The Social Science Theories For Social Work Sociology Essay

Haralambos and Holborn (2008) mention in their book:”deviance refers to those activities that do not conform to the norms and expectations of members of particular society”. From this point of view, deviant behaviors refer to the activities which violate the general values or principles that are accepted by most people in one community.

To better understand this concept the writer wants to discuss it from the following aspects: what are the general values or norms? Can these values or norms represent all the expectations of the whole society? If one norm is accepted by most members in one society, does that mean the norm is absolutely correct so that everyone who violate it should be defined as deviant person?

First of all, what is social norm? Members of one society share the same values in order to build their own culture. For example, the members of religious group share the same idea about how to deal with some specific things. Such as Muslims, they share the view that does not eat pork since pig is a symbol of their gods. However, since value and norm is a subjective thing, it can be various from one person to another. In such circumstance, it is hardly for everyone to share the same opinion. So when it comes to the person who breaks the general rule in one society, people may regard it as deviant one. But is it fair for people who are defined as deviant ones just because they do not conform to the principle in the society they live?

There are many different approaches in terms of deviant behavior. One of the most famous perspectives is functionalist way. In this field, Emile Durkheim should be an outstanding representative. According to him, deviant activity such as crime is a part of society which cannot be avoid. It is inevitable because not every member of society can be equally committed to the collective sentiments (the shared values and moral beliefs) of society (Haralambos and Holborn, 2008). Since each individual has his or her own unique background in terms of family, education, economic, social status and so forth. Different experience makes it impossible for everyone to form the exactly same value. Even one norm has existed for a long time and accepted by all most everyone in one society, there are still some people show reluctant to obey that rule. From functionalism view, anomie arises when deviant behavior occurs.

However, Cohen regards deviant behavior as one type of subculture. The same as Merton, subcultural theories explain the origin of deviance in terms of the position of individuals or groups in the social structure (Haralambos and Holborn, 2008). Delinquent subculture is generated by culture deprivation. Because of social stratification, some resources are controlled by some particular groups which contribute to unfair distribution to other members. As the lower class people who can hardly get access to necessary resources, they alter to seek another different way to get what they want. As a result, they “create” other kinds of norms which are seemed as deviance by others.

To some extent, the writer leans to the interactionist perspective.Just as Howard S. Backer (as cited by Haralambos and Holborn, 2008) argued:

Social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of the rules and the sanctions to an ‘offender’. The deviant is one to whom the label has successfully been applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label.

According to Backer, so called deviant behavior is the one result from how others perceive this kind of behavior by compared with their general social norm or principle. It is people’s view that makes some types of activities seem as deviances. So “deviant behavior” itself is the one which is based on subjective perception of members in one community and then apply to comment the actions which are conducted by people who live in the same community. As most inerationists think, deviant behavior is not an isolated action, it occurs during the interaction between people. To understand what deviance is, we must explore the interaction process between the labeler and the labeled. Thus, the key concept of labeling theory is people’s reactions to deviance (Lee, 1994). For instance, it is prevalence for today’s teenagers to put their private things online; some of them upload their sexy or naked photos to the internet. Nobody will know it not to say comment it if they take those kinds of pictures to personal use. However, since publishing to the internet is a way to communicate with outer world; it is no longer stay in the personal level. Most likely, people criticize the teenagers by saying they are ridiculous and blaming them for making bad influence on other people. Hence, deviant behavior occurs when people assert the action cannot be accepted by them or the people who behaves in different way violate the general value in society.

Two examples about deviant behaviors

According to its definition, deviant behavior can refer to any behavior that violate the general value and unacceptable by most people in one society. As Huub Angenent and Anton de Man (1993) mentioned:” more serious forms of deviant behavior include aggressive acts, juvenile delinquency, running away from home, alcoholism and other types of drug abuse, gambling, truancy and prostitution; less serious forms include early smoking and sexual conduct, knavery, hooliganism, insolence and impertinence.” Based on the reality in Hong Kong, the writer intends to focus on drug abuse and compensated dating among local teenagers which are two of the main deviant behaviors in current society.

