This essay has been written by Name of Student of Class of Student of Name of College
Deviance and social control closely relate to each other as deviance triggers the application of social control. Deviance is the behavior that violates the set standards of conduct and expectations of the society. Deviance is a violation of well-developed social norms and associates historically with normality. Deviance is a social upset and an immoral absolute. People such as alcoholic, mentally ill and compulsive gamblers are called deviants. Student coming late to school and dressing too casually for a formal function is also considered to be a deviant act in some societies. Society sets the standards of social behavior and people moving away from the established standards are deviants. Everyone in the society violates the social and civic norms in some way and is a social deviant of some degree (Mcgraw, 2011). In some societies, people especially, girls and women are considered to be deviants for being overweight, whereas, in some countries being thin at some stage of life is a deviance.
Deviance involves the violation of group norms that may or may not be part of the country’s laws and legally not forbidden. It is a wide-ranging concept that includes the unlawful conduct and many other actions not subject to prosecution. When a public official accepts a bribe, he has disobeyed social norms and so is the high school boy refusing to sit in his designated place. Deviation from norms is not at all times negative and criminal. A member of an exclusive social club who speaks out against its traditional policy of excluding women and Jews from Speaking out against the established norms that are not positive may be a deviance from the social norms but not a negative deviance. Refusal of certain social clubs that are exclusive to a particular group of people, to admit women and Jews is not a well-established rule and therefore, raising of voice against such a norm is not the negative deviance (Mcgraw, 2011). Similarly, a Police officer who raises his voice against corruption within Police department may be upsetting the established norms of his department but the deviance committed by the Police officer is not a negative deviance. Standards of deviance differ from culture to culture and among different societies. From sociological perception, deviance is not independent and is subject to the social definitions of normal behavior within a society. Mostly, people with power and authority in society have more inclination towards the deviance, and they define the standards of deviance as to what is acceptable to them or otherwise. Smoking of cigarette is socially not accepted, however, due to the interest of tobacco factories and farmers who grow tobacco, smoking continues in the society. Because of the campaigns run by social workers and health activists, smoking has become a deviant activity, and prohibits smoking at public places in many countries (Pearson, 2001).
A person can be declared as deviant in many ways. There are people with typical social, bodily and interactive appearances that cast them in undesirable characters. These people are taken in the negative roles despite their desire and effort to project their positive images. It lowers the self-esteem of the people who are part of social groups stigmatized by the society, and they become reactionary in their responses towards the society. People considered beautiful in one society and same people considered ugly in the other society is a contradiction, but that is the norms set by the society. Overweight and obese people are considered to be weak and slave to their appetite as per their projection on media as they do not follow the standards of beauty set by the society. Such people are taken as strange in appearance and disfigured and have a spoiled identity. In order to qualify the norms of beauty, many people, most of them women undergo cosmetic surgery to keep their figure in the standards of beauty set by their society. In recent year, number of men undergoing such surgeries have increased rapidly, and men also undergo the surgery including liposuction. The deviances like being a mental patient, recovering from alcoholic and ex-convict become part of life of the people, and the stigmatic thing goes along the life of people in most of the societies of the world. A person must have pleaded guilty of some crime for the stigmatization. But even with no crime committed, under societal norms, people are stigmatized and treated with discrimination. The type of deviance decides the level of stigma and minor deviances do not enforce significant penalty (Mcgraw, 2011).
There are different theories of deviance explained by the theorist. Emile Durkheim was a theorist who focused on sociological aspects related to criminal acts, but she also included all types of deviant behavior. She describes that the punishments established within a culture are sources of defining the acceptable behavior and makes the society stable. She highlights that when a society loses the social control, there is a loss of direction in the society. Kai Ericson emphasizes the existence of conventional morals in the society in order to keep the balance and social control. Sociologist Robert Merton explains the deviance as the behavior that violates the accepted norms of the society. He offered a typology to assess the people’s behavior and their actions. From interactionist perspective, the functionalist approach explains the violation of rules and societal norms despite the pressures to obey the set rules of behavior. However, functionalists do not give the reason for such deviances. They do explain the requirement of certain conditions for a deviance to occur. Labelling theory attempts to explain why some people become the deviants, bad people, losers and criminals, and it does not focus on the reasons of the deviance. Social control theory by feminists questions as to why more women do not become criminals considering the unequal access to the crime (Mcgraw, 2011).
