In your view, which theory of deviance provides the best explanation of Jason’s deviance and juvenile delinquency in HK?

Where functionalists studied deviant behaviour in society as a whole, Marxists looked at deviant behaviour from a social structure within the society that was based on the ideas of a minority of people, i.e. those with power. They believe that the powerful ones adjust rules and regulations into a way that benefits them to maintain their status within the society. Marx saw social control as a way to solidify the advantages of those with authority because it is the powerful ones that provide the social control.

During the 60's some sociologists began to look at deviance from a different angle. Interactionists argue that it was the interactions between people which created someone being labeled as deviant. Interactionists especially Howard Becker suggests that nothing in itself is actually right or wrong. Acts only become deviant only when society decided to label it to be. He stressed the importance of labeling as he argues that once a label has been attached to a person, it will influence the interactions this person has with the rest of the society. Edwin Lemert developed Becker's theories with his own contributions. As an interactionist, he split deviance into two parts: primary deviance is when no labels are attached to the person yet because no one knows about the deviant act committed. There is also secondary deviance where the deviant act is publicly identified. Societies often disapprove and consequently attach labels to these people that will be attached to them for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, criticisms have been identified by some sociologists because they point out that interactionists paves too much attention to the subculture effect and socialization but they do not take power and wealth into consideration. Some criminals may commit crime because they have no money. In addition, they say that stereotypes and labels are significant, however, not everyone fulfills their label, because many would choose to disregard the labels attached to them.

As functionalism consider deviant values and attitudes as having an important role in deviant behaviour, social control theory consider the exact opposite. This theory insinuates that it is not deviant values and attitudes that predispose people to deviant behaviour. It is the inability to resist situational temptations that leads to deviant behaviour. It mainly discuss the ideas of internal and external social control, where internal control is self control built up through socialization and external control is the control exercised by law enforcement agencies along with all those social institutions which help to contain the individual within the confines of conformity.

Travis Hirchi introduced a similar control theory, as he believes that people who have a strong bond with society are less likely to become criminal or delinquent. He identified three important factors which would create a strong bond with the society. These include: Attachment, involvement and beliefs in the society.

Cohen as a functionalist not only studied deviant behaviour in general but he looked at juvenile delinquency in detail by introducing the sub-cultural theory. Cohen examined juvenile delinquency by showing how such subculture develops and how it leads to deviant behaviour. He realized that it only began in the 1950's when young people start to be involved in petty crimes such as joy riding, shop lifting and vandalism. He believed that these crimes have no monetary rewards; therefore they must be doing it for other reasons. He noticed that there is a pattern in the youths who tend to be delinquent. They were frequently from poor background, failures from education system and dysfunctional families. Therefore, he imply that these youths often seek to improve their self-image by rejecting the society's standards and find their own standard of success. Cohen's sub-cultural theory is an extension to Merton's theory. As Merton says that strain caused by the lack of approved opportunities to achieve success, leads to deviant behaviour. Cohen adds that the strain forces people into developing a deviant subculture. However, there have been doubts and criticisms on Cohen's work because his theory offers no explanation as to why many middle class teenagers behave in exactly the same way.

Alfred Cohen's theory can be applied to Stockard's description of Jason and Justin's case along with Leung's explanation about the juvenile delinquency in HK. Jason, the one who became delinquent in the end, had a life filled with troubles. With a culturally deprived family receiving little attention from his parents, he was socialised into the subculture of juvenile delinquency. This is because he could not gain status from the mainstream culture; therefore he had to support himself through petty crimes. When Leung evaluate the juvenile delinquency in HK, we can use Cohen's theory to support it because Leung mentioned that those with inadequate supervision from the family are more likely to become delinquent, with very little parental congeniality. This is due to parents who care for their children would guide them with rules of proper conduct.

Other theories can also be applied to the case of Justin and the juvenile delinquency in HK. Functionalists, for example, support Cohen's theory by proposing that socialization is an important determinant to people committing deviant behaviour, along with the social control theory by Hirchi, functionalists agree that certain degree of social control is required in order to keep the crime rates at a certain level, as we can see that after years of committing crimes Justin finally got arrested. Whereas interactionists' idea of labeling can support the cases only to an extent as it suggests that some youths in HK only committed the crime because they were identified as a criminal or deviant in the first place by the rest of the society, it may be because they did not achieve well at school. According to interactionists, this will simply lead them to think they are deviant and move away from the mainstream culture. However, it may be a bit difficult to use the physiological and psychological theories to explain Justin's case or juvenile delinquency in HK because there is no evidence to prove that these theories are correct.