Does religion have the power to regulate human behavior? If so, under what conditions can it prevent crime, delinquency, suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, or joining cults? Despite the fact that ordinary citizens assume religion deters deviant behavior, there has been little systematic scientific research on these crucial questions. This book is the first comprehensive analysis, drawing on a wide range of historical and contemporary data, and written in a style that will appeal to readers from many intellectual backgrounds.
Social deviance does not involve just criminal behavior—it’s any behavior that violates a cultural norm, and that can involve something as minor as consistently and deliberately wearing lively mismatched socks. Moreover, whether a crime, a sin, or simply unique taste, what’s considered deviant at one time and place can change, as when extensive tattooing and "body art" evolved from a sideshow carnival spectacle to a nearly universal rite of passage within U.S. culture. Drawing contributions from across the social and behavioral sciences, including sociology, anthropology, criminology, politics, psychology, and religion, the Encyclopedia of Social Deviance introduces students to this lively field of rule-making and rebellion that strikes at the core of what it means to be an individual living in a social world. Key Features: More than 300 articles are organized A-to-Z in two volumes available in both electronic and print formats. Articles, authored by key figures in the field, conclude with cross-reference links and further readings. Although organized A-to-Z, a thematic “Reader’s Guide” groups related articles by broad areas (e.g., Concepts; Theories; Research Methodologies; Individual Deviance; Organizational Deviance; etc.) as one handy search feature on the e-Reference platform, which also includes a comprehensive index of search terms.
Are reports of the 'death of deviance' premature? This collection brings together leading international scholars to analyse uses of the 'deviance' concept to argue its vitality and show its possible utility in a variety of fields including religion, education and media narratives.
In Understanding Deviance, Crime, Social Control, and Mass Media: The Construction of Social Order Sebahattin Ziyanak examines parental responsibility for their children’s development. Contributors to the volume summarize the functionalist perspective of deviance, the function of crimes, and how these perspectives have influenced the development of Emile Durkheim’s work like anomie and then turn their attention to fear of crime in regard to social order. An in-depth examination of how the Tennessean newspaper The City Paper and its readers’ comments frame the coverage of the Kurdish Pride Gang. Contributions to the volume also provide insight into pluralism and politicized religion. Ziyanak assess and compares the theories of differential association, low self-control, and Black’s theory of social control for explaining deviance. Focus on fear and risk perceptions of terrorism are touched upon as well the account of communication media technology and how it influences culture, control, as well as deviance. Contributors also address how the development of technology has affected the nature of deviance and social control and what is the impact of media use among the young children. Lastly examined is how the sociological imagination of the individuals living in southeastern Turkey is constructed through the movie, The Bliss.
"Criminals. Witches. Rebels. Outsiders. Lunatics. Regardless of label, these groups stand outside the common sense of society and its relations of power. Whether by anguish, accident, or desire, they resist falling in line with that power. The story told within this comprehensive, thought-provoking text is a sociological one. Pfohl employs a social-historical perspective to describe and analyze the theory, methods, and control policies associated with nine major ways of conceiving deviant behavior. He analyzes each of the nine perspectives with three objectives: to describe the basic theoretical imagery, research strategies, and social control policies associated with the perspective; to locate the perspective within a general sociohistorical framework; and to develop a sense of critical evaluative thinking regarding the perspective's strengths and weaknesses. The theoretical perspectives examined span a wide variety of religious, legal, medical, psychological, social, economic, and political concerns. Throughout, attention is drawn to the ways that both images of deviance and strategies of social control are shaped by powerful social forces located at the historical intersections of gender, race, and class. In addition, references to literature, film, music, and painting are integrated to show parallels between images of deviance produced by scientists and those produced by artists." -- Publisher.
Originally published in 1974, Deviance and Social Control represents a collection of original papers first heard at the annual meeting of the British Sociological Association in 1971. They reveal how the American approach to deviance has been taken up by British sociologists, and revised and modified, and they explore possibilities of extending and strengthening the subject, for instance through comparative analysis or by examining issues which bear on deviant behaviour.
James J. Chriss carefully guides readers through the debates about social control. The book provides a comprehensive guide to historical debates and more recent controversies, examining in detail the criminal justice system, medicine, everyday life and national security.
"This sociology of deviance textbook draws on up-to-date scholarship across a spectrum of deviance categories, providing a symbolic interactionist analysis of the deviance process. The book addresses positivistic theories of deviant behavior within a more encompassing description of the deviance process that includes the work of deviance claims-makers, rule-breakers, and social control agents. Cross-cultural and historical treatment of deviance categories provides background for understanding current conceptions of, and responses to, deviance. The book is divided into four parts. Section One introduces students to the sociology of deviance. A sociological approach to deviance is contrasted with popular views of deviants as demonic, mentally ill, and culturally exotic. Sociological methods for studying deviance are described, with particular emphasis on deviance ethnography. Classic positivistic theories of deviant behavior are presented with critique and discussion of revised formulations of the theories. The symbolic interactionist/constructionist approach is presented as a recursive set of processes involving deviance claims-making by moral entrepreneurs, rule-breaking, actions of social control, and stigma management and resistance by those labelled as deviant. Section Two focuses on high consensus criminal deviance, with chapters on murder, rape, street-level property crime, and white collar crime. Chapters in Section Three addresses various forms of lifestyle deviance, including alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and sex work. Section Four examines three categories of status deviance: mental illness, obesity and eating disorders, and LGBTQ identities."--Provided by publisher.
