Overview
Comparative Deviance represents a systematic attempt to survey public perceptions of deviant behavior cross-culturally: in India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Yugoslavia and the United States. There is extensive diversity in both law and perception concerning such deviances as taking drugs, homosexuality, and abortion, yet there is evidence for a basically invariant structure in perception of deviance across all cultures. Within the countries studied in this volume, Geraeme Newman discovers that the strength of religious belief and urban rural background accounted for major differences in the perception of deviance - when differences were identified.Contrary to popular academic opinion in the United States, Newman finds that those countries with the most liberal laws on deviance (i.e., the least punitive sanctions) are also those highly economically developed and least totalitarian (United States and Italy). But when public opinion is considered, the public favors harsher punishments than the law provides. In contrast, in the developing countries of India, Iran and Indonesia, where penal sanctions are more severe, public opinion is much more liberal. The crucial question is the role criminal law plays in the process of modernization: whether law is a stable cultural influence, round which public opinion wavers in a startling fashion, depending on the stage of modernization.These findings challenge many assumptions of conflict theory in sociology, of cultural relativism in anthropology, and of ethical relativism in moral philosophy. All findings are examined in relation to research on modernization, social development, and the evolution of law. These fundamental issues are thus important to many different disciplines across the board.
Full Product Details
Author: Graeme R. Newman ,
Marvin E. Wolfgang ,
Professor Graeme Newman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint: AldineTransaction
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.522kg
ISBN: 9781412807692
ISBN 10: 1412807697
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 07 March 2008
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Awaiting stock
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Author Information
Graeme Newman is Distinguished Teaching Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York-Albany. He has provided consultation to the Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention Division of the United Nations. He is the author or editor of many books including Super Highway Robbery, The Global Report on Crime and Justice and Rational Choice and Situational Crime Prevention. Marvin E. Wolfgang, until his recent death, was professor of criminology and law at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Patterns in Criminal Homicide and Delinquency in a Birth Cohort among other books. He is known as one of the most influential criminologists of all time.
