Stanley Cohen

"Every label is a choice about what to emphasize and what to hide."

"Deviance is a window into the operation of social control mechanisms."

"The fear of deviance reveals what a society most deeply values."

"People do not simply deviate; they are made deviant through social processes."

"Understanding crime means understanding how we define and categorize harm."

"The treatment of deviants is often crueler than any crime they committed."

"Society maintains itself through the constant production and punishment of deviance."

"What counts as madness depends on who has the power to define it."

"The sociology of deviance is a form of sociology from below."

"Labels are weapons wielded by the powerful against the weak."

"Moral panics are society's way of managing fear about its own future."

"The study of deviance reveals the artificial nature of all social categories."

"Every society defines itself partly through what it excludes."

"Understanding deviance requires empathy for those society has rejected."

"The process of social control creates the very deviance it claims to prevent."

"Deviance is not a property of an act but a consequence of how others react to it."

"Society's enemies are often invented to maintain social cohesion."

"The sociology of deviance is fundamentally about freedom and constraint."

"What we call normal is often just the perspective of the powerful."

"Understanding yourself means recognizing how you have been labeled by society."

"The marginalized often understand society better than the centered."

"Moral entrepreneurs use deviance to push their moral vision onto society."

"Every label is an act of violence against those it names."

"The study of deviance teaches us that all categories are socially constructed."

"Society's need to define deviance reveals its anxiety about its own stability."

"Understanding others requires setting aside our need to label them."

"The process of becoming deviant is a process of social transformation."

"Every moral panic reflects a crisis in the identity of society itself."

"Deviance is a mirror in which society sees itself most clearly."

"The control of deviance is an exercise in the maintenance of social power."