Introduction
The term deviance generally means the act of violating societal norms. Society has norms and rules that are to be followed by each person in the society (Millegan, 1999, p.1). Thus, in any society that upholds good morals, there ought to be deviants present because not all people can follow the rules and norms set. Deviants are therefore people who act to oppose the people who are out to control. In a nutshell, deviants are mostly criminals of offenses such as thefts, murders, smugglers, and even low weighted crimes like music piracy. Deviance is diversified depending on how who and where it is committed. A common aspect of deviance is elite deviance which is deviance is committed by the people with authority in the society. Elite deviance just like other types of deviance results in moral injuries such as cynicism, physical damages like frauds as well as health impacts such as illness just to mention but a few (Millegan, 1999, p.1).
Even though deviance is of global concern different societies have their way of defining elite deviance. This, therefore, leads to global elite deviance and US elite deviance. Although elite deviance is committed by the powerful people in the society and those with authority, the Americans have a different view from that considered by other countries of the world. As a matter of fact, the United States has less stringent rules on elite deviance unlike in other nations. It is because of this that some forms of elite deviance are allowed in the US. For instance, elite deviance is not a crime until it has caused harm to third parties (Millegan, 1999, p.1). This was evidenced in the recent past when a celebrity was once accused of masturbating in the adult film but since his actions never caused any harm to anyone or cause damage to society his case was nullified as a criminal offense. This is one of the many cases of elite deviance in the United States that have been ignored and not taken to the law courts for persecution. This paper, therefore, discusses accepted policies and practices in dealing with elite deviance and the projection of how this deviance will be treated in the next ten to twenty years.
Research hypothesis
Ho: There is no statistical significance of the impact of elite deviance on the society of the United States of America (Thio et al, 2008, p. 143).
Background information
Deviant behavior has been evidenced in a number of various settings in society (Salinger, 2005, p.187). Deviants have been found in learning institutions, working institutions, hospitals, and prisons among other social settings. Because of this, there have been many theories created to explain the causes and instances of deviant behavior. For instance, psychologists have been interested to study the processes behind one having deviant behavior or normal behavior (Salinger, 2005, p.231). The major concern about elite deviance as one aspect of deviance is that those that have the authority to designate deviance are the same people with power such as the wealthy, political leaders, and institutions among others. Other than this is the fact that the Americans weigh the severity of the elite deviance committed. For example, they have serious and less serious acts of deviance such that crimes like music piracy, birth out of wedlock, robbery, and drug addiction attract different reactions from the society depending on the impact hence the penalty difference if any.
Literature review
Elite deviance is said to be influenced by the economic and political forces present in society. Research on elite deviance has been done for a long period (Croall, 1997, p.1). Studies have been conducted to assess the causes of deviance by looking at the explanation of why the act or crime was conducted. Deviance is also found to be common among the youth because of the societal driving forces. Since society does not provide equal opportunities for all people to succeed, those who fail in most cases end up being deviants in society (Croall, 1997, p.1). The others who do not succeed and yet fail to deviate from the norms only do so after forcing themselves to follow the rules and norms of the society despite the strain. Since those with power and authority hold high standards for themselves, they are in some instances not able to strain themselves given their pride hence committing elite deviance. Thus this aspect of deviance is at times referred to as white-collar crime. In the US the white-collar crime has become the order of the day with most of the elite people committing this crime especially in the recent past (Croall, 1997, p.1). The commitment of these crimes has had an impact on the entire US society the people have a different perspective about it.
Discussion
Impact of elite deviance on the US society
Due to the nature of elite deviance in society, it has become one of the major public concerns. As mentioned above the US holds different values for elite deviance unlike other nations of the world. Because of the perspective from which they look at elite deviance, it has resulted in different impacts on their society. Some of these impacts include;
For one, elite deviance has contributed to the lack of trust in the US government. People no longer have trust in the US government officials as well as the political leaders and institutions. Other than the government, people have also lost trust in the corporations and financial institutions whose leaders have been involved in the elite deviance crime. This is because it is believed that elite deviance is a big threat to human dignity as well as the quality of life.
Elite deviance has the impact of oppressing the unfortunate people in the society while helping and supporting the elite people at the expense of the unfortunate ones. Just like the elite members of society, big corporations take advantage of the small ones by manipulating the economic system to suit their status. Elite deviance in the society portrays a negative figure of those who commit it hence becoming a bad example to the other members of the society (Pasigui, 2001, p.3).
Apart from the negative impacts, elite deviance plays a great role in opening the minds of people to think widely and creatively. This is because the people become in a position to see any problems that are arising in the society and deal with them as they occur.
Accepted policies and practices in dealing with elite deviance
Dealing with elite deviance has been a problem for most people around the globe and especially in America (Pasigui, 2001, p.4). However, some policies and practices have been put in place to deal with the issue of elite deviance. Among them is the importance of education to enlighten the Americans on the facts required to fight the power of the elite. When enlightened, the Americans will know their rights and hence be in a position to act against the system of elite deviance.
