Describe a past or current involvement in a deviant behavior or way of being (e.g., stigma, a subculture). Using the course readings, explain how your involvement developed. If you haven’t engaged in deviance, use the readings to explain why you haven’t. Remember that what is or isn’t deviant in any given setting is shaped by the setting itself (school, work, home), and your age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, etc. Have you been able to move in and out of a deviant status, and if so, how? In short, how do you make sense of your involvement or lack of involvement in a given type of deviance? Use Becker (“Labeling Theory,” “Career Deviance,” “Becoming a Marihuana User”), Goffman (Stigma), and other relevant readings from the course to tell your story. (Be sure to discern whether your nonconformity is deviance, which is behavioral and presumably by choice; and stigma, a violation of identity norms, generally not by choice).
Guiding questions (adjust these as needed to apply to stigma):
How and/or why did you start engaging in deviance? Or when did you acquire your stigma or the awareness that you possess a stigma?
Why do you continue to engage in deviance, if you do?
Were you ever caught “deviating”? Labeled a deviant? Subjected to “correction?” With what consequences for your public identity and further social participation (e.g., were you treated differently by peers or adult authority figures, did you gain or lose friends, etc.)? Did it lead to secondary deviance? Or what sort of stigma-management work have you performed and why? Has this changed over time? Why?
Changes in deviant behavior/activities over time or stigmatized identity: types of deviance engaged in, frequency or intensity of engagement:
Did you pick up additional deviant behaviors/activities, drop one form of deviance for another, or move in and out of deviance or reduce/increase your engagement with deviance? Explain any such changes. Consider the influence of opportunity/exposure, positive or negative reactions of others, and broader processes of medicalization and/or criminalization.
If you’ve stopped engaging in whatever form of deviance, why did you stop? If you haven’t stopped, why haven’t you? Consider actual or potential negative impacts on your health, family relations, friendships, etc., the likelihood of getting caught and the potential consequences for your educational and/or career aspirations, etc.
Alternatively, you may interview someone else about their deviant career. Adjust the guiding questions as needed. Please speak to me if you want to pursue this option so I can provide you with additional guidance.
Your papers should be approx. 4-5 pages in length, double-spaced with 1″ margins on all sides, using a standard 11 or 12-point font. DO NOT SUBMIT AN AI-GENERATED OR OTHERWISE GENERIC “SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE” PAPER. I will not read it. The assignment calls for specificity and (personal) insight using the course material. Only a living, breathing, thinking-feeling human being can do that.
Regarding citation style and references
For in-line citations (in the body of your text), use the author’s last name and the year their work was published, in parentheses; for example: (Goffman 1963). Insert them directly after the idea you’re attributing to them, whether by direct quote (as indicated by double-quotation marks and a page reference) or paraphrase. If the citation comes at the end of your sentence, place the period after the citation, e.g., (Goffman 1963). See the “Quick Tips for ASA Style” PDF attached to this prompt and posted to Assignments on Bb.
It’s always a good idea to include a list of references, in alphabetical order by the first author’s last name, single-spaced, at the end of any academic writing you do. For this assignment, use any standard format you like: MLA, APA, Chicago, etc., just use it consistently.
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