Paradigm to Clarify the Life Cycle of Changing Attitudes Toward Deviant Behavior (From Perspectives on Deviance: Dominance, Degradation and Denigration, P 1-14, 1991, Robert J Kelly and Donal E J MacNamara, eds. - See NCJ-126249)

• NCJ Number: 126250
• Author(s): C Winick
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study explores how attitudes toward a social problem or a specific kind of deviant behavior change are modified. By looking at representative situations in which a socially defined form of deviant behavior became less deviant, the report suggests that there is a predictable cycle that reflects the progression of events for a form of deviant behavior to become acceptable.

Abstract

A paradigm can be identified when public policy changes dramatically toward specific kinds of deviant behavior. Four forms of deviant behavior are explored: abortion, obscenity and pornography, homosexuality, and heroin addiction. The six steps of the paradigm are: (1) the existence of a constituency or reality situation that requires significant change; (2) identification of a large number of persons who are victims of the current policy, representing a benchmark in awareness of a situation's salience; (3) publication of a major research study; (4) popular attention to the implications of the research study; (5) public and professional acceptance of the new policy that emerges from the research; and (6) once the new policy is established, there is an effort to return to the old policy. 55 references.