Deviance and Deviants

This comprehensive and engaging textbook provides a fresh and sociologically-grounded examination of how deviance is constructed and defined and what it means to be classed a deviant.

• Covers an array of deviances, including sexual, physical, mental, and criminal, as well as deviances often overlooked in the literature, such as elite deviance, cyber-deviance, and deviant occupations

• Examines the popular notions and pseudoscientific explanations upon which the most pervasive myths surrounding deviance and deviants are founded

• Features an analytical through-line assessing the complex and multifaceted relationship between deviance and the media

• Enhanced with extensive pedagogical features, including a glossary of key terms, lists of specific learning outcomes in each chapter, and critical thinking questions designed to assess those outcomes

• Comprehensive instructor ancillaries include PowerPoint slides, a test bank for each chapter, instructor outlines, and sample activities and projects; a student study guide also is available

Auteur

William E. Thompson is Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Texas A&M University-Commerce. He is the co-author of Society in Focus: An Introduction to Sociology (with J. Hickey and M. Thompson, 8th edition, 2017) a leading introductory sociology textbook, and Juvenile Delinquency: A Sociological Approach (with J. Bynum, 10th edition, 2017) one of the foremost textbooks on delinquency studies. Professor Thompson has published more than forty articles in professional journals, including several that have been reprinted in textbooks and anthologies. Jennifer C. Gibbs is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg. With articles published in several journals, including Crime, Law and Social Change, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, and Violence Against Women, Dr. Gibbs is a member of the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

Texte du rabat

Often misconstrued as a synonym for depravity, deviance reflects more profoundly on the socially-constructed norms it is defined in opposition to than on the individual behaviors it is used to describe. This groundbreaking new textbook provides an engaging, sociologically-informed examination of how deviance is defined and what it means to be classed a deviant. Featuring an analytical through-line assessing the role of media in crafting and perpetuating definitions of deviance, the book examines an array of sexual, mental, and criminal deviances, as well as addressing those that are often overlooked, such as elite deviance, cyberdeviance, and deviant occupations. The authors interrogate pseudoscientific explanations for deviant behavior debunking many of the myths associated with deviance.

With questions to measure specific learning outcomes, a rolling glossary of key terms, and insights from people who have themselves been labeled as deviant, Deviance and Deviants will inform and enlighten students interested in better understanding the nuances of society's relationship with deviance.

Contenu

Preface xiv

About the Companion Website xvi

1 Defining Social Deviance and Deviants 1

Student Learning Outcomes 1

What is Deviance? 2

The absolutist position 3

The statistical anomaly view 3

Box 1.1: In their own words: Being deviant: A lefthander in a righthanded world 4

The Sociological Perspective 7

The Social Construction of Deviance 7

Norms, social control, and a range of tolerance 8

Importance of culture, time, place, and situation 11

Importance of acts, actors, and audience 13

The Role of Media in Defining Deviance 15

Moral entrepreneurs, moral crusades, and moral panics 15

Confusing crime and deviance 16

Equating diversity with deviance 17

Negative and Positive Results of Deviance 17

Negative consequences of deviance 18

Positive aspects of deviance 19

Summary 20

Outcomes Assessment 20

Key Terms and Concepts 21

2 Deviance and Social Identity 22

Student Learning Outcomes 22

Becoming Deviant 23

Deviance as a Status 23

Deviance as a master status 24

Primary and secondary deviance 27

Box 2.1: In their own words: Primary deviance: Student cheating 28

Deviant career 29

Deviance as a Role 30

Roletaking, role embracement, role merger, and role engulfment 30

Role distance: The deviant deviant 32

Deviance, Deviants, and Stigma 32

Managing a Spoiled Identity 33

Deviance, Identity, and The Media 34

Summary 36

Outcomes Assessment 37

Key Terms and Concepts 37

3 Popular Notions and Pseudoscientific Explanations for Deviance 38

Student Learning Outcomes 38

Demonology: The Devil Made Me Do It 39

Box 3.1: In their own words: Interview with a twentyyearold wiccan 41

Morality, Immorality, and Deviance 42

Positivism, Pseudoscience, and the Medical Model of Deviance 44

Early biological and physiological theories of deviance 44

The medical model of deviance 48

The medicalization of deviance 49

Blame it on the Media 50

Print media and deviance 50

Television, movies, video games and deviance 52

Media violence, aggression, and deviant behavior 53

The internet and the power of social media 54

Fallacies of Popular Notions and Pseudoscientific Explanations 55

Summary 56

Outcomes Assessment 56

Key Terms and Concepts 57

4 Sociological Explanations for Deviance 58

Student Learning Outcomes 58

A Functionalist Perspective on Deviance 59

Strain theories 60

Deviant subcultures 63

Strengths and weaknesses of the functionalist perspective 65

The Conflict Perspective and Deviant Behavior 66

The Marxian heritage 66

The social reality of crime and delinquency 67

Social threat theory 68

Strengths and weaknesses of the conflict perspective 68

Interactionist Theories and the Constructionist View of Deviance 69

Labeling theories 71

Social learning theories 73

Control theories 75

Strengths and weaknesses of interactionist theories 76

A Feminist Perspective on Deviance 77

The Pervasive Influence of the Media 78

Box 4.1: In their own words: By Noah Nelson 79

Summary 80

Outcomes Assessment 81

Key Terms and Concepts 81

5 Deviant Occupations 82

Student Learning Outcomes 82

The Sociology of Work 83

Occupation as Master Status 84

Illegal Occupations 86

Immoral Occupations: Working in the Adult Entertainment Industry 87

Working in adult films 88

Stripping/nude dancing 90 Box 5.1: In their own words: ...