Examining the Breadth and Relativity of Stigmatization

• In Event: Revisiting Deviance: Perspectives From Pimps, Cockfighters and Bikers

Abstract

Deviance studies highlight perpetual shifts in normative boundaries. Bestowal of deviant and/or criminal status upon behaviors or conditions is relative to those cultural shifts and the power to convey labels. Relativity of deviance/crime and stigmatizing processes will be reviewed. The breadth of deviant definitions will be accentuated.

Author

• Stephen E. Brown, Western Carolina University