SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Substance Abuse, Takers, Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders
Document Summary
The emphasis of social constructionist perspective relies on context it recognizes that deviance to relative situation and surroundings. For example, a social constructionist would argue that a drug is anything we call a drug. Therefore, illegal drugs aren"t the most problematic and are not as evil as society states. Meier and geis argues that how substance are define and perceived is a social construct. Some substance are perceived as deviant and made illegal, while others are perceived as acceptable. Drug debates cannot be explained by the nature of the drugs themselves. Drug laws provide a convenient way to target certain groups. 48% of prisoners are incarcerated for a drug related offenses, while only approximately 8% are in federal custody for violent crimes. S. c. states that we as a society have a tendency to create deviance by defining some acts as deviance and some as not. Therefore deviance is not a fixed definition to time and place.
