The Politics of Deviance

by Anne Hendershott

Book Overview

Until the 1960s, sociologists had asserted that a willingness to identify deviance, or what constitutes appropriate behavior, was indispensable to the process of generating and sustaining cultural... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893554473
• ISBN13: 9781893554474
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Farewell to Deviance.

I have to say first that this is one of the most underrated books of all time. I mentioned it the other day in a review because it covers societal decline better than just about every other book I've read on the topic. Anne Hendershott is a brave writer who took considerable risk in addressing the topic of deviance, as it is one that her fellow academics in sociology, wish to pretend no longer exists. Yet, exist it does, only now our society has defined the traditional representations of deviance, such as drug addiction, homosexuality, and pedophilia, down to the point where they as normal as low cut jeans on young girls. Society has also replaced the abnormalities of the past with the concocted crimes of sexism, homophobia, and, most humorously, racism-through-questioning-racism, which is what happens when one argues over the necessity of affirmative action programs. We also now have the nauseating circumstance wherein deviance has been defined up, meaning that those who chose to remain virgins and "un-experimental" are the ones judged pathological. In the chapter, "Rape, Real, and Imagined," we find that rape has become a crime which, by definition, is systematically biased against men. Their accusers have the right to anonymity, whereas, those on trial are entitled to no such courtesies. A semantic twist suddenly rephrases pedophilia as "intergenerational relationships." As an aside, one of these days I would like to find out why the FBI does not arrest NAMBLA en masse under the RICO statutes. Why not? They're all members of a proven criminal organization. Speaking of NAMBLA, mental illness has now been extended to cover the lazy, the irritable, and the over-energetic. In ADHD, PTSD, and PMS, we have a hangman's game full of letters that describe somewhat fuzzy categories of dysfunction. This is explored, more in depth, in Satel and Sommers new book on therapism. The Politics of Deviance is not merely a sociology book, it is an exploration of how of society has declined to the point where merely attempting to follow the rules is a Herculean task as the rules and mores shift downwards every other month. It is not a long book but the prose is concise. Hendershott really delivers a narrator devoid of distracters and hyperbola. It is a worthy read.

A worthy tome.

In this book you will read about how dubious social theories propagaged by the far-Left, especially during the 1960's, have become bedrock in univerity sociology departments all across America, affecting public policy in devastating ways. For example, you will read how those theories led to emancipation of supposedly non-violent inmates from mental health facilities all across America, and how those same theories make it nearly impossible to reincarcerate those people when they become a threat. This is a darn good book, much more in-depth and profound than I make it sound here. Buy it.

Outstanding

An outstanding book that demonstrates the processes that the perverted use in order to try to force society to accept their Deviance as normal.The Author carefully develops the argument that deviant behavior has become acceptable at the expense of the well- being of society. Hendershott's arguments for the destructive acceptance of pedophilia, euthanasia, and homosexuality are equally supported by the statistics she sites for each subject. The book closes with a convincing argument for the distinction between right and wrong behavior. "In the aftermath of September 11, President George W. Bush repeatedly called the terrorist acts 'evil' and those who perpetrated them 'evildoers,'" writes Hendershott. If Bush had said this before that fateful day, she says, his statements would have been called dogmatic and unnecessarily accusatory. Now that so many innocent civilians have been murdered, few can deny that there is a battle between good and evil, and evil is the deviant of the two. It must be recognized for what it is in order to be defeated; otherwise, there would be no merit for retaliation.

What a timely book!

I have read two other books by Dr. Hendershott, and the breadth of her knowledge, and directness of her insights, is quite simply phenomenal. It is why I could not wait to read this book. I purchased it so I might become more and more informed about the current state of how sociologists understand, characterize, and address "deviance." This begins, of course, with its definition---and Dr. Hendershott immediately illustrated the problem! Not only is deviance defined in the media by just one example after another, if at all, but by reading "the Politics of Deviance," I have a new appreciation for the depth of the controversy and the nuances involved in this subject area. As I found out before reading her books, Dr. Hendershott did not disappoint! She have me tons of information, and did so in an very engaging way. I could not wait to turn from one page to the next! I wholeheartedly endorse reading this book, and hope many others will do so as well. It has much to contribute on this important, and timely, subject!

about time

It is about time that some brave soul attempted to rehabilitate the idea of deviance. Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to do it a few years ago when he talked about how we were witnessing the "defining down of deviance" and got nothing but grief from his onetime colleagues in the American Sociological Association. Now Anne Hendershott has taken up the cudgels and acquitted herself well. This book is right on the money in its calculus of how left wing interest groups have indeed defined real deviance down--criminality, drug abuse, suicide, etc.--while working hard to define up the imaginary deviance of businessmen, abortion opponents, and high testosterone college males. She has fascinating case studies such one showing how the National Man/Boy Love Association has worked tirelessly--and with surpising success--to redefine the deviance of pedophilia so that it is now merely a species of "male friendship." She has a very interesting chapter on "moral panics" showing, among other things, how the witchhunt against day care providers for "satanic abuse" of children was inspired by feminist hysteria. Hendershott believes that deviance, which politically correct sociologists have banished from the curriculum, must be restored to the central role in our intellectual that it once enjoyed. A glance at the headlines shows that its function--creating boundaries and encouraging shared norms about what is right and what is wrong--is more important now than ever.