You look Deviant

Deviance is all about perception. One act could be interpreted in different ways depending on the perception of the person, and the people who see it. As we read Saints and roughnecks we could easily see that the same crimes committed were treated differently because of the perception of who committed it. Even at my school this is obvious. Obviously this is just an example and not necessarily what exactly happens but the idea of it does. We have two kids in the same class, one who is barely passing the class, and the other who is doing just fine. When the kid who is barely passing doesn't show up to class the teacher will clearly be angry and may even hint at what a bad kid that is. While if the kid who is passing easily misses class the teacher won't even notice or care. In reality the kids both ditched class yet one kid was discriminated against because of the perception about him. One time it was about three in the morning and I was with a group of kids. We walked into Ihop to get some food. At the same time there was this group of other kids who dressed in a much different manner than us, that also walked in. When both groups walked out there was a police officer in the parking lot. We acted casual because we just got some food. The officer perceived the other group of kids to be deviant and went over to talk to them while letting my group leave. Neither group did anything wrong and still the officer thought that because they dressed more poorly than we did that they had to be trouble. It shows that perception is everything when it comes to determining deviance.