Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Deviance The association between society's

The association between society's explanations for the causes of crime and delinquency and society's responses to crime and delinquency are not always obvious to the public, but clearly such an association must exist. We address issues based on the way we view issues. However, the perception the public has of crime is not always clear, and the public does not necessarily consider the question of cause in a direct and specific fashion. Put another way, the public demands a response to crime based on the perception it has of crime at a given moment, and this perception changes over time. The public perception of the cause of crime is not necessarily rational. It is instead often based on emotional responses--when people are more afraid of crime, for instance, they demand a harsher response toward the criminal in terms of punishment. The general societal response to crime, however, is very much based on the prevailing view of the causes of crime. Those who transgress the norms of society are labeled as deviant, and the very act of so labeling them may cause the sort of behavior that defines deviance. Juvenile delinquents who become enmeshed in the justice system often find themselves saddled with a deviant label and are treated by the system as a deviant. The result of this is that the individual comes to fit the label placed on him or her, living up to the low opinion others have of them. This does not explain the onset of delinquent behavior, however, and a more valuable theory is that of differential association, which points to the fact that juveniles learn delinquent behavior from peer groups, so that placing juveniles in a deviant group creates an association which perpetuates deviant behavior. Peer-group pressure is the strongest force on the lives of young people and must be seen as the source of most delinquent behavior.

Deviance involves a degree of stigmatization of a sub-population by the majority population o...

Page 1 of 10 Next >

More on Deviance The association between society's...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Deviance The association between society's. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:57, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707999.html