Deviance appears in our daily life, we may consider a lot of actions as deviant. However what is deviance actually mean to us? Deviance describes actions or behaviors that violate social norm. social norm could differ from culture to culture or different period of time in the same culture. Deviant acts can either be criminal or not criminal, many deviant acts are not regarded as crime or only become decriminalized recently. That is the reason that deviance is relative, norms can be modified within different culture or even the same culture in different periods, there cannot be absolute or fixed standard for deviance.
Deviance can separate as two kind of deviant act, primary deviance and Secondary Deviance. Primary Deviance means any general deviance, but Secondary deviance any action that takes place after primary deviance as reaction to the institutional identification of the person as deviant. In Fouctionalist Perspective, deviance is an innovative force of society, all societies need to progress and all social changes begin with some form of deviance.
Durkheim claimed that deviance was in fact a normal and necessary part of social organization, he thinks a serious form of deviance forces people to come together and react in the same way against it and people learn right from wrong by defining people as deviant. In interactionist perspective view “deviance” as a socially constructed phenomenon and “deviance” is what is so defined by society. The main Theory in interaction perspective is labeling theory, it holds that deviance is not inherent to an act but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms.
The Essay on Culture and Cultural Norms
Culture can be referred to as a people’s way of life. It can be used to refer to the way we live and all that goes along with our life. That means that for us to have a life we have to be affiliated to a certain culture or to belong to a certain culture. To be in a certain culture, one has to comply will the cultural values, norms and expectations. Cultural values can be used or rather the term ...
There are two kind of deviance in labeling theory. First is the primary deviance, which is mean any general deviance before the deviant is labeled. Second is the secondary deviance, which is caused by those who are first labeled to cope with the impacts from such label. “social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction creates deviance, and by applying those roles to particular people and labeling them as outside. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of 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 behavior is behavior that people so label” said by Howard Saul Becker. In a word, what Howard Saul Becker mean is “it is not the act itself, but the reaction to the act that make something deviant In order to study how far could becker’s perspective be applied in our daily life, I have done some case study. First is the parallel trader in sheung shui, since parallel trader appears in sheung shui appear, milk power shortage was became a huge problem in sheung shui.
The reactions of the public including government come together and react in the same way against it by labeling the parallel trading as a deviant act and even the government had arrested 406 people in total. In this case, primary deviance is applicable due to primary deviance is any general act. However, secondary deviance is not applicable due to the parallel trader keep doing this because of the economic incentive instead of they are labeled cannot escape from this label and act accordingly. The society and public keep telling us parallel trader are affecting Hong Kong and negatively label them.
The Essay on Deviant Acts In Society
In modern day society, people have yet to overcome the primal fear of what is different or not a norm. This cause a great controversy over deviant acts such as abortion, capital punishment, suicide, premarital sex, and drug use. Deviance is defined as the violation of rules or norms. The result of being apart of a close-minded society causes the deviancies to be inherently wrong in many people s ...
In this case, parallel trading actually is not a deviant act because those trader actually are just trading goods to mainland China, but they society consider it is a deviant act and negatively label them due to their acts are affecting the prices in Hong Kong. To conclude, Becker’s perspective can applied to this case, because parallel trade is not a deviant act but the society view it is deviance by the reaction from the public. The other case study is drug abuse; the society and government keep telling us to stay away from drug by setting a lot of anti-drug policies.
For example the compulsory drug test scheme in schools or broadcast some television announcement, those policies gives us a bad image of taking drug and negatively labels the drug abuser. Cannabis considered to be drug in Hong Kong, therefore the public consider smoke cannabis is deviant. However, since cannabis is legalized in Netherland people no longer view smoke cannabis as deviant. It shows that a deviant act can be committed in one society that breaks a social norm there, but may be normal for another society.
The case above shows the dominant group has power to decide what is deviant and acceptable, not due to the act itself, but the reaction to the act. To a large extent, this perspective be applied to this case. The next case is fraud and abuse of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance(CSSA).
First of all CSSA is providing a safety net for those who cannot support themselves financially, but some people defraud CSSA by hiding the income and escape from reporting properties, financial assets or wealth, for those who defraud or misuse CSSA the society view their action is deviance and even view CSSA Fraud is Criminal Offence.
In Hong Kong, any fraud and abuse of social resources in order to gain monetary interests are treated as the crime of “theft” so that the general public considers this action as deviant. However, such behavior or even corruption in Mainland China might consider as normal so as to maintain better relationship with the government officials and business partners. The explaination above shows that CSSA Fraud consider be deviance not about the action itself, but the reaction to the act, and also socialization affects the determination of anti-deviance in one society.
The Essay on Deviance Deviant Act
The difference between a deviant act and a deviant career is different in many ways. For one to start off by talking about a deviant career. A deviant career has phases that the people involved in it go through. The fist of those phases is entering the deviant career the second is being deviant and the third is exiting the deviant career. People involved in a deviant career also goes through ' ...
In addition, about the labeling theory to this case is applicable but it does not cause secondary deviance due to the one who defraud CSSA can no longer apply for CSSA and will be put into jail so that the labeling theory to this case does not cause further deviance. To conclude this case, the majority has the power to decide what deviance is and they organize actions to against those who are considered as deviant. Becker’s perspective “it is not the action itself , but the reaction to the act, that make something deviant” is applicable to this case as well.
The main result of my report is deviance is a relative idea; it can be modified from time to time, culture to culture or even can be changed according several factors such as age, gender… et cetera. In order to prove my result, here are several examples. First is corporal punishment, in the past especially in Chinese society corporal punishment considered as teaching their child, this action was normal to everybody. However, corporal punishment is not acceptable nowadays; it considered was child abuse and even illegal; this example proves deviance is a relative idea; it can be changed from time to time.
The second example is monogamy VS polygamy. In Hong Kong or western country, the custom or practice being married to only one husband or wife, man or woman who has more than one husband or wife considered be deviance. However, in some country like Libya or Qatar, polygamy is acceptable; it shows deviance is relative idea and it can be changed from culture or culture. There is one more example about deviance can be changed by loads of factors. In term of age, people would not consider a three years old kid steal candy from shop as deviance but a forty years old man.
It proves deviance can be changed by a lot of factor. To sum up my view of deviance, it is affirms cultural values and norms, clarifies moral boundaries, promotes social unity and encourages social change. However deviance is a relative idea which differs from different period of time in the same culture or even from culture to culture. It can be affected by loads of factors such as gender, age , time et cetera. The dominant group has power to decide what is deviant and acceptable, therefore it is not about the action itself.
In labeling theory, people usually negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms and the reaction of majorities is to label the person as having offended against their social or moral norms of behavior. It causes further deviance due to the people who are labeled cannot escape from the label and do it accordingly called secondary deviance. At last, the perspective” it is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant” can applied to our society.
The Essay on Culture and Change in The House on Mango Street
The House on Mango Street presents a strong cultural background. Cisnero allows Esperanza to reveal her Mexican background in My Name. Esperanza introduces herself, explaining the meaning of her name and how she inherited it from her grandmother. She shows her love for her culture when she points out how her name sounds better when said in Spanish. She also complains about her disdain for how it ...
