Relativity of Deviant Behavior (On the Example of the Attitude to Social Norms of Students in Kazan)

Abstract

The basis for regulating behavior in society is social norms that fix the existing system of values of society. The changes that are currently taking place in all spheres of modern Russian society are undermining the established foundations of life and disturbing the balance of the entire system as a whole. The greatest influence, and above all negative, they have on the development of culture and spiritual life. The ongoing reassessment of values leads to a decline in the significance of certain norms. The value-normative uncertainty characteristic of modern Russian society actualizes the problem of studying deviance in its environment. Modern Russian youth is focused on rapid achievement of high material well-being, but socially approved means of achieving success are very limited. The spread and popularization of new destructive behaviors in the youth environment at the current level of development of technical means of communication is much faster than the scientific and pedagogical community responds to these risks. The reasons for the increase in negative deviation in Russia are also, first, the changed system of values, in the structure of which the rapid achievement of material well-being, understood as enrichment, is rapidly beginning to dominate; second, the blurring of social norms leads to the destruction of even elementary moral prohibitions, which allows a significant part of individuals to enter into various kinds of connections with criminal structures. Based on the analysis of the works of classics of sociology and the results of empirical research, the article describes deviant behavior in terms of changing social forms in the minds of young people. Respondents were selected for focus groups using the snowball method. 20 students living in a dormitory of Kazan Federal University were selected, including students living on the territory of the Universiade Village and students living on the campus of KFU.