Red Light Districts on Blue Screens: A Typology for Understanding the Evolution of Deviant Communities on the Internet

Abstract

Sexual deviance was traditionally divided into normal, pathological, and sociological behaviors by Gagnon and Simon (1967). Quinn and Forsyth (2005) modified that typology by adding cross-cutting continuums describing the normative status and social organization of behaviors in order to keep pace with changing sexual mores and technology while bolstering its empirical rigor. This article extends that model based on the original typology's use in research while making heuristic suggestions about the nature of communities based on sexually deviant desires and the issues they pose for research. The revised typology matches “popular,” “tolerated, ” and “pathological” deviance with levels of communities (isolated, virtual, and direct contact) in a pair of scales that can be expanded or truncated to facilitate different research goals.

Notes

BDSM = Bondage, Discipline, Sadism, and Masochism.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James F. Quinn

JAMES F. QUINN , Ph.D., serves as Director of the Addictions Studies Program at the University of North Texas. He is the author of four books and more than thirty articles on motorcycle gangs, community corrections, sex offenders, and the “drugs–crime” connection that have appeared in journals such asDeviant Behavior, The Prison Journal, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Journal of Criminal Justice, and Substance Abuse. Dr. Quinn's work has been officially commended by the National Center for Gang Research, the Texas Legislature, and the Texas Parole division.

Craig J. Forsyth

CRAIG J. FORSYTH is Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he has been Head of the Department of Criminal Justice for 12 years. He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 1983. He is the author of over 200 journal articles, books, and book chapters. His principal research interests are in the areas of deviance, crime, and delinquency.