Deviance is the violation of societal and community agreed on norms and rules (David,
2018.p212). Primarily it is any non- conformist behavior that is disapproved of by society or a
social group, whether it is illegal or not. It is the norm-breaking behavior and can range from
being eccentric to criminal activity. To begin with, deviance helps in defining boundaries and
distinguishing cultural values in terms of what society perceives as good and bad (David,
2018.p.212). Since deviant behaviors defer greatly across cultures and groups and we can only
define bad in relation to good, using various examples of deviant behaviors in society as such
deviance helps in defining cultural boundaries on what constitutes bad and good. Secondly,
deviance helps in creating social order, control, and stability by defining moral boundaries on
what behavior, actions, and acts the society perceives as right and wrong (David, 2018.p.212).
Mainly, deviance reinforces common standard morals across cultures and groups by referencing
what is bad so it gets everyone on the same page with respect to what is good and how to act in
society creating control. Without this control, everyone would be running around with their own
moral code and their own set of standards. Thirdly, deviance helps to clarify norms in society by
laying out patterns of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. As mentioned by Newman, (2018)
in order to avoid unsettling society, one must be aware of what behaviors are marked as deviant.
Criminalization of deviance points out that certain acts are crimes because they offend the
majority of the people in the society (Newman, 2018, p.228). As such systems of recognizing
and punishing deviance create norms that tell members of a given society how to behave by
laying out patterns of acceptable and unacceptable behavior (Newman, 2018, p.228). For
example, if someone is caught stealing or committing murder for instance, and is punished, this
sends a signal to the rest of the people in the society that stealing and killing are unacceptable
criminal acts that deserve punishment. And in this way, it helps to shore up the edges of our
moral norms and behavior as well as define what is right and wrong
Fourthly, it helps in controlling as well as constraining people's behavior in the society which in
turn enhances social behavior (Newman, 2018, p.222). For example, punishing people involved
in deviant behaviors such as murder, fraud, rape, drugs through legal institutions like jail, courts
help regulate social behavior as well as obedience to authority for the interest of the common
good of everyone in society(Newman, 2018,p.228). Moreover, deviant labels given to people of
undesirable motives and behaviors in society such as humiliating labels of various deviant
behaviors, posts of pictures of drug offenders, deadbeat fathers, solicit prostitutes, public
urinators, rapists, sex offenders among others as mentioned in Newman textbook , creates stigma
in society deterring other people from engaging in these crimes (Newman, 2018,p.225). Since
these deviant labels impair people's eligibility to enter a broad range of socially acceptable roles
as well as taint people's image and character, it scares others in the society from engaging in such
acts or becoming part of the label groups in the society which in turn enhances socially
acceptable behavior (Newman, 2018,p.225-226).Additionally, deviance holds society together
by allowing us to live in groups and play by the same rules when we uphold the same notion of
deviance and the same morality. Paradoxically, deviant behavior sets an example for the rest of
us so we can become unified on what is culturally valued and right as opposed to what is wrong.
So those cultural values of right, sharing them is what holds us together. For example, in the past
in the U.S., homosexual relationships were considered deviant but now they have gone from
being criminalized and closeted in the 1960s to being granted the right to legally marry in all the
50 states in the USA (Newman, 2018, p.213). Therefore, people have widely accepted members
of the LGBT community showing how deviance unifies people as one community within society
by accepting that type of behavior it’s certainly good for those individuals practicing it.
Furthermore, the structural-functionalist perspective points out the society's interest is to
socialize and encourage everyone to strive for success and ambitions to be live a better life as
well as occupy important positions within the society (Newman, 2018, p.222). Therefore,
deviance plays a role in motivating people to be ambitious as well as in achieving societal
expected goals when they experience economic or financial strain. The strain theory argues that
the probability of committing a deviant act increases when people experience strain,
hopelessness, economic hardships as such they will be inspired to take action to better their life
either in a positive way for example going to school to get a better paying job, applying for other
well-paying job which is good for the society or in a negative way by committing fraud, stealing
and money laundering as a way of coping up with the societal pressures ( Newman, 2018, p.222).
Lastly, deviance in society serves to help a society function properly. According to this
paradigm, everything that serves as functional for the society continues to exist, while all that is
dysfunctional ceases to exist. Mainly, deviance serves to help remind society what is right or
wrong since each deviant act has a certain consequence mostly negative such as a punishment,
jail time, death by hanging if it's murder among others. Hence each time there is a deviant actor
caught and punished, the society is able to see the outcome and this helps reassert the values of
the society. Thus most people will begin conforming out of fear of punishment from becoming
deviant according to deterrence theory (Newman, 2018, p.222).