Project : Understanding Deviance and Policy Formation

Trial by Jury. An Artist's drawing of an integrated jury in the south from 1867.

This assignment, Project 2, addresses course outcomes 5 and 6. This assignment will require you to think about key sociological concepts, such as race, gender, and social class. You will need to think about the way social groups develop and enforce rules. Specifically, you will be asked to reflect on whether or not social rules are effective in controlling social deviance. You will be asked to think carefully about current policies for deviance prevention and to make suggestions for how these policies can be improved. You will need to think about key sociological theories that are used to analyze how and why deviant behavior is defined and sanctioned. Deviance can be criminal or non-criminal. It can have negative or positive consequences for society. Punishment can be focused on retribution or rehabilitation, or both. For this project, you will select a current event from a local or national news source that covers a deviant act. You will describe the event that you have selected. You will need to apply a theory to explain why this act happened. This explanation can focus on the social structure, the individual or both. The theory that you apply will be the one that fits best with your interpretation of group life. You will also discuss the type of punishment that was used to address this act. Finally, you will discuss policy changes that you think would be beneficial to controlling this type of deviance. How can the system be changed to make society function better?

Before beginning this project, please be sure you have thoroughly read and reviewed all of the content in this module. Pay special attention to the terms and concepts from your reading material that help you understand the way that sociologists look at and make sense of conformity and deviance within a society.

Next, select a current event from a local or national news source that discusses a deviant act.

Then, please write a 500 word essay (at least 2 to 3 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font of text) addressing the following question prompts. A references list should make up an additional page.

1. Briefly summarize the article that you have selected to discuss. Provide the specifics of the act and how the act was sanctioned.

2. Provide a theoretical explanation for why the act occurred. This can be a structural explanation, an individual explanation or both. Use the theory that best fits your understanding of the act.

3. Discuss and explain whether or not the punishment was retribution, rehabilitation or both.

4. Discuss the effectiveness of this approach and suggest a policy change that might decrease the occurrence of this type of deviance.
Your essay will be evaluated in terms of how thoroughly you: answer the questions above; use resources to document your main points; and properly cite referenced work. Your essay should address all of the questions above and should consist of 500-750 words (at least 2 to

3 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font of text). Citations and a references list will likely make up an additional page.
To successfully complete Project 2, you will need to organize your responses to the questions and then craft a formatted essay that includes each of the following:

1. A title page;

2. Well-developed introductory paragraph explaining the purpose of the essay and briefly referencing some of the main points/contentions offered in the essay;

3. The body of the essay should consist of your effort to best answer the primary questions from the assignment prompt and should consist of 500-750 words (at least 2 to 3 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font of text). Though the method by which this is done is largely up to you, it is essential that the responses to the questions in the prompt be based upon scholarly readings and should remain at all times defensible (in an academic sense). You have a great deal of information to draw from in creating your essay, including the assigned readings and hyperlinked sources in the module notes. As is the case with every assignment in SOC101, presenting any unsubstantiated, illogical, or indefensible position will have an adverse effect on the final grade. Please direct any questions regarding these expectations to the instructor;

4. A concise concluding paragraph that briefly restates both the purpose of the essay as well as some of the primary argument offered by you, the essay's author. Be sure the concluding paragraph does not introduce new information;