Deviance and Social Control

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The concepts 'Social Control' and 'Deviance' have more than one definition to me, my understandings of these terms are that they try to group, control and define different kinds of anti-social behaviour. In this essay I will be reflecting on how certain topics have deviant labels attached to them as a result of social control. I will be explaining my initial understanding and views of these topics, going on to explain how they may have been changed, challenged or reinforced after attending lectures and using the sources available to me to expand my knowledge. Also, I will be using evidence from texts I have read to support these views and considering how these contribute to the inner-relationship between 'deviance' and social control. The key topics I will be demonstrating this with are Teenage Mothers, Eugenics, Deviant Bodies and The Cultural Degeneration of Travellers. These topics highlight key areas in which deviant labels are attached to groups of people by social control and how society has tried to control people's views in order to separate class and be in command of what should be seen as acceptable behaviour. My understanding of social control before this module was that it encompassed the way in which a society is governed, policed, and dictated. I thought the definition of social control was about how we live our lives, and make decisions in accordance to a set of guidelines, rules and regulations that have been set out by a group of much more powerful, influential figures in society. I think that social control is not universal, all countries have completely different ways in which their society is controlled, and I also think that all societies need to be controlled in some way shape or form, although most like the... ... middle of paper ... ...ociety tries to control what should be seen as normal, but as humans we are all individual and there is no 'norm' there is only an ideal self, how society would like everyone to be and conform. Works Cited Ferrell, J. (2004) 'Boredom, Crime and Criminology, Theoretical Criminology, 8 (3) pp287-302 Garland, D. (2008) 'On the Concept of Moral Panic' in Crime, Media and Culture 4(1) pp.9-30 Hayward, K. and Young, J.(2004) 'Cultural Criminology: Some notes on the script' in International Journal of Theoretical Criminology, 8 (3) pp.259-285 Jones, O (2011). : The demonization of the Working Class. London: Verso. p1-10. Kennedy, Angie, C. (2008) 'Eugenics, "Degenerate Girls" and Social Workers During the Progressive Era' Journal of Women and Social Work Vol 23 (1) pp 22-37 Presdee, M (2000). Cultural Criminology and the Carnival of Crime. London: Routledge. 245.

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