Deviant Behavior

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

This widely-adopted text seeks to understand deviance from the key sociological perspectives and theories. Real-world examples of deviance are provided throughout to encourage critical thinking about deviant behavior and its impact.

John S. Lyons

Appearing nearly 20 years after the first edition, this fifth edition is a survey text on the topic of deviant behavior. Within this broadly defined area, the author includes crime, drug and alcohol use, heterosexual and homosexual behavior, violence, and mental illness. "This book is primarily designed for use in teaching a class on deviance. It has a distinctly sociological perspective to it and is therefore ideal for deviance classes taught within sociology departments. However, it could also be a useful text to present the sociological perspective on deviance in related fields such as psychology or criminal justice. "Consistent with its purpose, the audience for this text is students. The ideal audience would be upper-level undergraduates. "This text has many features that make it a more appealing read for students. There are many photographs, particularly starting out each new chapter. There are also interesting and illustrative insets that provide specific stories or data that expand the topics discussed in the text. The book is very well referenced. There are subject and author indexes in the back, both of which are very thorough. "This well-written text would be a very good choice as a primary text for a class on deviance taught within a sociology department. It could also be a good supplemental text for classes taught in related disciplines. Students will enjoy this book. The material, which is naturally interesting, is presented in a manner that holds the reader's attention and provides useful information from multiple conceptual and theoretical perspectives.

Erich Goode is Sociology Professor Emeritus at Stony Brook University and Visiting Scholar at New York University; he also taught at the University of Maryland, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of North Carolina. Professor Goode received his PhD in Sociology from Columbia. He is the author of ten books, including Deviance in Everyday Life (2002, Waveland Press), Moral Panics (with Nachman Ben-Yehuda, 2nd edition, 2009, Wiley-Blackwell), and Drugs in American Society (7th edition, 2008, McGraw-Hill), as well as the editor of seven anthologies of collected or original writings. During his career, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lady Davis Teaching Fellowship, the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the SUNY-wide Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. Goode has published articles in a wide range of venues, including academic journals (Social Problems, Deviant Behavior, The American Journal of Sociology), newspapers (The Washington Post, Newsday), literary journals (Raritan, The Palo Alto Review), and magazines (The Skeptical Inquirer, The Evergreen Review). Professor Goode is married and lives in New York City.