Deviant Behavior: An Evidence of Inequalities in Society Research Paper

History of Racism

Deviant behavior refers to violation of informal social norms and formally enacted rules. The deviant behavior discussed in this essay is racism in the United States. The history of racism started way back in the 19^th century whereby slaves were being taken from Africa to go and work in the plantations. Racists considered Africans to be dependent on the whites for their care since they were considered not fit to take care of themselves. During this time, racism was not regarded as deviant behavior since whites saw them as inferior and less human. The other reason that made racism not deviant behaviors during this time was that Africans needed the guidance of the whites and have limited control of themselves. Africans were seen as dangerous beats which needed to be eliminated in America (Morabia, 2019). Africans were discriminated against based on their skin color and origin.

During the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th constitutional amendments were black voices for equality and freedom. The constitutional amendment focused on the struggle for Africans to be treated with respect and dignity. In the late 19^th century, education increased among the African Americans after self-conscious black among the middle class. Books and novels published portrayed how the black population was not treated as equals to the white population (Morabia, 2019). It showed how the blacks have difficulty attaining prosperity and dignity by proving to the whites that they are productive society members and deserve equal and fair treatment.

Racism in other Cultures

In European cultures, especially in Germany, racism is not considered a deviant behavior. Racial discrimination has affected the life routines and chances of minority groups. It is stated that deviance is dependent on race, mostly when justice and crimes are involved. The whites are less likely to go further and apprehended in the justice system, convictions, booking, and jail time than the black population. Deviance is amplified due to the ideas associated with racial bias and stereotypes whereby all Africans are considered to be more criminals than whites. In the football arena, racism is regarded as deviant behavior, especially when a black footballer is mistreated due to his unenhanced skills in football. Players, fans, and officials are abused due to their nationality, skin color, and ethnicity. In some instances, players are targeted since they belong to the opposing teams. Players and managers receive anti-Semitic emails to criticize them due to their skin color (Weikart, 2016). In the recent past, players receive racism through Instagram and Twitter.

Groups Advocating Against Racism

The groups that are advocate against racism includes, Live Free USA, National Coalition of Black Civic Participation and Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is a global organization formed in 2013 in U.K., U.S, and Canada. The mission of this organization is to build local power that will intervene in violence that is inflicted in the black population and eradicate the supremacy of the whites. It counters and combats violence, enhances the innovation and imagination of the blacks. Before black lives matter, 1033 programs used to uphold the selling of weapons to white supremacy. Black Lives Matter called for response and action against anti-black racism (Community Foundation, 2020). It is a movement that provided peaceful and organized protests and a review of political activities.

Live Free USA is a campaign to reduce violence involving guns and jail incarceration. Faith-based services were conducted every week, whereby around 118 million people attended. This movement aimed to create social justice through faith institutions. This campaign partnered with the leaders and congregation throughout the country. This campaign seeks to end mass incarceration, criminalize brown and black bodies, and end gun violence (Community Foundation, 2020). They believed that humans could live in a world where people of color are not lost in incarceration and gun violence by ensuring that prosecutors, sheriffs, police chiefs, and mayors are held accountable.

The National Coalition of Black Civic Participation encourages civic participation among the black community. It organizes, mobilizes, and educates citizens to understand that civic education is a tradition and cultural responsibility. It envisions a nation whereby all individuals have the necessary tools to facilitate the democratic participation process at the global, state, local and national levels (Community Foundation, 2020). The organizers of this event strive to promote economic and social justice among the blacks and eliminate those barriers to civic education.

Impacts of Technology on Deviant Behavior

The use of technology perpetuates racism in the sense that technology has been used to target black Americans. Technology wreaks both psychological and physical violence on the blacks. They are used to debilitate and kill brown and black people. Social media platforms such as YouTube, Google, and Facebook use algorithms that control information that individuals see. These algorithms create filter bubbles whereby you see primarily with what you as an individual agreement, and you will see less of what you disagree with. These algorithms are prone to recommending radical content which perpetuates racism. Redlining is another issue with technology whereby specific applications such as Pokémon Go are not available in certain minority neighborhoods (Peña Gangadharan & Niklas, 2019). This shows that they are not included in the participation due to their locality; for instance, few Poke Stops are within the minority areas.

Technology tools that display racism in society include artificial intelligence, which raises the ability and the use of racial bias to increase social injustices. For example, Africans were reported to be facially recognized by robots when they wear white masks. Another example is that this technology tagged black couples with gorillas in their photos (Bacchini & Lorusso, 2019). This technology is designed in such a way that it only recognizes whites.

Social Control of Hate Crimes

Hate crime refers to a criminal offense committed against a person motivated by bias against religion, race, sexual, disability, gender, ethnicity, and gender. Social control refers to the mechanisms through which society maintains cohesion and social order. Hate crime social control is exercised through various institutions such as family, peers, individuals, and organizations such as religious organizations, workplaces, and schools. Group members exercise social control in response to those individuals who commit crimes based on prejudice. Within the U.S., informal social controls are crucial in controlling behaviors that violate society’s informal norms (Phyllis B. Gerstensfeld, 2017). Formal social control of hate crimes controls those behaviors that are against the law. Social control encourages people to obey and conform to the social norms through informal and formal means (Mills et al., 2019). Conformity to the norms means that there is a matching of beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes to groups of norms.

