When deciding upon the issue of whether once is inherently good or not, one needs to decide first what deviance is, as you cannot decide on such a subject if you cannot define or bad actually is. Deviance is a much wider concept than crime, which refers to offences against the law, whereas deviance refers to the breaking of norms whether or not they are legally specified. Therefore, criminals cannot be the only ones considered as deviants within a society. Deviance is relative to the individual, it varies between societies and within societies. What is accepted within one society is not necessarily accepted in the next. What is considered deviant may also change over time; certain acts such as homosexuality may become more normalised and less deviant.

Deviant behavior is very difficult to define, as it is very widespread and different nations see different acts or behaviour as deviant or not. What we may consider obsence and unlawful here in Ireland won’t necessarily be seen in the same light within another country. Just as each individual possesses their own beliefs on the rightousness or wrongfullness of a particular thing, each society and or nation has similar views. It is impossible to say wheter someone is inherently good or bad or wheter they are a product of their upbringing. Many blame one’s socialisation or lack thereof for their individual behaviour, but others see this as a scape-goating technique. No one can truly say whether someone is inherently bad or vice versus, but that it is possibly a combination of two facts. One is socialisation, and the other may be inherent, who’s to know? There are so many social norms in any given society that one cannot always be sure as to the rightness of their actions. Not everyone who commits a deviant act is considered to be a deviant, and much of the deviant behavior is hidden. Additionally, deviant behavior is often considered involuntary, as persons who suffer from mental illnesses, alcoholism and addictions are often categorised as deviants, as certain aspects of their behavior do not conform to social norms.

Statistics show that every individual at some stage in their lives will violate social norms to some degree. Such as breaking the speed limit, petty theft, using illegal drugs, cheating on their taxes, adultery; yet they don’t consider themselves to be deviants. This is often due to the fact that they keep it secret, or believe that others would forgive them. Subsequently, believing that if others don’t consider them to be deviants they themselves have no reason to believe it either. Therefore, this leads to the conclusion that who is, or is not a deviant, varies greatly. Everyone has the capacity to be a deviant, not simply criminals. Therefore, how can one say if someone is inherently good or bad, as how can one decide upon what is good or bad!