San Antonio College Library

This multi-section program sheds light on crime and deviance from a number of sociological angles to illuminate aspects of their expression, function, and control within society. Topics include the origins and implications of moral panics and how such panics manifest today; the functions of crime and deviance within the social order, with reference to the views of Emile Durkheim, considered by many to be the father of sociology; research into the...

"Provides an in-depth examination of how modern hoarders came into being, from their onset in the first half of the twentieth century to the present day."--Back cover.

This ethnographic study of the Zapotec Indians of a small community in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, reveals that the notion of the social basis of deviance is implicit in Zapotec thinking. Zapotecs recognize that crime and deviance arise out of society, and their methods of reducing criminal behavior are based on social networks and their dynamics. The author's consideration of witchcraft and deviant sexual behavior among the Zapotecs demonstrates...

" ... Explores early modern culture's reception of Ovid through the manipulation of Ovidian myth by creative writers such as Shakespeare, Middleton, Heywood, Marlowe, Lyly and Marston. Sarah Carter analyses the strong cultural presence of particular myths and mythic characters involving potentially ideologically deviant sexual behaviour, including sexual violence, homosexuality, hermaphroditism and incest, in the myths of Philomela, Lucrece, Ganymede,...

Is drug addiction a disease that can be treated, or is it a crime that should be punished? In her probing study, Illness or Deviance?, Jennifer Murphy investigates the various perspectives on addiction, and how society has myriad ways of handling it--incarcerating some drug users while putting others in treatment. Illness or Deviance? highlights the confusion and contradictions about labeling addiction. Murphy's fieldwork in a drug court and an outpatient...

"Why do people commit crimes? How do we control crime? The theories that criminologists use to answer these questions are built on a number of underlying assumptions, including those about the nature of crime, free will, human nature, and society. These assumptions have a fundamental impact on criminology: they largely determine what criminologists study, the causes they examine, the control strategies they recommend, and how they test their theories...

The author discusses his background as a former gang member and juvenile delinquent in Oakland, California, during the 1980s and 1990s, details his efforts to study the lives of young men from his neighborhood after earning a PhD in sociology at Berkeley, and emphasizes the importance of understanding in order to develop solutions for young men who live in a culture of punishment.