Sociology and Deviant Behavior - Essay Example

SOCIOLOGY Over the years there have been concerns of bureaucracy in most of the social organization. Most of the social organization has now been structured with a given organization whether formal or informal. The organizations have given organization structure with people given specific roles as adults. In the course of the execution of the duties, there is the experience of deviant or abnormal behavior as explained by the labeling theory. Though most of the organizations have the social structures; most workers develop deviant behaviors in the course of the duty as a social work. This paper will examine the issues of deviance in a social work institution, American Case Management Association, which I worked as an intern some few months ago. It will observe the roles of the social worker and the qualities of a social worker.Morever, there will be emphasis on the causes of the deviant behavior in the organization, its causes and effects. Ordinarily social work is a noble profession that is much concerned in assisting communities, families and groups to enhance their collective and individual well being. This could be in various aspects of life such as heath, social and also economic aspects. Normally, social work will aim in helping the people to develop their skills to use their own resources and the community to solve the problem. As an intern I realized that social work is more concerned with individual problems and other social issues like poverty, unemployment and other domestic violence. “People interested in helping others work through difficult life situations may want to consider a career in social work. Social workers provide direct services or clinical counseling to help clients assess and change harmful or unhealthy situations. They work in a variety of settings including nursing homes, hospitals, private practices, schools, and community mental health clinics. Caseloads may be heavy, causing stress and long work hours for many social workers. However, social workers can rest assured knowing their services are having tangible benefits for their clients.” (Maxwell, 2011) Social work is concerned with individual and personal problems but also with broader social issues such as poverty, unemployment and domestic violence. These tasks in the organization among others can be a major source of deviant by employees. Most of the employees are not willing to take the jobs. Most of the jobs in social work will deal with human rights and the social justice. This unique blend of this profession is that it requires knowledge and skills including the use of the relationships as the basis of all the relationships.This make some of the workers not ready to relate and help some of the community and individual members. This is because not all of them have the passion to deal with search individuals with social, political, economic context which often attract. This is why it is necessary for all the organization to undertake training as a social work before getting to practice.Ordinarily, most of the employees in the firm that I worked as an intern, most of the people in the place had no technical training in the fields and thus among many other factors could not be able to perform the given tasks. As a social worker, it is essential that a person undertakes a social training and education in theoretical and practical at a graduate level. Normally, the social worker should at least take the bachelors degree in social work or other work related course. A diploma, post graduate diploma and masters in social work will also be vital for the tasks. It is also necessary to get accreditated by the various associations of sociology so as to be controlled so as to ensure that no unethical practice takes place in the course of the service (Daniel, 2013). There is need for the social workers to be responsible and be not deviant of the task. The workers should understand to work with those who need help. They ought to be role models who do not teach and advice but do the opposite. For a person to be taken seriously, he or she should walk the talk. If he or she preaches against drugs he should be at the forefront of not using the drugs. As a worker, there is need for ethical consideration for various people. People who live with HIV/AIDS should be treated with love and maintaining confidentiality (Paul, 2014).Another quality is that these workers should be compassionate. The social work involves caring and it will need emphatic approach. This is because it deals with the social injustices and health concerns affecting the people. The workers should take time to listen to the concerns of the people so as to make right choices for the patients because the real issues will be understood and comprehended. There is need for the employees not to be deviant when the society has not labeled them deviant. They are main mandate is to act as a help to ensure that there is social justice and equality in awareness of the social issues in the community. Social workers should also have a good judgment to provide proper decisions about their treatment plans especially while working with children who need you to be their advocate. This is essential so as to ensure that the social worker provides evidenced based social work services. Children who are orphaned and are affected by AIDS are often treated with a lot of care to ensure that they do not suffer. This is done by linking them to organizations that do care for them or other children home. The social worker should therefore have a sound judgment to ensure that the children go to the right places. The social workers should therefore remain determined to ensure that all the social injustices are nullified and also that they help the people who have been labeled deviant. They should help and encourage the patient while persevering during the hard times. They should not give up no matter how hard the person’s life problem is, lest they are tagged as deviant in their tasks. In the execution of this task there is need for flexibility in the social work career. The ability to do other tasks and the adaptability to new training and education is required by the social worker. Normally, people ought to associate themselves with other people who can bring solution to them. Therefore there is need for the social worker to be flexible open minded and be able to work in different environment so as to solve all the problems so as not to be labeled defiant. (Paul, 2014) Based on the labeling theory, the social workers should do the tasks that are accepted in the society. As such labeling theory is only based on the ideas that behaviors will only be deviant when the society labels them as abnormal or deviant. Most of the community members have a tendency of labeling people as deviance and non deviance. The group that the social workers are always considered as deviance. Most of the powerful individuals in the society such as politicians, judges, police officers and the street children have been labeled deviant. Most of the time, the politicians are involved in the corruption especially when a deal presents itself. They may claim to be so clean but they steal in secrecy and therefore the community has labeled them as deviant because their behavior is controversial to what they say. As an intern most of our field work involved educating and