Fostering Community Spirit

Social Ordinance: A Means to Foster a Spirit of Community There are usually a set of social features that are provided to man so as to regulate their behavior according to the norms and values that have been set. Some people in a community might fail to conform to these norms. The failure to conform to these norms that have been set within the community is termed as deviant behavior. In short, the violation of law that is in existence within the society is known as deviant behavior.

Deviant behavior in a community includes criminal behavior, drug abuse, and gang membership and so on. Description of changed deviant behavior These deviant behaviors are not permanent as people who exhibit these behaviors change their ways at some point in their life. People end up changing their deviant behavior and become completely different people in the society. These people get tired of the lives they live and opt to turn over a new leaf and start living lives that are totally different from those they lived before.

For instance prisoners who have gone through the prison system once released they come out as changed people. They would not want to do anything that can get them back to these prisons. They therefore lead straightforward lives and steer away from crimes as much as possible. This shows that they have gone through rehabilitation and thus are reformed. Therefore they will no longer exhibit deviant behavior since they would not want to go back to prison.

Drug abusers are often admitted into rehabilitation centers where they are guided on how they can stay away from drugs. Once they are out of these centers, they are totally changed people and do not take drugs anymore. They find other things to do which keep them away from taking the drugs. Gang members also abandon their membership in the gangs. There are many reasons why gang members can opt to quit these gangs but the most common is the death of a gang members.

When they see one of them has died due to gang related activities, they opt to quit the gangs before they die too. Such cases act as eye openers to gang members as they can now see just how dangerous the membership of the gang can be. These illustrations show that one cannot exhibit deviant behavior forever.

There comes a point in their lives when they make a decision of stopping these behaviors and start conforming to the norms of the community and the prevailing social norms and become a part of the social revolution as indicated by Kai T. Erikson (nd:Pp 6) Analysis of the reasons why people had these kinds of deviant behavior There are many reasons as to why people have these kinds of deviant behaviors.

First of all according to cognitive development theory, deviant behaviors are as a result of how individuals organize their thoughts around law and norm set by and in the society. Thee are three levels of moral reasoning d anyone who does not progress though the levels may end up being stuck in their moral development and hence end up becoming deviants. Another explanation to deviant behavior is the learning theory.

This is based on the fact that a person's behaviors is normally learned and maintained by the consequences of the existing rewards. This means that people learn deviant behavior by looking at the consequences and rewards that the behavior receives. For instance a person that observes their friend stealing something and not getting caught and sees their friend is not being punished and instead they see them get rewarded by keeping the item they stole.

The person might end up stealing if they hold the belief that they will be rewarded with similar outcomes (The Connexions Project, 2014). Another explanation is the differential theory that emphasizes the interaction people have with their friends and others within their environment. Those people who associate with deviants or criminals end up learning the value of deviance. The more the duration, frequency and intensity of their contact with deviant environment the more the likelihood of them becoming deviant.

Analysis of the reasons why society should accept these individuals The society should be open to people who have successfully reformed from deviant behavior. This is because these people have obviously learnt from their mistakes and they are more likely not to go back to these deviant behaviors before. This means that they are now changed people who will not be a problem to the community any more. Secondly the society should accept these individuals because they are human beings like them.

If they do not accept them then they would not have anywhere to go to. They might end up being lonely or even wanting to get back to the society for the failure of believing in them and wanting to accept them. This might lead to these people going back to the deviant behaviors not because they want to but because the society has refused to se they have changed and hence hey want to go ahead and show the society what they believe in.

another reason is the fact that these individuals are quiet vulnerable, they need to be understood and accepted by the society. They need to be accepted into the community and feel as though they are wanted. If the society accepts them they will become comfortable but if the society does not accept them they might end up turning to their old behaviors.

Explanation of the reasons why these people are not harmful to society once rehabilitated from previous behavior The people who have been rehabilitated from deviant behaviors are not harmful to the society. Contrary to this they can be of great use to the society. This is because in the rehabilitation centers they end up learning a lot of things which they can use for the betterment of the society. Some even further their education and hence become useful members of the society.

In these rehabilitation facilities the individuals learn the value of the community. Hence when they get out they want.