This unit examines the problematic nature of the concepts of the normal and the ‘deviant’, and the institutions such as religion, law and medicine through which they are defined and subject to social regulation. The unit examines criminology as just one dimension of the sociology of deviance, with some emphasis on the relative immunity of corporate offenders from prosecution. It also explores other areas in which definitions of the ‘normal’ create deviants. These include people who are diagnosed as mentally ill and regulated by medicine, welfare recipients who are regulated by state agencies, and different sexualities which are subject to the regulation of medical, legal and religious institutions. Throughout, the unit pays as much attention to the origins and maintenance of rules as it does to the rule breakers.