Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates by Erving Goffman is one of the most influential sociological works of the 20th century. Originally published in 1961, the book presents a powerful analysis of psychiatric hospitals and similar institutions, which Goffman defines as total institutions. These settings, according to Goffman, profoundly
Goffman’s Perspective: From Visible Deviance to Social Exclusion In Stigma, Erving Goffman explores the mechanisms by which societies mark individuals whose appearance, behavior, or background is considered deviant from social norms. A stigma is not an inherent attribute, but rather a social judgment that is ascribed to a person. Physical stigmas (e.g., visible disabilities) Character-related
Interactionist and labelling approaches constitute a paradigm shift in criminological theory. Rather than explaining crime as the outcome of static individual pathologies or deterministic social factors, these perspectives emphasise the social construction of deviance through processes of interaction, attribution, and power. Crime, in this view, is not a self-evident act but an outcome of societal
Edwin H. Sutherland’s theory of differential association argues that criminal behavior is learned through social interaction. A person becomes delinquent when they are exposed to more definitions favorable to breaking the law than to definitions unfavorable to it. This approach moves away from ideas of biological determinism or individual pathology and emphasizes the social context
Subcultural theory, developed by Albert K. Cohen in the 1950s, explains juvenile delinquency as a collective response to status frustration in a class-stratified society. It argues that marginalized youth form subcultures with alternative norms and values that reject those of mainstream society. These subcultures provide an alternative system of status and recognition, often encouraging deviant
Delinquency and Drift by David Matza (1964) represents a landmark critique of both positivist criminology (e.g., Lombroso) and contemporary theories of juvenile delinquency like Cloward & Ohlin’s differential opportunity theory and Cohen’s subcultural theory. Matza challenges the behavioral determinism in these approaches and argues instead for a nuanced, interactionist understanding of delinquency as a temporary,