{"id":2852,"date":"2019-12-23T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=2852"},"modified":"2019-12-21T12:57:55","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T18:57:55","slug":"the-sociological-skinny-on-scandals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2019\/12\/23\/the-sociological-skinny-on-scandals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sociological Skinny on Scandals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Richard Nixon’s resignation letter from August 9, 1974. Photo via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The impeachment proceedings have sparked contentious public debates about what should and should not be considered a \u201cscandal\u201d today. From the earliest days of the discipline, sociologists have employed theory and research to study why some incidents and individuals who seem scandalous have major impacts and lasting legacies, while others seem to make no mark whatsoever. They also help us see how both scandals and the public outcry that they can occasion are socially constructed by norms and values, organizational processes, and inequalities that extend well beyond any one individual person or event. It\u2019s so sociological, it\u2019s almost scandalous!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin, the identification of something as a social problem or \u201ca scandal\u201d requires that an issue is well known in society and intersects with a meaningful moral set of concerns. The construction of a scandal also involves who or what has the power to apply and enforce social norms about right and wrong. For example, public sanctions and normalized stigma against prominent queer citizens and pro-gray groups reinforced widespread bigotry, marginalization, and violence.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n