Full Description
This engaging and informative book, by award-winning sociologist and criminologist John Curra, offers a valuable perspective on attitudes and behaviors labeled as deviant. The Relativity of Deviance, Fourth Edition, explores the meanings and constructions of social deviance and social reactions to it, he answers such questions as:What is deviance? What comprises deviant behavior? How are deviants treated? How is deviance socially constructed and socially sustained?Why is the same attitude, behavior, or condition praised in one situation and condemned in another? Through insightful and thought-provoking examples and informed accounts, the author illustrates that deviance cannot be explained or understood in terms of absolutes or essential characteristics nor can it be explained or understood apart from its social setting. This book approaches sex, violence, theft, drugs, suicide, rape, and mental disorders in a way that shows the critical role of sociocultural factors and social reactions in constructions of deviance and crime.
Contents
PrefaceChapter 1: The Dynamic Nature of DevianceKids, Crocodiles, and Social ControlRelationships and Rule BreakingSociological RelativityThe Social Construction of RealityTheoretical Views: The Old and the Not-So-OldRelativity and Social DevianceWhose Side Are We On?ConclusionsReferencesChapter 2: Being DeviantThe Original Blue Man (and Woman) GroupBeing and DoingDeviance and ResponsibilityThe Social Construction of Spoiled IdentitiesManaging StigmaConclusionsReferencesChapter 3: Power, Social Networks, and Organizational DeviancePower Corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts AbsolutelyThe Carrier's Case: Other People's Belongings and the Crime of TheftWhite-Collar Crime and Elite DevianceThe Relativity of TerrorismPrivilege, Power, and PenaltiesConclusionsReferencesChapter 4: Mental DisordersMedicalization on 34th StreetThe Medicalization ProcessManufacturing MadnessThe Myth of Mental IllnessMental Health Buccaneers and Social ControlSense and Nonsense in the Psychiatric EnterpriseMeltdown in the DSMConclusionsReferencesChapter 5: Predatory ViolenceThe Social Construction of Murder and ViolenceArbitrary MeaningsPatterned ViolenceVocabularies of Motive and Interpersonal AccountsThe Curious Case of Jack the RipperVariable ViolenceConclusionsReferencesChapter 6: Sexual ViolenceDefining RapeThe Symbolic Organization of Sexual ViolenceRape and Social ConflictRape ScenesNormalizing Sexual ViolenceThe Rape of MalesConclusionsReferencesChapter 7: SuicideSocial Frames and Definitions of the SituationThe Meanings of SuicideThe Curious Case of Autoerotic AsphyxiationSociocultural Variations in Suicide: Motive, Intent, and InterpretationSuicide, Stigma, and ResponsibilityConclusionsReferencesChapter 8: Sexual DiversitySex, Gender, and SexualitySexuality: A Sociocultural UnderstandingThe Curious Case of the BerdacheSexual Differentiation and Sexual AsymmetryThe Myth of the Universal Turn-OnSexual Politics and the Transformation of IntimacyDeviantizing Sexual MattersConclusionsReferencesChapter 9: Drugs and Drug TakingThe Social Reality of Drug UseGetting Stoned in the Animal KingdomAddiction: Imprecise Definitions and Arbitrary MeaningsThe Social Dynamics of Human Drug-Taking ExperiencesMoral Entrepreneurs and Drug CrusadesConclusionsReferencesIndexAbout the Author
