Introduction
As long as we live in either self or multicultural society, there will always be several factors that are likely to either affect us or our lifestyle. These factors are known as social factors. There are many social factors, but some of the most important one’s include religion, political system, education, family, life partner and children, economic status, locality, and physical attributes (e.g. Skin color). In the past, many sociologists have argued that social factors can play important roles not only in determining what is considered deviant, but also finding who commits deviance. Using evidence from each of the assigned articles, this paper will entirely discuss the sorts of social factors that tend to encourage or discourage people from violating social norms.
Discussion
The word deviance implies odd or behavior that is unacceptable behavior. In other words, deviance simply means violating any society’s norm. Violating society norms can range from some minor crimes such as violating traffic rules, to major, such as killing. Usually, different societies have different definitions of what should be considered deviant and what should not. This definition widely differs from one society to another. In addition, social norms and deviance vary among communities and societies. In many cases, sociologists are mostly interested with these differences and how they affect individuals and groups. The following articles will help us understand the sorts of social factors that tend to either encourage or discourage people from violating social norms.
Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Laura Hamilton, and Brian Sweeney, "Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel, Integrative Approach to Party Rape."
This article provides astonishing findings about the rate of sexual assault in college campuses. According to this article, sexual assault is an expectable consequence of a synergistic intersection of practices operative at an individual, administrative, or international level. In this case, sexual assault is a deviant. The article argues that college women have a higher risk of getting raped when compared to the other women in the general population. In many cases, the sexual assault among campus women, are as a result of alcohol consumption. In other words, there is a tight correlation between alcohol consumption and party rapes. In this case, alcohol consumption is the social factor that encourages rapes in campus. The raping act in this case will be the violation of society’s social norm1.
Emily E. LaBeff, Robert E. Clark, Valerie J. Haines, and George M. Dickhoff, "Situational Ethics and College Student Cheating"
This article talks about student cheating in campuses and some situational ethics. According to this article, cheating in colleges has become epidemic with close to fifty percent of college students been involved. The article argues that some demographic and social characteristic such as academic standing, major, extracurricular activity, sex, level of exam anxiety and age are the major contributors of the act2. Each of the mentioned factors to some extent can be related to college cheating despite the fact that their relationship varies. In this case, cheating is a deviant act. This is because it violates college norm that no student should be involved in any form of cheating in the exams. On the other hand, the social factors that encourage cheating in colleges are lack of confidence, desire for good grades, lack of high self-esteem among many other. Theses social factors encourage students to get involved in exam cheating, which in many cases results to marks cancellation.
Michael L. Benson, "Denying the Guilty Mind: Accounting for Involvement in a White Collar Crime"
This article has addressed two prepositions that are on white collar crimes. The article has used a general theory of crime created by Hirschi and Gottfredson. According to the theory, white collar offenders are prone to deviance and are also criminally versatile in common offences. In order to evaluate the validity of the two prepositions, the writers of the article investigated some criminal records of both common offenders and white collar offenders putting to consideration their respective levels of involvement in the deviant activities3. The general theory predicts that white collar criminals are more involved in deviance just like the street criminals. In this case, white collar crimes are the deviants. This is because they violate the norms in the society that discourages white collar crimes. The only difference between white collar crime and other crimes is the fact that white collar criminals are educated and have clever tactics. These tactics and techniques are the main encouragers in white collar crimes.
References
Lisa J. McIntyre, The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology, 2011, 5th Edition, Published by McGraw-Hill, NY.
This book provides several core concepts in sociology. Let as look as some of these concepts and evaluate how they can be related to deviance and the things that encourage people to do them. For instance, discrimination is one of the core concepts provided in this book. According to Lisa (2011) discrimination can be considered as a deviant because the violation of society norms. People discriminate other because of their races, religion and gender among many others. In this case race, religion and gender are the social factors that encourage discrimination deviant4.
Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Laura Hamilton, and Brian Sweeney, 2002. Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel, Integrative Approach to Party Rape. Article journal
Emily, E., LaBeff, Robert E. Clark, Valerie J. Haines, and George M. Dickhoff, 1990. Situational Ethics and College Student Cheating. Article journal.
Michael L. Benson, 2012. Denying the Guilty Mind: Accounting for Involvement in a White Collar Crime. Journal article
Lisa J. McIntyre, 2011. The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology, 5th Edition, Published by McGraw-Hill, NY.
