For the first time, Crime and Deviance brings together the important essays and previously unpublished writings of Edwin M. Lemert. More than any other author, Lemert first established the foundations of the modern sociology of crime and social deviance. Beginning with his first and now classic work, Social Pathology, in 1951 through his last work The Trouble With Evil published in 1997 the year of his death, Lemert wrote with keen empirical insight on crime and criminal personality, juvenile justice, alcoholism, check forgers, court and legal process, among many other topics. Lemert's famous societal reaction theory thus became a necessary ingredient of any realistic understanding of those who violate the perceived norms of social order. It is virtually impossible to discuss crime and lesser forms of social deviance without using language Lemert introduced into scientific and popular vocabularies. Crime and Deviance presents for the first time an important body of Professor Lemert's unpublished work. It thus allows rare insight into his constantly changing thought which is as fresh today as ever.

"Edwin M. Lemert was the founder of the societal reaction theory of deviant behavior and, as such, was the most important person in the development of what we know as labeling theory. This book contains some of Edwin Lemert's best known publications, works published in obscure places, and seven previously unpublished papers." - Contemporary Sociology