Deviant Behavior Sociology - Essay Example

 Deviant Behavior Sociology Discuss, from a symbolic interactionist perspective, the creation of the social self and the stigmas that emerge from the process of labeling. Describe Sykes and Matza’s Techniques of Neutralization and how they are used in the labeling process. The concept of ‘self’ point towards a trajectory of scientific belief which deviate itself from the biological theory and emphasize on the process of social interactions (Pfohl, 1977, p. 221). The stigmas or the social labeling arise from those interactions and the social authority is highly depended on the authorities themselves like that of the child abuse by the parents and that of other subordinated groups of peoples like that of the prostitutes, mentally retarded and so on. (Liazos, A, 1972, p. 103). Individuals may find themselves in the trajectory of an understanding which tends them in circumventing the blameworthiness and nullification of the societal norms owing to his criminal actions provided that the individual is capable of elucidating deficiency in criminal intents embedded in those actions. The notion of delinquency is majorly depended on such kind of justifications acclaimed as rationalizations on their part generally squashed by the society at large. It is a proposition that the disapproval which are generated from the internalized norms and matching others in the social environment is actually neutralized in advance which signifies that the individuals engage themselves in delinquent activities without much hampering his or her self image. The justifications associated with these activities are generally referred to as the deviant technique of neutralization which Sykes and Matza have disintegrated them five different domains namely the denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of victim, condemnation of the condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties. These techniques are highly imperative in the realization of the deviant behavior and stigma and can be applicable in eradicating those ‘stigmas’ and ‘behaviors’ in the labeling process (Sykes & Matza, 1957, pp. 666-667). Denial of responsibility The condemnation of the self or the others acts as significant drivers in signifying the lack of responsibilities of the delinquent in commencing deviant behavior. Viewed as a mechanics of the technique of neutralization it can be stated that the delinquent actions are an involuntary operation acted upon by the foreign forces outside the individuals like that of neglecting parents, bad companions, slum neighborhood and so on. Persuaded by such situations, the delinquent creates a self image of his own with a negative trait being helplessly propelled out in a completely new situation. In course of time the individual learns in generating a concept of more acted than upon than acting along with the preparation of deviance activities without directly charging the existent societal norms (Sykes & Matza, 1957, p. 667). Denial of injury In this particular technique, the attribute of injury or the harm is involved in the act which the delinquent evaluates the correctness of those activities and the injury they bring to others. The actions may be illegal but they may not also deem as immoral. As for instance it can be stated that vandalism and gang fighting breaking destruction of the property can be interpreted as a simple mischief with the logic that the person who lost the property can afford them in the future and visualized as a private quarrel with the prior agreement between two parties without imparting any highly significant consequence to the society as a whole. Despite the fact this particular technique involves explicit dialect, but the individual refrains himself from thinking with a guilty perspective (Sykes & Matza, 1957, p. 668). The Denial of the Victim In this particular case it can be stated the delinquent may accept the deviance actions but stands in the line of negation of the victims as in they develop the notion that the persons affected are not actually victims but they are subjected to apparent punishment. As for instance destruction of the school amenities in protest of an unfair teacher or that of attacks on homosexuals or the minority and so on the victims are not considered and they devaluated to an abstract concept. The very limited awareness of the victims acts as a significant role in the determination of whether or not the process is set in motion (Sykes & Matza, 1957, p. 669). Condemnation of the Condemner The phenomenon of rejection of rejection is generally attached within this technique where the delinquents transfers the concentration from his own deviant acts to the motives as well as that of the behavior of the individuals disapproving of his violations. Instances can be cited as those police who are often found engaging in activities like that of corruption and brutality, the teachers impart favoritism behavior while the parents take it out on the children and so on (Sykes & Matza, 1957, p. 669). The Appeal to Higher Loyalties In this terminal technique of neutralization, the deviant rejects the broader social norms in lieu of emphasis on the interests related to atomic element of the society or social groups like that of the sibling pairs, gang and friendship and so on. In this process the deviant are not fully absorbed in the conjecture of opposing the dominant norm but rather hang up in a paradoxical circumstance with the opportunity of trade off between these two. In case of juvenile friendship it has been often seen that one friend in whatever adverse condition he or she may be is dedicated to help his friend even though it is against the prevalent dominant social norm. But often it is found that the infliction of shame, guilt plays within the deviant’s mind with depending upon the intensities or degrees (Sykes & Matza, 1957, p. 669). It can be said that the techniques of neutralization are in highly critical in minimization of the effectiveness of the social controls which lie behind a majority of delinquent behavior. 