SEXUAL DEVIANCE CASE STUDY

Introduction:

Sexual deviance is defined as a practice where seeks sexual pleasures with odd ways and norms which are unacceptable by society (Williams, 2011). For assessment of sexual deviance, a case of Alabama including a 31-year old female and a 14-year-old male is considered (Glosser, 2017). The suspect, Stephanie Bogert, of Gulf Shores, was arrested on November 22, 2017. Between May and August 2017, Bogert was involved in a sexual relationship with the victim (dczook, 2018). In this paper, an assessment of the key turning points in the life of Bogert, her current societal status along with the rationale of the society.

Key turning points:

Keeping in view the current situation faced by Stephanie Bogert, Bogert falls in the category of sexual deviant. Even though Stephanie Bogert was born in a middle-class family, however, the financial position of the family was decided to be well-established. Stephanie Bogert’s lifestyle such as no involvement of the family along with the societal norms made her develop an influence on the crime (Glosser, 2017). Bogert’s father was a well-known person in high regard and her mother was a school teacher with a middle class family. Sexual deviance often becomes a part of the people in case of poverty and instability. Even though it feels like Bogert’s life was privileged, however, in her case, financial instability and frustration led her to be involved in a physical relationship with a young boy who was forced to be a part of this exploitation (Jahnke & Malón, 2018). Keeping in view the circumstance and Bogert’s life, the defendant can be identified as sexually deviant as she used irrelevant and odds way of fulfilling her pleasure. Moreover, her actions were against the law define in particular in Alabama.

Societal status of the defendant:

The societal status of the defendant played an evident role in the identification of sexual deviance in the defendant (Markowitz & Griffin, 2019). As mentioned in the previous section, in common terms Stephanie Bogert might be termed as a privileged in many different contexts (Savin-Williams, 2017). While living a privileged life with less interference from the family, she might have felt immune to the idea of punishment in her young life. Research highlights that living a privileged life, for instance, having easy access to necessities or leading a life of luxuries, often leads the people to believe that everything they do is acceptable (Strömwall & Granhag, 2016). Keeping in view this perspective, identifying Stephanie Bogert as socially deviant is right as she didn’t consider the innocence of 14-year-old male and other aspects while being physically involved with the young boy. However, the details about the relationship consensual or non-consensual have not been released by the concerned people in the case. Despite this fact, Stephanie Bogert was charged with rape of second degree as well as sodomy of second degree (Savin-Williams, 2017). Both were the class B felonies which required her to pay a certain amount of fine as well (Markowitz & Griffin, 2019).

Significance of two characteristics of sexual deviance:

The two significant characteristics of sexual deviance that apply to Stephanie Bogert are sexual preoccupation as well as sexual expression. It is most likely possible that Stephanie Bogert is not in control of her actions and is unaware of the consequences she will face because of her odd actions. This concept relates well with the idea of sexual preoccupation as she is constantly involved with the perspective of sexual orientation and how she will do in her intercourse. Her thoughts about sexual orientation are depicted in being charged for sodomy second degree. From this rape of 14-year-old male, it was identified in the case that Stephanie Bogert had a low level of tolerance for stressful situations or anything which can potentially lead to a frustrating situation. Unlike normal people, Bogert’s sexual expression was violent and indifferent from others around her. It can be said that whether her sexual intercourse was because of her frustration or because of her stress at a certain point, her sexual expression can be termed as sexual deviance. However, research has highlighted that such cases can be well-handled with the help of medication and therapies completed well in time (Savin-Williams, 2017).

Two rationales for society’s changing attitudes:

The two rationales for society’s changing attitudes towards what is deemed acceptable sexual behavior includes premarital sex and same-sex activities (Markowitz & Griffin, 2019). Based on the culture and religion prevalent in a society, the rationales might different. Moreover, these rationales might be considered as a part of the sexual deviant characteristics of the past. The two possible outcomes of the changing attitudes towards sexual behavior are the prevalence of sexual deviance among individuals leading to passionate murderers. With the increase in the prevalence of sexual deviance, more people will be involved in crimes like killing people out of frustration or jealousy of their loved ones. In the United States, in the year 2017, such crimes were observed in abundance (Markowitz & Griffin, 2019). Based on this perspective, it can be said that the prevalence of sexual deviance will lead to affect the culture of the United States.

Conclusion:

To conclude, Stephanie Bogert was found guilty of rape and sodomy towards a young male. After the court proceedings it was found out that sexual deviance was a part of her rape crime as she was found to be stressful and frustrated towards the things going on in her life.

References

dczook, D. (2018). When Is Sex a Crime?. Medium. Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://medium.com/s/story/are-we-all-just-deviant-sex-perverts-14176e177ca3.

Glosser, A. (2017). Gulf Shores woman arrested for rape, sodomy. Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://www.fox10tv.com/news/gulf-shores-woman-arrested-for-rape-sodomy/article_e3f97d5e-bec1-5ac5-90d3-d00659a46fae.html.

Jahnke, S., & Malón, A. (2018). How pedophilic men think about adult-child sex: effects of child gender and physical maturity. Psychology, Crime & Law, 25(1), 90-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316x.2018.1503665

Markowitz, D., & Griffin, D. (2019). When context matters: how false, truthful, and genre-related communication styles are revealed in language. Psychology, Crime & Law, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316x.2019.1652751

Savin-Williams, R. (2017). An exploratory study of exclusively heterosexual, primarily heterosexual, and mostly heterosexual young men. Sexualities, 21(1-2), 16-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460716678559

Strömwall, L., & Granhag, P. (2016). How to Detect Deception? Arresting the Beliefs of Police Officers, Prosecutors, and Judges. Psychology, Crime & Law, 9(1), 19-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/10683160308138

Williams, A. (2011). Commitment to deviance: The nonprofessional criminal in the community. Journal Of Criminal Justice, 2(3), 280. https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2352(74)90059-2