There is little agreement about why behavior is considered deviant and/or illegal. This paper is a qualitative case study of deviance within a community of disabled people. Through in-depth interviewing and an examination of the historical and present situation of the deaf in a hearing world, I analyze the deviant status of peddling among the deaf. Sociologists have long recognized that deviance and its sanctioning may be functional for the group in which it occurs. They help maintain the boundary of the community. I demonstrate, however, that peddling is deviant within the deaf community because it is perceived as maintaining the symbolic boundary between a group of outsiders, the deaf, and the wider society.
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