Since most of the crimes are initiated by something or other people, the American government has put in place policies that control or bar the production of products such as drugs, tobacco, alcohol just to mention but a few. This is aimed to reduce the availability of such commodities which contribute to deviant behavior in society. Therefore minimizing their production makes it difficult for the normal civilians and the elite to get them with ease hence controlling deviant behavior indirectly.
Policies governing the operation of companies or corporations have also been enacted by the government. This aims at controlling the operations such that all corporations despite their size or geographical location operate on the same platform. As a result, the managers of large corporations lack the opportunity of committing elite deviance at the expense of the smaller corporations.
Last but not least, is the implementation of policies governing the political leaders and institutional leaders. The US government should enact laws to ensure that the government and political leaders undergo persecution in the event of committing a criminal offense of any type. By doing so, the political leaders will respect and strain to follow the norms of the society just like the normal civilians since the hand of the law will be there to reach for them if they are wrong.
All the aforementioned policies are geared towards dealing with the issue of elite deviance in the society of Americans. By controlling elite deviance the society will have people who are on the same platform in terms of legislation. Thus, in the long run, the aforesaid impacts of elite deviance in society will not be an issue of concern anymore.
Projection of how this deviance will be treated with the next 10-20 year period
Before projecting how elite deviance will be treated in the future it is important to first look at its current perception among the Americans. The crime of elite deviance by the rich and powerful is considered a normal thing unlike when committed by a normal citizen. This is to mean that it is very difficult to see the elite Americans as criminals just because they are viewed as important and of a higher social class making them not subject to criminal offense. The funny thing is that instead of criminals, these people are viewed as smart and successful people of society (Stuart, 2006, p.67). This indicates that the citizens of the US do not understand elite deviance thus becoming a problem to their society. Research done indicates that the increased cases of elite deviance come as a result of the Americans’ yearning to achieve the American dream. This is therefore an indication that this behavior could take as much time as possible until the American dream is achieved.
However, despite their ignorance on elite deviance, the Americans have had much information concerning the global elite deviance by other nations of the globe (Simon, 2008, p.132). This means that the US is only putting a deaf ear on the issue and at one point in time they will come to realize that they have been wrong. Thus projecting how this deviance will be treated in the next ten to twenty years signals that the reality will have bestowed in their eyes to see the facts of elite deviance (Stuart, 2006, p.178). This can be evidenced by the direction in which elite deviance has been taking from the previous years. For instance, looking at the times of different reigning presidents of the United States it can be noticed that elite deviance has slowly stopped being a big issue. An earlier president of the US William Jefferson was among the biggest elite deviants because of hiding dollars in his home from the government. On the contrary, is the current president Obama who is a great fighter of elite deviance among the American Society. Judging from his administration, Obama seems to drive the nation into a deviant free state hence the American citizens will treat elite deviance as a crime like any other.
In addition to the above reasons is the fact that most of the other global nations perceive elite deviance differently from the United States (Thio et al, 2008, p. 143). Therefore, since the United States’ mode of thinking is not positively benefitting the state, it is clear that the citizens and government of the US will change their notion of thinking to think in the direction of other global nations. For instance, looking at some of the impacts of elite deviance such as the lack of trust in government officials and political leaders becomes a big threat to the political life of the country. The same case applies to the economic position of the state which is affected by the oppression of the smaller corporations by the larger ones. All these put into consideration means that the US elite deviance will be changed to match global elite deviance. In a nutshell, it can be said that given the current trend in civilization on legislation issues elite deviance will not be treated in the same way as it is currently. That is, people will have understood it to view it as a form of crime just like any other.
Conclusion
Given the results and findings of the research on elite deviance, the null hypothesis is rejected since it has been seen that the perception of elite deviance by the US has had several negative as well as positive impacts. The negative impacts outweigh the positive ones meaning that this perception f elite deviance does more harm than good (Simon, 2008, p.132). Since the previous trend on elite deviance has been detrimental to the status of the nation projections on elite deviance show that shortly the country will have well understood the meaning of elite deviance. That is to means that the powerful and rich people will be subject to criminal persecution in the case they commit criminal offenses in the like of elite deviance. If the projections are positively fulfilled, it will mean that oppression of the least fortunate people in America will be outdated since all people will be considered to be on the same legislative platform despite their position and social class.
Reference List
Croall, H. (1997). Reviewing Sociology. Web.
Millegan, K. (1999). Elite Deviance. Web.
Pasigui, R. (2001). Deviance and Social Control. Web.
Salinger, L. (2005). Encyclopedia of white-collar & corporate crime: Vol 1. SAGE.
Simon, D. (2008). Elite Deviance (9th Ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Stuart, P. (2006). Lying, Cheating, and Stealing: A Moral Theory of White Collar Crime. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thio, A., Calhoun, T. & Conyers, A. (2008). Readings in Deviant Behavior (5th Ed.). Boston: Pearson. Education, Inc.