The movie The Boondock Saints provides an excellent example of positive deviance through innovation. The Social theory of deviance can easily explain the brothers’ actions. The movie can be used to study deviance as the brothers kill people who are mafia members, breaking the norms of society. Even though the acts they are committing are clearly illegal and deviant, the people of South Boston do not react in a negative way. Since the Social theory is very broad, it will be easier to look at the brother’s acts under three sub theories: Labeling, Conflict and Strain theories. The Social theory of deviance explains why people break social norms, and what their motivation may be for doing so. The brothers undoubtedly break one of the most prominent social norms, they kill people who can be considered “bad”. In crime-ridden South Boston, the brothers find a gap that they can fill, which is usually looked down upon by society. Despite this, the people living there soon recognize them as a blessing and call them Saints. The two brothers quickly become vigilantes for South Boston, killing mafia members and criminals who are making living conditions harder than they should be. Because of the positive effect on society no one speaks out against them. Their effect on the city is beneficial enough for the local police and even the FBI investigator who is trying to catch them to eventually help out the brothers in any way they can without being suspicious. To correctly apply the Labeling theory, we have to look at how the theory can give a positive and reinforcing label. The model can explain two major turning points for the brothers, first when the city supports them causing them to start killing. And second, when they have don... ... middle of paper ... ...he overly powerful mafia ruling. The brothers’ vigilante deviance has many causes, all stemming form the Social theory of deviance. The Labeling, Conflict and Strain theories are three of the most important theories for understanding what caused the brothers to start, continue, and stop killing the mafia. Each of the theories plays a part in causing the brothers’ to kill, but without all of them they would not have the acceptance and success that they did. These theories, even though they are meant for the real world are just as relevant for works of fiction in movies and books. Works Cited Adler, Patricia A., and Adler Peter. Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction. 6th ed. Belmont: Thomas/Wadsworth, 2009. The Boondock Saints. Dir. Troy Duffy. Perf. Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Willem Dafoe. Franchise Pictures LLC, 1999.
The social deviance anomie theory also known as strain theory is defined as means to an end. This means that if the goals that society holds for people are unreachable individuals may turn to illegitimate ways of getting there. Throughout this paper I will provide details as to why we should use anomie theory when defining deviance among brothel workers presented in Brothel Mustang Ranch and its Women written by Alexa Albert.
Often, when a story is told, it follows the events of the protagonist. It is told in a way that justifies the reasons and emotions behind the protagonist actions and reactions. While listening to the story being cited, one tends to forget about the other side of the story, about the antagonist motivations, about all the reasons that justify the antagonist actions.
During the course of our class we have encountered plenty of important topics and vital information that is essential to the field of the Criminal Justice system. Such as; Crime and justice including laws, Victimization and Criminal behavior, Laws, Police officers and Law enforcement and the criminal justice system in itself. These topics are daily situations yet individuals are oblivious to what's going on and that in it can be a major problem to the community. On that note this paper will express the ignorance and selfish values of twelve individuals by fully explaining the movie "Twelve Angry Men"
The Boondock Saints movie exhibits and demonstrates many possible causes and reasons for social deviance. One example of this is shown in the Subjective view of deviance through a Constructionist Theory. The Subjectivist believes that a deviant person is a conscious, feeling, thinking subject and that one should understand the experience of that person. From a Constructionist perspective, deviants are actively seeking meanings in the deviant activities. The brothers in the movie are seeking meaning from their killing. They believe that they are on a mission from God, and that they will be protected and blessed for doing this.
Organized crime has developed a stigma regarding its power and influence, especially during its hay day in the 1930’s. The mob has always been viewed as a powerful “family-like” organization. In Scarface, Hawkes brings the mafia into a seemingly more realistic light. By overturning Lovo’s position of power, Tony represents the idea of “every man for himself,” within a supposed organized group. The viewer steps into a cut-throat world of power hungry men, all trying to get rich quick. In this world, Hawkes asks, how can you organize men towards any goal if they all seek personal gain?
