Bahamian Sociological Analysis

The subject of Sociology has impacted my understanding of the Bahamian society as I can now apply several sociological theories and definitions to the Bahamian society and understand who the Bahamian society is composed up, how it functions, why certain acts are or are not committed in the Bahamian society an how people come to be labelled in the Bahamian society. At the beginning of the course, if someone had asked me what is society or who are the members of the Bahamian society, my answer would have been ‘I don’t know.’ Now if someone were to ask me this, I would be able to answer that society is a population of people living in the same geographic area who share a culture and common identity and whose members fall under the same political

Family is one of the most needed social institutions in our society today as it is where we can learn what is expected of us in society and socialization begins. Family can have a major influence on an individual on the way he or she acts, behaves or grows up, religion can sometimes also have this effect on some individuals in the Bahamian society. In the Bahamian society, religion is one of the most important social institutions as the Bahamas is a Christian nation. In agreement with Newman as he states that, “religion gives individuals a belief system for understanding their existence as well as a network of personal support in times of need”
(p. 16, 2010), but also in the Bahamian society religion gives comfort, protection and sometimes allows to find ones identity. Education is a mandatory social institution as schools have the roles of educating and socializing new and upcoming members of society, this does happen in the Bahamian schools as well as early training for

This can be applied to the Bahamian society, as an example, crime happens daily in the Bahamas. There are three theories that may explain why people commit crime in the Bahamas, the theory of differential association, the strain theory and the deterrence theory. As the theory of differential association suggest people learn deviant behavior from family members, friends and peers. In the Bahamas when someone commits a crime, the family is sometimes blamed as the quote “it starts in the home” is used frequently, or sometimes friends are blamed, “bad company corrupts good character” is also frequently used to figure out what influenced someone to commit the crime. Whereas with the strain theory which ‘argues that the probability of committing deviant acts increases when people experience a strain or contradiction between these culturally defined success goals and access to legitimate means by achieving them , which is more likely to be the cause of crime’ (Newman M.D, p. 108, 2010). This theory is more likely to be used when understanding why a fair share of crime is committed in The Bahamas, as the majority of the Bahamas is below the poverty line. The deterrence theory can be used to explain both why people commit and do not commit crime. The deterrence theory says that ‘if the benefits of a deviant act outweigh the