Conformity, Deviance, And Crime

The gap between the law on books and the law in action is affected by numerous factors including race, location and values that are held by persons. A person’s race significantly impacts the type of learning environment that they can flourish or fail in. Although the Department of Education claims that their goal is to promote competiveness from all types of students and guarantee that they have equal opportunities, their goal is affected by race and location as well. In the example given above, we saw how a location that is predominately white, is granted differences when trying to achieve this educational goal. The differences granted cause extreme disparities in the level of educational attainment when compared to minority races. People
Chapter Seven (Conformity, Deviance, and Crime) from the textbook Introduction to Sociology, functionalist theories along with Emile Durkheim’s concept of an anomie, which is “a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior” gives insight into the relationship between education and criminal behavior. (Giddens, Duneier, Appelbaum, & Carr 2012, p 172) “Functionalist theories see crime and deviance resulting from structural tensions and a lack of moral regulation.” (p 172) Minority students coming from difficult backgrounds and dropping out of high schools is viewed as a norm within society. The failure to alter these factors resulted in students seeking comfort from other places. Students tend to look for groups that promote and inspire criminal behavior. (p 173) Albert Cohen asserted that discontent young men in the “lower working class often joined delinquent subcultures, such as gangs.” (p 173) The subcultures now idolize and normalize misbehavior promoting criminal behavior and behavior that goes against traditional norms within
The evidence that I have provided through research, demonstrate how the Department of Education (the law on books) falls short of achieving their ultimate goal (the law in action) which represents the gap between these two things. People that lack education; face a greater penalty for the crimes they commit. Their approach can even be carless because their lack of knowledge contributes to their failed ability to be discrete. To understand the gap, we have to identify the factors that caused the gap in the first place. Within my claim that lack of educational attainment contributes crimes that are committed, I must identify why there is a lack of educational attainment. There is a lack of educational attainment due to a person’s school environment, ethnicity, home environment, and legislation. Legislation permits the intentional changing of AYP and it fails to recognize and change conditions in which students cannot thrive. Understanding how lack of educational attainment is possible, we can now recognize how it is a huge factor that can lead to a crime being