Outsiders, by the interactionist sociologist Howard S. Becker, is considered one of the most groundbreaking sociology texts of the mid-20th century. In this excerpt, Becker states his approach to deviance, by stressing its socially constructed character and the labelling process which transforms some people in “outsiders”.

Outsiders. Studies in the sociology of deviance, Free Press Glencoe, Toronto 1963, pp. 8-10