Mikki Ellaine M.

Bulanan F2 4R

The Significant and Dysfunctional Implications of Deviance in the Society

Thesis Statement: Deviance provides benefits to the society by creating a liberal mindset to people but at the same time, initiates dysfunctions and turmoil by violating standard norms such as committing crimes that tends to be chastised or controlled by the same society.

I.

Introduction A. Definition of deviance B. Deviant behavior

II.

Types of Deviance A. Primary deviance B. Secondary deviance

III.

Effects of Deviance in the Society A. Benefits and Functions of Deviance B. Dysfunction of Deviance

IV.

Crimes A. White- collar crime B. Violent crime C. Victimless crime D. Crimes against poverty

V.

Sanctions A. Formal sanctions B. Informal sanctions

VI.

Social Control for Deviancy A. Informal Social Control B. Formal Social Control

The Significant and Dysfunctional Implications of Deviance in the Society

A Research Paper Requirement For Eng 2 (F2-4R)

By: Mikki Ellaine M. Bulanan

Ms. Shirley Monreal 9 February 2012

The Significant and Dysfunctional Implications of Deviance in the Society

Naturally, if a man decides to come out of the closet and label his sexuality as gay or homosexual, it is expected that a variety of reactions from his social circle follows. There are those who think that it is rather bold for him to admit, admiring his bravery; others will raise an eyebrow following a judgment that his confession is a disgrace and rather repulsive especially to the so-called homophobes (people with strong sexual bigotry) while the remaining will just shrug their shoulders with indifference. This same event can be encountered almost everywhere. The society tends to make a response based on what they perceived as the standard or customs. Stigmas or social unacceptability are avoided by individuals by patterning their behaviors, way of thinking even their clothing and manners on traditions that are upheld by the majority. However, it is in ones nature to deviate even in the simplest manner in his lifetime. Whether he is wearing black socks instead of white or creating a massive disturbance by shouting inside the library, he is already repressing the conformity. Since these exhibitions are already against the customs people recognize; therefore, they already indicate deviancy.

Deviance is defined by Robertson (1987) as a behavior that violates significant social norms and is disproved by large numbers of people as a result. In addition, in 1989, Giddens stated that:
Deviant behavior refers to actions which transgress commonly held norms. What is regarded as deviant can shift from time to time and place to place; normal behavior in one cultural setting may be labeled deviant in another.

Accordingly, a person may be considered a deviant if he at some point made an attempt to go against compliances. Norm violators as they are also known are viewed as individuals who disrupt the standard. For example, a man who cross-dresses and then got reprimanded by a number of folks is already a deviant. But having mentioned earlier, it depends on the society for a person to be labeled as one. If he is a deviant in a certain place, he is not instantly considered as one in some societies. Furthermore, deviance does not just refer to individual behavior, but concerns the activities of group as well. (Giddens, 1989) This can be observed in various cliques or cluster of people all of whom have potential to be out casted by the society. For instance, a cult consists of men or women who together worship unpopular idol or idols. Their ways of worshipping is somehow different from other religious sect. There are even times that their methods of praises are so extreme, they even kill someone and offer it as a sacrifice. Immediately these people are not just weird or violators of norms anymore but can also be labeled as criminals. McGee (1980) mentioned that: All of us occasionally have impulses to violate social norms. Honest appraisal of our mental lives would lead most of us to admit that larceny, assault, sexual

experimentation, and perhaps even murder are things we commonly imagine, not to mention smoking in forbidden places, walking on the grass, cursing in public, and so forth. Indeed an honest self-inventory would probably show that the vast majority of people not only experience impulses to deviate but that they often act upon them. Deviance provides benefits to the society by creating a liberal mindset to people but at the same time, initiates dysfunctions and turmoil by violating standard norms such as committing crimes that tends to be chastised or controlled by the same society. Further discussing, there are two types deviance according to Lemert (1967) as cited by Liska (1987). A solitary event of rule defiance is defined as primary deviance. It is a non-influencing norm violation triggered by conditional assortment and is often temporary. On the other hand, secondary deviance is a behavior garnered by an individual which corresponds from the labeling employed unto him. This becomes a standard of living and personal character. Since deviance is a phenomenon in a society, social consequences arise that may either be beneficial or unconstructive. Though it seems to be unlikely, but there are positive implications deviance can contribute if restrained in evenhanded bounds. Shepard in 1981 recognized some of the advantages attributed to deviance. They consist of promotion of social change as seen in labor union organizing. It was once considered deviance but had been established as part of the economic strategy. Deviance also increases the cohesiveness in the group or society wherein it occurs like when adopting became possible for single people. Another is that deviance may help people to adjust to social change. For example, communal living enabling people to cope with impersonal urban living.

