Deviance: Career of a Concept

One of America's foremost experts on deviance, Joel Best, explores the history of the study of deviance in this short, highly accessible supplementary text. Joel Best covers the emergence of anomie theory in the 1950s, the rise of labeling theory in the 1960s, and the shifts in the field as it came under criticism from other theoretical perspectives.

One of America's foremost experts on deviance, Joel Best, explores the history of the study of deviance in this short, highly accessible supplementary text. Joel Best covers the emergence of anomie theory in the 1950s, the rise of labeling theory in the 1960s, and the shifts in the field as it came under criticism from other theoretical perspectives.

Joel Best is Professor and Chair of the University of Delaware's Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on deviance and social problems. His books include: Threatened Children (1990), Controlling Vice (1998), Random Violence (1999), and Damned Lies and Statistics (2001).