Deviant Behavior Research Paper

Running Header: DEVIANT BEHAVIOR

Suicide
Todd Denhalter
Grand Canyon University
SOC-100
Professor Mason

In regards to deviant behaviors it is the general population who determines this behavior. What is evident is that the population gives humanity a sort of peer pressure that in all is even more powerful than religion or even culture itself. However it also depends on the individual. What deviant behavior is, is behavior that is different than what the popular believe is that is acting in a bad way. One of these deviant behaviors is the act of suicide. All though there is a long list of behaviors that are deviant, each deviant act has a lot in common. This essay will look into the deviant behavior of suicide and why it is considered
It is very common and especially with teenage kids. The suicide act of taking one’s own life is what classifies this behavior. The question in society as well as those closes to the individual is “How can a person get into a situation that killing themselves is the better solution?” Suicide takes a tremendous amount of courage to even attempt this act. These attempts are usually a cry for help from the individual. It truly seems though that this deviant behavior is acceptable, almost because of euthanasia. It almost seems like torture than anything else or any other alternative. In a book written by Immanuel Kant he argues against suicide. Kant reveals that one who would contemplate suicide should consider is it consistent with the idea of humanity as an end. According to Kant’s theory it is the act and it does not consider the outcome or the consequence of that act. Kant argues, “That choosing to commit suicide entails considering oneself as a means to an end”. (Kant 1991, pg.98) He rejected a person must not be used as a means but in all actions always be considered as an end in himself. One could come to the conclusion that it is unethical to commit this act to satisfy
One that was a huge impact was that of Lucy Gordon in 2009. The reason why this had an impact is that the actress was in the hit movie Spider-man 3. According to an article for CNN News the actress was well known yet was loved by so many others within the industry. Her suicide not only affected her family but also her husband. Society saw it as a cop out to a situation that she was in. This type of thing happens to some of those who are in the movie industry and the peer pressure from that industry can cause this type of behavior. Society agrees with itself that those who commit suicide within the industry are due to the fact that they cannot handle the fame and fortune. In Gordon’s case that was not the reason. It was because she had an affair with someone on the set and couldn’t handle her own selfish acts. The committed act in itself was an act that Kant surely rejected that it was her who had made the deviant behavior become a reality. So as one can see that suicide is a deviant behavior that is part peer pressure but shows that the individual who committed the act acted only on