Deviant Behavior

Deviant behavior involves actions and characteristics that have elicited negative reactions from relatively large and powerful audiences. In a sense, authorities are contributors to deviance through escalation, non-enforcement, and covert facilitation. I believe a large portion of the concept of deviancy is left up to the reports of the field officers that canvas the neighborhoods. The way the officers describe the actions of the offender will make a significant difference in law making. What I mean is; an officer can observe a group of teenagers goofing off (wrestling) at a park and think the teenagers are up to something sinister. Depending on the neighborhood will make the difference in how the officers react. Low income neighborhood parks will probably get raided by four or five patrol units. Teenagers in a high income neighborhood park will probably be told to keep the noise down and be careful. With that being said, law makers take the reports of their city and state authorities in consideration in determining what law or ordinance to pass for that area. I disagree with this form of action 100%, because it’s discriminative on a government level. The deviant is one to whom the label has successfully been applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label. Depending on your place in time and where you geologically reside will depict whether or not it’s deviancy or simple mischief. I’m not sure about 2012, but in the 1960’s, picking your noise in public or dropping out of school was considered a form of deviancy.

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