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World According to NAMBLA: Accounting for Deviance

NCJ Number
116974
Journal
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1989) Pages: 111-126
Author(s)
M DeYoung
Date Published
1989
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a pedophile organization that advocates adult sexual behavior with male children.
Abstract
Given the considerable consensus in this society that such sexual behavior with children is exploitative and victimizing in nature, the techniques that NAMBLA uses to justify, rationalize, and normalize its philosophy and its members' practices in order to avoid or neutralize censure and stigma, are of particular sociological interest. This paper uses Scott and Lyman's (1968) concept of 'accounts' as a theoretical framework for the analysis of these techniques that are found in the publicly disseminated literature of the NAMBLA organization. 41 references. (Author abstract)