creating the awareness for the citizen not is involved in corruption. In addition, judges have not been left behind because there are alleged not to pass correct judgement.Some small percentages are deviant because they are compromised through bribery. On the other hand, the police officers have also been tagged by the community to have deviant behavior because of brutality and corruption. Though this can be disputed to be allegation there is some degree of truth Pol in his research (Pol, 2013). Besides that, social worker also work closely with people who have been labeled with deviant behaviours.As an intern at the American Case management Association I was able to meet this people such as alcoholics, drug addicts,criminals,delinquents,prostitutes,sex offenders, psychiatric patients, robbers and even street children. The community has labeled them deviant because they often do the things that are not accepted in the society and it is the work of the social worker to help them to reform and see the sense of life. The alcoholics were labeled deviant because of the abnormal behavior that they bring to the community after they are drunk. Most of them waste a lot of money to drink at the expense of the families back at home. This leaves the most of the families to suffer the basic needs. In addition, alcoholism is the major source of the family problems and breakups. Criminals and robbers are also labeled deviant because of the fact that they want to harvest where they have not sown. They break into people’s home to steal and cause grieves to the people. This is doing opposite of the community expectation and thus they are deviant. The sex offenders are also tagged deviant because they contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS spread. In addition, the prostitutes have contributed significantly to the marriage break and the financial problems in the homes because they lure married men.Mosst of these people who includes the prostitutes have accepted to be labeled deviant and thus they find it difficult to change since the community have already labeled them and thus they wallow in self esteem and refuse to transform. This is the major problem that the social workers are called to assist. As an interns in the social work organization, we provided the professional development services to ensure that they reform (Angel, 2014).We were tasked to have educational forums which included family management, conflict resolutions, drug addiction and substance, rehabilitation and family planning. Though it was difficult to deal, rehabilitate and inform this group it was necessary to practice patient, one of the virtue of a social worker. The group was difficult because most of them were deeply addicted to the characters and it needed a slow withdrawal plan. According to the psychologists, it is often difficult for an elderly person to transform her or his mind faster as a child would do. An adult will require slow monitoring and this posed a change to the social workers. This is because the adults find it difficult to learn new roles and thus this makes them defiant. Another common aspect that makes them deviant is because they lack knowledge which makes them ignorant. The education on drug addiction and substance ensured that the group that had been labeled deviant turned from the drugs. Teaching on the negative effects of the drugs was taught and slow drug withdrawal was done. It was realized that drug addiction was mainly caused by the stress and thus we managed to teach on how to manage the stress. Besides that it was mandatory that the groups be taught on how to manage the families to avoid the conflicts. To prevent the spread of HIV/AID we were able to give appropriate information on the transmission of the virus, how people could live positively and how to prevent HIV.There was also the distribution of the condoms to ensure that the individuals prevent the spread of the disease. We realized that the youth was labeled deviant because they cannot abstain and this is the reason for the distribution of the condom to ensure that they do not acquire the virus. As interns, we were also able to reach many schools so as to assist the students to adjust to their schools environment. This was to ensure that the students observe the school rules and avoid being tagged deviant. We actually helped the students, teachers and even the parents to deal with problems such as family problems truancy which often affects the student’s performance. We were also in the forefront in the child welfare agencies to investigate the various cases of family violence, child abuse and neglect so as to assist the children. We ensured that we hired foster parents and also worked on the adoption cases to ensure that the children who had been considered to be on the street and with deviant behavior are assisted and not left in the street. We are worked tirelessly in hospital as part of the treatment group by providing the suitable link with the family, team and community resourses.In the hospital there was rehabilitation, treatment of the aged, mentally ill and the disabled people. We also worked in “health and community services centers, providing counseling to individuals and families. Some worked as community developers helping citizens to identify their needs and proposing ways of meeting these needs. Others assisted with parent-child relationships and marriage counseling. The services were offered on an individual basis and in groups. In the correctional field, we were part of the team concerned with the social rehabilitation of young or adult offenders while theirs worked as probation officers to help ex-prisoners adjust to life in the community while conforming to the conditions of their parole. This helped to nullify the deviant behavior. Besides that, we worked in private hospitals offering the services on a fee-for-service basis to individuals, families and organizations. The services include counseling, psychotherapy, mediation, sex therapy, policy and program development, organizational development, and employee assistance programs. Lastly we were also involved in the policy analysis, policy development and planning so as to be part of the solutions to the problems that affect the communities” (Daniel, 2013). In conclusion, it is evidenced that deviant behavior comes from the community who label the characters in question deviant. This is because they do characters that are not accepted by the society. At many times that label by the society is often set to make the individuals turn way from the behavior. Social workers are mandated to help these characters to change their behavior. so that the label may be removed. Works Cited Angel. (2014). Labelling theory. Retrieved 2015, fro m http://sociology.about.com/od/L_Index/g/Labeling-Theory.htm Daniel. (2013). What is Social Work? Retrieved 2015, from http://www.casw-acts.ca/en/what -social-wor Maxwell. (2011). How to Become a Social Worker: Education and Career Roadmap. Retrieve d 2015, from http://study.com/how_to_become_a_social_worker.html Paul. (2014). Qualities of a Social Worker. Retrieved 2015, fro m http://socialwork.une.edu/resources/news/qualities-of-a-social-worker/ Pol. (2013). American Case Management Association . Retrieved 2015, fro m http://www.socialworkers.org/swportal/swo1/details.asp?pVal={E47B936B-42A3-4927-A4FF-B37B94998AC3}&pType=2 Read More