Deviant Behavior

Catalog description

Course uses a variety of sociological perspectives to study behaviors commonly labeled deviant because they fall outside societal norms. Course examines the identification as deviant of individuals and of particular segments of society, by formal and informal means; the effects of institutionalization and social control upon the deviant; and the efforts of deviants to eradicate the label society has placed upon them. Content includes process of defining deviance; different forms of deviance such as criminal deviance to mental illness; social causes of deviance; social responses to deviance from stigmatization; systems of social control; reintegration of deviants into society.