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Deviance defines moral boundaries, people learn right from wrong by defining people as deviant. A serious form of deviance forces people to come together and react in the same way against it. Deviance pushes society's moral boundaries which, in turn leads to social change. When social deviance is committed, the collective conscience is offended.
Satanic ritual abuse is an example of this in modern times, and the case of witch hunts is an example from antiquity. These are often called moral panics, and Goode considers them a valid subject (perhaps the ideal subject) for deviance studies. Erich Goode is known for his exploration and exposure of the "moral panic" concept. He takes a "harm ...
Primary deviance is the initial stage in defining deviant behavior. Prominent sociologist Edwin Lemert [ 1 ] conceptualized primary deviance as engaging in the initial act of deviance. This is very common throughout society, as everyone takes part in basic form violations. [ 2 ]
There, the bedeviling force of the stigma will introduce him to more excessive modes of deviance such as promiscuity, prostitution, alcoholism, and drugs. Many resist such temptations and try to normalize their life, but the fast lanes of gay society are littered with the casualties of gay identity. Some come to reject the label entirely.
Robert King Merton was an American sociologist who argued that the social structure of a society can encourage deviance to a large degree. Merton's theory borrows from Èmile Durkheim's theory of anomie, which argues that industrialization would fundamentally alter the function of society; ultimately, causing a breakdown of social ties, social norms, and the social order.
Individuals internalize the values of their society, whether conscious or not of the indoctrination. Traditional society relies mostly on informal social control embedded in its customary culture to socialize its members. The internalization of these values and norms is known as a process called socialization.
[1]: 203 It also states that a society's reaction to specific behaviors are a major determinant of how a person may come to adopt a "deviant" label. [1]: 204 This theory stresses the relativity of deviance, the idea that people may define the same behavior in any number of ways. Thus the labelling theory is a micro-level analysis and is often ...
People define their lives by reference to their experiences, and then generalise those definitions to provide a framework of reference for deciding on future action. From a researcher's perspective, a subject will view the world very differently if employed as opposed to unemployed, if in a supportive family or abused by parents or those close ...