NCJ Number
85213
Editor(s)
H L Ross
Date Published
1981
Length
272 pages
Annotation
This series of essays, which generally reflect a movement toward a synthesis of labeling and conflict theories of deviance, discusses the relationships between deviance and criminal and civil law, along with deviance in the legal system.
Abstract
The opening essay focuses on the nature of legal obligation and legally punished deviance. It investigates the distinction, in the thought of various writers, between the violation of legal rules and the violation of other kinds of rules, especially those of morality. The creation of major rules of law is explained in another presentation. The central theme is that legal rules may not be understood by mere assumption, since rules of law are culturally and historically variable and must be so interpreted. The third essay joins conflict theory to labeling theory in explaining the process of deviancy. Applying the criminal label to a deviant is a ritual of exclusion that changes the status of a citizen in conflict with societal norms into that of an offender beyond the pale of acceptable society. This labeling serves to identify the limits of permissible behavior. The next essay reviews that factors in parole decisions and shows how they relate to other more traditional deviant labeling. Another paper portrays the general historical progression of seven social control mechanisms and appeals for the broadening of the study of social control mechanisms beyond the narrow focus on crime and the criminal justice system. The remaining essays consider the labeling of the mentally ill, the use of the civil law in income tax enforcement, official deviance in the legal system, and legal and social scientific views of law and deviance. References accompany each essay. For individual entries, see NCJ 85214-17.