Deviance Behavior and the Possible Causes Essay

Some may say its biological or psychological and even sociological reasons. There have been many studies to try and determine why people have deviant behavior and what happens to individuals when norms are broken. Not all behaviors are judged the same by all groups. For example, some may question if there are conditions under which suicide is an acceptable behavior. Lets same one person commits suicide in the face of a terminal illness but another person is a despondent person who jumps from a window, the second person may be judged differently. The first person’s suicide may be looked at with pity which the second person would be looked at in a shameful way. Another behavior that would highly be considered deviant would be committing a crime. For example, juvenile gangs provide an environment where young people learn to become criminals. Gang members glorify violence and retaliation as means to achieve social status. Whether it is an act of a crime or gang violence, criminals learn to be deviant as they embrace and conform to their street or gang’s norms. Americans consider such activities as alcoholism, excessive gambling, being nude in public, starting fires, stealing, lying, prostitution, and being gay to name only a few as being deviant. Therefore people who engage in deviant behavior are referred to as deviants. References Richard T. Schaefer. (2012). Sociology – A Brief Introduction (Tenth Edition). McGraw-Hill Companies Inc, New York. Sociology of Deviance and Crime. (2013) By Ashley Crossman.