In this course you will explore the idea of social 'deviance', with a focus on the ways that normality and difference are controlled and contested in society. You will learn about different theories and concepts of deviance, with a particular focus on critical and constructionist perspectives and associated ideas of 'criminalisation', 'pathologisation' and 'labelling'. You will examine various forms of structural power in society – including colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy and ablism – and learn to think critically about their relationship to the construction and control of various categories of ‘deviance’. You will examine the ways in which dominant discourses and practices work to render specific people, communities and activities negatively deviant, including for example: Indigenous and racialised communities, disabled and neurodivergent people, queer and trans folks, and political activists and resistance fighters. You will also examine the specific roles that the media and institutions of criminal justice and social welfare play in maintaining and reproducing these constructions of deviance, the material impacts these constructions have on individuals and communities, the ways in which people are resisting. This course is core in the Legal Studies Major within the BP023P26 Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice.