Social Deviance and Society Essay

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The Saints and the Roughnecks

As Chambliss pointed out in his study of the “Saints and Roughnecks,” the label of deviance can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. This accords with what Lamert called the issue of primary and secondary deviance, with primary deviance being largely accepted and unpunished while secondary deviance leads more to punishment and the feeling of being an outcast (Liberman, Kirk and Kim). It also aligns with the concept of social strain theory, in which an individual is pushed to deviance by society because of inherent hypocrisy in society that angers the deviant and makes the deviant want to act out more in response (Agnew). Thirdly, it aligns with the idea of social control theory, which states that deviants act because they want to break from social controls and gain some power for themselves (Schreck and Hirschi). All three theories could be used to explain the situation of the Saints and the Roughnecks. The Saints were not punished for their deviance because society viewed them as good boys overall who came from good families and who would go on to do good things. As a result they went on to have successful lives and never felt the need to lash out, as per the theory of Lamert regarding secondary deviance, or strain theory or to gain social control. The Roughnecks on the other hand were punished for their deviance because society deemed that they came from bad families and had nothing to offer society and would most likely lead bad lives in the future unless they were punished now. As a result, only a third of the Roughnecks went on to succeed.

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The other two-thirds lapsed into the self-fulfilling prophecy aspect of deviance. Their secondary deviance pushed them into a feeling of social strain, wherein they sought to gain social control through deviance.

Thus, from the Symbolic Interactionist perspective one can see that social behavior is a product of everyday interactions. People have an effect on people that goes down deep, alters their psychology and impacts the way they live and think and behave. The evidence of the Saints and Roughnecks study shows that when people are treated like saints and respected as saints, they tend to go on to live better lives. When people are treated like deviants, like Roughnecks, they tend to go on to feel like deviants and to embrace a life of deviancy since that is what society is pushing them towards.

What compels society to push some towards good lives and others toward bad lives? The study on Saints and Roughnecks showed that what did this was society’s sense of environment. Those who were from a lower income background and had a lower socio-economic lifestyle were viewed as morally inferior to those who came from the middle class background. This idea of associating material wealth and socio-economic status is deeply ingrained in America and shows the extent to which bias and….....

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