Whistleblowing and Deviance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Whistleblowing and Deviance - Essay Example However, deviance and its definition differ with cultures. For example, somebody going against culturally defined gender roles may be deviant in some cultures, but not in the United States. Types of Deviance The rule-breaking behavior can be understood in three forms: Good behavior. This is the type of deviance that may break the social norms but intends something good to happen. For example, Dr. David Kelly had talked to a few BBC journalists, off-the-record, about the issues between the Blair government and Saddam Hussain’s weapons of mass destruction, but his words were portrayed in a very wrong way, which resulted in such a critical situation that finally dragged him to commit suicide. He killed himself as a result of whistleblowing (Henderson, 2003) Odd behavior. Many behaviors are considered as not normal while they are also not criminal. Such odd behavior includes behaving awkwardly in public places, wearing outlandish dresses, piercing one’s eyes and lips, etcet era. Bad behavior. This is the criminal behavior that is apt to break the societal and country’s laws, and the behavior is totally unacceptable for the society. ... n 1939 by Edwin Sutherland, a renowned criminologist and sociologist, during a speech when he was addressing the American Sociological Society (Schlegel & Weisburd, 1994, p.3). The organization itself is the actor in deviant behavior, where the white collar crime is committed by businessmen of the organization. In organizational deviance, the organization is responsible for the crime, and has to face penalties for it. According to Karri & Associates (2006), organizational deviance include crimes like bankruptcy fraud, computer crime, identity theft, pension fund crime, occupational crime, securities fraud, and medical fraud. However, organizational deviance is more inclined toward unethical behavior shown by its employees. When this deviance becomes a characteristic of the entire organization rather than of a single individual, it becomes a crime. In other words, when the deviant behavior is overlooked by employees, and is even supported by higher authorities, it becomes organization al deviance, or in other words, white collar crime. Case Study How Deviance Occurred? Individual deviance was being carried on by the employee, Bradley Birkenfeld; and, since it was supported by the whole organization, it became organizational deviance. Deviance occurred because the whole of the organization was working with an intention to help wealthy Americans evade taxes. Bradley Birkenfeld also found out that the organization was not in compliance with U.S. tax laws. When the organization’s authorities came to know about it, they fired him and did not issues him the financial statement for his dismissal, due to which he whistleblew to the IRS and SEC about UBS’s activities. This is how deviance occurred. Since Bradley Birkenfeld did not show his own complicity in the entire case,