English

Comparative Deviance-Perception and Law in Six Cultures

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 sa

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