Gabriel Cavaglion & Efrat Shoham 
Cults, Violence and Sex [PDF ebook] 
The Social Construction of Deviance in Post-Modern Israel

Sociological objectivism argues that what defines social deviance is the existence of areal, concrete, damaging or threatening state of affairs. In other words, what turns a state of affairs into a problem is that it actually harms or endangers human life and well-being. Politicians, educators, social workers, law enforcement agents and mental health specialists may claim that an increase in cases of crime, for example, reflects a genuine rise in the behavior itself. Sharper rises in such rates can naturally lead to stronger societal reactions. Functionalists who adhere to this view, as exemplified by Talcott Parsons and others, considered that customs and institutions that persist over time tend to be those that are good for society because they prohibit harmful activities and encourage beneficial ones that maximize societal preservation. This book explores the dynamics of this social and complex problem.