Social Deviance
Journal Entry #9
An individual's ability to change is influenced by their willingness to change. For an
individual to be willing to change, they must realize that they have a problem and that what they are doing is impacting them negatively. Intervention is an example of the influence of intervening and providing support, especially to those who do realize they have a problem. According to the Daily Beast, Intervention has a roughly 70% success rate in treating the addiction. The issue is that addicts may know that they have a problem but do not have the resources or knowledge to deal with their problems. There are underlying issues that causes individuals to develop a drug addiction. In Policing and Society, we discussed how individuals who turn to drugs and deviance in general do so because of their lack of resources. They live in areas that developed because of the access to factory and other labor jobs. The issue is that the jobs moved to other areas such as overseas or in the suburbs. Because these jobs are no longer available to low income individuals, they turn to deviance and may become addicted to drugs. Addicts need to realize that they are addicted but they need to have access to jobs and other resources so that they may support themselves and avoid turning to deviance as a result of this lack of resources and jobs. It is an issue with multiple factors and the realization that they have a problem is a small portion of it.
According to the article, those who want to recover will only do so if they have the
motivation to do so. The article states that to understand recovery, one must understand the type of motivation and the degree of it as well as how to increase one's motivation. It references that there are six stages of changing: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. In pre-contemplation, addicts are aware of the costs of their addiction but do not take them seriously as they are not able to equal the benefits. They are not interested in changing and have no intention to do so. Those in contemplation are aware with the consequences of their addiction but are unsure if they will change or not. They may want to change but are unconfident and lack commitment. They may plan to change but it is an undetermined when that will occur. Preparation includes the individual realizing they have a problem and take responsibility for it. They build their confidence and commitment to change and have a plan. This plan to changes occurs within the next month. Action is when the individual activates their plan and may enter rehab or therapy. They may learn to change their behavior to avoid their negative behaviors and learn new behaviors. Those in the maintenance stage are able to perform their new behaviors unconsciously. They may participate in relapse prevention and sustaining their behavioral change. Those in the termination stage no