ABSTRACT

Deviant Behavior offers an engaging and wide-ranging discussion of deviant behavior, beliefs, and conditions. It examines how the society defines, labels, and reacts to whatever, and whoever, falls under this stigmatizing process—thereby providing a distinctly sociological approach to the phenomenon. The central focus in defining what and who is deviant is the audience—members of the influential social collectivities that determine the outcome of this process. The discussion in this volume encompasses both the explanatory (or positivist) approach and the constructionist (or labeling) perspectives, thereby lending a broad and inclusive vista on deviance. The central chapters in the book explore specific instances or forms of deviance, including crime, substance abuse, and mental disorder, all of which share the quality that they and their actors, believers, or bearers may be judged by these influential parties in a negative or derogatory fashion. And throughout Deviant Behavior, the author emphasizes that, to the sociologist, the term "deviant" is completely non-pejorative; no implication of inferiority or inherent stigma is implied; what the author emphasizes is that specific members of the society—social circles or collectivities—define and treat certain parties in a derogatory fashion; the sociologist does not share in this stigmatizing process but observes and describes it.

chapter Chapter 1|27 pages

Introducing Deviance

chapter Chapter 2|28 pages

Explaining Deviant Behavior

chapter Chapter 3|26 pages

Constructing Deviance

chapter Chapter 4|29 pages

Poverty and Disrepute

chapter Chapter 5|29 pages

Crime and Criminalization

chapter Chapter 6|33 pages

Criminal Behavior

chapter Chapter 7|30 pages

White Collar, Corporate, and Global Malfeasance

chapter Chapter 8|30 pages

Substance Abuse

chapter Chapter 9|33 pages

Sexual Deviance

chapter Chapter 10|32 pages

Unconventional Beliefs

chapter Chapter 11|31 pages

Mental Disorder

chapter Chapter 12|27 pages

Deviant Physical Characteristics

chapter Chapter 13|31 pages

Tribal Stigma: Race, Religion, and Ethnicity