Deviant Behavior & Soc Contrl

This should be a fairly typical college research paper. You will write a 4 page summary of recent academic scholarship on your topic using at least 4 scholarly sources. Your summary needs to have 4 distinct sections (with section titles). You need to use academic research in each section.

Your summary needs to address the following questions:

Define your topic – How are your subjects identified? What do they do that makes them deviant? Is this an act or an identity? How is the act related to the identity? Is this a situational identity, or a permanent one? Describe what makes them unique.
History – What is the history of the identity? Is this a new identity or an old one? How has the identity changed? What brought about the identity? How does it function in society? Why has it changed or originated recently?
Consequences – What are the legal, social, or other consequences for this group?

The paper is to be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font (or Calibri 11 point), double spaced, numbered, with 1” margins, and in ASA format. Also, please include your name in the header or footer next to the page number. Partial pages and odd spacing will not count towards your page minimum. Please also see the document on Canvas regarding what counts as a scholarly source

ANSWER

Deviant Behavior and Social Control

Deviant Behavior and Social Control

Social control theory explains the relationships people value and the norms that lead to people not committing crimes. Crime is a behavior considered an activity that goes against the laws set within a society. Deviant behavior and social control relate to each other as social control controls deviant behaviors. Deviant behaviors are more considered crime activities (McIntosh & Rock, 2018). In our community today, it has become easy to identify criminals as the cooperation between the police and the community increases. Today when deviant behavior is being committed, the people who have witnessed the crimes take the role of reporting the matter to the police (Campbell & Manning, 2018). With short codes, they can quickly call the police and report the incidents. The police then drive to crime scenes where they can easily identify the crime offenders. Furthermore, in cases where the people who have been arrested do not take full responsibility for the crime, the people who witnessed the events can be used in the court of law as witnesses. The court will examine the presented evidence to conclude if they are guilty or not. Furthermore, it has also become easy to identify deviants in society with the courts. The judges have superior knowledge that they use in determining the deviants to the evidence that has been presented in the court. Hence with such skills, it is easy to identify deviants in society.

Deviant is not an identity but an act that is done by an individual that makes them get the title of being a deviant. For anyone to be named deviant, they are usually engaged in activities that destroy the ordinary lives of the people in the society. However, it is related to identity in such cases where a person continuously makes deviants. There are high chances that the deviant that the person commits can be used to refer to the person. Deviance is not a permanent identity; when a person decides to change their ways and no longer commit crimes, they cease to be given the identity. However, the deviants are unique. They are named as people who do not want to work with others in the society and create a good environment; they act in unusual behaviors; hence they are called unique.

History

Social control is a means of controlling deviant behavior, which was there from the start of times. This was when society realized it could handle people’s behavior in the community by letting them know that they will suffer inevitable consequences even before committing the crime. Society manipulates the magnitude of punishments to ensure that people in the community do not see it as typical punishment to ensure that at no point would anyone in the society think of committing crimes. The community realized that offenders mostly behaved in their self-interest and did not consider other people’s interests in society. Hence there was the need to ensure that everyone behaved in a more suitable way to act more reasonably, thus having a community with harmony. This made it seem that people in society could weigh out the benefits and risks they were exposing themselves to before taking action to do anything. However, many deviance laws have been applied from the Babylonian laws developed during 1792-1750 BC (Popa & Popa, 2021). Hammurabi’s decisions and punishments were collected and documented after his reign, which many countries have updated. The laws included 282 case laws, which had penalties that varied according to the status of the individual and circumstances that the offenders were in before committing the crime. However, it has been documented in the Old Testament about the Hebraic laws that noted deviance and social control. Also other laws in the bible and the laws that the Babylonians applied relate to the rules that the Middle Eastern monarchs practiced. During the early 1830s, criminologist Cesare Lombroso was among the people who developed theories of deviance and social controls (Knepper, 2018). Further other theorists, such as Darwinian, also contributed towards developing laws that have led to the current deviance and social control laws. The old rules are an essential factor in today’s regulations as it offers a range to view through what is fair and what is not suitable in the society.

Consequences

In society today, people who act in deviance are mainly denied their freedom. Depending on the kind of crime committed, they are currently termed with a jailing term. The term can range from 3 months to a lifetime in Jail. During the jail terms, they are not allowed to get out. They are also subjected to working where they slash, dig, and even clean. They only have specific days when their loved ones can visit them. However, in some states, they still offer to hang, where depending on the severity of deviances committed, one can be judged and be subjected to death by hanging. The foods there are as diverse as those people have in their homes in the jails.

Others are subjected to punishment in the society where they are supposed to do free work for the community. However, one of the most common punishments is having loss of liberties (Caruso, 2020). The rights that an individual has been entitled to are revoked. This can include probation orders where one is not allowed to cross state borders, and also one may have their privileges such as drinking withdrawn. However, in cases where one disobeys the probation rules that the government has given, they are highly entitled to jail terms. When convicted of a felony, which is a crime that gets a maximum judgment of maximum years, they also lose the right to vote as they are considered citizens who might mislead society. However, the numbers of privileges that one loses are variable; it all depends on the kind of crime that has been committed.

Committing deviance also comes with economic consequences; during proving not guilty in court, one need to find lawyers, which costs high fees. Furthermore, if the court subjects one to fines, one will be required to get money for the penalties. In cases where an item has been stolen, and the court offers to return the stolen with increased value, one has to get into their pockets. However, there are also economic consequences such as discrimination from people and having a bad image in eths society. People in the community will avoid your company, and parents will also warn their children to be friends with someone who has committed a crime. It becomes hard for one to live in a society where they feel rejected. People in the community will always refer to the person with the deviant title. It makes it hard for one to prove that they are changed. Furthermore, if a similar crime happens, they are usually the first suspect, making it a hard life.

References

Campbell, B., & Manning, J. (2018). Social geometry and social control. The handbook of social management, 50-62.

Caruso, G. D. (2020). Justice without retribution: An epistemic argument against retributive criminal punishment. Neuroethics, 13(1), 13-28.

Knepper, P. (2018). Clocks and Crime: Conceptions of Time in the Writings of Cesare Lombroso. Crime, Histoire & Sociétés/Crime, History & Societies, 22(2), 9-29.

McIntosh, M., & Rock, P. (Eds.). (2018). Deviance and social control (Vol. 18). Routledge.

Popa, N. D., & Popa, C. (2021). Historical References And Doctrine Precedents Of Criminology On A Worldwide Level. Perspectives of Law and Public Administration, 10(3), 300-307.