I am an immigrant from Yerevan, Armenia. My parents moved here with my brothers and I in tow when I was 3-years-old. From my experience, people that immigrate to america from other countries can be separated into two different groups when it comes to deviance. There are the people that go out of their way to fit into the American culture so that they are not labled deviant and there are the people that embrace their differences and are okay being deviant so long as they keep their strong cultural identity. I fit into the first group of people in that ever since I can remember, I have known that I am different from my friends and I have done everything I can to try to fit in with my surroundings. I have had opportunities to join gangs and do criminal behaviors like many of my peers that have my same back ground but I passed it up to fit in with this society.
Differential Association Theory states that deviant behavior is learned. Individuals that exhibit deviant behavior do so because of the interactions that they have had with others that are also deviant (Thio et. al.). I find this to be true for myself because I have been fortunate enough to have parents that have provided a positive growing environment. They always pushed me to do well in school and college was never an option, it was a necessity. I have a lot of childhood friends that came from similar backgrounds and similar circumstances but they got involved with the wrong crowd and would now be considered deviant to this societies standards. The fallowing video shows differential association theory in action. Nine year old Latarian Milton steals his grandmothers car and takes it for a joy ride and when officers ask him why he did it, he says " its fun to do bad things." Latarian, is a product of his enviormnent; he as been exposed to "bad behavior" and wants to replicated it to feel fulfilled.
Another theory that can explain why I am not deviant is Control Theory. Control Theory is based on the idea that individuals who commit crimes are detached from society and feel a disconnect between their values and societies values (Thio et. al.). The individuals I know that would be considered deviant are the ones that feel like society has failed them. I think that I was raised a little naive because I never looked to blame society when things went wrong for me. I was so busy trying to stay in tact with societies beliefs, commitments and involvements that I did not pay attention to what may or may not have been going on around me. The video below is a great example of everyday social control. Something as simple as walking on a sidewalk instead of the grass next to it can be classified as social control. People do not want to break that norm so they continue to fallow the behaviors of their peers.
The deviant act I decided on was to walk backwards on a crowded pier. I went to the Columbia River water front on the Washington side and I parked my car my Beaches Restaurant. I walked backwards from Beaches all the way to Who Song and Larry's which is almost one mile away. This is considered a deviant act because society is wired to walk forward for many rightful reasons that can go unmentioned. I knew that that pier is always crowded during the day and I was curious to see what people would think of me walking backwards on it. When I first started, I felt extremely awkward and felt like everyone around me felt the same way. I try to put myself in my spectators position and I understand how weird I would feel seeing a random person walking backwards for no apparent reason.
During my walk, I got a lot of stares. No one said a word to me and I think that may have to do with the fact that i'm a 6-foot-tall, 230lbs. man. I think peoples reaction level had a lot to do with that. Even though I knew that this is a social experiment and that I wouldn't normally walk backwards, I couldn't help but feel like I was being judged. The thought of being judged for simply walking backwards reminded me of a conversation I had with a personal trainer at 24 hour fitness. I approached him at the gym and told him about a pain in the front of my shoulders. I was surprised when he pointed me to different people at the gym and said, "they all have the same problem." He said to me that this society is wired to want to show off their front so when they work out they primarily work on their chest, abs, and biceps because that is what people see the most. He continued telling me all the problems that occur when we only focus on our front muscles and said the the pain in my shoulders stemmed from a lack of working out the back muscles.
As I was walking backwards I kept thinking about what the personal trainer told me. Society focuses on the front so how awkward it must have been for people walking by to see me walking backwards.
Word Count: 894
Work Cited
Thio, Alex, Thomas C. Calhoun & Addrain Conyers. 2010. Readings in Deviant Behavior. Boston, MA. Pearson.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=latarian+milton&oq=latrian+m&aq=0s&aqi=g-s10&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=1962l3968l0l5739l9l8l0l0l0l0l217l1148l3.3.2l8l0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptBmp3sInZw&feature=player_embedded
Agree/Awesome
ReplyDeleteThis was a very well written post. I love how you pulled in the writing with your life experience. One thing I will say is I did see a few spelling errors and the first video would not play. I enjoyed the second video and how you related it to the control theory. It was interesting how the simple day to day signs are there. It brings up the question of why and what is the story behind it all.
Also I loved your deviant act! It was so simple but is a huge thing at the same time. When you tied in the 24hour fitness's employees comment, I found that so true in regards to how our society looks at one another. We focus on the eye contact and front image more than the body as a whole.