Year: 1977
Type: article
Abstract: D~viants and Deviance represents an ambitious attempt to provide a truly general introduction to the sociology of deviant behavior while avoiding the superficiality so common to such projects.The author, much to his credit, has managed to produce a single volume which gives consideration to most of the theoretical, methodological, and practical issues of the field.Sagarin's book is divided into six rather long chapters which deal respectively with conceptual matters, etiological and epidemiological theories, the medical model of deviant behavior, selected methodological problems, social control and its relationship to deviant "survival patterns", and broad policy implications of deviance research.Its approach is essentially interactionist, but the author does not limit himself to the issues raised by this school of thought.Biological, psychological (especially psychoanalytic), and macro-sociological perspectives are presented and evaluated in a relatively unbiased manner, and this lends a great deal to the book's value as a teaching aid.From . the standpoint of most undergraduate students, the author's willingness to give consideration to both "theoretical" and "practical" matters (if the two can be separated at all) must be counted among the strong points of the book.Representative of the .author'streatment •of practical matters are discussions of victimless crimes and decriminalization, the applicability of various causal theories to social control, and the ethical problems associated with mental hospitalization.Consequently, the book manages to confront issues which are of interest to many undergraduate students without straying too far from its more basic intellectual objectives.Unfortunately, Deviants and Deviance is plagued by certain problems which may outweigh the advantages noted above.Certain chapters, "Survival Patterns and Social Control" and "Prospects and Policies" in particular, are not organized as clearly
Source: Social Thought and Research
Author: Herbert H. Haines
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4234366390