2. Describe Functionalism and Anomie from both Durkheim’s and Merton’s perspectives. Contrast Conflict theory and its application to the study of deviance with the functionalist approach. The roots of the functionalist theory can be said to be embedded within the nucleus of the structural sociology domain relating to the elaboration of large scale societal structures and their associated relationships. The primal attempt of the functionalism theory is based on the explanation of the answers to the questions with the functions attached with them. The theory explains the reasons which are directed towards answering the fact of existent family taking up certain structures within the purview of the societal structure. It has been theorized that dynamically the creatures adapt themselves biologically and frequently in the spree of changing themselves in accordance to the change in the environmental changes as well as its conditions. It can be claimed that the way in which the body parts of the human beings and other creatures have adapted themselves, so did all the parts of the society with a spillover effect to the other systems as well. With the transformation within the agents of the society, the social institutions like that of political, educational and that of religious structure also are subjected to change or rearrangement of the social institutions with an objective of fitting them within the new societal order. But the deviance mechanism arises in the scenario where a society which has ingrained within itself the characteristics of changes very rapidly traveling through a process of misalignment in its fitting progression. This misalignment in the fitting progression injects the elements of confusion or the notion of anomie for the members of the society. In terms of theoretical foundation it can be argued that there will develop a mesh which will eventually deliver the expected harmonious integration with each and every social institution. There has been the creation of a conflict or contradictory ideology basically said to be that of conflict theory which stands in the path of challenging the functionalist theory as it give rise to social disharmony. It can be stated that a long stretch of strain and social conflict leaves a considerable scar or adverse consequences on the society. The functionalist seeks in the restoration of perfect balance within the society perfectly knitting the societal structure. The process of the social change can be visualized as a complex evolutionary mechanism with pains associated with it with the aim to restore and adjust to the new social conditions as a result of the theory is said to be that of functional. According to Durkheim, the accumulated notion of the society is that several elements of so called crime and claims are attached in such a way that they are regarded as the normal part of the healthy societies. In contrast, Durkheim’s anomie can be stated to be that of deficiency of the norms in the society existing within all levels of the society. Strain or restraints are natural phenomenon involved in the functionalist approach which ultimately leads to that of the continued growth of the society with the creation of each successive societal stage more complex than the preceding one. The complexity also in turn give rise to tensions and according to Merton the idea which propagated was that all the things which take place within the society does not lead to the situation of equilibrium. In this endeavor there arises the concept of the winners and losers however occur with the generation of profit with the manifestation of the enhanced societal resources. The establishment of an effective equilibrium within two phases of the societal structure is maintained to an extent where the satisfaction associated with the attainment of the goals and the satisfaction attached evolve directly from the institutionally canalized modes of striving for the purpose of attaining the ends. The notion of success in this case can be bifurcated into dual zone. The first zone is considered with respect to products and resolved in terms of processes with respect to the outcomes and in terms of activities. The second zone can be referred to as the continuation of the satisfaction and maintenance in the sustainability of the order will be derived from the participation within a competitive order. The sacrifices which seldom evolve within the institutionalized conduct will have to be compensated with the device of socialized rewards. With respect to the distribution of statuses and that of the roles and adherences to the status there should be distribution of positive incentives for the conformity to the roles within the distributive order. The occurrence of irregular conduct can be seen as a notion of dissociation within the culturally defined aspirations and that of the socially structured means (Merton, 1938, p.674-675). The social control actions can be said to be unintentionally generating functional alternatives as for instance the relationship between the controllers and that of the controlled can be characterized as that of a movable equilibrium. With the purview of sports or any competitive endeavor the engagement of new strategies, techniques may generate in one side a temporary advantage but on the other hand it paves it ways in order to neutralize avoid them with the actions becoming more sophisticated and the process may be altered but the game does not stop (Marx, 1981, pp. 226). The study so far elucidated the functionalist approaches and a tinge of