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Deviant

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A nephew of mine has always had a problem with deviance. Since he was little he’s always had a problem with doing things that he knew were not acceptable. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was young. He has been in and out of juvenile detention centers and now he’s an adult and is in and out of jail quite often.
When looking through the different theories I see my nephew’s life in two of them: Hirschi's Control Theory & the Labeling Theory.
When it comes to Hirschi’s Control Theory I can totally see where the lack of connection falls into it for him. When he was five years old his house burned down. He and his older sister were gone with their father, but his little brother and sister were and home with his mother (my sister). The two little ones died in the fire and it was total hell for the family after that. My sister woke up in the hospital and found out the two little ones didn’t make it. She was rescued by firemen. My nephew was already a bit wild before that happened but after this happened his father was a mess and totally detached from the family after this happened. His mother suffered from depression as well. He was always doing something stupid and that was probably the only attention he got. His parents didn’t make him commit to things, because I really don’t think they cared about life for years. Like Hirschi’s Control Theory says, he needed commitment to something and to be involved with activities but neither of his parents gave a crap at the time. The only people that tried were my parents, but they were 30 miles apart and his parents were just hard to deal with. He saw no respect for the law because he seen his parents not caring about anything. He had very few good examples in his life and the ones he did have were to far away to help.
Comparing him to the Labeling Theory, he was called devious since he was little. So it’s been said over and over to him for as long as he can remember, and as the Labeling Theory states, why not just be it. He’s been in and out of juvenile detention centers until he was old enough to go to jail. Still to this day he’s got nothing for going for himself. He’s even got a wife with two little girls. The little girls have been taken away from them and his older sister has actually got custody of them.
In all honesty, I’ve tried to talk to him time and time again, but he just doesn’t really receive anything except for food and money. My wife and I have tried to show him and his wife love and given them some positive mentorship, but neither of them want to receive anything expect for the materials things we sometimes give them and before they lost their kids they would always take advantage of us for free babysitting. We were more than happy to take care of those kids and to tell the truth we are very happy that his sister has custody of them now.
In conclusion, he has been labeled a deviant and has lived up to it. But more terribly he was cheated out of being loved as a child.

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