When the word deviance has crossed the path of society, it seems to have a postulation attached to the meaning. This postulation usually refers to behaviour that purveys a negative insight often resulting in acts of violence, crime and anti social behaviour within a society and community; it is also often associated with the social entity of youth. Thinking about deviance in a sociologist concept, what does this term really mean within a sociological framework ‘such an assumption seems to me to ignore the central fact about deviance: It is created by society’ (Becker 1996, 8) This essay will discuss the sociological concept of deviance and outline how it is commonly associated with the entity of youth in contemporary society.
When understanding deviance it is important to understand who labels who a deviant. The media has a major role in displaying and portraying particular group’s deviant which informs society who then grasp the concept that any radical change from the norm is an act of defiance. However deviant behaviour can be labelled by older generations; when the older generations can see the younger generations questioning basic beliefs and ideas which older generations have became a custom to, they see it as a form of a threat (Keel 2007). Sociologists see that deviance is not the personal attributes of an individual but prefer it to be viewed as an official property of social situations and social systems (John Scott 2006) meaning that there is not a permanent concord on the essence of deviance. (Marshall et al 2006). With this sociologist perception on deviance, it has created a phenomenon in which deviance behaviour is socially portrayed it challenges the social order the existing web of relationship, values, reality and meaning (Keel 2007) thus influencing the older generations of contemporary times labelling younger generations deviant. When looking at deviance we also need to understand the norms of society. The term