Explaining Deviance essays

Explaining Deviance essays There are two approaches to explaining deviance. The first approach is focusing on the deviant actor alone; it assumes that the majority of actors conform to rules and norms most of the time, so people who break norms and are deviant must be fundamentally different than everyone else. Meaning that there is something wrong with them. These types of theories look for internal factors to explain individual rule breaking. Typically these types of theories are non sociological and are known as kind of people theories. The second approach to explaining deviance focuses more on the rules and the process by which someone comes to be know as being deviant. This approach focuses on how norms are established and how they are enforced. Theories that take this approach look for external factors that explain deviance . They are sociological and known as process theories. I do not exactly remember when I began noticing, but once I did, it was hard to overlook. I guess I was in middle school and I was becoming independent. My parents began to trust me and feel comfortable letting me go and do things on my own, or with friends. I felt that even though my parents were not around there was someone watching me. This was the case wherever I went. I did not have a name for it until high school and its name was age discrimination. I can remember feeling as though I had done something wrong, but the only wrong thing was my presence. I was being treated as deviant just because of my age. I was being placed in a category of deviance, when in reality I was not. ...