Free Essays on Deviance

Deviance – Teen Sex I’ve chosen to interview a friend who I will refer to as â€Å"Betty† for this project. Betty began her deviant sexual behavior as a 14-year-old ninth grader. It was a conscious rebellion against her social and family norms. While sex at the age of 14 is against our social norms, premarital sex at any age was against Betty’s family norms. She was brought up in a strict, religious family where having sex outside marriage was not permitted. According to Robert Merton’s typology, Betty was in the category of rebellion. By having sex at a young age, she rejected the institutional means of approving the cultural goals. Betty often felt guilty, but still continued to have [protected] sex throughout her high school years. Her behavior seemed to be her way of secretly getting back at her parents and the rigid church/private school environment she was being brought up in. After all, in society’s view she was still a great student who graduated second in her class, was involved in school and community activities, and was a picture of the perfect daughter. Most likely, this justified any guilt she had over her sexual activity. Even though she was sexually active, her deviant behavior did not seem to hinder her relationships with peers who were not sexually active. Betty’s rationale is that because she had three long-term relationships during high school she was not considered promiscuous, which kept her from getting labeled as a â€Å"bad girl.† Also, in the 70’s there were other good students who basically used sex in the same way she did to rebel against family and societal norms. Her behavior became apparent to her parents once she got involved with a 24-year-old at the young age of 17. They correctly assumed that there would be only one reason a man of that age would hang around with a young girl. Betty never actually left the deviant role, she just became of legal age to conduct he... Free Essays on Deviance Free Essays on Deviance Quit often in our day-to-day lives we hear the word "deviance†, but never truly know the concepts behind it. It is not a complicated term although it is one with many theories behind it giving a vast variety of interpretations of just what deviance is and is not. Questions arise as to its relativity. Of course, no one can proclaim deviance is not relative, as deviance is behavior that does not follow common perceptions. An important sociological concept states that people conform, or perform to societal expectation or norms (Brown, 1965). Conformity provides order in the society. Thus, when someone is doing something that the rest of society find unacceptable, or out of the ordinary, he or she is considered deviant. While the definition of deviance may appear obvious, this is not necessarily the case for the sociology community. The sociology of deviance contains definitions of an extensive nature, which are branched off into several perspective groups. For example, sociologist Erving Goffman applies the concept of stigma, or more commonly, labeling; stating that ones behavior and actions deemed deviant are applied by others (Turner, 1996). Howard Becker’s definition seems to be commonly accepted as an adequate description of this concept, asserting that deviance is whatever a social audience reacts against or labels as deviant. However, another sociologist, Erdwin Pfuhl, believes that the label â€Å"deviant† depends on a group’s notion of actions and conditions that should and should not occur. This view also suggests that labels of deviance can change within different societies and times. One might ask why there are so many interpretations of deviance. The answer is rather simple. Due to its relative nature, people will interpret activities quite differently (Clinard, 1998). For instance, within certain sub- cultural groups it is normal to smoke marijuana. Yet, to the larger society, it is considered deviant. This is ... Free Essays on Deviance A person would be considered to be acting deviantly in societ... A person would be considered to be acting deviantly in society if they are violating what the significant social norm in that particular culture is. What causes humans to act certain ways is a disputed topic among researchers for some time now. There are three types of researchers that have tried to answer this question. There is the psychological answer, biological answer, and the sociological answer. With all of the studies that have been performed, no one group has come up with an exact reason to why people behave deviantly. Although, sociologists’ theories have not been disproved as often as the psychologists’ and biologists’ theories because their experiments are too hard to define and no one definition for deviance is agreed upon by all experimenters (Pfuhl, 40). My own curiosity to find out what the influences are behind deviant behavior is the purpose for this paper. We have already discussed this topic during class in part two, chapter four of the textbo ok which explains deviance and crime. This section talks more about deviance being a learned behavior. I wanted to find out more information to see if biological factors are also behind this kind of behavior. The most knowledge acquired for why people act deviantly is from the sociological perspective. There is need for more research, if possible, in the psychological and biological perspectives, but there is a lot more known in the sociological viewpoint. The reality that the definition of deviant behavior is considered different by everyone makes it complicated and unknown if a truly accurate answer can ever be found (Pfuhl 18). This is why this topic is important to the study of sociology. Sociologists have more information, and therefore may be closer to finding the cause. For this reason, my main focus in this paper is at the sociological stand point of deviance with some explanations from psychologist... Free Essays on Deviance Deviance – Teen Sex I’ve chosen to interview a friend who I will refer to as â€Å"Betty† for this project. Betty began her deviant sexual behavior as a 14-year-old ninth grader. It was a conscious rebellion against her social and family norms. While sex at the age of 14 is against our social norms, premarital sex at any age was against Betty’s family norms. She was brought up in a strict, religious family where having sex outside marriage was not permitted. According to Robert Merton’s typology, Betty was in the category of rebellion. By having sex at a young age, she rejected the institutional means of approving the cultural goals. Betty often felt guilty, but still continued to have [protected] sex throughout her high school years. Her behavior seemed to be her way of secretly getting back at her parents and the rigid church/private school environment she was being brought up in. After all, in society’s view she was still a great student who graduated second in her class, was involved in school and community activities, and was a picture of the perfect daughter. Most likely, this justified any guilt she had over her sexual activity. Even though she was sexually active, her deviant behavior did not seem to hinder her relationships with peers who were not sexually active. Betty’s rationale is that because she had three long-term relationships during high school she was not considered promiscuous, which kept her from getting labeled as a â€Å"bad girl.† Also, in the 70’s there were other good students who basically used sex in the same way she did to rebel against family and societal norms. Her behavior became apparent to her parents once she got involved with a 24-year-old at the young age of 17. They correctly assumed that there would be only one reason a man of that age would hang around with a young girl. Betty never actually left the deviant role, she just became of legal age to conduct he... Free Essays on Deviance Each individual in society has their own definition of Deviance, I define deviance as mishaps in a persons beliefs, behaviors, and conditions that society feels is different. Because each person can define deviance’s in different ways, people often take offense to something one person considers deviant and another does not. For example, a handicap would not consider their condition deviance, but many people in society label the handicap as different. When people are labeled different they are treated different. As in, when I attend Rave parties society views me as deviant. To society rave people are drug addicts and troublemakers, but to me I define the party as a place to enjoy music. Music in its self is an art, and to us this is a wonderful way to express your love for the art of music. To others in society they see only the bad side of the event, we as people who enjoy the music only see the good, and we don’t consider ourselves different. I carry on a norma l day to day life, and at times on the weekends I enjoy relaxing with friends at a party. I can also remember when I went through the stage of bagging jeans and tight shirts strangers eyeing me as different. The look to others is different and considered deviant. While walking through stores I would constantly see workers following me, in assumptions that I would steal. I now know this is a form of deviance that many people who enjoy wearing those clothes deal with every day. To me these feelings of deviance are only small and un harmful, but to others who get accused of much larger forms of deviance feel much more pain and suffering on a daily basis....