Product Review

With continued terrorism, war, and unending conflicts over what is considered deviant, it may be time once again to listen to the powerful voices in A Political Analysis of Deviance, which illuminates the importance of studying deviance and diversity as politics. In the new foreword of this third edition, Pat Lauderdale continues to challenge the "freak of the week" approach to the study of deviance. The messages reveal how we might transcend the current vulgar debate over freedom fighters versus terrorists and attempt to understand whom and what controls the moral boundaries separating good from bad. The book examines political life and its relationship to the study of deviance, which is often ignored or suffocated before becoming public. The task is not to reveal or define the terrorist as deviant, for example, but to expose the political processes and practices that create, maintain, and change the definitions of action as terrorist.