The “American Dream” Contribution to the Frequency of Deviance
Deviance is a criminal offense that entails violating the norms of society. Deviants ought to be present in any society as long as some rules and regulations have been put in place to be followed. This is because not all people in the society can strain and follow the rules and norms of society. There are many reasons why deviants are present in a society, for example, the political or social forces in the society. Deviance in American society is more prevalent unlike in other countries of the world. This can be partly attributed to the concept of the American dream whereby most of the people in America are yearning to achieve this dream as stipulated by Martin Luther King Jr. The American dream had a main theme of freedom for the Americans, something that has been wrongly perceived as being free from the laws and regulations of the society. This perception has made most people in America disobey the societal norms in the name of achieving the dream. The dream talks of people being committed to the success of material goals under circumstances that are open with individual competition (Robinson and Murphy 2008, p.51).
To begin with is the fact that most Americans want to be richer than they are despite their current income level, what is referred to as maximization in the dream. This zeal has made some of the people do all sorts of deeds to become richer such as stealing funds. A study case is one of the former presidents of America Jefferson who stole funds from the government that was found in the freezer in his home (Robinson and Murphy 2008, p.62).
Another issue of concern is greed among most Americans which is also justified in the dream leading to a type of deviance known as elite deviance committed by the powerful and wealthy people of the society because of greed. From the above discussion, it is seen that the concept of the American dream contributes so much to deviance and criminality in American society.
Privileged Deviance v. Underprivileged Deviance
Even though deviance is a criminal offense regardless of who, when, how, or where it was committed, there is great inequality in the issue of deviant behavior. This is such that there is privileged deviance also referred to as the white-collar crime and the underprivileged deviance also known as the blue-collar crime. Privileged deviance is committed by the people with high social status in the society such as government officials while underprivileged deviance is committed by the normal civilians. Those who commit privileged deviance are involved in weighty crimes such as the embezzlement of funds, tax evasion among others while the underprivileged deviance includes petty theft, rape cases just to mention but a few. Criminals of privileged deviance are hard to prosecute given the positions they hold in society as well as the complex transactions they use to hide their activities.
Those of underprivileged crimes have nothing to conceal and because of their low social status end up being in the hands of the law enforcers with ease. The other difference is that privileged deviance is mostly committed on behalf of institutions or corporations while underprivileged deviance is individual based. Nevertheless, regardless of their difference’s deviance is a criminal offense that is punishable by law.
Deviance Management Possibilities
Once deviance has been committed it causes harm or injury to the affected persons and cannot, therefore, be reduced. This is because it is not possible to take back or reduce the impact caused as a result of the deviance. However, the incidences of deviance in society can be reduced to minimal levels through the application of certain policies and regulations against deviant behavior. For example, educating society on the impacts that come in hand with deviant behavior can help reduce the causes of deviance in society. Alternatively, looking for ways of engaging the youths (major deviants in society) so that they are not idle will help minimize the incidences of deviance in society.
Completely eliminating deviance from society is something that is not achievable. This is because psychologists say that some people become deviants because of their internal conflict, thus society cannot be free from deviants. At the same time, studies have indicated that the few people who obey the societal norms only do that after straining so much.
On the other hand, deviant behavior indicates a normal and healthy society. It is very impossible to have a society that is comprised of saints only, there have to be some traces of people who violate the laws and regulations set by the society. It can therefore be concluded that deviant is part of normal modern society.
Reference List
Robinson, M. and Murphy, D. (2008). Maximization and Elite Deviance in America. Web.