Attitudes towards deviance across different cultures
Law is by no means the only method for controlling the behavior of deviant individuals. People who violate norms can be subjected to gossip, public ridicule, social ostracism, insults, and even threats of physical harm by other members of their community. These kinds of informal negative sanctions are very effective in small-scale societies. In larger societies, this method also works effectively in small towns and sub-groups of cities, such as a family, work group, church, or club.
In some societies, social control involves the threat of supernatural punishment from the gods or ancestral spirits for deviation from the norm. Since it is assumed that crimes against other people in these societies are likely to be punished whether they are publicly known or not, this belief in divine retribution provides a powerful tool for getting people to behave properly. The possibility that others could use witchcraft against deviant individuals also is a common effective coercive mechanism for bringing people into line, especially in small-scale non-western societies.
Some societies emphasize the use of positive sanctions to reward appropriate behavior rather than negative ones to punish those who do not conform to the social norms. Common positive sanctions include praise and granting honors or awards. Simply receiving the esteem of one's peers is often sufficient motivation for people to be model citizens. Examples of effective positive sanctions in the United States include such things as military promotions, ticker-tape parades, and receiving good grades in school. In order to be effective, a positive sanction does not need to offer an immediate reward. It can be a supernatural reward following death. The Judeo-Christian and Moslem belief that entry into heaven must be earned by a life of good behavior is an example. Similarly, the Hindu and Buddhist belief that a good life results in being reborn at a higher level of existence is a promise of a future supernatural reward.
Some norms in every society usually can be ignored without fear of punishment. Being a loner or dressing oddly is examples of such minor deviations from the norms in North America today. Individuals who do these things may be labeled strange, eccentric, or independent but rarely criminal. Which of these alternative labels is applied may depend on who the deviant individual happens to be. One's gender, ethnicity, age, wealth, and social class are likely to be important factors. Strange behavior by rich, well dressed people is likely to be considered eccentric, while the same behavior by poor people living on the street is more likely to be defined as criminal. This is especially true if the deviant individuals are strangers and members of a subculture that is stereotyped as being "trouble makers." Consistently odd behavior by a homeless woman on the street is likely to cause others to question her mental health and seek assistance for her, while the same behavior by a homeless man may be seen as a potential danger to society and get him arrested for creating a public disturbance.
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Surf the Internet for cross-cultural comparison of public attitudes towards various forms of deviant behavior in the light of diverse cultural and religious contexts. Fill in the chart. Discuss your findings with a partner.
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Types of deviant behavior |
Countries |
Societies |
Religions | |||||
| deve-loped | deve-loping | large-scale | small- scale | Christianity | Judaism | Buddhism | Islam | |
| Taking drugs | ||||||||
| Suicide | ||||||||
| Abortion | ||||||||
| Homo- sexuality | ||||||||
| Eccentric behavior | ||||||||
4.8 CASE-STUDY & ROLE-PLAY
Case
Western countries are facing a general decline in suicide rates that seems reasonably unrelated to the existence of any national plan. Reductions in suicide rates have occurred not only in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark (which had or have a structured strategy), but also in nations such as Hungary and the Netherlands which, like most Western countries, do not possess a national prevention programme. The presence of a ‘cohort effect’ (the ensemble of environmental factors that connote a certain generation) and of its relative size has been postulated several times in suicidology, although a clear description of the relevant environmental factors (or a hierarchy of their importance) has never been provided. In any case, the fundamental influence of cultural differences means that cohort effects are unlikely to be universally applicable. For example, the American example of the generation born after the Second World War (the ‘baby boomers’, characterised also by increased suicidality) has not proved fully valid in the European context. Moreover, the marked decline of suicide rates in the elderly over the past 30 years recorded in predominantly Anglo-Saxon countries has not been paralleled by a similar trend in Latin nations for the same generations.
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After many years of worrying increases in rates of youth suicide in nearly all Western countries, a remarkable decline is now occurring. The motives for such trends are puzzling researchers to the point that the International Association for Suicide Prevention has created a task force to study the phenomenon from a transcultural perspective In addition, the World Health Organization headquarters is promoting a new study, the Suicide Prevention—Multi-site Intervention Study on Suicide, with centres on the five continents, which includes a randomised clinical intervention for people attempting suicide, a biological investigation, and the comparison of a number of socio-cultural indicators.
Suicide research requires major investment, using multi-disciplinary teams to set up more integrated approaches for large-scale, long-term and thoroughly evaluated projects. ‘Think big’ - to paraphrase the World Health Organization's motto with a famous entrepreneurial slogan of the 1980s - really seems to capture today's priority in suicide prevention. If lack of substantial scientific evidence continues to characterise this area, loss of interest and progressive withdrawal of investment are inevitable. To come closer to preventing suicide cooperation between scientists, administrators and politicians with a higher level of planning and organization is needed more than ever.
Case Analysis
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