Introduction
Deviant behavior is the behavior that is a recognized violation of social norms. The formal and informal social controls attempt to prevent or minimize deviance and one of the control measures is the medicalization of the deviance. Crime the violation of formally enacted law is formal deviance while the informal social violation like the picking one’s nose is an informal. Deviance can also mean not doing what the majority does or alternatively doing what the majority does not do. The sociological studies on the deviant behavior include: the structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and the power conflict theory.
Main text
The structural-functionalist perspective believes that the deviations come from the formation of the norms and the values which are enforced by institutions and the deviations are not deviant by nature, but caused when the institutions arbitrarily institute particular prescriptions. So the deviation is what is defined as not normal by norms, values, or laws. The symbolic interactionism explains the deviance from the individual who learns deviant behavior and the deviant may grow up alongside other deviants or may learn to give excuses for deviance. It focuses upon the consciousness and the mind of the individual as opposed to the institutions from where the norms come from.
The neutralization theory explants how deviants justified their deviant behaviors by adjusting the definitions of their actions and by explaining to themselves and others the lack of guilt of their actions in the particular situations. (Cohen, 1966).
There are five different types of rationalizations which include: the denial of responsibility where the deviant is helplessly propelled into the deviance and that under the same circumstances, any other person would resort to similar actions; the denial of injury argues that the deviant does not hurt anyone, and thus the deviance is not morally wrong, due to the fundamental belief that the action caused no harm to other individuals or the society; the denial of the victim argues that the possible individuals on receiving end of the deviance is not injured, but rather experiences a righteous force, due to the victims lack of virtues or morals; the condemnation of the condemners is the act by which the deviant accuses authority figures of the victims for having the tendency to be equally deviant and lastly the appeal to higher loyalties is the belief that there
are loyalties and the values that go beyond the confines of the law, friendships and the traditions that are more important to the deviant than the legal boundaries The power conflict theorist sees the manifestations of the power into certain institutions as what the cause deviance and the institutions ability to change norms, wealth, and status come from the conflict with the individual’s self.
The organized crime refers to the groups or operations run by criminals, most commonly for the purpose of generating monetary profit. Some of the criminal organizations, such as the terrorist organizations are politically motivated and the act of engaging in the criminal activity as a structured group is known as the racketeering. The qualities of the organized crime include durability over time, diversified interests, hierarchical structure, capital accumulation, reinvestment, access to political protection and the use of violence to protect interests.
The criminal organizations keep illegal actions secret, and the members communicate by word of mouth, therefore police will never be able to trace phone calls and many organized crime operations have legal fronts, such as licensed gambling, building construction, and the trash hauling or which operate in parallel with and provide cover for drug trafficking, money laundering, prostitution, extortion, murder for hire, hijacking, fraud, and insider trading. (Abadinsky, 1977).
For this criminal organization to prosper, then there is need for the support from the society in which it operates and it is often necessary to corrupt some of the respected members, most commonly achieved through bribery, blackmail, and the establishment of the symbiotic relationships with legitimate businesses and also the judicial and the police officers and the legislators are targeted for the control by organized crimes.
These organizations can evolve and reorganize much more quickly when the need arises and they are quick to capitalize on the newly- opened markets, and rebuild themselves under another guise when caught by authorities. The globalization occurs in the crime as they easily cross the boundaries between countries. The sectors to the organized crime are identity theft and the online extortion and these activities are troubling because they discourage consumers from using the internet for e-commerce and still this organized crime using the internet is much harder to be traced by the police.
Most of the issues related to social control have a political aspect and the organized crime are steeped in politics from the creation of illegal markets to the declarations of the size of the threat and the passing into force of the extra-ordinary legislation to attack the problem.
Most of the activities are related to the migration of people from one country to another and through this movement they carry their illegal practices and it is mostly done by organized crime groups that establish contacts in the origin countries, as well as in the transits and the most probably in the destination countries. The organized crime is not only profiting to the phenomenon of illegal migration, but its activity is also becoming a pushing factor and the methods by which illegal migrants are smuggled vary: the economic condition of the migrant has an effect on this organized crime and the region of origin. (Myers, 1996)
There is an increase in the transnational organized crime activity and the reconfiguration of the white slave trade as the trafficking of the women for prostitution by the organized crime groups and therefore it means that most of the activities done can not easily be controlled as they are not been seen. Committing a crime, involves a sequence of choices and the decisions made at each stage of the criminal act and a case of organized crime that is particularly true involves the coordination of people in the aim of achieving the final result. The organization of the crime necessarily adapts itself according to the specificity of the crime, whether in the smuggling of the migrants or the credit cards frauds.
A vertical rigid organization dominating the illegal market sometimes would not be adapted to such type of activity since it would be easier to be targeted by law enforcement agencies and it would be able to cover the need and the demand of the market. The organization in smuggling of the human beings has points of similarity but also major differences with the supply of illegal drugs and this is true that there is a greater availability of the migrants but the organization of the travel is too much articulated to be administrated by occasional smugglers.
