Deviance in Everyday Life: Personal Accounts of Unconventional Lives

Deviance is a reality in all of our lives. In the author's words, it "is both an analytic sociological concept and a lived experience, both a label that is applied and an emotional reality that is sustained." This book looks at deviance as it is lived. The personal accounts give a voice to the human beings who lead unconventional lives and experience stigma as a result. These narratives allow the reader a glimpse into the lives of people who experience society's sanctions for violating its norms. The first two chapters set the stage for the reader's voyage of discovery through the account. The structure of each narrative, what the author includes and excludes, and how individual voices organize and shape the raw material of their lives offer different responses to numerous questions: How is deviance created? How are judgments of norm violations decided and by whom? What sanctions are applied? What do personal accounts tell us about how social relations work? How do people who know they are violating a norm negotiate their relations with persons who accept that norm? How do rule violators experience sanctions? How does the experience influence their way of looking at the world? What do accounts reveal about both deviance and conventionality?