Understanding Deviance: Borrowing Part Of Cohen's Theory

Deviance is behaving out of social normalities and the severity of the deviant behaviour varies from legal issues to everyday problems such as “role problems of old age” (Clinard, 1968), suggesting that it is difficult to determine deviant behaviour due to it’s subjectivity. In fact, the deviant behaviour that concerns issues of legality are created by those who have power in the society to draw a line between those who conform and those who do not. These people with greater power and authority will then be able to alienate those who carry out more “serious” (subjective) acts (Becker, 1963). A friend of mine, Tom (not his real name), shared his experience of owning an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette), which in Singapore would be considered
Borrowing part of Cohen’s theory, Tom’s behaviour is a learned behaviour as his group of friends started using the product first. Although in this case, the whole theory cannot be adopted, one out of six characteristics offered by Cohen seem relevant – group autonomy. Cohen believed that there is a large possibility of that his group of friends indulged in such behaviour due to “loyalty” amongst the group. These people may enjoy the adrenaline they get by doing something illegal and may also be pressured by their peers to consume such products. This suggests a subculture amongst this group resulting in their actions as these actions are a learned behaviour and acts as a social gathering (Donovan & Jessor, 1985). In addition, Cohen also suggested that the most susceptible to such behaviour would be the “lower-class, male, urban adolescents” which the last two applies to Tom. Cohen explains that females tend to not engage in such behaviour as compared to males due to the practice that they should marry someone successful while urban adolescents may feel pressure to succeed in schools and the inability to leads to delinquent acts. Paralleling Singapore to Japan (both developed countries), women are delaying their marriage or even giving marriage up to pursue their career (Dixon, 1978), such a custom for girls is no longer very strong, although it may still hold for some. In addition, in this fast-paced society, the stress put on the young to do well may have driven to these delinquent acts as a form of stress relief. Hence, I believe Cohen’s theory still holds true to a certain extent. (Downes & Rock,