Book Review: DeKeseredy, W. S., Ellis, D., & Alvi, S. (2005). Deviance and Crime: Theory, Research and Policy (3rd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson, pp. 373

• Published date: 01 December 2007
• Author: Adam M. Bossler
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016807310656
• Date: 01 December 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

they can partner with residents to create truly community-based efforts to curb violence;

and, for researchers, it furnishes a synthesis of research and points to new hypotheses that

can be tested.

George E. Capowich

Loyola University, New Orleans

DeKeseredy, W. S., Ellis, D., & Alvi, S. (2005). Deviance and Crime:

Theory, Research and Policy (3rd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson, pp. 373

DOI: 10.1177/0734016807310656

In Deviance and Crime, Walter DeKeseredy, Desmond Ellis, and Shahid Alvi present the

third edition of the deviance textbook formerly titled The Wrong Stuff (1996). In this new

edition, the main focus remains the same, namely to explore the issue of deviance and

attempt to explain (1) its various meanings; (2) some of the different forms it can take (i.e.,

woman abuse, homicide, corporate crime, drug use and abuse, and gangs); (3) how theory has

been utilized to explain these different forms; and (4) how theoretically informed policies

have and can affect these deviant acts. Staying consistent with the previous edition, the

authors accept a much stronger “critical” view than most, thereby providing a much more

thorough examination of critical theory and its applications. As with the previous edition,

the authors tackle the issue of deviance with the concept of table d’hôte (selecting a few

topics and discussing them in-depth) over the traditional “cafeteria style.”

Three major changes from the previous edition are noteworthy. First, the chapters on

sexual assault and police deviance have been excluded, whereas a new chapter on drug use

and abuse has been added. Second, the new edition has a primary focus on American schol-

arship, although there is still a heavy reliance on the authors’ own work, as opposed to the

previous edition that relied mostly on Canadian and other non-American sources, leading

this work to be more relevant for American audiences. Finally, DeKeseredy takes over as

first author and Alvi has been added as third author, leading to a writing style that is more

informal and less technical, including many examples from their daily lives to make the

theories more applicable to undergraduate readers.

In the first chapter, the authors review and critique the three major ways of defining

deviance (normative, social reaction, and critical), mostly showing the weaknesses of the

normative view and the strengths of the other two. In chapter 2, the authors unevenly cover

some of the more cited explanations of crime and deviance (categorized into strain, social

control, interactionist, ecological, and critical). This chapter, along with a good portion of

the book, relies too heavily on theoretical interpretation, criticism, and evaluation from two

of the more popular criminological theory textbooks in the field, instead of providing the

reader with the authors’ first-hand read of the theories and related research. Finally, the

chapter mostly covers “traditional” criminological theories (although deterrence is not

covered) and does not present “newer” theories (such as general theory of crime, social learn-

ing theory, age-graded theory of informal social control, and institutional anomie theory).

Chapters 3 through 7, the heart and soul of this textbook, cover the topics of woman

abuse, homicide, corporate crime, drug use and abuse, and gangs, respectively. In each

436 Criminal Justice Review