Blackwell Reference Online

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Deviance processing agencies refers to a wide gamut of institutions and agencies both public and private involved in the identification, vetting, and dispensation of populations considered at risk, dangerous, or that presumably require monitoring and surveillance to mitigate potential harms. Deviance processing agencies have been considered in a more comprehensive manner since the 1960s and 1970s and constitute a central focus of inquiry for social theorists interested in governmentality risk and social control. During anti-war student protests and the radicalization of academia in the 1960s and 1970s, sociologists and criminologists employed critical approaches often born out of a Marxian orientation (e.g., Spitzer 1975 ) to critically analyze developments in police practices, punitive legal measures, and inhumane prison conditions. They offered explanations of repressive state practices ( Cooper et al. 1975 ) against dissidents and socially constructed deviants within the context of managing crises of capitalist legitimacy, the symbolic importance of the labeling process, and the inherently biased function of legal norms ( Quinney 1974 ). By the 1980s, a rather substantial body of scholarly work tied to an evolving critical criminology movement analyzed and deconstructed the practices of criminal justice agencies, particularly in the context of rising crime rates, mass imprisonment, ... log in or subscribe to read full text