Deviance and Society

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Determining Deviance The dictionary defines deviance as the breakdown or diversion from the accepted norm or expected standards of behaviour of a society. The concept of deviance however has no standard definition, it is deemed to be culturally relative. That is to say that your culture (norms, values and morals) determine what you as an individual or your society deems deviant behaviour. Functionalist Findings on Deviance The functionalist sociologist would see deviance as a necessary evil for society to function. This may seem contradictory to their belief that any form of conflict (deviance being a form of conflict) in society would be considered abnormal and should be removed or cured but deviance does help keep a form of structure in our society. The functionalist believe that this evil is necessary because deviance helps keeps balance, because it provides jobs for judges, law enforcement offices ,social workers and other people who act as control mechanism for deviance in our society. From reading The Consensus Theory the functionalist believes in consensus change, so therefore in the functionalist society consensus change acquired through deviant behaviour should be acceptable to them. The 1937 riots in Barbados would be an example of this deviance which where positively rewarded. These acts of deviance served to acts as a catalyst for social and economic change in Barbados and other Caribbean countries. The Interactionist's Introspective The Labelling Theory as put forward by interactionist Howard S. Becker attempts to show that deviance occurs when one group creates a label for deviance and subsequently... ... middle of paper ... ...edia undeniable has impacted on the Caribbean society, even though the media it self is not responsible for deviant behaviour, it influences the individuals whose minds are subject to negative material. It has been said that some criminals have admitted to carry out deviant activities that they had witnessed at some point in time on the television. The media forms a sort of false ideology by portraying an unrealistic view of real life events giving people a distorted and glamorised view of violence. This glamorised violence is thought to be cool and is exacted out by the people who witnessed it and where influenced by it in a negative way. In conclusion deviance can be said to be detrimental on our society but when deviance is used to the betterment of the masses then the ends can have been said to justify the means.

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