Introduction to Sociology/Deviance

Deviance

Summary

With little power and little control over their lives, teens often feel that they have marginal status and therefore may be driven to seek the respect that they feel they lack. Without clear roles adolescents may establish their own pecking order and spend their time pursuing irresponsible or deviant activities. For example, unwed teen motherhood is sometimes the result of a desire for attention, respect, and control, while most gang fights and instances of juvenile homicide occur when teenagers (boys and girls alike) feel that they have been slighted or offended by others.

Such deviance can take many forms. Insecurity and rage often lead to vandalism, juvenile delinquency, and the illegal use of drugs and alcohol. Violence and crime, of course, are as old as humankind; French historian Philippe Ariès, author of Centuries of Childhood (1962), noted that in the 12th century, Parisian boys as young as age seven carried daggers to defend themselves.

Contemporary juvenile violence is often driven by the boredom young people experience in a barren environment. Even the wealthiest suburbs with the most lavish amenities can be "barren" when viewed from an adolescent's perspective. Ironically suburban life is meant to protect children from the dangers of the big city. Parents choose such locations in the hope that their children will grow up happy and secure. 

But safety and homogeneity can be quite boring. When deprived of meaningful activities and responsible guidance, many teens find that the only opportunities for "feeling alive" are stealing a car, breaking a school window, ingesting a mind-altering drug, or having a baby. A middle-class adolescent caught with jewelry that he had stolen from a neighbour's house claimed that the act of stealing had been fun. Like other teenagers, by "fun" he meant something exciting and slightly dangerous that takes nerve as well as skill. In parts of Asia and Africa, similarly, rebel groups have conscripted teens who go on to find excitement and self-respect behind machine guns. Millions of them have died prematurely as a result.

Behavioral scientists have gained some valuable insights into the conditions that cause teenage strife. In many cases adults are in the position to alleviate some of the frictions that make intergenerational relations more strained than they need to be. Research indicates that those adolescents who have the opportunity to develop a relationship with an adult role model (parental or otherwise) are more successful than their peers in coping with the everyday stresses of life.

My opinion

I think everyone has to experience at least once a deviation puberty. I think, even after departure, not only to worry about, that it must be seen in the warm gaze. Of course, the deviation becomes badly, the formulation of a certain degree, there must be perpetrators.

However, I think if it is not bad, so come to visit once to everyone, departure, and must take care more.

Question

Means thereby departing from the norm and rules of society and departure, that it means that evoke social control over it. The social control, I considered disgrace, stigma, and blame. Then, how can what is included in the social norms?