Sociology Of Deviance Essay

In stark defence of the status of the sociology of deviance, Roach-Anleu justifies the study of deviance “…we can examine the emergence of norms, the contestation of norms, evaluations of behaviour, assessments that some people are outside the normal expectations, disagreements with those assessments, attempts to change or modify behaviour, and so on…Deviance exists where some people hold others to behavioural standards’ (Roach-Anleu, 2005). Roach Anleu examines this in Deviance, Conformity & Control (2005). Differentiating deviance and crime, which Sumner (1994) had previously claimed a vast similarity. A central claims of Roach-Anleu’s is although deviance is the act of ‘norm violation’, there is not a universal understanding of what is considered a ‘norm’. Therefore deviance is a product of its environment, time and context. Unlike claims that deviance is a study of ‘the exotic other’ involving inexplicable behaviour. Roach-Anleu (2005) …show more content…
Bendle addresses that although there is a crisis, sociology of deviance is not necessarily ‘dead’, claiming “policy ineffectiveness, conceptual disarray, a sense of theoretical bankruptcy” as a cause of the crisis. These sentiments are continued in Miller, Wright & Dannels report, although used in conjunction with the “Michael-Adler Report” 1933, which provides evidence of resurrection of the 1930s crisis of criminology to support the sociology of deviance. Roach-Anleu provides evidence that theoretical elements of the sociology of deviance have declined, although providing a ‘legacy of influence in other fields’, and remains academically successful. Roach-Anleu stresses the importance of the examination of ‘emerging norms’, as a changing phenomenon. Therefore the act of ‘deviant’ is continuously evolving. Therefore, the sociology of deviance is fundamentally ‘alive’ and ‘more relevant than