Naturalism is developed as a perspective on deviant behavior. Its themes are traced through three sociological viewpoints: those of the Chicago school, the functionalists, and a contemporary neoChicagoan approach. The themes include appreciation of the deviant subject and recognition of diversity and complexity, leading, respectively, to elimination of the concept of pathology and the distinction between deviant and conventional phenomena. The process of becoming deviant is then considered, with attention to the three conceptions of affinity, affiliation, and signification. (JD)