The editors of the Encyclopedia of Social Deviance set out to create a work on social deviance that provided a broad and comprehensive set of entries written by top scholars in the field. While the editors sought out to be as inclusive as possible, given that the behaviors that fall under the label of deviant are wide ranging and always changing, it would be impossible to be completely inclusive and exhaustive. They focused on theoretical, philosophical, methodological, and substantive topics.

Like all encyclopedias, the Encyclopedia of Social Deviance, is arranged alphabetically. The only standardization in the 313 entries is that they each have a "see also", in which they direct readers to other entries within the encyclopedia, and they each end with a list of citations for further reading. The entries have been written by top scholars in various discipline, including sociology, anthropology, psychology, criminology, politics, and religion. The Encyclopedia of Social Deviance also contains twenty-two thematic Reader's Guides. These guides group related entries by topic.

Due to the fact that the number of behaviors that can be labeled as deviant is nearly endless, the entries stick to those behaviors that have been traditionally labeled as deviant. Various criminal, drug related, and sex related behaviors are included. Relatively uncommon, unheard of, or new behaviors were not included.

While I was unable to find another encyclopedia, I looked at two other sources for comparison. The first was John A. Humphrey and Frank Schmalleger's Deviant Behavior, 2nd ed., Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2012. The individual chapters in this book also include learning objectives and theories on deviant behavior. The behaviors listed are much broader than in the Encyclopedia of Social Deviance. The second source I used for comparison was Rowland Atkinson's Shades of Deviance: A Primer on Crime, Deviance, and Social Harm, Routledge, 2014. This source groups the behaviors into parts, such as "Acts of Transgression" and "Subcultures and Social Codes". The entries in this source are much shorter than in the Encyclopedia of Social Deviance. The entries in both sources used for comparison are not nearly as exhaustive or as inclusive as those in the Encyclopedia of Social Deviance.

I think that the Encyclopedia of Social Deviance would be a good addition to any undergraduate library, especially those with programs in sociology, psychology, or criminology. The source is easy to use and covers a wide range of deviant behaviors. The Reader's Guides are a nice feature because they "help the reader locate similar entries and, hopefully, stimulate new lines of thought" (xxvi).—Mina Chercourt, Head of Cataloging and Metadata, John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio