The Deviant Mystique - by Scott Grills & Robert Prus (Hardcover)

About the Book

Adopting a symbolic interactionist perspective and building extensively on the ethnographic research tradition, this book analyzes the mystique that often accompanies deviance by examining deviance as an ongoing feature of community life. Because deviance is approached in nonprescriptive ways, as a product of community interchange, the emphasis here is on the ways in which deviance is defined, engaged, and regulated. It is examined as the product of human association, as something that is generated by people as they interact with one another, assume viewpoints and initiatives, and try to influence and resist one another within the context of community life. Prus and Grills do not attempt to address various deviant behaviors; instead, they provide readers with a glimpse into how deviance is formulated, practiced, viewed, and treated.

Who defines deviance? Why? What are the effects of deviance on others? How do subcultures form? These and other questions are answered in this unique approach to the study of deviance. Providing a conceptually coherent framework for approaching the study of deviance as an ongoing feature of the human community, the authors pay special attention to the many theaters of operation in which people come together and engage one another with respect to morality and deviance. Recognizing that audience definitions of deviance are pivotal to community notions of reality and actual interaction, consideration is given to the interrelated processes of defining deviance, identifying deviants, regulating deviance informally and formally, and experiencing treatment and disinvolvement. This thoughtful consideration serves to shed new light on the mystique that has been created around ideas about deviance.

Book Synopsis

Adopting a symbolic interactionist perspective and building extensively on the ethnographic research tradition, this book analyzes the mystique that often accompanies deviance by examining deviance as an ongoing feature of community life. Because deviance is approached in nonprescriptive ways, as a product of community interchange, the emphasis here is on the ways in which deviance is defined, engaged, and regulated. It is examined as the product of human association, as something that is generated by people as they interact with one another, assume viewpoints and initiatives, and try to influence and resist one another within the context of community life. Prus and Grills do not attempt to address various deviant behaviors; instead, they provide readers with a glimpse into how deviance is formulated, practiced, viewed, and treated.

Who defines deviance? Why? What are the effects of deviance on others? How do subcultures form? These and other questions are answered in this unique approach to the study of deviance. Providing a conceptually coherent framework for approaching the study of deviance as an ongoing feature of the human community, the authors pay special attention to the many theaters of operation in which people come together and engage one another with respect to morality and deviance. Recognizing that audience definitions of deviance are pivotal to community notions of reality and actual interaction, consideration is given to the interrelated processes of defining deviance, identifying deviants, regulating deviance informally and formally, and experiencing treatment and disinvolvement. This thoughtful consideration serves to shed new light on the mystique that has been created around ideas about deviance.

Review Quotes

"Prus and Grills have assembled a sophisticated, subtle, and exhaustive research agenda for the study of deviance. This volume combines comprehensive analysis of existing theoretical perspectives with well-informed and ethnographically sensitive suggestions for an interactionist approach not only to the study of aberrant behavior but also to group life more generally."-D. Angus Vail Willamette University

?This book provides a nice research agenda for readers interested in conducting a symbolic interactionist study of deviance, without succuming to the deviant mystique.?-Contemporary Sociology

"This book provides a nice research agenda for readers interested in conducting a symbolic interactionist study of deviance, without succuming to the deviant mystique."-Contemporary Sociology

About the Author

ROBERT PRUS is Professor of Sociology at the University of Waterloo. His published books include Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research, Subcultural Mosaics and Intersubjective Realities, and Beyond the Power of Mystique, among others.

SCOTT GRILLS is Dean of Arts and Associate Professor of Sociology at Brandon University in Manitoba. He is the editor of Doing Ethnographic Reasearch: Fieldwork Settings and has served on the editorial board of the Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology and the interdisciplinary journal Dianoia.