Contrary to the given benefits of deviance, there are still the negative implications and dysfunctions it may cause. Disruption of social order is an obvious effect making social life difficult and unpredictable. Confusion of norms and values are also as seen when deviants are able to escape an unfortunate fate for the disruption they had caused and when there is the spreading idea of everyone does it. Diversion of resources is the effect when controlling widespread deviance. For example is when a teacher spends the entire period breaking up a fight between her students instead of spending her time giving lectures. Lastly, trust is undermined by deviance due to the fact that a deviant is often assumed to be untrustworthy just because he could not conform to legal laws. (Roberts, 1987) Given that deviance is custom violation, then crime is a particular form of deviance as well which is largely common in most societies. McGee (1980) defined crime as a voluntary act of omission that violates the penal code and results in a specified kind and degree of injury to state. He also pointed out the three elements in a working definition of crime: (1) the actor must violate the penal code through either omission or commission of an act; (2) the actor must have acted voluntarily; and (3) the kind of degree of social injury to the state must be specified. This last point helps to distinguish between criminal and civil matters. But deviancy in a place can be accepted in another. Thereby, a murder in a certain area may be considered justifiable in others. For example is in the case of abortion. Many countries today are in favor of abortion due to the rapid growing of population that can

cause more problems in the state like poverty. But in conservative countries with strong religious beliefs as in the Philippines, abortion is still condemned by many and thought to be deplorable sometimes monstrous. There are at least four types of known crimes identified by the government: white-collar crimes, violent crimes, victimless crimes and lastly victimless crimes. Elaborating each type of crimes, white-collar crime is usually carried out by people having professions that related to social obligations. They include violations of trust associated with high-status position as well as all forms of crime committed in the normal course of otherwise legal occupations. (McGee, 1980) Examples of white-collar crimes are tax evasion or the faulty declaration of taxes and overall tax avoidance; embezzlement which involves manipulation of bookkeeping and accounting records to conceal the theft of funds; misrepresentation in advertising which is exhibited in claiming that a product does something that it does not do; fee splitting seen when a professional, such as doctor or lawyer, recommends to a client a second professional, whose fees are a good deal higher, to provide some specialized service then takes kick back for his advice; and price fixing wherein an illegal arrangement between two or more corporations to stifle competition by fixing the lowest bid price in advance of the submission of bids to the prospective customer. (McGee, 1980)

On the other hand, victimless crime is a violation which does not affect anyone directly or basically does not involve complainants. This is shown in felonies like prostitution, illegal possession of drugs, adultery and even penury. Finally, crimes of violence and crimes against poverty usually go hand in hand. Violent crimes are the ones most feared about because they involve physical assault on an individual which normally end tragically. The widely known instances of these are murder and rape. However, it was said that crimes against poverty could be associated with this category since there are events when an offender initially planned to steal but later decides to hurt or kill his victim when circumstances of getting away becomes difficult or just on his own will. Due to the huge commotions most of the deviances and crimes lead to, it is however important that a type of control should be imparted. Usually, these matters are resolved by what sociologists identified as social control and sanctions. Social control consists of all the ways in which social norms are enforced, the process and mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of normative conformity. Social control may be formal, as in police work, or informal, as in peer pressure within social groups. (McGee, 1980) This enforced in order for the deviants to realize the faults their behavior has done and counteract the others from trailing them. McGee (1980) also defined informal social control as the enforcement of normative conformity through socialization and social organizational reciprocity. It is a control within a group of less formal rule implementation.

