Section H Homework Assignment - Deviance


1. Describe an occasion in which you were caught engaged in a primary deviant act and thus was labeled a deviant.
I stole a candy bar from a store when in High School.

2. What were the effects of this label?
I had the store security come to talk to me in the front of the store. I got out of it without having to go to the police station. I don't remember whether my parents found out. I think they didn't because I would probably have remembered if they had. I wasn't banned from the store either.

a. How did it affect your self identity?
I felt like a thief and didn't like other people knowing I had stolen something. I felt like I would be watched more carefully now by the police.

b. How did it affect how you were treated by others?
Some people kind of thought it was a joke almost because people in the area sometimes challenged each other to go steal stuff from one of the major department stores because the department stores were so wealthy and charged so much for their items. Other people were forgiving because I was a first time offender, and I only took a candy bar. I think security watched me more carefully while I was at the store.

c.. Did this labeling increase, decrease, or have no obvious effect on your deviant behavior?
I didn't want to take things again because I respected the store, and the security/police. I felt like I wanted to be a decent, civil, upstanding citizen and not a thief. I also didn't like that security and the police might be all of a sudden watching me for thievery. My family has many teachers, police, fire fighters, some lawyers, etc. I felt the most obligation to these people not to steal.

3. Explain how these effects are examples of secondary deviance.
I think family ties and positive approval from family definitely may impact a person to not continue deviant behavior. I think the police and security definitely reinforce the rules of society and discourage primary deviance. I think this may be a good thing today in our society. Sometimes though police and security are corrupt and unjust though which can almost attribute to secondary deviance. I've heard that you have to cure one's root problem, not just the symptoms. I think that sometimes our society- the systems and members of society could stand to look at the real problems and cure them instead of just treating symptoms. Confronting & Treating root problems well, reasonably, healthfully, wisely and justly, instead of just temporary surface symptoms, could prevent some secondary deviance from occurring, I think.