Kidnapping as Deviant Behavior
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Major categories of deviant behavior include crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, mental disorders, suicide, murder and kidnapping. As witnessed by the rapidly increasing numbers of child abductions, kidnapping is becoming a common element of deviant behavior in American society and one that is drawing widespread media coverage. A number of sociologists from Durkheim to Becker argue that social groups manifest deviance because they make rules that if transgressed constitute deviance. There are biological, psychological and sociological theories of deviance. Biological theories of deviance would posit biological characteristics or inheritance as factors influencing the kidnapper. Psychological or psychiatric theories of deviance would figure factors of personality as contributors to kidnapping behavior, along with the belief that the individual was wrongly or inadequately developed or socialized. It is this concept of socialization and the individualÆs relationship to it that sociologists fit into their perspective on kidnapping. To the sociologist deviant behavior like kidnapping is the product of group or social definitions that label it deviant and always relative to the norms of those groups or society. For example, we all consider certain heinous acts like rape, murder, and kidnapping deviant, but this does not provide us with an understanding of why individuals who kidnap people do so. This analysis will now explor
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ia ran wild. As Robertson (2002:1) notes, ôEven beyond California the child abductions have had a lingering impact because of intense media coverage.ö
Indeed, many individuals who cannot achieve their goals via the norms of society or various groups in society, they exhibit deviant behavior as a means of getting what they want. For example, many people sell drugs to make income they feel is denied them in a marketplace that demands more credentials than they possess. So, too, with kidnapping, many individuals kidnap someone because they seek out fame and to be recognized as a means of self-worthy. They feel they have slighted, ignored or abused by the powerful groups in society and once they recognize they will never get what they want by following the norms, they resort to deviant methods of achieving it via acts like kidnapping. Kidnapping is a ônewsworthyö event which can bring instant fame, or infamy, to the kidnapper. Cohen (1999:677) argues that an ôincreasing secularism, hedonism and faddish materialismö alienate many in society who resort to deviant means to achieve their aims when they feel denied.
The high number of divorces in the U.S. has fueled another sociological phenomenon with respect to kidnapping, parental
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Approximate Word count = 2006
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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