Student: Sale and Possession of Controlled Substances
This main story is about one student who got to college and started dealing with drugs as a freshman. He was privileged, amongst some few freshmen, to be a smoker of weed and similarly knew an individual who was sold or supplied him with the weed. Because of this link, this student begun buying weed from his supplier on behalf of his friends, and then expanded his network to include the friends of his friends that were already using his link. Given time, the student begun buying ounces once in a while, and then expanded his supply to include acid. By the time he reached the junior year, he became less interested in the convenience of availing weeds, both for himself and his friends. Consequently, when he cleared his last batch of weed, he started redirecting his clients to a different supplier. He was never caught.
The parallel story is about a girl who occasionally sold her ADHD drugs or medications to some popular girls in school after realizing that it made her more attentive while walking around school. She sold these drugs until she was caught, which led to her suspension from college and loss of scholarship after being charged with a criminal act. One year later, while in the school of nursing, she realized that she was not eligible to be licenced as a nurse. The student in the main story is non-deviant because deviance depends on the opinion or label that an individual is given by strong personalities in the society such as policemen. Since he was not caught peddling drugs, he cannot be labelled a drug addict. However, the girl in the parallel story is deviant because she was caught and police officers, judges, and professional bodies (possibly the ones that licence nurses) already have developed a negative opinion about her. That is why she is denied the license, and any time individuals talk about her or sees her, the image picture created is ‘a criminal lady’.
Using surveillance as a technique of ensuring social control involves monitoring peoples’ conversations, actions, movements, or associations. When surveillance is used as a tool for ensuring social control, it means that individuals who are thought to be wrong doers or just about to do something wrong would have all aspects of their lives monitored (from phone calls, letters, to electronic mails) through electronic monitors and closed-circuit television sets. Through this, they would be forced to conform their lifestyle and associations according to the societal norms, as such, a restricted lifestyle exists thus the name a ‘carceral culture’; their lifestyle resembles that of an imprisoned person. Since technology is advancing and handheld devices are becoming common, chances are becoming minimal each day that an individual can be free from surveillance, and as such, authorities such as police officers and criminal investigation departments would be labelling many people as criminals or potential criminals. The result is an increased number of deviant individuals.