Deviance and Social Control is a core subfield within sociology that systematically examines behaviours, actions, and attributes that violate established social norms, rules, or laws, as well as the diverse mechanisms societies employ to regulate and respond to such norm-breaking. This field explores the social construction of deviance, investigating how and why certain behaviours are defined as deviant while others are not, and how these definitions vary across different cultures, time periods, and social groups. It delves into the causes and patterns of deviant behaviour, drawing on various sociological theories (e.g., anomie theory, labeling theory, control theory, differential association). Concurrently, it analyses the formal mechanisms of social control, such as law enforcement and the criminal justice system (police, courts, prisons, capital punishment), and informal mechanisms, like social approval or disapproval, peer pressure, and gossip, which maintain social order. The subfield also studies the consequences of deviance for individuals (e.g., stigma, rehabilitation) and society, and the interplay between deviance and social change.