Every society creates ways to encourage conformity and deter deviance. Many teachers went into the profession of teach, and not to be social workers. However, many of them have already learned the way that they cannot teach because they have a classroom filled with students who are hostile, dishonest, thieves, will not sit still, and seem to suffer from schizophrenia and conduct disorder. Even the most committed teachers and school systems often come to feel frustrated and ineffective because so many of their kids are too traumatized or suffer from extreme mental disorders and cannot seem to learn. If teachers cannot effectively address the behavior problems of these students, focusing only on improving test scores will not make any difference. The good news is that the basic principles day-to-day routines and approaches that can transform the entire culture of a school.  Most teachers we work with are intrigued to earn that abused and neglected students are likely to interpret any deviation from routine as danger and that their extreme reactions usually are expression of traumatic stress. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 5

Students who defy the rules are unlikely to be brought to reason by verbal reprimands or even suspension—a practice that has become epidemic in American schools. Teachers’ perspectives begin to change when they realize that these kids’ disturbing behaviors started out as frustrated attempts to communicate distress and as misguided attempts to survive. The first barrier against deviance is called inner containment. Inner containment is the extent to which an individual internalized the norms, attitudes, values, and beliefs of his or her culture. For some, however, inner containment is not strong enough, so society provides a second layer of control in the form of outer containment, which consists of parents, teachers, police officers, and others who serve as agents of social control. The social environment is also important. In some social situations people with weak inner containment are subject to a vast array of external agents of social control. In many other outer containment is minimal, and if an individual’s inner containment is not sufficiently strong deviance is likely to occur #RyanPhillippe 2 of 5

Much deviant behavior can be explained by people’s ability to rationalize it and hence neutralize their inhibitions. From this perspective, individuals sometimes ignore conventional norms because they view them as flexible guidelines for behavior rather than as rigid rules or laws. Depending on the situation, the greater ability of an individual to rationalize (and therefore neutralize) norm violation, the more likely he or she is to engage in deviant behavior. People rationalize deviant acts by claiming they were caused by forces beyond their control. For example, have you ever explained to your professor that you were late for class or missed an exam because of a flat tire, a faulty alarm clock, or heavy traffic? If a person cannot deny responsibility for a deviant act, he or she may argue that no harm was done. Usually, the less serious the infraction, the greater the chance it will be neutralized, but this technique is also used to rationalize crimes such as vandalism and shoplifting. When somebody is hurt and harm cannot be denied the deviant may rationalize that their victim deserved to be hurt. Rapist, for example, often contend that their victims were “asking for it,” and social and legal processes may reinforce that idea. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 5

A common assertion by many deviants is that those who condemn them are even more worthy of condemnation. This argument is often used by reporters, who assert that police and judges are corrupt and that financial crimes and corporate criminals commit more serious offenses, but almost never serve hard time. Many forms of deviance can be rationalized as altruistic acts for the good of a particular group or for some higher cause. Terrorist, for example, rationalize their deviance as serving some higher cause and greater good. Social control is a way to encourage conformity and deter deviance. With social control, there are mechanism people use to enforce prevailing social norms. This process usually involves the imposition of beneficial sanctions to reward conformity (e.g., encouragement, awards, medals, certificates, diplomas) and negative sanctions to punish deviance (e.g., discouragement, ridicule, fines, imprisonment). In most societies, far more effort goes into negatively sanctioning deviance than in beneficially rewarding conformity and excellent behavior. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 5

Deterrence is the most important element of social control and social control is the most important aspect of sociological inquiry. Deterrence theory states that deviance will be effectively deterred if negative social sanctions (especially punishment) are perceived to be certain, swift, and severe. Deterrence theorist differentiate between specific deterrence, which are punishments that discourage the individual from committing similar acts in the future, and general deterrence, which discourages others from committing similar acts. One of the most effective methods of regulating human behavior is for people to internalize society’s values and norms voluntarily retrain themselves. For example, most of us have never committed murder, but that is probably due more to the fact that we believe it is morally wrong to take another person’s life than simply because it is illegal and we fear being caught and punished. Most people voluntarily conform most of the time. What psychologist refer to as conscience represents the sense of guilt we feel when we violate or even consider breaking social norms. The magnificence of men has become so intolerable now that one is driven to be humble in one’s self-defense. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 5