This book is one of the great 20th century classics on the historical, cultural and social role of stigma in societies everywhere, but especially Western Society. Shoham, his erudition on display like no other, explores what it means to be stigmatized and how society becomes differentiated between "us" and "them." The case study on Jean Genet, famous playwright and infamous thief, is an essay of genius, surpassing, some say, Sartre's Saint Genet. You will think about crime, criminals, the police who chase them and the judges who judge them in a very different light after you've read this book. Foreword by Marvin E. Wolfgang.