For one semester/quarter courses in Deviance, Social Deviance, and Deviant Behavior.
This widely-adopted text seeks to understand deviance from the key sociological perspectives and theories. Real-world
examples of deviance are provided throughout to encourage critical thinking about deviant behavior and its impact.
Features
How do you approach deviance in your course?
Deviant Behavior provides a comprehensive study of the behavior, beliefs, conditions, and reactions to deviance,
giving students a detailed study of deviance, allowing for better understanding of this phenomenon.
The three forms of deviance� described as unconventional or undesirable behavior, beliefs, and traits, are
emphasized for students. The text explores the fact that deviance is best described by examining all of its forms,
rather than by just focusing on behavior.
Deviance is discussed from the sociological perspectives of positivism and constructionism. Positivism explains
the reasons behind deviant behavior; and constructionism attempts to delineate why certain actions, beliefs, and
physical characteristics are condemned. This illustrates for students the two basic orientations adopted by sociologists,
researchers, and theorists toward deviance.
How do you engage students in the material?
Personal accounts at the end of each chapter give students interesting material about real-life experiences
of deviance, allowing them a greater understanding of the deviant individuals in our society.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: introduction
Chapter 2: Approaches to Deviance
Chapter 3: Explaining Deviant Behavior: Positivist Theories
Chapter 4: Constructionist Theories of Deviance
Chapter 5: Studying Deviance: Methods in Social Research
Chapter 6: Criminal Violence
Chapter 7: Legal Drugs: The Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
Chapter 8: Illicit Drug Use
Chapter 9: Sexual Deviance
Chapter 10: Cognitive Deviance: Holding Unconventional Beliefs
Chapter 11: Mental Disorder
Chapter 12: Physical Characteristics as Deviance
Chapter 13: Deviant Organizational Behavior
