Thinking About Deviance

by Paul Higgins

This second edition of Thinking about Deviance explores how people participate in and produce the phenomenon of deviance. Through nineteen brief and provocative chapters, the book examines how everyone is involved in the many facets of deviance. While a small portion of deviance may seem to be exotic, done by people on the fringe of society, deviance is an integral part of society and of conventional people's lives. By using everyday instances of deviance familiar to college students (such as shoplifting, academic cheating, and underage drinking) and examples from the media, the book engages readers and enables them to develop more general thinking about deviance. Through an interactive style in which the readers are asked questions and presented with hypothetical and actual situations, the book creates a "conversation" with the readers. It encourages readers to think about and question deviance, including their participation in and their assumptions about it, in ways they are unlikely to have done before.

About the Author:
Paul Higgins is professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina and author of more than a dozen books about deviance, disability, and sociology

About the Author:
Mitch Mackinem is assistant professor of sociology at Claflin University and author of Drug Court: Constructing the Moral Identity of Drug Offenders with Paul Higgins

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998