Comparative Deviance

Perception and Law in Six Cultures

By: Graeme Newman

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

This book represents the first systematic attempt to survey public perceptions of deviant behavior cross-culturally: in India. Indonesia. Iran Italy. Yugoslavia and the United States. While it was discovered that there was extensive diversity} in both law and perception concerning such deviances of taking drugs, homosexuality and abortion. yet evidence was found for a basically invariant structure in perception of deviance across all cultures. Within the countries that were studied, it was the strength of religious belief and urban rural background that accounted for major differences in the perception of deviance— when differences were identified. These findings challenge many of the assumptions of conflict theory in sociology, of cultural relativism in anthropology and of ethical relativism in moral philosophy. All are discussed in relation to research on modernization, social development and the evolution of law. Although enormous in scope, the author has managed to maintain control of the method of data collection. Contrary to popular academic opinion in the United States, the author found that those countries with the most liberal laws on deviance (i. e.. the least punitive sanctions ) are those that are the highly economically developed—and least totalitarian (U. S. A. and Italy). But. when public opinion is considered, he found that 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 what 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, and other issues that are discussed will interest social scientists in many fields, especially anthropologists, sociologists of law, conflict theorists, criminologists, attitude theorists, moral philosophers, opinion pollsters, and labelling theorists.
Graeme Newman is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Criminal Justice, University' at Albany, NY.