ABSTRACT
THE FIRST EDITION of this book waspublished in 1978. The changes that have taken place since then with respect to how deviance is defined and how common the enactment of forms of behavior once defined as deviance are remarkable and, in their confluence, very possibly un - precedented. Here, in this book, I have attempted
to document these and other developments. Since the late 1970s, the rate of criminal behavior in the United States has declined to a degree unknown since recordkeeping began. Crimes such as robbery and motor vehicle theft have declined by more than half, and murder, rape, and felonious assault, by over 40 percent.
