DEVIANCE

DEVIANCE

Student’s name

Instructor

Department of affiliation

Course

Date

Deviance

Deviance is the behaviour that acts in violation of social norms put into place by society. Some individuals never get to learn how to respect what society puts as most important socially. Therefore, these are the individuals who get to do what is against societal beliefs and norms. There are many explanations for this behaviour; however, the two main ones are formal deviance and informal deviance. Formal deviance is the deviance against the formally stated laws, which comes out as a crime. On the other side informal deviance comes out as those that are not in good order with the needed decency of a particular society and culture. Even though a person cannot be jailed or arrested for committing such crimes, there is a nuisance they cause. For example, in some cultures sneezing with the mouth wide open in a crowded place means deviance.

Therefore, there are many explanations for deviance, including social strain typology and structural functionalism. Formal deviance is often punished in courts of law as sentences, while informal deviance is dealt with by being shunned and disregarded in that community or group of people. For example, if a person sneezes with the mouth wide open, people will go away from them and be left alone. This means society does not want them anymore, and therefore they are left on their own. However, for formal deviance, there are many different consequences, like being arrested and punished. Some sociologists state that deviance is a learnt behaviour. Therefore, if a person is associated with a criminal group, they become naturally deviant because they want to do what is not allowed in society.

References

a Sociologist, B., & Sociologists, F. Introduction to Sociology.

Social Deviance. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 5, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8jkhOW1lug