Drug abuse

As a Hong Kong resident, you may find posters about forbidding drug abuse wherever you are. What does that mean? Drug addiction among adolescences has already been one of the most urgent social problems in this place.

Nobody will deny that drug abuse can be defined as deviant behavior. According to a report from Legislative Council Secretariat (2008-2009): the total number of reported drug abusers increased steadily during the past three years, which rose from 13,252 in 2006 to 14,175 in 2008, or a 7% increase. In particular, the total number of reported young drug abusers increased more notably from 2,578 in 2006 to 3,430 in 2008, representing a higher percentage increase during the time period (33%). The statistics demonstrate the worrying current situation to society: it is quite necessary for all of us to take possible measures to prevent teenagers from getting addicted into drugs.

We are all familiar with heroin, because it is quite popular in the past decade. Recent years, however, psychotropic substance is gradually replacing heroin and becoming the most welcomed drug by younger people because of its cheaper price and easier way to use. According to the statistics reported by commission on Youth (2003), the main reason for teenagers under 21 years old to use drugs is avoiding discomfort for its absence and the next one is out of peer influence, which accounts for 51.4% and 44.1% of the responders respectively during January to September, 2003. Apart from first reason which is the side effect of taking drugs, peer pressure majorly lead to drug abuse.

In terms of drug abuse, the writer thinks it is quite unconvincing to apply labeling theory to interpret it. Because drug abuse has already breaks some legislations and principles in this society and this kind of behavior also causes some other social problems such as theft and robbing. Besides, long period drug misusing will case many physical problems such as cyst atrophy and more severely AIDS infection. Hence, drug abuse is not a simply behavior which seems deviant, it also has complicated relations to various social problems. People regard it as deviant behavior is not just by labeling it, but define it by its consequences. It is, in the writer’s opinion, a kind of social anomie since drug abuse breaks laws which causes a situation of anomie results.

Compensated dating

Enjo-kōsai (shortened form enkō) means ‘compensated dating’ and is a practice which originated in Japan where older men give money and/or luxury gifts to attractive women for their companionship, and possibly sexual favors (Wikipedia, n d). Compensated dating has been transmitted to Hong Kong for more than ten years. As a way to get quite money, many school girls commit to compensated dating with older men.

The compensated dating is now prevailing in South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines as well as Hong Kong SAR. However, different places present various types of compensated dating. But generally, it is the transaction between schoolgirls and elder-men. The cause for compensated dating is not exactly sure but related to various aspects. Unlike the reason for prostitution, which is mainly drive by living, the reason for compensated dating is rarely related to poverty. Most of the minors who engaged in compensated dating are from middle or upper class family. Except curiosity, seeking way to gain easy and quick money to satisfy their desire of luxury goods principally result in their participation in compensated dating. Besides, family dysfunction and lack of communication between parents and children are other two reasons for compensated dating.

Many people think compensated dating is a deviant behavior since young girls who engage in such activity has already violated the general moral within Hong Kong society. Although Hong Kong is an international and modern city, there remain many traditional principles and conventional values. Despite that most of the compensated dating are not involved with sexual behavior, the whole society cannot accept it and to be even worse, some people regard it as prostitution.

Indeed, the writer does not agree with teenagers who with the intention to get easy and quite money participate in compensated dating; we cannot rush to a conclusion. Since most of the girls who involved in this behavior are invisible, it is easy for them to “come out” if they do not want to go compensated dating any more. However, if the majority people label compensated dating as a deviant behavior, the school girls who have already engaged in it but with the wish to quit it may be afraid of other people’s comments and then lose the nerve to come out. The longer they stay in the compensated dating group, the more they get used to it and the less likely that they will “come out”.

