TEACHING A COURSE ON DEVIANT GROUPS - A NEGLECTED ASPECT OF DEVIANCE

A course on deviant groups, taught since 1986, is described Most cours es on deviance take an individual-level approach; groups are brought i n only as an afterthought. This course, by contrast, focuses on devian t groups of different kinds (not only cults and communes), arguing tha t such groups are important sources of deviant behavior and are relati vely neglected in deviance studies. Particular attention is given to ' 'deviance production groups''-groups that take in ''normal'' people an d turn them into deviants, to some extent, such as the Branch Davidian s, the Ku Klux Klan, and witches' covens. The course is also distincti ve in its degree of emphasis on sociological concepts and theory, its complementing of other deviance courses, and its dependence on group d iscussions and presentations during class. Lectures are relatively inf requent; students are expected to use a study guide and to learn subst antially from an instructor-prepared text on the deviant groups covere d.