Purpose of the Assignment: The purpose of this assignment is for the student to utilize a social deviance theory to explain the activities of the sex workers at the Mustang Ranch as portrayed by Alexa Albert in her book, Brothel or the illicit actions of gang members as illustrated in Streets of Compton. We are integrating the case study with the theory from our main textbook.
It is the student’s choice which book to use for this assignment. Either book is acceptable as the focal point of this assignment.
Process of this Assignment:
A) The student should choose a particular theory from the following list (in the order in which they are presented in Pfohl): Pathological, Classical, Social Disorganization, Anomie, Learning, or Societal Reaction. Please note that the Demonic theory is not on this list, as the Critical Theories are also omitted.
****You can not choose the Demonic theory because it just won’t work as an explanation. None of the sex workers were attributing any supernatural entity as the reason they were working in the prostitution industry. Critical theories also would not work at all because this book focuses on the categorization issues related to sex workers or gang members, and critical theory tends to focus upon de-construction of labels and types.
B) Then the student must explain at least four key factors or characteristics about this theory. For instance, what particular conditions must be met in order for us to be able to utilize this theory. For example: Regarding the Pathological perspective, we must believe that people generally commit deviant acts because they are ill, not because they are bad.
C) After you have explained four conditions (or characteristics), then you must explain why the actions of the sex workers (or gang members), the environment of the brothel, the motivations, particular problems of the sex workers, or other issues about the sex workers experiences in their professional or private lives can be explained utilizing the particular social theory you have chosen. If you chose Streets of Compton, then similar characteristics should be evaluated.
D) As you are persuading me why the particular theory would explain the deviant behaviors of the Brothel sex workers or the street gang members in Lewis’s book, I want you to cite at least six examples from this book as they are illustrations of the particular theory you have chosen.
Paper Organization :
A) I suggest that you use a short introduction, no more than 3-4 sentences, at the beginning of this paper.
B) You want to tell me very quickly in this paper which social deviance theory you have chosen. The convention is to do this within the thesis statement of the paper, generally located in the last sentence of the first paragraph. For example, a thesis statement might look like this: “By using the Anomie perspective of social deviance theory, I will demonstrate through examples in this book that social norms have broken down due to the increasing complexity of our culture.”
C) Then I expect that you will want to have a paragraph about what conditions or beliefs must be present in order that the particular theory is to be used as an explanation.
D) You should then begin giving me examples from the book, but you must use the concepts, conditions, beliefs, or practices of your chosen social deviance theory to explain the nature of the deviant behavior. You should ultimately be answering these questions, “How does this theory help me in understanding this occurrence of social deviance?” or “What might I learn about human nature and human deviant behavior by utilizing this particular social theory and applying its concepts and key characteristics as I examine this particular example from the text?” You might want to have one example per paragaph, or if you have two examples illustrating a particular concept or tenent of a particular theory then you might have two examples in one paragraph.
E) As you travel in your paper from theory to conditions to book examples to conclusion, you want to use transition sentences when they are appropriate. For instance, “Now that I have explained the major concepts of the Classical perspective, I will use these concepts to explain several (six really) different examples found in Brothel.” (Or in the Lewis book on gang membership.)
F) At the end of your paper, you want to tell me in the conclusion why you feel your chosen theory was most appropriate as an explanatory tool in analyzing Streets of Compton or Brothel, moreso than any of the other theories available from our list. In your conclusion this is also the time where you are free to give your comments about Albert, the book, writing style, whether it was a good or bad work to be used in a social deviance class, you could tell me how you’re giving the book as birthday presents to all your aunts, or other comments pertaining to this book and social deviance.
Paper Criteria :
Guidelines for spacing, font, and style issues:
A) This paper should be single-spaced.
B) 10 or 12 character per inch font size.
C) Times New Roman or simiilar font is requested.
D) The paper should be long enough to address the issues listed previously. Two pages is not going to be long enough for this assignment. During past semesters papers were generally 6-7 pages (single-spaced in length).
E) Please include a title page for this paper. Please place your full name and the date on the title page (which is not to be numbered). Page numbering begins on the second page. No page numbers should be given on the title page or the first page. Most word programs have a “front page special” listed under format. This usually means that the page numbering will skip the first page and begin on the second page with the numeral 2.
F) Spell check!!
G) Proofread your paper for clarity of understanding, punctuation, and grammar. I realize from personal experience that sometimes we are rushed when writing to meet deadlines, however proofreading helps us to avoid sometimes embarassing mistakes such as some of the typos I have read over the years: “Colonials instead of Colonels,” “Prussian instead of Persian,” “Quackers instead of Quakers,” and the list goes on and on. (My former department chair tells this wonderful story about a student who wasn’t exactly very dedicated to his studies and arriving at a test to find an essay question about the ethics involved in dying. The student had heard about the topic of Euthanasia during a class lecture, but hadn’t read the section in the book because his essay began with “Youth in Asia.” No joke, Rose Arnhold says, it really happened in her “Death and Dying” course.) So please proofread. You don’t want me laughing at your paper unless you have used jokes as part of the content. Sometimes it helps if you have a spouse, teenager, or friend who might read your paper, but due to the subject matter choose your editor wisely.
H) You should not use contractions (e.g. won’t, don’t, can’t, doesn’t, didn’t) in academic papers, we leave those to journalists.
I) Also, use developed paragraphs. Journalists use one, two or three sentence paragraphs. You as an academic writer are going to have more weighty paragraphs or 5, 6, 7, or 8 sentences. Do not use run-on paragraphs (when you change to a new subject or major idea, then begin a new paragraph and fully explain this new idea). All paragraphs are to be indented by 5 spaces to the right. Use page numbers in parentheses [for example, [56)] only if you have a direct quote. If you have a direct quote the style should be like this:
“Sally walked by my door last night with her last customer who was rude, smelly, and looked like Homer Simpson” (56). Note the location of the quotation marks, the parentheses, the page number, and the period.
J) Direct quotes should not be longer than 2-3 sentences at most, if you use them at all. However, I do want you to be specific enough in your examples using names, locations, or statistics from the book so that I do not have to guess about the authenticity of your example. So if you paraphrase from the book, then you do not have to use page numbers, but if you use a direct quote taken straight from the text, then you MUST use quotation marks and give the page number in the style shown above. Do not end paragraphs with direct quotations. You must give interpretation, or meaning, to any quotation that you give. A quotation all by itself means nothing within an analytical paper. It would be the same as putting a statistic all by itself in a paper without telling the reader what that figure’s relationship is to the subject being discussed. You, as the author, must give any quotation meaning. Before you include a quotation in your paper, ask yourself these two questions: “Why is it important to draw the reader’s attention to this particular statement above all the others contained within Brothel?” Will this particular quotation help the reader to better understand the argument that I am making in this paper?
K) Always underline or italicize the title of the book. Example: Brothel or Brothel, either one is acceptable.
Within the body of the paper itself, if you refer to book titles, they should be underlined or italicized. Articles found in periodicals (magazines) should be in quotation marks.
Miscellaneous comments: This is not a letter to a friend. Do not be conversational. This paper should be persuasive, you must be persuading me about this theory’s application to the examples you have chosen and why the theory helps to give particular meaning (or helps us to interpret) the actions within the brothel environment. If you have any questions or concerns about this paper, please contact me via email or phone.
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