a violation of norms

In sociology, the term deviance refers to all violations of social rules, regardless of their seriousness (Essentials of Sociology 136). Deviance is an individual or organizational behavior that violates societal norms and is usually accompanied by negative reactions from others. According to a sociologist S. Becker, he stated that it is not the act itself that makes an action deviant, but rather how society reacts to it.

The Three Main Theories of Deviance and Their Strengths and Weaknesses A functionalist analysis of deviance looks for the source of deviance in the nature of society rather than in the biological or psychological nature of the individual. Although functionalists agree that social control mechanisms such as the police and the courts are necessary to keep deviance in check, many argue that a certain amount of deviance can contribute to the well-being of society. Durkhiem (1895) believed that: * Crime is an 'integral part of all healthy societies'.

The four theories of deviance are The Learning Theory, The Strain Theory, The Social-Bond Theory and the Labeling Theory. These theories alone can explain the reasoning behind someone’s deviant behavior. But, in There Are No Children Here we see all of these theories being demonstrated. This lets us have an understanding of exactly why we are seeing the deviant behavior that we are.

Deviance is an act that doesn’t accept to norms, instead it refers to these people who act like they are all socially explained by the society as deviant. Forms of deviant behavior could be like drug abuse which can affect our society. Some people mostly teenagers make use of drugs because of many reasons like how they were raised, depression, getting rejected and of course the society. The next problem I will be talking about is a big part in social control and that is crime.

Deviance can be defined as an absence of conformity to the social norm. Not all deviant behavior is necessarily illegal or harmful to individuals, these behaviors can range from standing in another’s personal space to murdering another individual. In some cases, it can be looked upon as a positive change or a unique and favorable act. Although, considered deviant because it is not the social norm, it still can have a very positive social aspect or lead to social change. Culture and the societies within these cultures have a significant impact on what is considered deviant and what is acceptable or even lawful behavior. The degree of deviance is measured by society’s reaction towards the action and the lawful sanctions that may take

As we all have observed, throughout history each culture or society has unique norms that are acceptable to that group of people. Therefore, to establish and come to the acceptance of these basic norms, each society must develop its’ own strategies and techniques to encourage the fundamentals of behavior, which is clear in our modern society. Most do assume that everyone in a society will follow and respect such norms. However, some tend to deviate from the adequate norms and demonstrate deviant behavior. Nevertheless, we are inclined to ask ourselves, why do people decide to violate such important standards of living?

Deviance is defined in four ways, statistical, absolutist, reactivist, and normative. Statistical deviance is a deviance that is infrequent in terms of its commanlity. Statistical deviance can be useful because it allows a number to be placed on an area of deviance, this definition lacks because although something is rare it does not necessarily make it a deviant. The absolutist definition deals with “a violation of standards” . This definition is subjective, because standards and norms vary from place to place it raises the questions of what standards, who makes the standards, and where these standards apply. Reactivist is the next definition of deviance, this definition focuses on the reaction of others. This definition lacks due to the

Quite frequently in our day-to-day lives we hear the word "deviance”, but we never really know the concepts behind it, although, deviance exists in almost every society. It is recognized as a term with many theories behind it which gives an immense range of interpretations of what deviance is and is not. According to Brym and Lie, deviance is defined as “departure from a norm that evokes a negative reaction from others” (2015:96). In other words, when someone is doing something that the rest of the society finds improper, or out of the ordinary, deviance is usually the term that defines those actions. Likewise, there are many examples of deviance that we experience in our daily lives, but not come to notice it, such as nose picking, dying your hair blue, walking backwards, skipping classes, and much more. Like many others, I have also participated and experienced deviance throughout my life, and one of them was attending a friend’s wedding who had a lower status than compared to mine. In the following essay, I will be explaining how I have experienced deviance through a theoretical perspective and how sociological imagination has assisted me in understanding my example better.

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

The word deviance is more thought of as a way to define unacceptable behavior, but in the sociological field deviance is simply any violation of society’s norms. Ranging from a minor infraction, such as a traffic violation or improper attire, to an act or behavior highly seen as immoral, such as robbery or murder. Each society defines for itself what they view as deviant behavior and what they choose to find acceptable; how one society chooses to define deviance differs widely from another, even in the world we know today. Some societies choose to have more strict cultural ruling regarding gender roles than we have in the United States, and still other societies’ rules governing gender roles are far more lenient than our own.

Deviance can be looked at from conflict theorist perspective. According to the conflict perspective, deviance is a social creation and the power in society defines what is normal and what is not. Power can manipulate others. In relation to the Unites States society, a deviant behavior like abortion, shooting innocent and unarmed people, and child abuse is seen as a deviant behavior. These acts are punishable by the law. Conflict theorists draw attention to power differences, such as class conflict. The powerful have the ability to change norms, then wealth and status comes into conflict with the individual. The legal rights of the poor might be ignored, while the middle class side with the elites rather than the poor. The upper class in our society is the social class