the macguffin that refuses to die: an investigation into the condition of the sociology of deviance

For decades, and in one form or another, critics have proclaimed the "death" of the sociology of deviance. I contend that these proclamations are without merit, a smokescreen, a red herring--in the words of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock (1972), a MacGuffin, a device without emotional content that is intended to carry a plot forward. Each critic means something quite different by the claim, and each claim, when carefully examined, contains smuggled-in assumptions that do not withstand scrutiny. It is possible that none of these critics believes the "death" claim, but continue repeating it because it has become a mantra indicating where each stands on symbolic issues. As measured by several empirical criteria, the condition of the field remains, as it has been for decades, quite robust.