Deviance

Is punishable deviance a societal construct? Yes. The term deviance means people who go against the norms of society, these norms can either be positive or negative. Deviant behavior could vary and an example would be someone doing something out of an act of kindness, like paying for a strangers toll or paying for the woman's coffee who is behind you. In the US we send people to jail or to court for punishable deviance. During class last week we watched the episode of "30 Days". During this episode Morgan goes to jail for 30 days to experience what happens. When people go to jail they do something against society's norms and rules/laws that sends them to jail. In the episode of "30 Days In Jail" they showed many people who have been constantly sent back to jail for continuing these negative acts. Some of the men in the jail said they were going to change and once they got out that they were not going back, but in fact the men continued to do bad things and ended up back in jail anyways. One of the guys was a drug addict and he went to rehab to become clean, he got out of jail and he said he wanted to change, he ended up back in jail for stealing. Societal construct can be punishable. People make their own choices to change, its a matter of if they are committed enough to change or not.