Reference no: EM132061868

Social deviance can be described as an action or behavior that does not conform to the dominant or socially established norms of a given society. This conduct is considered either formal or informal. A 'formal' setting refers to behaviors that are specifically prohibited by laws, while informal social deviance describes actions that are not explicitly unlawful, but members of the society generally disapprove of them. Regardless of the context, social deviance can be explained by a combination of many different factors.

I think it is important to understand the concept of socialization to get a bit of background on what shapes a person's behavior in public. Socialization is the process by which individuals learn and apply the norms, values, and social skills appropriate for their position in society. This process is crucial to the function of society, since it essentially shapes how people interact with one another. Socialization comes into play when considering social deviance, since a person is making a conscious choice to go against the norms they should have internalized during socialization.

In my opinion, the best explanation of social deviance is that the person does not feel impacted by other people's disapproval of their actions (informal setting), or is not scared to face the consequences of the rules they broke (formal setting). This could be due to feeling detached from society to any extent, which could be a result of improper socialization, since people are socialized to care about what others think of them and shape their behavior based on other people's reactions to them. Additionally, building on Goffman's dramaturgical theory as mentioned in the Conley textbook, which is based on the premise that human interaction in public is a never-ending play in which people are actors, one could argue that deviants believe that disapproval from others (as a result of their deviance) is simply an "act", and has no real meaning, and thus does not need to be taken seriously. Again, this thought process would be due to improper socialization, since it is a socially established norm to "act" realistic in public and believe that everyone's actions reflect their true feelings. To clarify, even if public interaction could be considered a "drama" according to Goffman's theory, we are socialized to treat everyone's actions as "reality", and assume that a person's disapproval of deviance, for instance, is actually what he or she feels about the deviant's actions. For a deviant to not feel that way possibly reflects improper socialization on their part.