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A 4 page research paper that discusses deviance/crime and the differences between three major sociological perspectives: -- functionalist, interactionist, and Marxist. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khsocdev.rtf
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punished. However, consider for a moment that Socrates was considered "deviant" by this society, as was a common carpenter from Nazareth. As this illustrates, definitions of what and what
is not deviant can change - sometimes within a persons lifetime, as evidence by South Africas Nelson Mandela, who was incarcerated under Apartheid, but seen as a patriot and elected
president after the end of white supremacist rule in that country. Sociologists acknowledge that what is considered deviant can differ from culture to culture and across time (Henslin, 1988).
It is, in fact, not possible to isolate any acts that are universally condemned by all societies as deviant acts (Long, 2001). Even murder is condoned during wartime. Therefore, deviance
and the acts that are labeled as criminal must be seen as being relative to both time and place. How and why a culture decides which acts are deviant
(criminal) and which has been studied utilizing three major perspectives -- functionalist, interactionist, and Marxist. Functionalism Functionalist theories tend to emphasize the preservation of social order (Long,
2001). For example, sociological pioneer Emile Durkheim stressed the importance of deviance in a society as a tool for boundary maintenance (Long, 2001). When someone deviants from social norms, the
media reports on these acts and at the accompanying punishment, at once educating the citizenry by restating the rules of that particular society (Long, 2001). By punishing wrongdoers, deviance performs
a function, which is to reaffirm the correctness and societal rules (Long, 2001). Henslin also agrees that deviance plays a role in boundary maintenance, i.e. who is and who
is not part of the social group (1988). A group that finds a deviant within their midst will endeavor to "mark" this person in some manner that all can see
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