NCJ Number
153951
Date Published
1993
Length
288 pages
Annotation
This text offers an indepth examination of deviance from the social constructionist perspective; causes of deviance are analyzed, and the process by which actions acquire a public moral identity and by which individuals adjust their personal and social relationships accordingly is examined.
Abstract
The social constructionist perspective of deviance regards deviance and its counterpart, respectability, as a human creation generated by people interacting with each other in the context of societal constructions of others. Deviance is seen as the emergent outcome of antagonisms, contradictions, and conflicts in societies whose members identify differences between people, signify these as meaningful, and evaluate them negatively. The authors believe that the process of constructing meaning deserves serious attention and that people actively construct their own meaningful worlds. An implication of the social constructionist approach is that judgments should not be made about the morality of behavior. Examining deviance as a human creation also requires studying the phenomenon in political terms as a fundamental part of the business of making and enforcing public rules. The discussion of deviance centers around the social construction of official statistics, deviance causes, rulebreaking, the social creation of morality, and consequences of stigma and labeling in the context of deviance. References and notes