NCJ Number
108169
Date Published
1987
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews the work of major cultural deviance, liberal conflict, and Marxian conflict theorists.
Abstract
Sellin, Sutherland, and Miller argue that conflicts in cultural expectations produce differential potentials for criminalization. Cultures with great potential to influence societal legal norms are more likely to have their interests protected and are less likely to be criminalized. This perspective failed to consider noncultural factors influencing law creation and enforcement and provided the impetus for the development of the liberal conflict theories of Vold, Turk, and Quinney. While these theories specified political and economic interests, they were criticized for their oversimplistic notion of power and the ability of less powerful segments of society to influence law creation and enforcement. Partially in response to these failures, Marxian conflict theory emerged as a more direct challenge to dominant social beliefs and practices. As a group, Marxists are concerned that capitalist social relations and interests are given greater legal protections than other types of social relations and interests. These theories have been criticized either for assumming too great a role played by economic forces, or for specific weaknesses (such as an overly romantic image of criminality or a failure to detail the process of law creation and change). 11 annotated references. (Author summary modified)