Assignment On Deviance

Submitted By barsoumc
Words: 1870
Pages: 8

This assignment asks you to go through with the plan you made in the first portion of your assignment, and do something. You need to do something deviant, or be perceived as doing something deviant (observing someone else is not enough). You’ll be asked to write about how that experience is similar to or different from what the literature predicts or expects. You will need to describe and analyze some of the responses from people observing your “deviant” action, and have some way of making sense of non-verbal reactions. Where you find differences (and you will), you need to make an effort to explain, sociologically, what might account for those differences.

To truly evaluate if future deviance is caused by early exposed to deviance, we need to examine two scenarios. In the first scenario, we will examine the parent intoxicated in a public area with the child, and capture observations by the child and individuals. In the second scenario, we will have the parent and the child consume alcohol in a public setting and also capture observations from bystanders. We will start by examining certain variables that can affect the child, such as alcohol and drug use, early deviance, the family structure, home atmosphere, and if there is association with deviant peers. The child who does affiliate with alcohol once a week, was not exposed to early deviance, attains a good family structure, and is associated with deviant peers roughly once or twice a week. As for the parent, she does affiliate with alcohol on occasions, was not exposed to early deviance, attains a good family structure, and is associated with deviant peers. These variables are important to consider because if they both consume alcohol regularly, are exposed to early deviance and are associated with peers then there will be no relationship between early and future deviance because it is already practiced. The child has to not associate with deviance to and extent as well as the parent.

In the first scenario, my mother and I will go to a local lounge, where she will first intoxicate herself and I will observe reactions and have normal conversation to see what has changed. After her consumption, I noticed that she kept on looking around and had less of a sense of what is going on around her. She could not focus on one thing, she was constantly seeing what was happening around her. I did not feel comfortable because this was my first time around her while drunk, I did not know what to expect. Her speech was mumbled and she did not censor what came out of her mouth. Conversation was completely different when intoxicated than day-to-day interactions. Our daily conversations consisted of her asking me how school was and if I need anything from her. While intoxicated she asked me if I was in a relationship, if I was sexually active, and other personal questions. She became more curious as to what my life was really like because she was in a different state of mind. I then asked her to get up and go open a conversation with a random person; she proceeded to go and talk with a man named Mark. On the way to his table she stumbled and had to hold onto the railing to not fall over. She introduced herself and proceeded to talk about what they did for a living and their families. He commented on how intoxicated she was and that she "had to control her drinking tonight, [she] seemed overboard". This relates to her self-control and adoption of a labeling status. She did not care as to what happened because she was in a different state. Her self-control was at a bare minimum, and Michael A. Cretacci states that, "those that acquire low self-control are more susceptible to criminal activity throughout their lives than those that do not" (p3). Self-control is very important, especially around children. The child is still developing so he/she is still figuring out what is right versus wrong. If they are surrounded by individuals with low self control there is no censor as to what