Involvement in Deviance: An Example and Some Theoretical Implications

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Abstract
Recent research on group sex or “swinging” has revealed that a significant number of married, middle-class, suburbanite conformists have become involved in this practice. The social characteristics of these participants raises a question concerning how it is possible for them to engage in this form of deviance. Examination of the processes of involvement suggests that external events that bring the practice into private consciousness and public discussion, ascribe credibility and feasibility to it, provide numerical inclusiveness and socal acceptablity of participants, and stipulate a rationale for the practice that is supported in its organization, create a structure in which persons who previously were ignorant of the practice and avowedly had given it little or no thought may become involved in it. This example of involvement in deviance is examined in the light of socialization, social control, and strain theory as they bear on deviance and conformity, and some critical considerations are posed.

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