Stigma Associated with Hate Crime

According to the public view, the stigma perspective in hate crimes is that the public will deride the minority groups compared to the majority groups. According to the public view, the sympathetic perspective is that the public will be sympathetic to the minority individuals. Both perspectives depend on the individual victim’s gender, race, and sexual orientation. Racism is dependent on an individual’s racial status, whereby the whites are blamed more than the black offenders. Social status plays a role in attribution to hate crimes’ blames (Dovidio et al., 2018). Hate crime associated with stigmatization affects the minority groups psychologically since it attacks the core aspects of individual identity and the components of self-related to being a minority group.

Impacts of Mental Health Diagnoses on Hate Crime

Any individual who engages in crime especially hate crimes have mental and psychological impacts. Violent acts and aggression, which are based on how people look and appear, are considered mental disorders. Many exposures to specific actions of racism and behaviors meant to derail an individual have adverse effects on individuals’ mental health. These mental health consequences developed by victims include anxiety, psychological distress, and depression. Those individuals who engage in hate crime experience traumatic stressors, which instills anxiety and fear and inflicts psychological damage. Deviant behaviors are associated with hate crimes which impact the health and the well-being of individuals (Sibrava et al., 2019). Some of the deviant behaviors may be post-traumatic stress disorder as classified by DSM-5.

Propagandas of Hate Crime Organization

American Psychological Association’s slogan is to condemn all violence, harassment, and crimes motivated by prejudice. It supports law enforcement, teachers, researchers, policymakers, and clinicians to alleviate and reduce the prevalence of hate crimes within society (American Psychological Association, 2021). It supports the formulation of hate crime policies and laws in those states that lack legislation and strengthen those laws by incorporating religion, race, and ethnicity.

Compiled Newspapers

Collegian newspaper has complied major events of daily protests in the U.S. after the killing of Gorge Floyd. It kept track of everything that happened, including news that was broadcasted on national television and those news that were out of Denver. Black lives matter in 2020 sparked protests across the U.S. against police brutality (Collegian NewsPaper, 2020). In the photo below, a man spoke to a crowd of protesters in June 2020 in Old Town Square.

The Guardian newspaper covered the story of black lives matter in 2020 after the killing of Gorge Floyd. It also covered Chauvin’s guilty verdict, which led to the change of policing within the U.S. It covered anti-racism protests which continued in the U.S. during that time of the death of Floyd (Guardian Newspapers, 2020). It covered court proceedings to determine the case of killing Gorge Floyd and police brutality.

Resources for Managing Hate Crimes

The types of resources used to manage hate crimes include setting up systems that ensure that possible hate crimes and data on hate crimes are collected and recorded appropriately. Some of the states collect data about hate crimes under political motivation and extremism rubrics. There is a connection between hate crimes and these two concepts of political and extremism whereby their members are prone to committing crimes. Resources needed to train the police must be obtained to ensure adequate police training to be able to identify and curb hate crimes within the society (Bosco et al., 2017). Social online platforms can be used to publish information regarding hate crimes that are in the communities.

Deviant Theory

The deviance theory that explains hate crimes within the society is a conflict theory that views crimes due to economic and social factors. These factors are viewed as evidence of inequalities in society. This theory explains the correlation between racism and crimes committed (Jendryke & McClure, 2019). According to this theory, deviant behaviors refer to those actions that do not comply with the social institutions’ norms.

References

American Psychological Association. (2021). The psychology of hate crimes. Web.

Bacchini, F., & Lorusso, L. (2019). Race, again: how to face recognition technology reinforces racial discrimination. Journal of Information, Communication, and Ethics in Society.

Bosco, C., Patti, V., Bogetti, M., Conoscenti, M., Ruffo, G. F., Schifanella, R., & Stranisci, M. (2017). Tools and resources for detecting hate and prejudice against immigrants in social media. In Symposium iii. Social Interactions in Complex Intelligent Systems (SICIS) at AISB 2017 (pp. 79-84). AISB.

Collegian NewsPaper. (2020). Black Lives Matter: A 2020 protest timeline. The Rocky Mountain Collegian | The Rocky Mountain Collegian, is the student-run source for news and information on the Colorado State University campus. Web.

Community Foundation. (2020). Anti-racism organizations. CFGA. Web.

Dovidio, J. F., Penner, L. A., Calabrese, S. K., & Pearl, R. L. (2018). Physical health disparities and stigma: Race, sexual orientation, and body weight.

Guardian Newspapers, L. (2020). Nearly all Black Lives Matter protests are peaceful despite Trump’s narrative, report finds. The Guardian. Web.

Jendryke, M., & McClure, S. C. (2019). Mapping crime–Hate crimes and hate groups in the USA: A spatial analysis with gridded data.Applied Geography, 111, 102072. Web.

Mills, C. E., Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., Holt, T. J., & LaFree, G. (2019). Social learning and social control in the off-and online pathways to hate crime and terrorist violence. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1-29. Web.

Morabia, A. (2019). Slavery, work, and racism in America: a review of four books.American Journal of Public Health, 109(10), 1312-1314. Web.

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Phyllis B. Gerstensfeld. (2017). Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies (4^th Ed). SAGE.

Sibrava, N. J., Bjornsson, A. S., Pérez Benítez, A. C. I., Moitra, E., Weisberg, R. B., & Keller, M. B. (2019). Post-traumatic stress disorder in African American and Latinx adults: Clinical course and the role of racial and ethnic discrimination.American Psychologist, 74(1), 101. Web.

Weikart, R. (2016). From Darwin to Hitler: evolutionary ethics, eugenics, and racism in Germany (3^rd Ed). Springer.