conflict theory with the emergence of the winners and losers in the society and it can be said that the functionalist theorist are in the process of claiming that the deviant behavior actually leads to the long run equilibrium in the society. With respect to the conflict theory the societal structure can be synthesized as a pictorial representation where social domination prevails and is exercised by the dominant groups over the created subordinate groups. This philosophy is reflected in Karl Marx’s Communist manifesto. The functionalist approach states the deserving agents of the society will be at the apex position creating overall welfare dynamics. But the conflict theory contradicts that the society is engineered through capitalist mode of production. According to Marx, the productive activities are organized within a mechanism of capitalist organization and is defined as, "the process that transforms on the one hand, the social means of subsistence and of production into capital, on the other hand the immediate producers into wage laborer” (Spitzer, 1975, p.641) . Karl Marx visualizes that the social inequalities and deviances arises from the capitalist system and their exploitative behavior in order to remain competitive and accumulate wealth. The capitalist mode of production comes with contradictions and the formulation of the perspective of Marx on deviance bases on the interpretation of the processes through which the contradiction of capitalism is generally expressed. The superstructure of the society is an evolution within the periphery of enduring development of the economic forces which directs towards the maintenance of the dominance of the ruling class especially by the mechanism of class controls. These controls are infused within the family, church, private associations, media, and schools with the state being the provider of resolving the contradictions and establishing the realms of capitalism. The most influential functions delivered by the superstructure within the capitalist societies can be explained and visualized within the management of the problem population. The problem population results in the sharing of a number of social characteristics and their personal behavior, position threatens the social relations within the capitalist relation of production. The management of the problematic population occurs in cases of poor stealing from the rich, people refusing or unable to perform wage labor, youth who denies getting education, people consuming drugs for the purpose of choosing attributes of escape and transcendence over sociability and adjustment. This population is also subjected to revolution. The functionalist states that the capitalist have been successful in managing these problematic people and delivering a proper allocation of resources but the conflict theory proposes the establishment of a welfare state attached with the assumptions of the equality among all which can be also replicated as the attainment of socialism from the shackles of capitalism (Spitzer, 1975, pp.641- 645) . 3. Discuss the similarities and differences between differential association and differential identification theories. Describe Sutherland’s differential association and apply this theory to Becker’s “Becoming a Marihuana User”. The differential association theory is a stylized theory of crime and delinquency developed by sociologist Sutherland. The principles of criminality can be explained as the aftermath of the engagement with the inapt behaviors imparted by the individuals with the interaction of the other agents or the individuals within the society. The crux of the theory directs towards the development of a philosophy, that an individual develops within himself or herself traits of delinquent behavior because of the factors circumscribing his or her environment which are in favor of violations of the law in the broader sense of term or ‘excess of definitions’ in the violation of the law. Sutherland states that the criminal attributes gets inculcated within the individuals through the process of learning and interactions with other individuals within a stream of continuous communication. The learning techniques are guided by the motive of rationalizations on the part of the delinquents. The criminal behavior develops from the womb of the criminal prototypes completely or highly isolated with the non criminal prototypes. The conception of the differential association theory can be depicted as the “imagery of the criminal on a uni-dimensional continuum” (Glaser, 1956, p.438). The domain of criminality can be thought to be present at one extreme and that of the non criminality on the other hand with the individual’s association directing him towards the either of the extremes. Interaction plays a primordial role within the construction of the theory. In comparison with delinquents and non delinquents within a high delinquency inflicted areas it can be found that the delinquents were stronger anatomically and mentally aggressive in comparison with the non delinquents. In this respect the statement of Sutherland can be mentioned, "In an area where the delinquency rate is high a boy who is sociable, gregarious, active and athletic is very likely to come in contact with the other boys in the neighborhood, learn delinquent behavior from them, and become a gangster.... In another situation the sociable, athletic, aggressive boy may become a member of a scout troop and not become involved in delinquent behavior"(Glaser, 1956, p.436). The imagery can be stated not to be altered when Sutherland visualizes that the criminal as well as the non criminal associations can be varied within the domain of frequency, duration, priority and intensity along with the phrase “excess of definitions” lacking clear sense in human experience and the