Analyzing Robbery as a Deviant Behavior.
Deviance is defined by sociologists as behavior that is recognized as violating expected rules and norms. Any type of robbery is said to be a form of deviant behavior. I will show you how this deviant behavior is analyzed through different theories.
Functionalism's theory on deviance is that norms are meaningless unless there is a deviance from the norms. They also say that deviance promotes conformity like showing others how to behave. Their interpretation is that if nobody was robbing anybody what would people do? How would they no not to do it or how would they act? Deviance results from structural strains in society is another theory of functionalists. Functionalists would view robbing through this by analyzing that there was some sort of strain in society that caused that person to rob somebody whether it was for money or some thing they needed. Another view of functionalists is that deviance occurs when people's attachments to social bonds are diminished. Maybe a person was abiding by the law and didn't commit any crimes till one day something happened that broke his social bonds and caused that person to rob someone.
Symbolic interaction's theory on deviance mostly talks about how other people are influenced by other people. Symbolic interactionists say that deviance is a learned behavior and is reinforced in a group relationship. So if a person hangs out with a bunch of people who commit robberies then they too will do it. If a person was once caught stealing something and where labeled a thief then the theory of symbolic interaction says they will become robbers because of that label. So the symbolic interaction basically says if a person grows up around people who steal or are labeled a thief then they will be robbers.
Conflict theory emphasizes the unequal distribution of power and resources in society. They would view robbery as a person having to do what they have to do to sustain themselves.