One of America's foremost experts on deviance, Joel Best, explores the history of the study of deviance in this
short, highly accessible supplementary text. Joel Best covers the emergence of anomie theory in the 1950s, the
rise of labeling theory in the 1960s, and the shifts in the field as it came under criticism from other theoretical
perspectives.
Benefits:
The author is one of the leading researchers in the area of deviance and a founding figure in the social constructionist
perspective.
Five short chapters trace the history of the study of deviance within the United States by social scientists.
The text begins examining the earliest work social scientists did on the study of deviant behavior, one of the
core concepts of sociology.
The text shows that the scientific study of a topic such as deviance owes as much sometimes to the theoretical
views of the social scientists as it does the facts discovered.
Labeling theory is discussed at length from a historical point of view starting in the 1960's when it replaced
original approaches to understanding deviance and became one of the central sociological perspectives during the
later decades of the twentieth century.
The book also discusses how labeling theory came under attack by conflict theories and feminist theory, among
others.
The text examines how social constructionism, control theory, and other contemporary perspectives arose out
of the critiques of labeling theory.
The text ends by examining how the study of criminology has returned to the center stage in the study of deviance.
Table of Contents
1. Discovering Deviance.
2. The Rise of Labeling.
3. Labeling Under Attack.
4. Labeling's Legacy.
5. The Revival of Criminology and the Neglect of Deviance.
