We started out trying to define deviant. We never really answered that question, but one familiar them seemed to imply deviating from the norm. My problem then began trying to define normal. No matter where I turned I found one more problem after another. Is a person born a biker, hooker, theft, priest, or president? Many would say yes but just as many would disagree. Before taking this class I would have been the person to disagree. Are people psychologically prone to become criminals? Because my father was a criminal doe that mean I will be a criminal? These were just a few of the questions we attempted to answer. Later we attempted to answer questions such as, is drug use automatically criminal or did it become criminal by definition? Why are we concerned about sex? Does mental illness exist? Lastly why are we concerned with street crime and not with white collar crime? I asked this last question to several people and was told because white collar crime does not kill. I found that upsetting knowing that after Enron people had committed suicide. Why is this different from someone committing murder during a robbery? In both cases people lost what belonged to them through no fault of their own. Is this justice? Is drug use automatically illegal? I don’t think so, but at the same time, should a person under the influence of drugs be found not guilty because they hurt someone while under the influence of those drugs. We are concerned about sex because to day it kills. If you are raised in a religious home then you are taught in most cases that having sex before marriage is a sin. If not then you may feel like many people that what you do with your body is your business, true. The question then remains should others in society be responsible to pay for your promiscuity. I would have never guessed that some psychologist do not even feel that there is such a thing as mental illness.

What I have learned in this class is that I have no idea what crime or deviance is. I do however know what many other people think about it. In psychology if a physiologist uses many theories in treating a patient they are considered eclectic. While many theories in criminal justice borrow from one another there seems to be no real eclectic theory. I have learned to view crime in deviance in several different lights, all having some merit, none being totally right. I have learned to view people in a light that encompasses more then just their economic or social background.