Deviance is a violation of cultural norms.
There are the official deviances such as thieves, murder, assault, etc and unofficial deviances that violate informal social norms, such as making noise loud enough to cause harm to others, even though sanctions are not imposed by law.
However, cultural norms are relative because different countries have different levels.
Deviation theories include Structural-functionalism, Labeling theory, and Conflict theory.
Among them, Structural-functionalism claims that abnormal behavior helps distinguish acceptable from unacceptable behavior.
And it says it plays an important role in affirming the social norms of members of society.
2. What was interesting / What did you learn
The United States has the third largest population in the world, and the percentage of people in jail is the highest in the world.
Also, as you can see in the picture, the U.S. has a relatively high recidivism rate.
In Korea, if imprisoned, many education is required to prevent repeat crimes through socialization.
But the U.S. focus on keeping criminals away from people rather than turning them into productive ones.
More than half of the inmates who have been put in jail are found guilty and return to prison after being released.
One of the factors contributing to the high rate of recidivism in this society is called a social stigma.
If found guilty, they will sell drugs for survival because they are branded as serious crimes and are denied access in many places, which means they will be put back in prison.
It was very interesting because it reminds me of the stigma theory that I learned during social and cultural classes in high school.
3. Discussion point
Structural functionalism claims that it could help distinguish acceptable and unacceptable behavior. What is the standard for dividing like that?
No comments:
Post a Comment