Mary Catherine Weaver

SS1 SOC 2024 Deviant Behavior

Quiz 3
Due Midnight 06/15/14
Instructions: Type your name at the top. Answer each question. Turn this back in as an attachment in
the quiz section. Do not pay much attention to style. You will be graded based solely on the answer you
provide. You may use only your book or powerpoint from the week unless stated otherwise in a
question.
Time Limit: 45 Minutes
1) It was revealed to the school that you stole from the Rite Aid on University Blvd. Someone who
knows you posted a photo of you with the caption THIEF all over campus. What actually
happened was you accidentally forgot to pay for an item. Explain how this might lead to a self-
fulfilling prophecy where you start committing crimes despite the fact that you were innocent?
4pts
According to Scheffs labeling theory, one learns to act out the symptomatology of mental illness after
being labeled as such, because the label creates the condition. After people associate you with being a
thief, you might decide that, because youre already labeled as such, you might as well fulfill that brand
and earn your title.
2) In the same example, say you really were a full-fledged shoplifter and you came to accept this
role. You did it because you are a single parent and make very little money to support your two-
children. Basically this is primary deviance. Using the sequence of interaction leading to
secondary deviation explain how this primary deviance turns into secondary deviance. 8pts
Its easily excusable to think that stealing was necessary for feeding your children. Desperation in a
situation where your children are hungry could force anyone to take drastic measures. However, once
youre in trouble for shoplifting and you must pay the consequences for your actions, the community
might not be as willing after an offense or multiple offenses to excuse the behavior, because there are
other, more honorable, ways to provide for your children. After being labeled a thief you might not be
able to get a job to provide for your children in those honorable ways, and you have no choice but to
resort to crime in order to earn a way of life. This then is secondary deviance.
3) What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance? 2 pts
Primary deviance has no effect on the person because the behavior can be excused and does not affect
the persons character. Secondary deviance is deviance caused by society. If stealing from the Rite Aid
made everyone label you as a thief and you were no longer able to get a job or be entrusted with
anything due to your compromised ethics, then you might turn to crime as a way to make money since
that label of THIEF has become all that you are known for.
Mary Catherine Weaver

4) What about the Saints and the Roughnecks applies to labeling theory? 6pts
The past performances of these boys and their families reputations in the community label the boys as
either a young boy sowing wild oats or a delinquent. Positive associations were made with the boys
from upper middle-class families, and therefore they were labeled as only teenagers having fun rather
than teens acting in a deviant manner. The boys who were not as active in school and who werent from
stable families were constantly in trouble and labeled delinquent, so the association can be made that
the labeling of these boys created and progressed the deviance that they experienced and enacted.