deviance and prostitution
In sociology, the term deviance refers to all violations of social rules, regardless of their seriousness (Essentials of Sociology 136). Deviance is an individual or organizational behavior that violates societal norms and is usually accompanied by negative reactions from others. According to a sociologist S. Becker, he stated that it is not the act itself that makes an action deviant, but rather how society reacts to it.A particular state of being that has been labeled as being deviant in the U.S. is prostitution. Prostitution is the direct selling of sexual acts for financial gains. In some form or other, prostitution has been recognized throughout history and all over the world. There has been alternating phases of repression and toleration of prostitution. Official Christian morality has always opposed prostitution, but in big cities prostitution has been rather open and tolerated in Christian societies until the sixteenth century when venereal disease became a major public problem. At that time public authorities began denouncing prostitution and took severe measures to eliminate it. By the nineteenth century, official enforcement of rules against prostitution had become lax in the U.S. and England; while
In other countries it is illegal but the law is not strictly enforced as in the case of Thailand, U.S., Nigeria etc. Today, prostitution is legal, but public solicitation for it is not as in the case of many European and Asian countries such as Denmark, France, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Singapore, Taiwan etc. Deviance is relative, which means that what is considered deviant to one society is not to others. Nowadays, prostitution is regarded as an evil in virtually all societies; but in most societies, it is regarded as an evil that cannot be eliminated. On the other hand, in ancient civilizations, prostitution was not condemned as evil. It was considered sacred by some religious sects. In primitive societies among African peoples, certain women were available in the market place at the end of the normal trading hours for commercialized sex. Other African tribes used prostitutes in some instances as a part of a religious ceremony to initiate the young men of the village to sexual intercourse. Another example is the Anglo Saxon society. Five hundred years ago this society had a custom to lend his wife or daughter to a guest. In return for her kindness, the family or the clan expected to receive his good
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 826
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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