This revised and updated edition of "Understanding Deviance" is designed as a guide to steer the new student through the major themes of the theories which have formed the sociology of crime, delinquency, social deviance and social control. The authors have examined the significant frameworks of the discipline, offering criticisms and constructing defences, aiming to enable the reader to prepare for the more detailed arguments which may be found elsewhere. It is also intended as a guide to the principal theories of crime and social deviance in the European and North American context and contains a new chapter on feminist criminology.