Examples of "Deviant Behavior"

There are five types of individual adoption: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. My example for innovation type of thoughts and behavior, I can think of abortion, it is a deviant behavior in some religion and countries, while it is not in other culture and countries.

Whether it is acceptable or not is determined by the culture and belief in a society. Like in some countries, abortion is regarded as a normal small surgery, for couples who have not decided to have children at that time, it is a common way to terminate the pregnancy, no one will judge them for doing not want to have a baby at this moment and terminate the pregnancy by their choice. Maybe they want to put their energy on career first, or they do not have enough money and time for the baby at that time, the society and public accept this in their moral standard.

While in some other places, abortion is illegal, it against the belief in the society and public moral standard. Abortion is regarded as illegal and villainous, it is disrespected of human's life, people will be punished and judged by the law system and public. I think whether a behavior is deviant or not is based on the culture, background, history, religion and other elements in the specific environment.

I agree with Weijia that contexts in which individuals' actions occur plays into whether it is defined as deviant or non-deviant. I would like to extend this, and suggest that all five types of individual adoption of cultural goals and institutionalized means can either play a positive and/or a negative role in society. Religious/spiritual beliefs seems to be a concept in which conformity is highly internalized due to the prominence of it from the very beginning of individuals' lives. Buddhists' ways of life, tend to be so internalized into the minds of its believers, that since everyone is doing it the conflict between those who are deviant and those who are not are kept to a minimal. However, other religious extremists groups, tend to have the same goals, yet with the small change of institutional means leads to the type transforming in to rebellion. The stress between the two different institutional means, leads to heightened conflict, of which is the "right" way too achieve the goals. This, unfortunately is what leads to many terrorist crimes, in which terror and force is use to change the current acceptable institutional means to the more "deviant" method. In this sense, I find conformity and rebellion to be highly relatable in the context of spiritual and religious beliefs.

I agree with the above comments as well. I think that different cultures and communities will have different values and therefore the definition of deviance will be different. And expanding on the idea of social values and cohesion, deviance also plays a big part in crime and what is illegal. As society sets the rules which then become law it also sets the standards of what deviance is. Also, deviance can be a way in which one can act out in an attempt to change the laws. For example, LGBTQ laws were only changed after certain individuals acted out and rebelled against the social norms. This rebellion, one of Merton's 5 types of deviance are not only used by people that reject rules and goals of culture, but is in fact used to create a sort of counterculture in which new goals and rules are then created. This counterculture may then be what is socially accepted if it gains enough of a following.

I believe that there are different levels of deviant behavior in our society. The extent to which an act is thought to be deviant is highly dependent on time, culture and social movement. Adding on to Christopher's point on how different values within a community define the level of deviance, the values that change over time in one culture, or society, are also an example of changing values. A large way that we see this in our contemporary society is in the change to the traditional life-course, particularly in terms of marriage culture. Many young couples living in high economically developed nations choose to cohabit before marriage or have children outside of marriage. These actions were not long ago deemed highly deviant. However, social movement and change has made these the new accepted norms.

I think people act deviant in order to achieve a specific goal they are normally unable to attend. I agree with Norfar, as the extent of the deviant act is dependent on time, culture, and social movements, but i feel as if there must be an event in the individuals life in which he or she is given the choice to become deviant to achieve this goal, or achieve it through an institutionalized mean. But leading on to what i said earlier, when an individual whom is not confident in himself or herself in achieving such goal through the institutionalized way, they act deviantly and find the "easier" way to get their goal. For a really basic example; When an individual who forgot he or she has a test tomorrow, and is unprepared, rather than cramming in all the information he needs to know right before the test, he may cheat to achieve the passing mark he desires.