ABSTRACT
In The Sociology of Deviance: An Obituary (1994), I concluded that the concept of deviance as behaviour breaching social norms had been superseded. This was widely accepted (e.g. Bendle 1999, Mitchell Miller et al. 2001, Best 2004, Moxon 2010) and the reviews were very positive (e.g. Loader 1995, Venkatesh 1995, O’Connell 1995, Roberts 1996, and Lemert 1995). But some American sociologists claim to have spotted deviance, like Elvis, re-entering the building. Scorning my work and tying their claims to a Republican neo-conservatism, they have called for the resurrection of the idea of deviant behaviour as an antidote to what they see as contemporary amoral relativism and cultural decline (Goode 1995, 2002, 2003, 2004a, 2004b; Hendershott 2002; see also Marshall et al. 2007).
