Deviation and Social Behavior

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Deviation and Social Behavior Deviant behavior encompasses various actions and practices which are against the societal norms which include the implemented rules and the open social norms violation. The paper looks into the issue of deviance and social behavior concerning various theories of deviance which have been laid out by multiple scholars. There is a popular argument that deviance lies in the beholder’s eyes, but after detailed research, that was found out to be wrong. Deviance is an adopted abnormality which sociologists and scientists have been trying to find solutions to it for decades, but have seen none. There are about seven significant deviance theories which have different perspectives and opinions on the issue of deviance. This paper looks into an example of deviance and relates it to the Sutherland and Cressey’s theory. Moreover, the article seems into the difference between social control and life course theory as well as the ethical considerations that researchers should have in mind when researching about deviance. Deviant Behavior Sutherland and Cressey’s theory of differential association is regarded as one of the most popular methods of social learning. His focus was on the white collar crimes, professional theft, and intelligence and he came up with the notion that offense was as a result of people's inability in the lower social class. For instance, take an example of a poor widow who has six children who are leaning on her for basic needs provision. The mother has no one to look up to, and the children require education, food, clothes, and shelter. Although the mother is a receptionist at a local primary school, the salary she gets at the end of the month is barely enough to even for one kid among the six. In this case, therefore, the mother decides secretly creep into finance department files and hack the school account login details after which she steals a substantial amount of from the school account. According to the norms, this could be a very embarrassing and wrong action to take especially for a mother. Nevertheless, the work is as a result of financial inadequacy of the mother because she is on a lower social class. Sutherland in his opinion believes that crime does not come from one’s character but is from the socio-economic positions that they are in which affects their way of doing things. Acquisition of behavior is a process of social learning and not a legal or political means. Moreover, the motives and skills that lead to crime come as a result of contact with pro-crime attitudes, definitions, values and other patterns that relate to criminal acts (Cohen &Stanley 16). The primary principles of the differential theory are that criminal behavior arises among intimate groups where illegal strategies are learned. Perceptions of right code impact drives and motives whereby differential relations tend to be different in terms of the priority, intensity, and duration of the process of criminal learning behavior. Life Course Theory and Social Control Theory According to research, the life course theory and social control theory indicate that the primary findings concerning crime and delinquency from cross-sectional and longitudinal researc...