Free Essay Sample on Deviant Behavior

Introduction

The deviant behaviors entail all forms of activities that are considered as contrary to the existing societal norms. Various theories have already been developed to explain some of the most significant reasons to perform deviant behaviors. The sociological explanation is part of such theories that focus on the structures, forces, and relationships fostering deviant behaviors. Violating social norms is one of the most significant deviant behaviors. The theory uses an individual as the primary unit of analysis, meaning that people have the sole responsibilities of their respective deviant behaviors (Van Kleef et al., 2019). Therefore, it is important to illustrate what is a violation of the social norms, the group's demographics that witnessed the behavior, how it reacted to the behavior, and determine whether the group controlled the deviant behavior.

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Violation of Social Norms

Norms are the general social rules governing people within a community, and they can be either explicit or implicit. They are usually hard to be recognized since they have already been installed in the people of a specific community. Violating such norms that have been implemented in society is what is termed as deviant behavior. People within the community usually find it easier to transgressing the norms rather than following them. For example, people think holding a door for another while entering the building is part of the social norms. Nevertheless, others may think that failing to hold the door for another is being rude. Studying the violation of social norms as deviance behavior tend to be an inseparable endeavor.

In most cases, violation of social norms has resulted in social sanctions, including the legal sanction, stigmatization, and the preference for one behavior. Violation of the social norms that have already been implemented by the government results in criminal activities that have already been initiated by the nation. Violation of the undocumented social norms results in social sanction or even stigmatization (Masters et al., 2020). For example, attending a job interview with specific clothing will result in stigmatization, which is generally due to such a dressing code. That is mainly because a certain behavior drastically departs from the social norms.

Demographics of the Group

The students witnessed a violation of social norms through the various activities they undertook within their respective schools. Some specific norms have been developed where the students are expected to follow. Some of the students were never respectful to their fellow students and even the teachers. Other students never dressed neatly and appropriately, as indicated by the school management. Others were never on time, yet they never followed the schedule that had been provided by the administration. Such students always kept a negative attitude towards their studies and engaged in gossips. They never notified their respective teachers neither did not provide them with relevant reasons for not completing their assignments.

How the Group Reacted

The students reacted to the violation of the social norms by deterrence. That is mostly referred to as punishment. They issue negative consequences for the other students with the deviant behavior acting as a form of discouraging them from violating the social norms. The students opted to take that route since they trusted the reaction was easy and concrete in reducing violation of the social norms by others.

Attempts of the Group in Controlling

The students have attempted to control the violation of the social norms by others through retribution. That is the idea of hurting the other just in the same way as he has done. The victims usually have the right to hurt the attacker in a similar method (Masters et al., 2020). The students support retribution since they believe they are all equal. Once one student violates the social norms, they should teach them a lesson to not repeat it.

Conclusion

As the community evolves, so does the various reaction methods towards violation of the social norms. That is why it is important first to understand what violation of social norms is, how the students witnessed the behavior, their reactions, and how they controlled the deviant behavior. There is no single method of controlling violation of social norms is greater than the other. Instead, a better reactionary method should be developed.

References

Masters, S. L., Hixson, K., & Hayes, A. R. (2020). Perceptions of Gender Norm Violations Among Middle School Students: An Experimental Study of the Effects of Violation Type on Exclusion Expectations. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 0272431620931193.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0272431620931193

Van Kleef, G. A., Gelfand, M. J., & Jetten, J. (2019). Social norms' dynamic nature: New perspectives on norm development, impact, violation, and enforcement. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103119303166.