Deviance through the eyes of a child
... innovators accept the culturally approved goals; however, the innovators do not accept the means to those goals. The ritualist and retreatist both do not accept the goals. However, unlike the retreatist, the ritualist accepts the means. Like the retreatists, the rebels do not accept the culturally accepted means or goals either. Instead, a rebel substitutes his or her own personal means and goals. The conflict theory, like it has for centuries, deals with power. Deviance is no exception to the conflict theory’s unwritten rule. Conflict theorists say that deviance tends to occur in the less powerful groups. Some of these groups are the young, the poor, and the non-Caucasian. People usually form deviant stereotypes of these groups. This stereotypical idea can be seen easily in the United States every day society. The conflict perspective says that the legal and criminal systems are more likely to benefit the more dominant groups. For example, assault and armed robbery, which are usually committed by lower-class persons, are seen as much worse crimes than white-collar crimes such as tax evasion or embezzlement, which are usually committed by someone of upper-class stature. Another example would be when a company price-fixes their goods, which cost the public millions of dollars. Yet, that company might only pay a small fine as a penalty of the crime committed. On the other hand, a man that robs a gas station for a mere thousand dollars, might get up to ten years in jail. In addition, Karl Marx stated that capitalists would do anything to increase their profit margin. This could lead to mechanization or relocation, which could put millions out of work. Symbolic interationism focuses on how a person becomes deviant, instead of the source of the deviance like the other two perspectives focus on. The symbolic interaction perspective also examines why a person responds to deviance through anomie and another person does respond to anomie. The symbolic interaction perspective has many theories pertaining to deviance. The cultural transmission theories state that deviance is a learned behavior that is culturally transmitted through socialization. The differential association theory is the most important theory of the cultural transmission theories. It states that deviance is mainly learned through primary groups, such as family and peers. The labeling theory is also another approach for the symbolic interaction perspective. The labeling theory basically says that if a person is labeled, then that same person is more likely to follow that pattern of behavior. In the labeling theory, there are two completely different kinds of deviance. Primary deviance occurs when a person is not caught or labeled for committing a deviant behavior. However, secondary deviance is where the person is labeled. The labeling theory is most influential to the adolescent aged peoples because teenagers put so much emphasis on his or her self-concepts. During the time learning about deviance, I gained much insight on this subject that intrigued me as a child. I finally understood why certain children acted the way they did. For myself, the symbolic interaction perspective helped me gain the most know...