Forming a Person
Socialization is one of the main phenomena of the external environment that forms a person. As it becomes clear from the Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children (Weston & Caius, 2018), agents of socialization are groups who influence the acquisition of values and social norms. The main agent is the family, without which it is impossible to form a person into a full-fledged individual (Weston & Caius, 2018). Social constructionism is a concept, the importance of which lies in giving a person special property of identity (Brown, 2013). The concepts of self-consciousness and identification are external factors, mainly instilled by parents, such as language and cultural patterns (Griffiths et al., 2015, p. 100) Gender socialization is important in the formation of human identity, as seen in episodes of Toddlers and Tiaras (Rogan, 2009); the imposition of gender roles on the child occurs from an early age. The children of such parents begin to fulfill themselves earlier with a conventional group of women or men.
Negative and Positive Impact
Socialization and its agents can influence human development both positively and negatively. Prison is a strictly negative agent of socialization (Clemmer, 1950). The family can be an ambiguous agent of socialization, since parents often have a positive influence on their children; however, they can impose false values. Here there is a parallel between the prison as an object of socialization and wild children: in the absence of a positive influence, it can be very difficult for a person to integrate into society. There is a connection in the aspect of social constructionism: both in prison and without upbringing, a person is not endowed with attributes for self-determination.
Deviation
The socialization of prisoners, children in beauty contests and wild children affects society negatively. Individuals are instilled with negative values, such as the paramount importance of external beauty or the acceptability of criminal behavior. Such agents of socialization as the family, peers and government are involved. Failure to master social norms can lead deviation from social standards. The most striking example is Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children (Weston & Caius, 2018), where children are not aware of any accepted norms. Differential association suggests that motives for criminal behavior are acquired through social interactions, which is clearly seen in prison settings (Thomas & Foster, 1972). The normalization of committing crimes obtained in prison leads to a cycle of recurrence of criminal behavior after release.
References
Brown, S. (2013). Social Constructionism [YouTube Video]. Web.
Clemmer, D. (1950). Observations on Imprisonment as a source of criminality. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1931-1951), 41(3): 311-319. Web.
Griffiths, H., Strayer, et al. (2015). Socialization. In Introduction to Sociology (2nd edition), pp. 92-114. Houston, TX: OpenStax. Web.
Rogan, T. (2009). Toddlers and Tiaras. Authentic Entertainment, United States.
Thomas, C.W., & Foster, S.C. Prisonization in the Inmate Contraculture. Social Problems, 20(2): 229-23. Web.
Weston, J. and Caius, J. (2018). Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children. 60 Minutes, Australia.