Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction

Weighted towards the social constructionist approach, the 42 chapters in this reader present a variety of studies and perspectives on why individuals engage in norm-violating behavior, the social organization of deviance, and the phases of the deviant career. The fifth edition adds nine articles on priests and pedophilia, strippers and their customers, sexually transmitted diseases, and child molesters. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Patricia A. Adler (Ph.D., University of California, San Diego) is Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 1999, she was named Outstanding Teacher in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and in 2005 she received the Outstanding Researcher Award for the Boulder campus. In 2004, Adler was awarded the Mentor Excellence Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. She has written and taught in the areas of deviance, social psychology, sociology of gender, and the sociology of children. A second edition of her book, WHEELING AND DEALING (Columbia University Press), a study of upper-level drug traffickers, was published in 1993.

Peter Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver, where he served as chair from 1987 to 1993. His research interests include social psychology, qualitative methods, and the sociology of sport and leisure. Dr. Adler was honored with the University Lecturer Award (1997) and as the Outstanding Scholar/Teacher (2005) at the University of Denver, and in 2005 the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI) named him Feminist Mentor of the Year. Dr. Adler is past co-president of the Midwest Sociological Society, and he received his doctorate from the University of California, San Diego.