I think rational choice theory best explains these characters. Rational choice theory is “A perspective that holds that criminality is the result of conscious choice and that predicts that individuals choose to commit crime when the benefit outweigh the cost of disobeying the law” (Schmalleger, 64). Super criminals have an incredible amount of resources, henchmen, and intellect to pull of these elaborate crimes because they can, not because they must. Rational choice theory was in my opinion the most obvious theory in this
Goode, E. (2011). Constructionist Perspectives of Deviance. Deviant Behavior (Ninth Edition ed., ). Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice Hall, Inc..
According to Becker, the labelling theory of deviance looks at what happens to individuals after they are labelled as deviant (Skatvedt & Schou, 2008) The symbolic interactionist approach focuses on the role of social labels and sanctions that pressure individual gang members to continue engaging in deviant acts (Skatvedt & Schou, 2008).The labelling theory suggests that when an individual is labeled as deviant they are more likely to be rejected by families, friends, and societies which ultimately leads to further deviant acts (Becker, 1973). The deviant identity is thus complete when the individual gang member integrates himself into the gang subculture (Becker, 1973). Two high school gangs, the Roughnecks and the Saints, were constantly involved in deviant acts such as drinking, petty theft etc.,; however, high school teachers labelled the Saints as those headed for success and the Roughnecks as those headed for trouble (Chambliss, 1973) After high school, almost all of the Saints went to college and became doctors, lawyers, etc. while only two Roughnecks went to college and others were involved in killings and dropped out of school and so forth (Chambliss, 1973) This case study demonstrates that labels are powerful; they can trigger a greater involvement in deviant acts through social
Labeling theory of deviance suggests that when one is labeled constantly on the basis of any minority it gives rise to deviant behavior in order to prove the strength of the minority. The minority has been labeled so by people for a long time. They have been labeled because of their race. The gang is labeled anti-social because of their criminal behavior which turns them further to deviance. The use of the labeling theory can be seen being implemented very judiciously
Several individuals within society typically follow social guidelines that they are unaware of performing. Social guidelines such as stopping at a red light or saying thank you when someone has done something for you. These social guidelines or norms give society a script to follow regarding their behavior and actions. Although norms are the acceptable actions and behaviors that society is taught to perform, there are occurrences where individuals stay away from those in which they are now enacting deviance. To act deviant is considered to break away or do something different of a social norm. There are several forms of deviance that occur frequently within society that violate social norms and hinder society’s overall function.
... up information about crime and it is truly sad to think about. Undeniably, crime is all around us, everywhere we go. There is always someone out there committing crime. “Deviance” is not inherent in people, it is a process in which you learn. Yet through many series of socialization, such as parents, friends, class, gender, an individual or group can become “deviant”. The interactionist theories the best sociological explanation due to the fact that it can alter people values and perception in many ways. For instance, supervision of the so called “street” parents, have a huge effect on their children’s development. However, being labeled as a criminal by the society has made people living in the so called “streets” to accept this label as a criminal and obey and commit crime. This semester has enabled me to better understand on how crime is formed and how it works.
A good example of deviance in the movie “Crash” would be when the gun shop owner refused to sell the persian man a gun. As a social norm that as a gun shop owner you are supposed to sell your product to anyone licensed. He violated this norm because the persian man could not understand him.
Menace II Society, a film about a young Black man who has lived the “hustler” lifestyle and is struggling to leave it, is a perfect example of deviance as the main character, Caine Lawson, and the characters around him violate many of society’s norms. Throughout the film, the characters swear incessantly, carry around guns and drugs as most people would carry around cell phones, commit street crimes, especially burglary and mugging, on a regular basis, and beat and kill people unscrupulously. The following quote captures just how deviant Caine and the other characters in this film were, “[Caine] went into the store just to get a beer. Came out an accessory to murder and armed robbery. It's funny like that in the hood sometimes. You never knew what was gonna happen, or when” (Albert Hughes). Why would Caine consider these crimes “funny”, or rather, so insignificant? What caused Caine to become so deviant? The answers to such questions were woven into the plot of the film and will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
The Structural Strain Theory is a theory of deviance that explains deviance as the natural outgrowth of the values, norms, and structures of society. Amer...
Labelling theory: The theory that the terms crime, deviance, or punishment are labels, variously applied by act of power and not some natural reflection of events – American criminologist Howard Becker