Erich Goode

Erich Goode is an American sociologist specializing in the sociology of deviance. He has written a number of books on the field in general, as well as on specific deviant topics. He was a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Goode received a B.A. from Oberlin College (1960) and a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University (1966). He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Florida Atlantic University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. He is currently professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He also teaches at the University of Maryland.

Goode takes a constructionist approach to deviance. In his view, a behavior is deviant if and only if society at large considers it so. The broader social factors that go into the classification of a behavior as deviant are thus considered a valid subject of study. His research focuses on the deviant individuals (and behaviors) themselves, as well as the particular individuals and groups that play a part in classifying the behavior as deviant.

As a sociologist, Goode makes no judgment about whether a particular is "bad" or "evil", and considers deviance as a topic to be entirely dependent on whether the society at large considers the behavior deviant. In this view, a particular behavior can be deviant in one society, but normal in another. This is in contrast to the perspective of essentialism, which would say that a behavior either "really is" deviant or "really isn't", and that it is the task of the sociologist to discover and report on the truth of the matter, and what society at large believes is mostly irrelevant.

According to the constructionist framework as espoused by Goode, an instance of "deviance" can exist as a social construct exclusively, completely separate from any actual behavior. In other words, "imaginary deviance" can exist that causes a frenzy of interesting sociological behavior in response to a non-existence phenomenon. Satanic ritual abuse is an example of this in modern times, and the case of witch hunts is an example from antiquity. These are often called moral panics, and Goode considers them a valid subject (perhaps the ideal subject) for deviance studies.

Erich Goode es conocido por su exploración y análisis del concepto de " pánico moral ". Adopta un enfoque de "reducción de daños" para el estudio de la desviación social. Este enfoque busca minimizar el daño social sin emitir juicios de valor ni afirmaciones esencialistas sobre las personas estudiadas.

Goode ha recibido críticas dentro de la comunidad sociológica tras admitir en un artículo de 2002 ^{[ 1 ]} haber mantenido relaciones sexuales ocasionales con participantes de su estudio de la década de 1980 sobre la Asociación Nacional para el Avance de la Aceptación de la Grasa ( NAAFA ). Este tipo de comportamiento se considera generalmente poco ético para los investigadores. Los críticos argumentan que Goode, aprovechando su posición como investigador, se aprovechó de las mujeres involucradas en su trabajo. ^{[ 2 ]}

1. Uso instrumental legal: Tomar medicamentos recetados y medicamentos de venta libre para aliviar o tratar síntomas.

2. Uso recreativo legal: Utilizar drogas legales (tabaco, alcohol, cafeína) para alcanzar un determinado estado mental.

3. Uso instrumental ilegal: Tomar medicamentos sin receta para realizar una tarea o alcanzar una meta.

4. Uso recreativo ilegal: Tomar drogas ilegales por diversión o placer para experimentar euforia. ^{[ 3 ]}

La obra Marijuana (1969) busca presentar al lector la configuración completa de este problema en auge, que, al igual que la Revolución Sexual y la Nueva Política, se encuentra en el centro de la alienación que sienten muchos jóvenes y de los temores de desintegración social expresados ​​por muchos de sus mayores. Atherton Press, número de catálogo de la Biblioteca del Congreso 68–56981

En *Los fumadores de marihuana* (1971), Goode analizó la marihuana desde una perspectiva sociológica.

En su obra Las drogas en la sociedad estadounidense , Goode argumentó que el efecto de una droga depende del contexto social en el que se consume. Así, en una sociedad (o contexto social) una droga en particular puede ser un depresor, y en otra puede ser un estimulante.

Comportamiento desviado es un libro de texto dirigido a estudiantes de pregrado. En él, Goode adopta la postura de un constructivista débil.

"Pánicos morales: La construcción social de la desviación" , escrito con Nachman Ben-Yehuda , es un libro sobre los pánicos morales desde una perspectiva sociológica.

In Paranormal Beliefs: A Sociological Introduction (1999), Goode studies paranormal beliefs such as UFOs, ESP, and creationism using the methods of the sociology of deviance. Consistent in tone with the rest of his works, he takes the position that whether the phenomenon in question is real is not important to a sociologist. Rather, sociologists should be concerned with how the paranormalist is labeled as deviant, and what effect the label has on them and society.