The social norm varies from one community to another. Behaviors which are acceptable in one culture mat appear rude and unacceptable in another culture settings, therefore, the cultural understanding on deviance varies among different cultures in the world. For a good understanding of the culture perspective towards deviant, a number of theories have been put in place to explain the understanding on deviance in a culture setting to day. The theories that explain hoe culture defines deviant are the cultural transmission theory, control theory, labelling theory, anomie theory, sub cultural theory, and the medicalization theory.
According to the cultural transmission theory, the environment in certain cultures have a big role in decision of which people learn to violate the social norms. A specific reference organizations provides social norms deviance and conformity that they strongly influence the way other individuals view the world and how they react. The theory states that people learn about their social norm from specific socializing groups or agents. The agents who determine the deviant in the culture are the parents, media, teachers, relatives, and the friend who define the surrounding of certain groups. People violate the social norms just like the way they learn about the positive norms in the society. The theory is applicable to many kinds of deviance. For example the gang groups learn to be they copy and conforms from the gang norms. The state that people in a given culture knows about the deviance from the people they interacts with in the culture.
Another theory that define the cultures understanding about the deviance is the anomie theory. According to it the culture deviant behavior could be because of the social constraints in the society structure. the victims of the social strain are overwhelmed by the social strain to point of doing anything they can to manage it, in doing so they causes the violation of the social norm in the society.