Social control comprises the techniques of preventing and discouraging deviant social behavior of members of the society. Social control exists at all levels of society. It starts from the house where parents exercise social control on their children and control their social behavior as per the norms of the society. Peers introduce the dress code that controls the behavior of the member of society on account of wearing of dress. School, colleges and universities disseminate standards to the student to be maintained by them. At the work, there are set rules of behavior formulated by the government and corporation in order to make their workers behave in a specific and desired manner. Most of the people respect the norms and rules, and expect others to follow the norms which does not happen frequently. People obey the instruction of the police in their day to day life, they follow certain parameters of behavior. Such obedience by the most members of society indicates the effectiveness of the process of social control in the society. People behave under the societal norms due to the fear of punishment or disrespectfulness by other members of the society. If people do not follow the social norms, they will be put in a jail or would face other forms of social sanctions. People respect the social norms as the society needs to survive, and it brings the social control in the society (Pearson, 2001). A society cannot survive if numbers of people are deviant and do not follow the societal norms; it brings catastrophic results to the existence of society.
There are techniques of social control employed at the societal level and the level of different groups existing in the society. People like peers and teacher play a major role in defining the limits of social control required to be exercised by the government and the individuals themselves. There are two types of social controls exercised in a society; they are formal and informal social control. People follow the informal social control to follow the norms. It includes the gestures like smiling, laughing, ridiculing, and raising eyebrows. However, sometimes, informal methods of social control are not very effective in maintaining the societal norms and ensuring the obedient behavior. In such instances, formal social control is implemented by the people who are authorized by the government and society to implement the formal social control. These include the Police authorities, military forces, the school administration, the managers and the proprietors. It is done as a last resort as informal social control does not work at places. In different societies, different standards apply for the acts as part of informal or formal social control. In certain societies, there are fines imposed for small things like chewing a bubblegum, feeding birds and failing to flush the toilet (The University of Missouri).
There are certain norms that are very important to keep the society stable and functioning. Such norms are formalized into laws in order to control the people’s behavior. There are laws that direct all members of the society like prohibition against the murder that is applicable to all members of the society. Other laws govern the behavior of organizations and institutions bringing them under the taxes net for the betterment and improvement of society. Creation of law has become a social process over a period due to the need to implement the formal social control (The University of Lowa). Law is merely not the static body of rules carried from generation to generations, but they exhibit the changing standards of right and wrong in the society. It is a legal order that reflects the basic social values. It is the individual connection among the members of the society that lead people to conform to the societal standards and norms. People are bonded together with families, friends and groups, therefore, they cannot morally move out of the societal norms and behave differently. The social bondage keeps people within their social limits. Socialization helps in developing the self-control and does not let people cross the barriers of social norms. There is a control theory that reminds the only the media highlight the crime and negative aspects of the society, whereas most of the members of a society are desirous of staying within the societal norms laid down by the society. The control theory does not explain the logic for the people conforming to the norms. Crime in a society affect some groups more than the others; sometime the effects are gender specific and sometime they are age specific.
There are two ways; the deviance and conformity where members of the society respond to the real pressure or pressure from the other members of the society. Relationship between deviance, social control and conformity to the social norms is very critical for the self-sustenance of the society. Deviance and social control are essential for the living societies. The ratio between the deviance and effectiveness of social control dictates the stability of the society. More deviance and less social control destroys the society, whereas, less deviance and more social control makes the society more stable and prosperous. The keeping of an appropriate ratio between the two is essential and prime responsibility of the police and other law enforcement agencies. Societies where ration is balanced, and people conform to the norms and the less deviate, they prosper and have more cordial relations between the members of the society. Whereas, in societies with more deviance and less social control, do not have a future as they destroy themselves and don’t prosper.
References
Mcgraw, Hill. (2011). Deviance and Social Control. Chapter 7
Sociological Theories of Deviance: Definition and Consideration. The University of Lowa
Deviance and Social Control. University of Missouri, St Louis
Pearson. (2001). Deviance and Social Control