Compensated dating, a subculture which holds the opposite value to mainstream in our society, has triggered hot debate over Hong Kong. Although not everyone can accept such kind of “easy and quick” way to get money for teenagers to support their luxury need, we should consider more before we attach deviant behavior to it.

What to do with them?

It is quite common for a youth social worker to encounter with an adolescent who has addicted into drugs or other kinds of deviant behaviors. How to handle with such type of clients is a tough question for many workers since these clients has already been regarded as deviant people and been margined by the whole society. In some circumstances, value clash may happen when the client’s behavior expresses the totally opposite view to the workers. When that occurs, as a potential social worker, what should we do?

First of all, remove the tag which has been attached to client. According to the labeling theory, some behaviors which have been defined as deviance are those different from the traditional value from the mainstream in one society. People regard them as deviant behavior because they cannot accept them and label them as abnormal ones. However, in addition to the main culture in one society, there are many subcultures. From the perspective of the people who are the members of subcultures, the behavior which other people express may also regard as “deviance”. As a social worker, we need to be accepted by the client first; do intervention or help process should be in the next stage. Hence, when we handle with a “deviant behavior” clients, the first thing we ought to do is to let them feel your acceptance and show your difference from the people who expel them. That means only by showing your respect to the clients can you do the following intervention. In fact, every qualified social worker should hold the belief that everyone is worth being respected. So, no matter how “deviant” their behaviors are, we still need to respect their dignity.

After that, the worker can start helping process. Assessment is the first step among intervention phase. The worker should investigate into how sever the situation is and know the consequence of the behavior. Take drug abuse as an example again, we should find the fact for why the client gets start to take drug and how long it has lasted. Besides, the client’s health condition should be one of the priorities that we should focus on. Such as drug takers, they are more likely to suffer organ atrophy and other side effects. If there is syndrome, we need to refer them to professional doctors and let them accept treatment first. Moreover, to what extent that the client addicts into “deviant behavior” should be known by the worker. If a client has committed drug abuse for more than ten years that means he relies totally on the drugs for live. We cannot expect he quit that behavior within short period so that a detailed and long duration of intervention plan is needed.

On the other hand, the reason behind the client’s behavior should also be elicit when we work further with that case. In most cases, the point is not the “deviant behavior” itself; it is the reasons which cause that kind of behavior that need the worker pay more attention to. Some clients committed into “deviant behavior” because they want to find a way to escape from the high pressure whereas others may do that for the sake of getting their parents’ or friends’ attention. Explorations if family relationships, for example, often reveal that drug abusers feel alienated from other family members (Dean H., Ronald, Glenda, Kimberly and JoAnn, 2010). When the worker finds out the origin reason for the behavior, it is the time to do some intervention. Generally, the clients who involve in “deviant behavior” are those lacks of others’ attention. The teenagers who live in the single parent family, who has few friend or who are belong to some “deviant behavior” group. To cope with their behavior problem, the worker should help them to build good relationship with outer society. For instance, we can invite their parents to join the intervention phase. With the caring and the encouragement of parents, the clients can easier to get rid of unhealthy behaviors.

Last but not least, supportive network should be built to help the clients who commit “deviant behavior”. Because young people are more likely behave unruly, parents, peers and school teachers can be the best agents to promote their change. The worker can do some home visit or cooperate with school teachers to help parents and teachers know more about their children or students. With the understanding and support of the people around, the client can get more energy to face the stress and other unpredictable problems when they decide to change the current situation. Besides, as mentioned above, a large amount of “deviant behaviors” are caused by neglect of parents and teacher, the help process involved with them can be more effective since they are the irreplaceable parts during the whole intervention phase.

To sum up, the way to cope with the client who commits deviant behavior should be similar to handle with other kinds of clients. As a social worker, we need to respect everyone’s dignity, not to be affected by our subjective thought and stereotype and help the clients to make decision on their own. Moreover, to facilitate the helping process, the worker should emphasis on integrating the causes of the unruly behaviors as well as the importance of building support network for the clients.