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
Table of Contents:
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 left‐hander in a right‐handed 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
Role‐taking, 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 twenty‐year‐old 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: Topless dancers: Managing stigma in a deviant occupation 92
Black‐Collar Occupations: Stigmatized Occupations and “Dirty” Work 93
Stigma of handling the dead 94
Box 5.2: In their own words: Morticians and funeral directors: Handling the stigma of handling the dead 95
Deviant Occupations and the Media 96
Summary 99
Outcomes Assessment 100
Key Terms and Concepts 100
6 Sexual Deviance and Deviant Lifestyles 101
Student Learning Outcomes 101
Sex, Gender, and Human Sexuality 102
Sexual Norms and Sexual Deviance 103
Adultery/Swinging/Mate Swapping/Co‐Marital Sex 104
Box 6.1: In their own words: Swinging and “the lifestyle” 106
Naturism/nudism 107
Sex norms and homosexuality 108
Homosexuality and the law 109
Homophobia 111
Transvestism, transgenderism, and transsexuality 112
Prostitution 114
Phone sex and cybersex 116
Sexual Deviance and the Media 117
Summary 120
Outcomes Assessment 121
Key Terms and Concepts 121
7 Alcoholism and Other Drug Abuse 122
Student Learning Outcomes 122
A Brief History of Alcohol in the United States 123
Alcohol Use among Social Groups in the United States 125
Becoming an Alcoholic 128
Stages of alcoholism 129
Alcoholic as a master status 131
Box 7.1: In their own words: Driving under the influence 131
Alcohol and the media 132
A Brief History of Drugs in the United States 133
Race/ethnicity and drug legislation 134
Drug‐crime connection 136
Moral panics and moral entrepreneurs 137
Women, drugs, and moral panics 139
Legal and illegal drugs 139
Substance use on campus 140
Box 7.2: In their own words: Underage drinking 141
Recreational Drug Use 142
Becoming an Addict 143
Box 7.3: In their own words: Marijuana User 145
Drugs and the Media 147
Summary 148
Outcomes Assessment 148
Key Terms and Concepts 148
8 Physical and Mental Deviance 149
Student Learning Outcomes 149
Media and the “Ideal” Body 150
Abominations of the Body 151
Physical disabilities 152
Obesity and eating disorders 157
Box 8.1: In their own words: Bulimia 159
Mental Disorders 161
Mental illness and the medical model 162
Mysteries of the mind 163
Box 8.2: In their own words: Diagnosed with bipolar disorder 164
Mental illness in the military 165
Box 8.3: In their own words: Alzheimer’s and multiple mental illnesses 166
Mental Disorders and the Media 167
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest 167
Summary 168
Outcomes Assessment 168
Key Terms and Concepts 169
9 Suicide and Self‐Harm 170
Student Learning Outcomes 170
Defining Suicide 171
Durkheim’s Classic Study 172
Egoistic suicide 173
Altruistic suicide 174
Anomic suicide 175
Fatalistic suicide 177
Criticisms of Durkheim’s work 177
Modern Theories of Suicide 178
Suicide in the United States 178
Sex and race differences in suicide 179
Age and suicide 180
Box 9.1: In their own words: Effects of suicide on family members 182
Physician‐Assisted Suicide 183
Suicide‐by‐Cop 185
Box 9.2: In their own words: Attempted suicide‐by‐cop 186
Suicide Terrorism 187
Self‐Harm 188
Box 9.3: Resources 190
Suicide and the Media 191
Summary 191
Outcomes Assessment 192
Key Terms and Concepts 192
10 Beyond the Range of Tolerance: Extreme Deviance 193
Student Learning Outcomes 193
Body Modification and Mutilation 194
Extreme tattooing 195
Surgery, implants, and amputation 197
Suspension 198
Box 10.1: In their own words: “Hooked” on suspension 198
Edgework, Risk‐Taking Behavior, and Extreme Sports 200
Extreme sports 201
Box 10.2: In their own words: “I’m not happy unless I’m in fear for my life” 204
Extreme Lifestyles 206
Minimalism 206
Survivalism and doomsday preppers 208
Extreme Deviance and the Media 209
Summary 210
Outcomes Assessment 211
Key Terms and Concepts 211
11 Violence, Street Crime, and Delinquency 212
Student Learning Outcomes 212
Measuring Crime in the United States 213
Violence 214
Murder 214
Robbery 217
Assault 219
School violence 220
Child abuse 222
Property Crimes 224
Burglary 225
Larceny‐theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson 226
Box 11.1: In their own words: Auto theft 226
Terrorism 227
Violence Against Women 229
Rape and sexual assault 229
Sexual assault on campus 230
Rape myths 230
Intimate partner violence 232
Box 11.2: In their own words: Intimate partner violence 233
Crime and the Media: The CSI Effect 234
Box 11.3: Resources for survivors of violence 234
Summary 235
Outcomes Assessment 236
Key Terms and Concepts 236
12 Corporate Crime and Elite Deviance 237
Student Learning Outcomes 237
White‐Collar Crime 238
Defining white‐collar crime 239
Measuring white‐collar crimes 242
Box 12.1: In their own words: Compilation of interviews with Bernie Sanders 244
Corporate Crime 245
Political Corruption 247
Police Misconduct 251
Elite Deviance and the Media 252
Summary 252
Outcomes Assessment 252
Key Terms and Concepts 253
13 Cyberdeviance 254
Student Learning Outcomes 254
Hacking and Online Piracy 256
System trespassing 257
Cyberpiracy 258
Cyberwarfare 259
Cyberbullying 259
Box 13.1: In their own words: Confessions of a cyberbully 262
Cyberstalking 263
Cyberdeviance and the Media 264
Summary 264
Outcomes Assessment 265
Key Terms and Concepts 265
14 Deviance, Deviants, and Social Control 266
Student Learning Outcomes 266
Informal Social Control 268
Gossip, ridicule, and shame 269
Ostracism 270
Formal Social Control 271
Neighborhood watch and vigilantism 272
Law enforcement 274
Courts and corrections 275
Social Control and Stigma 277
Media and Public Opinion 278
Judge Judy 279
Summary 281
Outcomes Assessment 281
Key Terms and Concepts 281
References 282
Glossary 302
Index 313