As mentioned earlier, the other one is the formal social control. It is a type of social control specifically and consciously designed to secure normative conformity. It is probably the less efficient since most people probably are sometimes prevented from doing things they might otherwise do by the threat of formal punishment and not because they want to submit to control personally. Social control is further supplemented by sanctions. All social norms are accompanied by sanctions which protect against non-conformity. A sanction is a reaction from others to the behavior of an individual or group which has the aim of ensuring that a given norm is complied with. (Giddens, 1989) Accordingly, a sanction may be either be positive or negative and both can be employed positively or negatively. A positive sanction is often a form of reward and privilege offered when people conforms. Contrary, negative sanctions are then bestowed to those who go against the conformity. Sanctions can also be specified as to a formal and informal: formal negative sanction, formal positive sanction, informal positive sanction and informal negative sanction. All formal sanctions are possible when a certain council or organization is present to guarantee that the norm of a specific society is not disregarded. In a school for example, a students code of conduct is implemented wherein sanctions are involved. The institution also makes sure that a council for assessing students behavior is ever present to resolve violations or excellence.

Informal sanctions on the other hand, are sanctions with less conventionalism. This type of sanction can be granted by anyone even if he or she is not of high authority. A sanction which is commonly carried out in ones household. Parents often give informal sanctions to their child or children when their orders and rules are being followed or not. Roberts (1987) gave away some illustration on different sanctions observed: A formal positive sanction, for example, might be the presentation of a medal or graduation certificate; a formal negative sanction might be imprisonment or execution. An informal positive sanction might be a pat on the back or a congratulatory handshake; an informal negative sanction might be a shouted insult or simply avoidance on the offender. It can be concluded that handing of positive sanctions signifies that object of social control is efficient in its task of following the conformity while the negative sanctions denotes that social control is being defied and deviance is already happening. To sum it up, deviance is a violation of social norms that disproved by many. A deviant behavior is illustrated by being different from what others perceived as the convention. However deviance varies from time to time and place to place. Deviancy of the past may be accepted in the present and deviancy and in one place may not be considered as one in the others.

The primary deviance is described as a phase in a deviants life and may pass by as time comes. On the other hand, secondary deviance becomes an identity and lifestyle of a person by accepting and claiming the label they were given in primary deviance. Deviance also gives up ill at the same time beneficial effects to ones society. It tends to change the old practices replacing it with new ones for the advantages of the citizens. This behavior also aids in the strengthening of social bonds within a group gluing them together. But contrary to the good outcomes, deviance causes dysfunctions like societal antagonisms, uncertainties or confusions and diversion of the resources. Subsequently, crimes are the by-product of uncontrolled deviancy. It can be a type wherein a victim or complainant is not involved; upper class felonies which are usually the cases in professional activities or white-collar crimes; crimes against poverty which are rule-breaking deeds to acquire wealth and possessions; and the violent crimes which is the most feared as it threatens the well-being (physical, mental and emotional) of an individual. As a result, in uncontrolled situations wherein deviance and crimes are concerned, the entire society and state tries to intervene by implementing some sort of shackles to restrain the commotions these exhibitions create. Sanctions are given of as punishments or rewards to those who either violates or follow the conformity. They are sometimes an informal ones like a simple hand-shake gesture or a pat on the back for a job well done or grounding for disobeying simple house rules like disregarding the curfew of the children.

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The formal ones are those when somebody receives a certificate for academic excellence or being jailed for drunk driving and breaking the speed limit implemented by the government. As said earlier, Deviance provides benefits to the society by creating a liberal mindset to people but at the same time, initiates dysfunctions and turmoil by violating standard norms such as committing crimes that tends to be chastised or controlled by the same society. Therefore, having a deviant character does not immediately mean that it is immoral. It depends on how someone would control his actions and take on the responsibilities that proceeds or goes along with it. Everyone has the tendency to deviate from the norm. Sometimes, it is the only way for their lives to become contented and happy. People may judge because they seem to think that being different is weird and wrong but it does not really .matter as long as harm is not imposed to anyone and laws are still followed for the tranquility of the society.

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Bibliography

Giddens, Anthony. Sociology, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989. Liska, Allen. Perspective on Deviance. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1987. McGee, Reece. Sociology: An Introduction. United States of America: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. Robertson, Ian. Sociology. 3rd ed. United States of America: Worth Publishers, Inc., 1987. Shepard, Jon M. Sociology. Minnesota: West Publishing, 1987. Wilkins, Leslie T. Social Policy, Action and Research: Studies in Social Deviance, London: C. Tinling & Co. Ltd., 1964.