Being deviance at a point in life:

Through media I saw and notice a huge difference between being famous and not. Besides having the money and having fans follow you. Being Famous comes with lots of power. An artist that goes by the name of T.I, I can say has huge power. He pleaded guilty to U.S Federal weapons charges.  The artist only got one year in person and community service. This is an example of “Power allows some people to escape being branded or punish as deviant”. I remember speaking to my brother about this incident and we both came to a conclusion that if it was just a regular non-famous person, they would have had more than one year in prison. The artist did not even finish the whole one year sentence; he was able to come out before 360 days.

2.       I have a friend that I was always very kind too and will constantly have casual talks with. My friend Charlie had went to the beach with a couple of his friends and at the way returning back, his friends and him got into a physical fight with another group of people. My friend Charlie got hit in the head with a bottle and he was out for a couple of seconds. Between those seconds a boy was stab and died from the wound. My friend was not the one who killed the boy, but the laws we have clearly state the no one can be involved in gangs. Since my friend was, he was arrested because he committed a crime by being involve in a gang and fighting and a boy was murder.

3.       I would never forget my 7^th grade class teacher. When 8:30am came, me and my classmates had to get up our seats and stand for the pledge of Allegiance. At the time I did not want to stand and say the Allegiance, I recall my teacher getting mad and getting in my face telling me I’m worthless and to go to the dean’s office. Every day of the week my teacher tried to enforce me to stand and say the pledge of allegiance. She eventually started to punish me by taking away gym time and instead sitting in the classroom writing 5 pages of history work. She would call my mother and try to suspend me from class. This is a connection with “agents of social control” because my teacher eventually punished me for not following the rules and enforced me to follow the classroom rules by standing up and saying the pledge of Allegiance.

4.       Through the media you can see anything. In the news I recall watching footage of a police officer beating a male. According to the footage and the news you can see that the person was already put in cuffs but still the police officer was hitting him and kicking him in the face. This is an example of “White-collar crime” because the police officer committed a crime and since his occupation is to arrest criminals, it was okay that he was using this type of violence towards the person. The officer did not get written up or fried and was let go in court.

5.       In the society we live in, having children out of marriage is seemed to not be okay. People see it as breaking the cultural norms that we have. Teen pregnancy is an example of “deviance “, by teens having children at such a young age they are going against the basic expectations that the adults have of them. Parents expect their teens to attend high school and then attend college; they do not expect them to having kids of their own at that age.

6.       Since my father had a stroke, getting a job was hard for him. Having this stroke happen to my father, it prevented him from getting a job. The stroke affected my dad by not being able to have control of his right hand and cannot speak clear. This is an example of “Stigma” because of his status it prevented him from getting a job and even trying to make friends since people can understand what my dad is saying when he speaks. 

The article written by Herbert J. Gans, explains how the poor people are label by others. It explains how poverty for the poor people is more negative than the people who are non-poor. He describes the functions of the undeserving poor, which he discusses in five sets. He also talks about these 13 specific functions. One of them that interested me and is said to be the most important is the “job creation”. People are label basically as useless and all the cons that come with it. The undeceiving poor are not that they useless but in fact they just not worth any useful to people who are in higher level than them.  Since these people are considering being undeserving poor people, they automatically put into poverty which bring them just to no good.

Reading this article and chapter 8 in the text book just made me think of me and my father. When it came to reading the definition of “stigma” in the text book, in my mind I thought “oh its okay my dad does not have to work he can relax at home and just get society security check”. But now I realize that it’s not okay, even if he gets that monthly check to help out with the bills in the house since he can’t get a job and pay them himself.  Secondary deviance, while reading this in chapter 8, I can say it reminded me that this took place in my teenage stage. That since I was consider the loud and getting in trouble in school all the time, some adults in my life label me as the bad child and my brother as the good, quiet, and nice child in my family. I can say that by them labeling me as the “bad child and trouble maker of the house” , it made me become more to breaking the house rules since I was already consider a bad child. At the time I thought to myself since my uncle and aunts think I’m the trouble maker in school then why not really get into trouble and just not listen to my teachers so they can really have a reason to label me as that. I’m not embarrass to say that when I was younger I was a deviance teenager in some ways.But as I left that teenage stage of my life, I could say that I left that behind me.