Primary and Secondary Deviance

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2001H

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Sociology

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Feb 20, 2024

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Turner 1 McCay Turner Prof. Niroula Sociology 1101 22 April 2021 Primary and Secondary Deviance Julio lives in a big city and recently robbed a local gas station. He managed to evade the authorities altogether, netting him a reasonable amount of cash to his name. In the American Justice system, robbery on average nets someone 111 months of jail time. While Julio may have gotten away from the authorities and managed to stash his earnings, he has still committed an act of primary deviance, “a violation of norms that does not result in any long-term effects on the individual’s self-image or interactions with others” (Griffiths). Under U.S law, Julio would be tried and convicted for robbery. Because this is a direct violation of society’s rules, Julio would be acting as a primary deviant. In terms of secondary deviance, the repercussions of Julio’s actions best explain this. Had he have gotten caught, Julio would have served his sentence and been viewed differently by everyone else in society for the remainder of his life. This may affect how his family/friends view him, and will even severely inhibit his ability to get a job should he pursue one. While this is the case for all crimes, Julio’s case is made unique in that he was not caught for his crimes. While it is highly likely that he will be caught someday, he will still have to live with the reality that he will be on the run for the rest of his life. This is yet another instance of secondary deviance taking place, as Julio will live with the consequences of his primary deviance for the remainder of his life. Understanding Julio’s situation and other circumstances allows for conflict theory to provide a possible explanation for his secondary deviance. “Conflict theory views social and

Turner 2 economic institutions as tools of the struggle between groups or classes, used to maintain inequality and the dominance of the ruling class” (Hayes). Using this definition, it is possible to find reasoning behind Julio’s actions. If Julio were facing outside pressure from a gang or friend group, he may have felt it was necessary to rob the gas station. These outside pressures can even be the sole reason for Julio’s actions, eventually leading to the act of him robbing the gas station in the first place. Conflict theory allows the connection to be made between secondary deviance and why an individual may deviate in the first place, as is showcased in Julio’s hypothetical circumstance. Lastly, Merton Strain Theory is also able to provide an adequate explanation for Julio’s act of secondary deviance. Using the definition of Strain Theory, ”Strain Theory argues that crime occurs when there aren’t enough legitimate opportunities for people to achieve the normal success goals of a society” (Thompson). In Julio’s case, he had grown up all his life in an impoverished area already ridden with crime. Instead of turning to his education as a means to make money, he took guidance from the scenario he had grown up in all his life. Growing up in an area where hardly anyone pursues some form of education means that future generations in the area will tend to do the exact same. Facing this exact issue, Julio may have come to the conclusion that because of the lack of opportunities to make money in the area, crime was the only way. Hence, Merton Strain Theory can in fact be used to explain Julio’s inevitable secondary deviance, which came as a product of the act of primary deviance. In terms of where Strain Theory may not serve to explain a scenario like Julio’s, a weakness would arise. One particular area Strain Theory does not cover is scenarios for the higher class, since this theory serves only to explain secondary deviance of those in the lower and middle class. This inherently allows the presumption to be made that all crime in areas like Julio’s is the result of people living

Turner 3 in the lower and middle classes. While this can be true to an extent, it is not fully accurate and is another example of a weakness of Strain Theory.

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Turner 4 Works Cited Griffiths, Heather, et al. Introduction to Sociology 2e . OpenStax College, Rice University, 2017. Hayes, Adam. “Conflict Theory Definition.” Investopedia , Investopedia, 4 Mar. 2021, www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conflict-theory.asp. Thompson, Karl. Merton's Strain Theory of Deviance . 26 Feb. 2020, revisesociology.com/2016/04/16/mertons-strain-theory-deviance/.

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