criticisms give rise to the development of the differential identification theory (Glaser, 1956, p.436). Majority of the persons within the society are known to associate them with the criminal as well as non criminal traits in their lives. The criminal identification might generate at the juncture where there is direct experience within the delinquent membership groups through positive reference to the criminal roles like that of the portrayal in the mass media or can be regarded as a negative reaction to the forces generally opposed to crime. The system of the society by large can be stated for the development of such kind of delinquency like that of newspapers, televisions and so on. The family acts as the principal non-criminal reference group even for the criminals and supplemented by several other groups of anti-criminal “generalized others”. The theory of differential identification can be stated in the sense that a person pursues criminal behavior to the extent to which he or she identifies himself or herself with the real or imaginary persons from the perspective of whom the criminal behavior seems acceptable. The theory is synonymous with the differential association with respect to interaction but it concentrates on the interaction where the choice of models takes place with the inclusion of the individual’s interaction with himself or herself in the process of rationalizing his or her conduct. This particular focus or concentration makes the theory integrative with the inclusion of the relevance criterion associated with the individual cases of criminality. These associated features are relevant to the extent that they can be depicted to have effects on the choice of the other form whose perspective the individual visualizes his or her own behavior and the delinquent acts are committed if they believe that it will lead to the domain of acceptance by and that of the approval within the societal structure (Glaser, 1956, p. 440). The usage of marihuana has been the central theme of attention for both of the scientists and of the laymen. The problems which have been encountered is that the there have been development of certain psychological traits which differentiate the users of marihuana from the non marihuana users. This approach which is common within the study of behavior characterized as deviant has been based on the premises that the presence of a particular kind of behavior which can be characterized as deviant and is based on the premises that the presence of a bestowed notion that with the presence of a certain kind of behavior in an individual can be best explained as the result of some traits which motivates the individuals in engaging in the behavior. There is no production of addiction in the marihuana consumption as compared with that of alcohol and that of opiate drugs and there is no withdrawal of sickness and the drug is termed as mostly recreational. A novice user will not be addicted with the first time and he or she will be able to use marihuana for pleasure purposes at a juncture when he undergoes through a rigorous process of learning in conceiving it as an object. Nobody becomes an user without the process of learning the techniques of smoking the drug which will be producing real effects. The learning will help the user recognizing the effects and associating them with the drug use and ultimately will be highly enjoying the sensation attached with its usage. The process will be leading to the continuation of the marihuana usage even though the individual is well informed that it is against the societal norm and only eliminates his addiction of marihuana when his concept of the drug changes as for instance it can be stated that he may not be deriving the pleasure which he previously gained. Thus the development of behavior through continuous interaction and that of the practice generates deviant motives and actions and the intervention of research on this topic is immense as it can be used to the affix various social tribulations (Becker, H, S, 1953, pp. 240-242). References Becker, H, S, (1953), Becoming a Marihuana User, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 59, No. 3, pp. 235-242, available at, accessed on September 5, 2012 Glaser, D, (1956), Criminality Theories and Behavioral Images, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 61, No. 5, pp. 433-444, available at < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/pdfplus/2773486.pdf> accessed on September 5, 2012 Liazos, A, ( 1972), The Poverty of the Sociology of Deviance: Nuts, Sluts, and Prevert, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 103-120, available at < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/pdfplus/799504.pdf> accessed on September 4, 2012 Merton, R, K, (1938), Social structure and anomie, American Sociological Review ,Vol. 3, No. 5 , pp. 672-682 , available at < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/pdfplus/2084686.pdf> accessed on September 4, 2012 Marx, G, T, (1981), Ironies of Social Control: Authorities as Contributors to Deviance through Escalation, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 221-246, available at < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/pdfplus/800300.pdf> accessed on September 4, 2012 Pfohl, S, J, (1977), The "Discovery" of Child Abuse, Vol. 24, No. 3, available at accessed on September 4, 2012 Spitzer, S, (1975), Toward a Marxian Theory of Deviance, Vol. 22, No. 5, pp. 638-651, available at < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/pdfplus/799696.pdf> accessed on September 4, 2012 Sykes, M & Matza, D, (1957), Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency, American Sociological Review, available at < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/pdfplus/2089195.pdf> accessed on September 4, 2012 Read More