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Deviance In Society

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Deviance Within a Society In speaking of deviance in society in a sociological perspective, two theorists that come to mind are Robert Merton and Emilie Durkheim. In chapter IV of “Social Theory and Social Structure” by Robert Merton, he speaks of how deviance is formed in society which can lead to anomie. In “The Rules of Sociological Method” by Emilie Durkheim, he speaks about the function of crime in a society. These two theorists share similar views regarding the social structure however their views differ regarding the function of deviance. According to Merton, society shares cultural values that are cultural axioms. These common goals are that people should strive for success and there is no such thing as quitting. Although these are
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After reading these articles I garnered a greater insight on what deviance is and how it is formed. According to the Outsiders reading, deviance is essentially a label that is put on a person of whom commits an act or exhibits behaviors that stray from what is normal or expected. These people are therefore also labeled as “outsiders”. Outsiders in that they are seen as those who are to be placed outside of a certain group do to their deviant behaviors. There exist many views of deviance.

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Deviance is categorized as a violation of cultural norms. In order for one to express deviance, they must act out against societal norms which are known as expectations and rules that "lead the way" for how an individual should act. Therefore, its much easier to depict from there that mostly one's society is what ultimately differentiates what the rules and expectations are as well as what it needed to break those rules that they have somewhat instilled and ingrained into our daily lives. To add, due to society and different eras of socialization deviant behavior evolves over time.

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They are tools with which we decide what we experience, why something is the way that it is, and how we might act or react” (Pfohl, 2009, pg. 11). Stephen Pfohl, author of Images of Deviance and Control, examines nine different theoretical perspectives on deviance and control. In the book, each perspective, its deviance, and how it can be studied and controlled is explained. The nine theoretical perspectives of deviance discussed are the demonic perspective (deviance rooted in realm of the supernatural); the classical perspective (deviance as rational hedonism); the pathological perspective (deviance as sickness); the social disorganization perspective (rapid change and normative breakdown); the functionalist perspective (deviance as beneficial or positive); the anomie perspective (normlessness and inequality); the learning perspective (acquiring deviance in association with others); the societal reaction perspective (social construction of deviance); and critical perspectives.

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The strain theory was one of the earliest theories that explained social deviance which was developed by Robert Merton .Merton was proposing a typology of deviance based upon two criteria of which is a person's motivations or their adherence to cultural goals and a person's belief in how to attain his goals. According to Merton, there is a time when cultural defined goals become so oppressive that an individual may feel forced to use alternative methods to reach these goals. According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria which are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. When it comes to conformity it involves the acceptance of the cultural goals and means of attaining those goals. Innovation involves the acceptance of the goals of a culture but the rejection of the legitimate means of attaining those goals.

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Literary nonfiction forms make the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass a personal yet powerful reading. This reading was written by the protagonist himself, Frederick Douglass. On this reading, Douglass discusses his life as a slave, how he was able to achieve some goals and why he did them. To this day, Douglass is a significant person in history because he fought for African Americans rights and freedom. Douglass takes advantage of many literary nonfiction forms such as personal experience, slice of history and personal opinion to aid a message to the readers.

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Deviance is described as a violation of culture norms. In Jonestown as a Perverse Utopian they described it as a cult. There are cults all round the world however, it is not a norm to be in on or know of one personally. On December 8th, due to their utopian cult there was a mass suicide of 911 people. The leader believed that for many years the “followers needed” to be poisoned with opium and then cyanide.

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Module 6: •Define deviance and its relationship to the social context -deviance is a violation of a social norm but not necessarily a violation of our values; people do tend to be put off by deviant behavior, even if it’s relatively harmless; whether or not something is perceived to be deviant depends on the social context in which it occurs •Understand the differences between how conflict theory and functionalism explain deviance -functionalism of deviance -> to affirm cultural values and norms, to clarify moral boundaries, to bring people together, and to encourage social change -according to conflict theory, the most powerful group in society has the power to define what is considered normal and what is considered deviant; each culture has a fair amount of discretion over how it defines what is normal and what is not, however, not all members of a given culture have equal freedom to contribute to such understanding

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Deviance has many functions in society. Although deviance violates social norms, without it, we would not have rules, so it helps form, guide, and shape society’s norms and goals. Social norms are different from culture to culture. Norms that may be acceptable in one culture may be frowned upon in another. Emile Durkheim quotes that “deviance and deviant behavior is an integral part of all healthy societies (Adler, 2014, p74).”

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Sociologists study patterns of deviance and how they differ between cultures. One of the most prominent sociological theories of deviance is Emile Durkheim's deviance

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Lesson, 9 (a). I think that cats are intelligent and my research let's me know that the bees, octopus, elephant, ants, dolphin, crow, cockatoo, anole lizards, and dogs show signs of intelligence. (c). I found a cat an named him Joe I didn't have a littler box yet and was going to get one the next day. Then one morning joe was trying to wake me up taping on my forehead.

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Introduction. Merton was an American Sociologist born on July 4th 1910. He Attended Temple College for undergraduate work and Harvard for graduate work, studying sociology at both and earning his doctorate degree in 1936. Merton taught at a number of universities for many years before retiring from teaching in 1984. Merton has been awarded honorary degrees by more than 20 universities including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Chicago as well as several other universities abroad.

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According to Hunt and Colandar (2011), a word deviant refers to when an individual’s actions contradict with society’s norms. For instance, majority peoples followed norms because society expect individual to behave in morally tolerate with each other. Those failing to conform the norms noted as deviant. In a social context, the task of the society is to blind the action of the social community together. Once failing to act them to the society’s reaction that seem as deviant.

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Dr. Merton expanded on the work of French sociologist Émile Durkheim on anomie with his theory on deviance and social strain. Robert K Merton argued that a society may be set up in a way that promotes too much deviance. He believed that when socially accepted goals and social norms place pressure on individual to conform, they force the person to opt to work within the societally defined structure or be a member of deviant social group in attempt to achieve those goals. Merton termed this theory strain theory. Merton believed that the societies do not provide adequate means of achieving cultural goals.

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Acts that are viewed as deviant vary between social orders. Deviance can be said to be socially built; the general public chooses what is degenerate, individuals or an individual can be named as aberrance because of their societal position, race, ethnicity

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As far as crime is concerned, it is defined by the law. Deviance is unexpected behaviour, but not exactly considered criminal. Many consider crime as a social problem – a problem as defined by society, such as homelessness, drug abuse, etc. Others would say crime is a sociological problem – something defined as a problem by sociologists and should be dealt with accordingly by sociologists. This essay attempts to discover the boundaries between these two and ultimately come to an appropriate conclusion.

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