Researching Deviance

(Goode, Deviant Behavior, 7-8th editions, 2005/2008, chapter 5. See the disclaimer)

• Issues: trust and validity, "courtesy stigma," risk.
• Qualitative and quantitative methods

Use of Official Data

• Uniform Crime Reports
  • triangulation
  • absolutes versus comparative rates
• DAWN: Drug Abuse Warning Network (see also)
  • ED and ME mentions
  • Charting drug-related problems
• ADAM: Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program
  • voluntary and confidential (85% participation)
  • Specific focus: drug use and crime

Survey Research

• Question Construction
• Representativeness (Sampling)
• Truth and Lying
• Response Rate
• Descriptive and Inferential (explanatory) Statistics
• Variables: IV and DV
• Exceptions (developing generalizations)
• Correlations (versus causality)
• Controls

Sex Surveys

• "Kinsey Reports" (1948-1953)
  • Controversy
  • Sampling problems (volunteers)
• "University of Chicago Sex in America Survey"
  • Nationwide, representative. 80% response rate
  • Importance of sampling
  • "Now for the Truth About Americans and Sex," Philip Elmer-Dewitt, Time, October 17, 1994

Assessment of Survey Research

• Limited number of broad, randomized samples
• Relevance of surveys/polls on attitudes toward deviance
• Decent comparative data, and charting of long-term trends
• Surveys, however don't tap into all behaviors, and provide limited depth

Participant Observation

• Widely used--some behavior simply demands fieldwork/ethnography
• Detail notes of observation--cross-verification
• Validity--real-life depiction
• Limited generalizibiltiy
• Qualitative versus quantitative
• Subjective and descriptive versus cause/effect
• Role of the researcher: degree of involvement

  Researching Drug Dealers (Patricia and Peter Adler)

  • Insider's perspective
  • Opportunism; stumble upon situation
  • "Snowball" sampling
  • Problems
    • Effect of drug use (respondents under the influence)
    • Risks
    • Values, beliefs, and norms--conflict between researcher and subjects
    • Ethics
      • Covert research
      • "Informed Consent"
  • See the Adler's, "Everyday Life Sociology," Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 13. (1987), pp. 217-235.

Assessment of Participatant Observation

• Works for certain purposes
• Validity versus reliability

Narratives and Personal Accounts

• Long history (Thomas and Zanieki: The Polish Peasant in America, 1918-1920)
• Accounts rendered by informants: democratic
• Factual accuracy versus interpretation
  • Subjects "construction of reality" ("verisimilitude")
  • Negotiation
  • Vocabularies of motive: stigma neutralization
    • The professional fence
    • Convicted rapists
    • Male street hustlers
    • College student cheating
• Accounts and vocabularies of motive are not "causes" of deviance, nor explanations: Simply (complexly) a view of how people maintain a sense of self.

Ethical Issues

Laud Humphreys, "Tearoom Trade" (1970)

Economic Crime

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/research_deviance.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel: rok@umsl.edu
Last Updated: Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:10 AM