Examples Of Social Construction Of Deviance

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Social Construction of Deviance
Societies and cultures create sets of norms which essentially govern and control their people. The act of straying from these typical cultural norms and expectations is known as deviance. Cultural standards vary greatly throughout the world and are flexible to change, therefore deviance is a relative concept. This means that cultural norms are specific to a particular area and do not always apply to other areas, causing the idea of deviance to vary depending on what that society views as normal. This variation of standards led to the sociological concept of the social construction of deviance.
One example of the socially constructed nature of deviance can be seen the way people in the United States and the …show more content…
Although he was mildly punished by the NFL, if found guilty, Peterson will receive a miniscule punishment of up to two years in jail and a fine of $10,000. Because of his status, it seems that Peterson was able to get out of punishment for his actions. Regular citizens are not as fortunate. For example, a Texan teenager named Jacob Lavoro may face up to life in prison for baking brownies containing marijuana. If lab results of these brownies come back in Lavoro’s favor, his sentence may be reduced to a minimum of two years, the same amount of time Peterson is expected to receive for his far more serious …show more content…
In fact, the United States currently has the largest income inequality since 1974 and has the highest income inequality compared to all other industrial nations. Over the past 30 years the gap has continued to widen. From 1973 to 2013 the mean household income for families in the lowest fifth increased from $9,210 to $11,651, a mere 20%, while those in the United States’ top five percent had an increase of $177,394 from 1973 to 2013, a whopping 122%! Similarly, CEO’s have also had a dramatic increase in income compared to their workers. From 1980 to 2000, workers’ pay actually decreased by $371 on average, while the pay of CEOs increased by $11,793,880 on average, increasing the CEO-to-worker pay ratio from 1-to-45 to 1-to-458. With these statistics we can see the dramatic increase in pay of those of the higher class, while those of the lower class continue to struggle. Because of this, income inequality in the United States is greater than
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