Does the punishment fit the crime? You may consider this question considering a particular offense, whether it be murder or truancy.But what if the crime, even a serious one, is perpetrated by a young

How My Views on Deviance and Crime, and Criminological Theory Changed my Professional Goals and Aspirations

Gabriella Wyman

Walden University

Deviance and crime are two aspects which criminal justice professionals view differently depending on how their personal take and their cultural alienation. Deviance serves numerous functions including clarifying the collective cultural values, defining the collective morality, unifying the society, and promoting social relationship in the society (Lawson & Heaton, 2010). These roles depends on whether deviance is adhered to by the people in the society or not. Furthermore, different societies regards deviance differently based on factors such as language differences and other cultural differences. Crime can be regarded as deviance even though this also depends on other societal factors.

The criminal justice professionals may view crime differently based on their precision in understanding the difference between crime and deviance and criminological theory (Lawson & Heaton, 2010). My understanding about deviance is that there is a connection between social norms and the behaviors that people undertake which constitute deviance if they are acted contrarily. For example, a social norm may require people to heed to the folkways and morals. In case someone goes against these provisions by acting in a way that pleases them yet contrary to the social norms, then those people are considered to be deviant (Lawson & Heaton, 2010). Criminal activities are among the deviance since not at any moment does a given social regulations or norms approve of them and even regard the perpetrators of criminal activities and the criminals as socially deviant individuals.

Therefore, my understanding of deviance and crime is based on the social provisions and those of the criminological theory which helps criminal justice professions to understand crime. Hence, besides law enforcements, these professionals can learn about what the specific society believes as right or wrong and resolve criminal matters based on those believes (Lawson & Heaton, 2010). I can ascertain that my perception about the aspect of deviance and criminological theory have shaped my professional goals and aspirations including facilitating my aspiration to learn about other people’s cultures and treating different criminal cases differently based on the cultural contexts of those involved.

Reference

Lawson, T., & Heaton, T. (2010). Crime and deviance (2nd ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan