By Isaac Eranga, FIFS, PAMHSE
Norms are the building blocks of societal life and law thrives on norms. Lack of consciousness of norms brings about social disorder, disharmony, criminality and oppression. In other words, for the society to be in order and harmony, we must learn to appreciate our norms. This is more so because our norms dictates the acceptability of our behaviour in the society. For the society to accept us, our behaviour must conform to the norms governing us as a people.
Norms are social standards that dictates the rightness and wrongness of our actions and behaviours. These social standards can be learnt from the following institutions: family, religions, government or state, education, etc.
Norms is a normative science like ethics that tells you how an individual ought to behave in order for him/her to be accepted by the society. Non-acceptance can categorise one into human categories with negative connotations. Such categories could be: deviance, criminals, corrupt, rapist, robbers, murderers, kidnappers, dishonest, etc. It’s as a result of these negative connotations that law came into existence. This help to buttress the fact that “where there is no sin, there will be no law”.
What are the norms governing your community?
