Social Deviance Worksheet. Social Sciences. Coursework

Social Deviance
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Societies always place the burden of expectations upon individuals, and this backfires sometimes. Some individuals are naturally deviant, creating social problems such as prostitution, drug abuse, and crimes. Social deviance can influence society positively and negatively, depending on their views. Deviance facilitates change but endangers social norms and order. Durkheim argues that if people never deviated from a society's rules and values, then society would never change, and change can be a perfect thing. Additionally, too much or too little deviance is terrible for society Durkheim 2010. The essay evaluates how social deviance contributes to social problems, perpetuating them to micro or macro levels, and provides a solution to the deviant behavior.
Social deviance contributes to social problems because society determines what is deviant and what is not. The community has even come up with a negative label for abnormal behavior such as sociopaths and prostitutes. The absence of explicit social norms has also contributed largely to social deviance because people have a poor underling of why they should follow specific rules. Merton proposes innovation and rebellion as the significant forms of deviation that contribute to social problems (Merton, 2010) . an innovator accepts norms but refuses the means, thus creating their ways. However, innovation comes with challenges, e.g., the creation of ATMs and cybercrimes. Rebellion, on the other hand, is the total refusal of norms and means and is more dangerous than change. Disobedience is the most significant contributor to criminal offenses and social behaviors such as homosexuality. Social problems can only occur when a society exists, and therefore the community is the central determiner of good and bad behavior. Social deviation continues to promote crime, prostitution, homosexuality, and drug abuse on micro and macro levels. Deviance continues to contribute to this vices because society continues to treat people who do not conform as outsiders.