Question

Deviant behavior is a natural disposition. Which theoretical approach best explains deviant behavior?

Explain your reasoning. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.

Provide an example of a deviant behavior that has led to a positive outcome (i.e. the actions of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement).

Have you ever found yourself asked to engage in a high-risk activity as a member of a group that you would not do alone?

What types of sanctions did you receive from the group for either choosing to or choosing not to participate in the group activity?

Answer 1

• I believe that race-conflict theory best describes deviance in our society. Deviant labels are more readily applied to women and other minorities. It seems easier to believe that someone is pointing out your flaws if you are different in some way. That is why I think that all the “offended people” in the nation became so entitled to speak their opinions. They believe they are somehow lesser than others and choose to speak out against anything that could be perceived as offensive.
• I believe that acknowledging the differences in people makes us weak as a people. If we could all learn to stand united, blind to those differences as we were born to be, this world that we live in could be a better place. I don’t think there are any strengths to be spoken of in this theory.
• Symbolic interactionism is another theoretical approach that can be used to explain how societies or social groups come to view behaviors as deviant or conventional. Labeling theory, differential association, social disorganization theory, and control theory fall within the realm of symbolic interactionism.
• Labeling theory examines the ascribing of a deviant behavior to another person by members of society. Thus, what is considered deviant is determined not so much by the behaviors themselves or the people who commit them, but by the reactions of others to these behaviors.
• Symbolic interactionism allows individuals to have freedom of choice and action in a democratic society. Also it provides the individual with moral responsibility rather than being externally motivated by fixed-norms. But on the flip side,It ignores socioeconomic categories and class structure.
• Heroic deviants include icons of the Civil Rights movement like Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., who were treated as outcasts by the established structures of social control in their own day, only later to be vindicated by justice and history. Other societies and historical epochs are full of similar people ranging from Gandhi to Margaret Sanger, Phoolan Devi to Sophie Scholl and many more.
• Often, such deviant actions are at the leading front of social change that is later celebrated as heroic. Indeed, the activist, the civil disobedient, the whistle- blower, the rebel, the heretic, or the freedom fighter can be seen as both deviant and ''heroic,'' given the social context of their actions.
• Martin Luther King Jr., another individual who lived up to a standard far surpassing what the common human mind could envision, even while hate, fear, self-righteousness, and stupidity tried to defeat his emphatic trust in love, justice, forgiveness, and wisdom.
• One of my college mates was asked to steal exam paperd from the professors office and was literally forced to do by his group of friends. And just to remain part of the group he attempted it but failed due to which he did face negative outcomes from the other group friends. I guess by agreeing and failing to do so he got many informal sanctions in terms of disapproving looks from the group whenever he cam face to face with them.