Criminal Justice Experiential Paper - Essay Example

It is interesting because how people react is a good indication of the state of society today; although there are many definitions of deviance such as absolutist, reactivist or normative, suffice it to say at this point that deviance refers to anything that is out of norm. Along this line, it is perhaps proper to first identify the importance of norms to society and in our everyday lives (Clinard & Meier, 2008, p. 8). This is because without norms being discussed it would be difficult to put deviant behavior into a proper context.

The social norms therefore are references to expectations people place on everyone regarding what is correct conduct on certain situations or in occasions when people normally gather among themselves. Simply, deviance is anything that is quite different from the accepted social norms; it implies that deviance is a very relative notion or matter of perception. On a deeper level, deviance is something that is not valued or dis-valued (perceived or evaluated in a negative light). The social gathering which I had chosen to implement my experiment was our school reunion.

There were several batches present, those ahead of us and those who studied after us, besides the batch mates to which I belonged. It was a silver jubilee (25th year) since our high school graduation and many of us attended; some went together with their families. Discussion In this section, I will discuss some of the deviant behaviors which I engaged in during our high school reunion. It must be emphasized at this point that at no time did my egregious behavior endangered anyone or put someone even remotely at risk.

I may have offended some people's sensibilities but that was almost all about it; it was all intended to elicit reactions. The actions I took and the varied reactions I elicited with them are discussed below. Deviant Behaviors – I intentionally arrive late for the start of the festivities. Although it was agreed by our batch that everyone should endeavor to arrive early or even on time, the time I got there was already almost an hour late and naturally, my batch mates were not happy with the way things turned out for our batch as I missed an early pictorial for our group.

Moreover, I did not apologize or offer some explanation as to why I was that late. My guess was that everyone expected me to at least give an alibi which I think was not necessary. This was because everyone in our batch had been reminded a few times several days before the event to please arrive on time; reminders were sent to each one of us by text messages. It is therefore almost inconceivable for someone to be late; the implication was that the party or occasion was not accorded the importance it deserves.

I tried to appear grouchy as well. There was a fund raising activity to coincide with the momentous occasion in which I had promised to buy two tickets as my contribution to the charity works of the school. This is a raffle in which ticket holders are supposed to win some prizes but I purposely remarked that the prizes were too cheap considering the price of the tickets being sold. That remark was for the purpose of giving them an impression that I was not too happy with paying for my tickets.

At the very least, it was construed by our batch president and others that I tried to sneak out of a firm commitment to buy those two tickets. I also mumbled something about having to pay a hospital bill for a close relative who was rushed to the