William J. Chambliss

A Sociological Analysis of the Law of Vagrancy

to which discussions can be oriented. It is also a means of illustrating the existence of parallels between the aspirations of the investigator and those of the policy maker. On one hand, the policy-maker is a risk-taker who must operate on educated guesses. He seldom has a rational and comprehensive means for relating policy to action, or of anticipating the field of forces which play upon him. An operationalized theory is a means for doing this. On the other hand, theory is a framework which lends meaning to the research role. Efforts on the part of the investigator to operationalize the experiment, to insure that experimental conditions are met, and to measure its impact, are more easily entertained as important functions. Any intrusion on his part to maintain experimental conditions or train practitioners for the roles they play can be placed in context and judged as relevant or irrelevant. Even the needs of the investigator to insure that the experiment might be replicated at some future date may not differ greatly from those of the action person who, for different reasons, likewise desires a systematic description of the steps involved. Such an accommodation of theory, research and action roles would have obvious value and operational implications. It runs counter to the traditional expectations of pure science and exceeds the aspirations of applied science. It suggests the need to weigh not only the consequences for both society and sociology of making such a change but of failing to make it. Sociology is still gathering data at arbitrarily selected points in the total society and as a result may be painting only a partial picture of that which exists. Theoretically conceived researchaction programs are one means of expanding the boundaries of that picture. There is likely as much that is generalizable from the social process in action systems as in any other.

The saints and the roughnecks

Eight promising young of good, stable, white upper-middle-class families, active in school affairs, good were some of the most delinquent boys at Hanibal High School. While community residents and parents knew that these boys occasionally sowed a few wild they were totally unaware that sowing wild oats completely occupied the daily routine of these young men. The Saints were constantly occupied with truancy, drinking, wild driving, petty theft and vandalism. Yet not one was officially arrested for any misdeed during the two years I observed them. This record was particularly surprising in light of my observations during the same two years of another gang of Hanibal High School students, six lower-class white boys known as the Roughnecks. The Roughnecks were constantly in trouble with police and community even though their rate of delinquency was about equal with that of the Saints. What was the cause of this disparity? The result? The following consideration of the activities, social class and community perceptions of both gangs may provide some answers.

TOWARD A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CRIME

SummaryAs Gouldner and Fredrichs have recently pointed out, social science generally, and sociology in particular is in the throes of a “paradigm revolution.” Predictably, criminology is both a reflection of and a force behind this revolution.The energing paradigm in criminology is one which emphasizes social conflict-particularly conflicts of social class interests and values. The paradigm which is being replaced is one where the primary emphasis was on consensus, and within which “deviance” or “crime” was viewed as an aberration shared by some minority. This group had failed to be properly socialized or adequately integrated into society or, more generally, had suffered from “social disorganization.”The shift in paradigm means more than simply a shift from explaining the same facts with new causal models. It means that we stretch our conceptual framework and look to different facets of social experience. Specifically, instead of resorting inevitably to the “normative system,” to “culture” or to socio-psychological experiences of individuals, we look instead to the social relations created by the political and economic structure. Rather than treating “society” as a full-blown reality (reifying it into an entity with its own life), we seek to understand the present as a reflection of the economic and political history that has created the social relations which dominate the moment we have selected to study.The shift means that crime becomes a rational response of some social classes to the realities of their lives. The state becomes an instrument of the ruling class enforcing laws here but not there, according to the realities of political power and economic conditions.There is much to be gained from this re-focusing of criminological and sociological inquiry. However, if the paradigmatic revolution is to be more than a mere fad, we must be able to show that the new paradigm is in fact superior to its predecessor. In this paper I have tried to develop the theoretical implications of a Marxian model of crime and criminal law, and to assess the merits of this paradigm by looking at some empirical data. The general conclusion is that the Marian paradigm provides a long neglected but fruitful approach to the study of crime and criminal law.

Status Consistency and Political Attitudes

Research and theory concerning the relationship between status consistency and political attitudes have produced contradictory implications. The research reported here is an attempt to specify the nature of these contradictory implications and to empirically evaluate them. Questionnaire responses from a sample of residents in Seattle indicate that status consistency is not as good a predictor of political attitudes as are the variables of social class and minority group membership.

