Ryan Shumake
Sociology
10/29/2012
Deviance
"Deviance, in a sociological context, describes actions or behaviors that violate social norms, including formally-enacted rules as well as informal violations of social norms. It is the purview of sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and criminologists to study how these norms are created, how they change over time and how they are enforced." This paper will include first hand incidents of me and my friend Caleb going against what is considered socially correct or normal. To give a basic description of me and my friend, we are very acrobatic, and are always challenging each other to do back and front flips off of different structures and jumping over various obstacles. The first challenge of deviant behavior occurred at the intersection of highway 281 and 1604. I was driving and my friend Caleb was in the passenger seat. I pulled up to the stop light and was at the front of the line, so all the cars could see my car. As we were waiting for the light to turn green I dared Caleb to get out of the car and do a back flip in front of everyone sitting at the stoplight. He got out of the car, walked in front of all the cars and did a back flip! After this, many people honked their horns, others rolled down their windows and applauded him. Next, me and Caleb were driving again but he had his brother Cameron with him this time. We pulled up to another stop light on the access road of highway 1604. As the light was red, I turned my stereo on loud and played some Tejano music. While the music was playing we got out of the car and all of started dancing like crazy people until the light turned green and then got back in the car! Again like the last time people were honking and another person rolled down their window and hollered "Yeah!!" Lastly, I was at the Movie theater, while we were waiting for a movie to start we were just hanging out in the lobby near the concession stand. I had noticed that the concession stand counter was the perfect height to do a back flip off of, so my friends dared me to do it. It was a
