Abstract
Social issues have been known to be present in the society for ling. They are the ones which affect the normal functioning of the societies. Social issues have laws and guides that guide them. Formal social issues will lead to criminal activities if they are not followed while the informal social issues will just be a stability effect. Social issues have been seen to control the society and a way in which social order is undertaken. This paper will focus social deviance and how it affects the society.
Introduction
The social issue that I am interested in this paper is social deviance. This is when human beings deviate from the cultural norms which are either formal or informal. The formal deviance is considered to be criminal while the non-formal social deviance is deviant contexts. Most of the non-formal norms are not communicated in a formal way. These social norms are imprinted in the minds of humans. They are followed out of common sense (Giddens, Duneier, & Appelbaum, 2012).
Social deviance is a phenomenon that has been there for a long time. Societies have existed with norms for a long time. Norms have controlled the way humans live and communicate with one another. This behavior of human beings has been controlled by social norms which have been in existence. When faced with a social norm, there are two alternatives that an individual will choose. They will either conform or violate. Social norms are either implicit or explicit. The social norms which are explicit are not necessarily laws. An example is a sign that shows that food is not allowed in a computer laboratory. This sign is not law but a social norm that is considered to be important to be followed. In reality, there is a mix of whether someone will conform or violate a social norm and the way they behave. The behavior of an individual is evident with the options they take. It is rare that someone will deviate or conform to all norms. In fact, some behaviors will reflect the conformity and violation at once.
The issue that has been presented has relation with the field of sociology. Sociology is the study of the how humans relate with the institutions and with one another. The social issue of social deviance is a sociological issue because of the fact that the deviance will affect people living in a society. Deviance will affect those living around. It will also affect the institutions in which the deviance is taking place. If the social deviance takes place in a hospital, the patients and doctors will be affected in one way of another. The hospital may also incur loss with this social deviance.
Sociological theories
There are sociological theories that show that this issue is a sociological issue.
One of the sociological theories that are related to the social issue that has been chosen is labeling theory. Labeling theory is a theory that is used to understand the working of the deviant and criminal behavior. The theory states that there is no act that is considered to be wrong intrinsically. The theory states that the people in power are the ones who put laws in place that will be used to guide the people who are being led. This theory is related to deviant sociological behavior as an issue. This is because deviance an aspect that strives to understand why people deviate from the cultural norms that have been put in place.
Another theory that is related to deviance is the structural strain theory. This is related to sociological deviance because the theory strives to understand the origins of deviance. This is the theory that explains why there is deviance in the society (Cockerham, & Scambler, 2010).
One of the sociological theories that are evident with sociological deviance is that of functionalist theory. The main focus and emphasis of functionalist theory is how social order is achieved. With this theory, there is the emphasis of social order in the society. The society is required to have some stability. Deviation is an aspect that determines whether the society will remain stable or not. If there are many people in the society deviating from the social norms, there will be the damage of the social fabric that makes the society stable. Deviation is, therefore, a sociological issue.
What is known and unknown
There are things that are known through research. One of the things that are known about deviance is that behavior is a critical aspect of understanding deviance. There have been various researches that have been carried out regarding behavior and its relationship with deviation. It has been found out that deviant behavior comes as a result of the behavior (Clinard, & Meier, 2010).
Another thing that is not known about deviance is whether deviance is inherited from parents. It has not been established whether there is a connection between parents and the offspring and whether there are genes for deviance. This is an issue that is still under research.
Another issue that is still unknown is whether the environment has a role it plays with deviance. This is the area where the place that a person is borne has a role to plays in the deviant behavior of that person. Environment plays a key role in development of behavior. There is no proof that the environment also has effects on the deviance behavior or tolerant behavior of an individual.
Sociological value of social deviance
The sociological value that social deviance has in sociology is that the role of social behavior eradication is important in any society. It is important to understand the process of deviance and how this can be avoided. This will add value to the stability of the societies that we have in the world. By understanding the parameters that cause deviance, the interested parties, especially the government who will develop policies and rules that will be followed by the entities to decrease deviance (Kornblum, 2011).
Another value that will be achieved with the competition of this project is having harmonious relationship and how this relationship can be developed further. The government will spend fewer amounts in correcting deviance in correctional prisons. With the research, the researcher will focus on different issues.
With the integration of other models correcting the deviance, other areas will be learned in the process. With the research, religious organizations and movements would have to be involved with this process. Religion is associated with beliefs that one is required to follow. Apart from the beliefs that are stated in the holy books that the various religions of the world believe in, there are other beliefs that are stated by individual group of religious people. With the many distractions that we find in the world as religious people, there are various things that come in our way in order to distract us. This is the reason as to why the beliefs have been brought into being so that they destruct and deny us some other things in the society. If we engage ourselves with these things, will be condemned by the members in the groups that we belong. This is the contribution that will be achieved with the research. This is a value that will be undertaken.
References
Clinard, M. B., & Meier, R. F. (2010). Sociology of deviant behavior. CengageBrain. com.
Cockerham, W. C., & Scambler, G. (2010). Medical sociology and sociological theory. The new blackwell companion to medical sociology, 3-26.
Giddens, A., Duneier, M., & Appelbaum, R. P. (2012). Introduction to sociology. WW Norton & Company.
Kornblum, W. (2011). Sociology in a changing world. Cengage Learning.