Making Law the State, the Law, and Structural Contradictions

Preface: Marjorie S. Zatz Acknowledgments PART I. Structural Contradictions 1. On Lawmaking William J. Chambliss 2. The Creation of Criminal Law and Crime Control William J. Chambliss 3. The Political Economy of Opium and Heroin William J. Chambliss 4. The Contradictions of Corrections: An Inquiry into Nest Dilemmas Raymond J. Michalowski 5. Anti-Democratic Legislation in the Service of Democracy: Anti-Racism in Isreal Ephraim Tabory PART II. Ideology 6. Structural Contradictions and Ideological Consistency: Changes in the Form and Content of Cuban Criminal Law Marjorie S. Zatz and James H. McDonald 7. Worker Safety, Law, and Social Change: The Italian Case Kitty Calavita 8. Understanding the Emrgence of Law and Public Policy: Toward a Relational Model of the State Nancy A. Wonders and Frederic I. Solop PART III. Conflicts and Dilemmas 9. The Contradictions of Immigration Lawmaking: The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 Kitty Calavita 10. Toward a Class-Dialectical Model of Power: An Empirical Assessment of Three Competing Models of Political Power J. Allen Whitt 11. State-Organized Crime William J. Chambliss 12. State-Organized Homicide: A study of Seven CIP Plans to Assassinate Fidel Castro Mark S. Hamm PART IV. Strategies and Triggering Events 13. Social Structure, Crime, and Politics: A Conflict Model of the Criminal Law Formation Process Edmund F. Mcarrell and Thomas C. Catellano 14. Other PeopleOs Money Revisited: Collective Embezzlement in the Savings and Loan and Insurance Industries 15. Structural Contradictions and th production of New Legal Institutions: The Transformation of Industrial Accident Law Revisited Ryken Grattet PART V. Conclusions 16. Future Diretions Marjorie S. Zatz and William J. Chambliss Contributors Index

Status integration and suicide: an assessment.

Status integration as an explanation of suicide has been systematically developed and investigated by Professors Gibbs and Martin in a series of studies culminating in a recent monograph. The logical structure of this theoretical formulation and the operational definitions employed are examined. The empirical validity of the theory is assessed by reanalyzing previously reported data and by the presentation of new data. This appraisal raises questions about the logical structure of the theory as well as about its ability to account for suicide.

Markets, profits, labor and smack

ConclusionI began this paper by noting that the theoretical paradigms we usually invoke in an attempt to understand crime are often misleading and unfruitful. By seeking to understand crime through the vision implied by the normative paradigm we focus upon too narrow a set of phenomenon: namely the ideological structure of social systems or individual personalities. We would do well to shift our vision to include at the very least the political and economic history of that collection of activities which are generally defined by law as criminal. The historical development and political economy of opium and heroin from its introduction by European capitalists into China and Southeast Asia down to its current place in the political economy of the United States has been explored in an effort to demonstrate the utility of refocusing our energies towards a macro-sociological perspective.

Developments in crime and crime control research : German studies on victims, offenders, and the public

The editors of this text attempt to bridge the traditional gap between Anglo-American scholars in criminology and their German counterparts. The language barrier has long been another contributing circumstance to the division of philosophy among countries, but recently, substantial attempts are being undertaken to examine more closely the differences among specific criminological schools of thinking. This text points out that, although crime has its universality, a clear understanding of the various approaches to the problem of crime should prove of benefit to those in the field in all countries.

Urban homicide in the United States, 1980-2010: the importance of disaggregated trends

Using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mortality and census data with Supplementary Homicide Reports, we compare 25- and 30-year homicide trends for four age-race-sex categories in 172 U.S. cities. The comparisons indicate that one of the most salient aspects of homicide in the United States from 1980 to 2010 was the disproportionate involvement of young Black men as homicide victims and offenders. The persistence of these rates before, during, and after a sharp rise followed by a dramatic drop in the overall rates suggests the need for a focus on specific explanations for this aspect of urban homicide.

Power, Politics, and Crime

Policing the Ghetto Ethnic Cleansing and the War on Drugs The Politics of Moral Panic Creating Fear and Justifying Oppression The Saints and the Roughnecks Trading Textbooks for Prison Cells Corruption and State Organized Crime Myths, Smokescreens and Racial Oppression