Deviance and Social Control: A Reader

Conveniently divided into five comprehensive parts, Deviance and Social Control provides readers with a selection of articles that examine core issues in the field of deviant behavior and social control. Major areas covered in the book include how individuals “become deviant,” changes in their identities as they become increasingly involved in deviance; how deviants explain or justify their behavior; the role of the mass media in framing popular impressions of deviants; social and political conflicts over deviance and over appropriate methods of suppressing or managing deviant populations; why norms and sanctions change over time, in either a more rigid or more tolerant direction; the role of others (family, friends, strangers, police, psychiatrists, etc.) in identifying individuals who are engaged in unacceptable behavior, attaching labels to them, and discriminating against them in some fashion; and ways in which deviant actors attempt to “fight back” to reject stigmatization, enhance their self-esteem, and struggle for their rights. Types of deviance examined in the book include drug use and drug dealing, corporate crime, pornography, governmental deviance, rape and other violence against women, prostitution, homosexuality, cyberdeviance, AIDS, cheating among college students, transgenders, and many others.