Research Paper In this class you are asked to write a research paper in which you will examine a social phenomenon, sub-culture, or societal issue from the perspective of the sociology of deviance....

Running head: DEVIANCE 1
THE SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE
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DEVIANCE 2
The Sociology of Deviance
Deviance is a social menace the root of which is often to be found in societal norms,
mores, and in stereotyped perspectives that stigmatize specific individuals belonging to
specific racial or ethnic group. Deviance has been considered not only a social problem but a
psychological and behavioral problem as well. But the primary question in respect of
identifying the origin or root of deviance should be “How societal factors contribute to the
emergence of deviance in an individual within the American social context?” It is a fact that
deviance is a social malice which is often treatable, but to accomplish success in the course of
treating deviance, the root cause of deviance has to be ascertained and determined.
Clinard and Meier has suggested that (as cited in Hossain, 2014) “Deviant Behavior
describe actions or behaviors that violate social norms, including formally enacted rules (e.g.,
crime), as well as informal violations of social norms (e.g., rejecting folkways and mores).”
Hence, what may be observed out of the definition of deviance is that; it is a behavior that
denotes social rejection along with projecting an anti-social attitude. In the United States,
social discriminations, stereotyping and social alienation – all have contributed to the
development of deviant behaviors in myriads of individuals. From the sociological
perspective, Durkheim suggested that (as cited in Hossain, 2014) “individuals may commit
crimes for the good of an individual’s group, for the self-due to or justified by lack of ties, or
ecause the social norms that place the individual in check no longer have a power due to
society’s co
uption.” Judging from the U.S. social perspective it can be seen that the
growing number of African American deviants may be identified as a sociological outcome
of undue social treatments like racial discrimination, racism, and stereotyping.
But to understand the sociology of deviance one has to analyze the behavior primarily
from a social constructionist perspective even though there are other perspectives to choose
DEVIANCE 3
from. One must try to determine the cause and nature of deviant behaviors from the social
constructionist perspective because; it is way to define, understand, and study myriads of
social problems that have been observed to be evolving, depicting nature distinct from what
has been identified from previous perspectives (Schneider, 1985). Taking a constructionist
stance one can interpret deviance to be a social construction induced by social norms, rules,
and regulations. A constructionist must try to understand how deviance is created or defined
subjectively and culturally and he/she must take more interest in the dynamics and
consequences of act of deviance as an outcome of social construction rather than delving
deep into its objectivist and essentialist reality or its causal origin (Sociology, n.d.). It is
noteworthy that “the proponents of constructionism tend to adopt symbolic interactionism as
their theoretical inspiration, use participant observation as their principal methodology, and
typically focus on “soft” or low consensus deviance – that is, acts that may or may not be
crimes, but if they are,...