Critical Thinking Assignment #2
Sociology 110: Introduction to Sociology
Professor Aaron Vincent
In this exercise, you will consider the layers of potentially deviant behavior involved in identifying website users intended to facilitate extramarital affairs.
AshleyMadison.com was a dating website, but unlike other dating sites, this one was for married people seeking extramarital affairs. In July 2015, a group of hackers calling themselves “The Impact Team” stole the Ashley Madison user data and released users’ personally identifying information, including email addresses. Outcomes of the data breach included public shaming of users, extortion attempts, potentially serious legal consequences (for instance, 1,200 users had email addresses from Saudi Arabia, where infidelity can result in capital punishment), and even several suicides of publicly humiliated users.
The AshleyMadison.com data breach entailed multiple forms of so-called deviance: the theft and public release of the information by “The Impact Team,” the marital infidelity (intended or actual) of the site’s users, and the suicides that resulted.
Consider and answer the following questions:
Which of these three forms of deviance listed above do you consider the most deviant, and why?
Do you reject the label of “deviant,” for any of these behaviors? Why or why not?
Considering both legal punishments and personal repercussions, who was likely punished most severely—the website operators, the website users, or the hackers? How would you match the severity of the punishment with the severity of the deviance? Explain.
