In 1963, Howard S. Becker gave a lecture about deviance, challenging the
then-conventional definition that deviance was inherently criminal and
abnormal and arguing that instead, deviance was better understood as a
function of labeling. At the end of his lecture, a distinguished
colleague standing at the back of the room, puffing a cigar, looked at
Becker quizzically and asked, "What about murder? Isn't that really
deviant?" It sounded like Becker had been backed into a corner. Becker,
however, wasn't defeated! Reasonable people, he countered, differ over
whether certain killings are murder or justified homicide, and these
differences vary depending on what kinds of people did the killing. In
What About Mozart? What About Murder?, Becker uses this example, along
with many others, to demonstrate the different ways to study society,
one that uses carefully investigated, specific cases and another that
relies on speculation and on what he calls "killer questions," aimed at
taking down an opponent by citing invented cases.
Becker draws on a lifetime of sociological research and wisdom to show,
in helpful detail, how to use a variety of kinds of cases to build
sociological knowledge. With his trademark conversational flair and
informal, personal perspective Becker provides a guide that researchers
can use to produce general sociological knowledge through case studies.
He champions research that has enough data to go beyond guesswork and
urges researchers to avoid what he calls "skeleton cases," which use
fictional stories that pose as scientific evidence. Using his long
career as a backdrop, Becker delivers a winning book that will surely
change the way scholars in many fields approach their research.
