deviance
...tion describes deviance as a violation of a norm. A norm is a standard about “what human beings should or should not think, say, or do under given circumstances” (8). Violations of norms often results to reactions or punishments from the social audiences. These punishments form the pressures that most people feel to conform to social norms. In a normative conception norms are seen as evaluations of conduct and as expectations or predictions of conduct. The conception based on evaluation recognizes that some conduct such as behavior or beliefs should or should not occur, either in specific situations such as no smoking in public elevators or at any time or place such as not committing murder at all. The portrayal of norms as expectation or predictions emphasizes regularities of behavior based on habit or traditional customs (8). For example, the behavior of a child at church and on the playground is expected to be completely different. When adopting a normative view of deviance, deviance is a pull from norms that result in social disapproval, in which may lead to punishment if detected. In this conception, the idea of a norm is the key element. Norms do not simply exist in society, however are created, maintained, and promoted in competition against one another (9). Society creates norms in the same way the idea of deviance itself results from social construction and negotiation. Because the definition of deviance refers to norms, identifying the importance of norms in everyday life helps understand how deviance derives. Norms vary according to how people accept them, how society enforces them, how society broadcasts them, and how much agreement they require (10). Some norms are much easier and much harder to keep stable. Some norms remain fairly stable in the standards they set, while others define prefer more force to ensure obedience (10). In everyday life, individuals become part of a group in some shape or form. Members in these groups rarely recognize the impact a group has on their life. In groups, norms are learned and transmitted from generation to generation. In this way, individuals include the language, ideas and beliefs of the groups to which they belong, in their own lives. Thus, leaving individuals to see the world not through their eyes alone, but also through the eyes of their cultural and other group experiences. Since norms emerge from groups, different groups develop different norms. Acts labeled deviant in one group may be perfectly acceptable behavior in another. Many sociologists categorize these differences as sub-cultural difference (19). A subculture is basically a culture within a culture. The members in a subculture not only participate in and share the larger culture norms, but also observe some norms and meanings particular to its members. Cohen suggests that subcultures arise in complex societies when a number of persons encounter similar problems living within the current culture. He views that subcultures represent collective solutions to shared problems posed by the dominant culture (15). For example, one of the subcultures Cohen identified was the delinquent subculture in which represents response by lower class boys to frustration of trying to meet middle class expectations in school. Some examples of behaviors that are seen to be deviant in American culture are: Activity Not Deviant For Deviant For Asking someone Unmarried people Married people of the opposite out on a date Setting one’s Parents Young children own bedtime Sexual Married couple Catholic intercourse priest Selling drugs Pharmacist Illicit drug dealer The way deviance is created is by society. Society defines an act as deviant through a political process that applies power within some moral context (24). When groups perceive threats to their interests from certain acts, they may attempt to promote those interests by persuading others of the legitimacy of their priorities. Thus, promoting norms successfully creates and maintains society’s attention for some social issues such as homosexuality, drunk driving, and the use of certain drugs. For example, not everyone agrees that homosexuality constitutes deviance, and those who do may not agree about how deviant it is. Since sociologists determine that deviance is connected to groups and their norms, they may judge manner of acts, thoughts and conditions as deviant at some times and by the norms of some groups. To understand the process of becoming deviant, one must examine the social nature of human beings including the self and identity of the deviant, and the process of socialization into a deviant role. This also requires one to have empathy with deviants, and an ability to see the world the way they do (50). In a sense, deviants are hypocrites; they violate some norms but conform to and defend others. In other words, a certain person may deviate from certain norms and comply with others. For example, a criminal may break the law by extorting money from people, but he might avoid an opportunity to cheat on his wife, explaining that marriage is a sacred commitment. No one is deviant all of the time, and even the ones who commit deviant acts the most onl...