On the biological basis the terrorism is considered a form of the transnational organized crime, it is the most visible and the openly aggressive form of such activities which include: illicit trafficking in arms, drugs, and the people; money laundering; hijacking; bribery and the corruption; and pirating of intellectual properties. The distinctions that are made between the two global bads often focus on the motivation- the transnational organized crime is viewed as having its primary purpose on the pursuit of the financial gain or the profit while transnational terrorist acts out of the some kind of political/ religious/ ethnic motivation.
There is no place without this type of crime even in the most remote areas as they provide the safe havens and the offshore banking systems that allow organized crime to thrive and the modern terrorist networks have began to evolve from the hierarchical structures with a small cadre of the leaders at the top to more network- based groups whose functions and activities are more dispersed and they possess leadership structures that are more difficult to identify and the target with a decapitation attack. The transnational criminal and the terrorist organizations come together in what is seen as the criminal enclaves. (Myers, 1999).
The areas which are characterized by weak state structures and the high levels of corruption providing a lawless and relatively sovereignty-free environment, they are generally in the vicinity of an international border so that individuals can move easily across the border. The networked and linked nature of the transnational crime and the terrorist organizations also causes problems for the governments in hopes of eliminating these organizations in one place often leads them to pop up in this is because the governments tend to be organized hierarchically and into bureaucracies with different functions and therefore cooperation among agencies is made difficult and sharing of the information is hard.
Given that the black spots are the closest to a tangible territory that transnational criminals and the terrorist organizations have, it is easier to monitor and instead of seeking to interdict one or two people associated with this or that organization in a particular black spot, then learning about the nature of the place, what the organizations are, how the area operates, the nature of the rules, the culture, and how the criminal and the terrorist organization are linked will help in knowing more about these organizations and the way to deal with them. Therefore those countries that harbor terrorist need to be forced to take an action to do away with it.
The corruption and organized crime are very serious criminal phenomena and not only does the organized crime represent an impediment to the national development and globalization, but with its links to terrorist groups worldwide it is also a threat to the national security of the countries where it occurs. The criminal groups often expand their activities worldwide by capturing the public policies of the states with the support of the corrupt public officials who then do not work conscientiously for the good of their own nations. Organized crime, corruption and the links to terrorism are possible because of the weaknesses of the state and the civil society control mechanisms. (Myers, 1966).
Committing a crime is an extremely common human behavior, from the extremes of the armed robbery or the serial murder to the ordinary failure to declare income on the tax returns or the tendency to speed on the highway leading to breaking of law and therefore committing a crime. In considering the physiological, psychological and the pharmacological factors, then we explore the influences of the family, peers and the effects of alcohol and the drugs on the incidence of the criminal behavior. The torture of the individuals goes beyond the characteristics of the individual perpetrators or even the situations in which the torture is practiced.
Some of the perpetrators who engage in these actions with a greater degree of initiative and the sadistic enjoyment than others, but operate in an atmosphere of pressure to produce intelligence information from those affected are presumed to be guilty as all what they do they have effect on the lives of the people who are tortured. Therefore this organized crime in which one has to be tortured has to be dealt with by the government because it affects the innocent ones in the country as one can be caught and harm done without considering him or her. (Myers, 1996)
Conclusion
In the organized crimes then it is clear that most of the practices people carry out are against the law and one may know about it until it is proved that it is a criminal act. Many people have ended up making organizations carry out illegal acts like the car hijacking although some acts are prohibited then it becomes hard to fit them as in every criminal act there is an officer concerned. Therefore a country will not be able to fight this organized crime if its officers are always connected with the offenders to carry out these actions. These organizations are beneficial to the concerned as they get high profits from such businesses which are carried out in the country and even outside the country.
This is because they do not undergo the right channels to do the activities. The sociological, psychological, biological and the physiological interpretations all shows that this organized crime is done in all countries including all areas that are the rural and urban areas and the concerned to work on these organizations prove to be victims as they always want to benefit from the illegal activities carried out. The most common officers are the police who watch as the activities are been undertaken and have non solutions to the offenders as they are among them.
Reference
Abadinsky, Howard. (1977).Organized crime, 5th edition. Chicago: Nelson- Hall.
Cohen, Albert K. (1966). Deviance and control. Englewood cliffs, N. J. Prentice- Hall.
Myers, Jack P. (1966). Conceptions of deviant behavior: the old and new. Pacific sociological review pp 9-14.
Myers, Willard, 111. (1996). The emerging threat of the transnational crime from the east. Crime, law and social change pp181-222.
Myers, James R. (1999). Transnational criminal organizations, cyber crime, and money laundering; a hand book for law enforcement officers, auditors and financial investigators. Boca Raton, Fla: CRC press.