Self Destructive Deviance Identifiers, Essay Example

There are visible identifiers that indicate potential self destructive deviance. They can be observed in people who later become deviant in the society. Even the people who have observed criminals from an early age attest to the fact that the criminals had some peculiar characteristics. This is because deviance is not normal. It is a departure from the normal to the abnormal (Eberstad, 2004).

One of the first identifier that an individual has self destructive deviance is alcoholism. The gay and lesbian members of the community have a higher propensity towards alcoholism than the ordinary people. Gays are more prone to alcoholism than lesbians. An observer will notice that a person who will most likely turn gay or lesbian drinks excessively (Eberstad, 2004).

Depression and fears, or phobias of a variety of types afflict homosexuals in a disproportionate manner. The rates of depression and levels of anxiety are more in the homosexual world than among the general public. This is an identifier that they have a self destructive-streak in them. Would be murderers have the tendency of stalking people, even in childhood; they display cruelty to other people even while they are children (Thio, 2009).

Drug abuse can mark individuals who will be deviant in a self-destructive manner. For example, most criminals are drug addicts. People who have killed or raped have been found to be drug addicts. Gays and lesbians are also given to taking drugs than the average people in society. When the issue of attempted suicide is investigated, it is found out that those individuals with destructive, self behavior have a higher probability of committing suicide than the normal individual. Once this deviant behavior is observed, the individual should be taken counseling and testing. Also, the individual can be taken out of the environment that can predispose him to commit crimes or engage in deviant behavior (Thio, 2009).

References

Eberstad, M. (2004).”The Family: Discovering the Obvious,” First Things, February 2004.

Thio, A. (2009). Reading in deviant behavior. Massachusetts: Allyn&Bacon.