social construction

• • Punishments for deviating from social norms and showing socially undesirable behaviours
  • Deviance= how people react to the behaviour
• Social Construction

  • people in society (usually people in positions of power) decide whether acts are acceptable or unacceptable based on their reactions. 
• • It can be difficult to make generalisations about whether acts are deviant or acceptable, because it depends on lots of different factors
• Deviance changing over time

  • Since WWII, social attitudes to issues have changed the social stigma of these in the UK
  • such as sex outside of marriage, divorce, abortion, homosexuality and smoking
• Deviance changing cross-culturally

  • Cultures differ across the world regarding what is acceptable.
  • In the USA it is acceptable for people to carry guns and in many states they have the death penalty, but not in the UK.
  • And smoking Marijuana in many countries is acceptable, but alcohol is considered a crime.
• Factors that affect if an act is criminal or deviant:

  • TIME- When the act takes place can influence whether it is criminal or deviant
  • PLACE- Where the act takes place
  • CONTEXT- The context/scenario in which the act takes place
  • CULTURE- Different cultures have different expectations (norms and values) about behaviour.
• • An act can be criminal and deviant e.g murdefr
• • An act can be deviant but not criminal e.g breaking social and not legal rules
  • E.G drinking while pregnant
• • An act can be criminal but not seen as deviant by anyone e.g tax evasion
• • Deviance depends upon the reaction of others
  • Crime depends upon what behaviour legislators see as unlawful
• Social construction- patterns of behavior based on the norms and expectations of a society