How does a sociological view of deviance differ from the commonsense idea that bad people do bad things?

Question

How does a sociological view of deviance differ from the commonsense idea that bad people do bad things?

Answer 1

The "commonsense idea that bad people do bad things" takes the stand that, "YOU broke it, so YOU fix it or replace it!"

The "sociological view of deviance" seems to take the stand that, "You broke it, so you must have done that because your mother didn't love you, the other kids didn't play nice with you, your shoes don't fit right, your ballpoint pen leaked in your shirt pocket, you ate too many twinkies or whatever.  Don't worry, we'll just levy a new tax to repair the damage for you."

Sociology seems more interested in justifying "bad" behavior than in dealing with it straight away.

It seems more concerned with finding excuses that will legitimize it, than it is with finding ways to put a stop to it and repair the damage it does.

The sub-conscious motivation behind this abberated viewpoint seems to be that if we make others answerable for THEIR "bad deeds", then WE can be held answerable for OURS.

I, personally, think this whole attitude and school of thought comes from a collective sense of low self-esteem.  Someone with a really poor self-image originated the idea and a lot of others with equally poor self-images jumped on the bandwagon, and so now we have a whole sub-culture of apologists making excuses for the "bad guys" instead of trying to curtail their activities by holding them accountable for the harm they do.