ABSTRACT
This chapter first identifies a number of rudimentary signposts pointing to the directions in which the sociology of deviance seems currently to be going. Then a selective review of British criminology is presented which partly uses these signposts as evaluative criteria and partly analyses further related characteristics which acted as an impetus for the ‘new’ sociology of deviance to develop in this country. The chapter also deals briefly with the response of British sociology to the substance and theory of studying crime and deviance – again, only in so far as this response stimulated new developments in the sociology of deviance. The origins and impact of the National Deviancy Conference are then sketched and the traditional criminological institutions and the newer sociology of deviance are polarized and assessed. The chapter further makes some assessment of the current position, particularly by comparing mainstream criminology and the sociology of deviance with each other and the world outside.
