A Study of the Behavior of Law [Michael R. Gottfredson and Michael J. Hindelang, 1979]

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1/17

A Study of the Behavior of LawAuthor(s): Michael R. Gottfredson and Michael J. HindelangSource: American Sociological Review, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Feb., 1979), pp. 3-18Published by: American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2094813.

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2/17

AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

A

STUDY OF THE

BEHAVIOR OF

LAW*

MICHAEL R.

GOTTFREDSON

MICHAEL

J. HINDELANG

State

University of

New

York,

Albany

State

University of

New

York, Albany

American

Sociological Review 1979, Vol. 44

(February):3-18

In The Behavior of Law, Black

(1976) sets

forth a

theory

of law that

he

argues explains

variations in law

across societies and among individuals within

societies. Black argues that law

can

be conceived of as a

quantitative

variable,

measured

by

the number and

scope

of

prohibitions, obligations and

other

standards to which

people

are

subject.

Law

varies,

according to Black, with other aspects of social life, including stratification, morphology,

culture,

organization,

and

social control. Many of

Black's

principal propositions

regarding

the

quantity

of law

are tested

in this

paper

with

National Crime

Survey

data on the victim's decision

to

report

a

crime

to

the police.

An

alternative model

that

views the

quantity

of

law as

depending

largely

on the

gravity

of the infraction

against legal

norms is

posed

and

tested

against

Black's

theory. The

data

are generally inconsistent

with

the propositions derived from

The Behavior of

Law

and

strongly suggest

that a

theory attempting

to

explain

the

criminal law

cannot

ignore

the

gravity of the infraction

against legal

norms.

Introduction

The Behavior

of Law (Black,

1976) has

been referred to

as a "crashing classic"

(Nader, n.d.) and the most

important

con-

tribution ever

made to the sociology of

law-

"that and more"

(Sherman, 1978).

Although Black's theory has

also been

criticized as "circular"

(Michaels, 1978),

it is apparent that

it will be the stimulus for

a

great deal of research

in

coming years.

This is so because

Black's theory of law is

stated in explicit propositional form and

because he sees the

theory

as

applying

to

so

many aspects

of law

(e.g.,

both

crimi-

nal and civil) and at so

many levels of

analysis (e.g., individual level,

community

level,

and

societal level).

Black

defines

law as "governmental so-

cial control"

(1976:2)

and

argues

that

law

is a quantitative

variable that varies across

time

and

space

as

well as across char-

acteristics

of

individuals:

.

. . the

quantity

of

law is known

by

the

number and

scope

of

prohibitions, obliga-

tions, and other

standards

o which

people

are subject, and by the rate of legislation,

litigation,

and

adjudication....

Any

initia-

tion, invocation,

or application

of

law

in-

creases

its

quantity.

. .

(1976:3)

According

to Black,

the quantity

of law

varies with

other aspects

of social

life:

stratification,

morphology,

culture,

orga-

nization,

and social

control.

In

connection

with each

of these

dimensions

Black sets

forth a series

of propositions

that he

argues

explain

variations

in law

across

societies and among individuals within a

given

society

(1976:6-7).'

For

example,

"law

varies

directly

with rank [e.g.,

in-

come].

. .

.

People

with

less

wealth

have

less law.

They are

less

likely to call

upon

the

law

in

dealing

with

one

another"

(1976:17).

In

this paper

we

will examine

many

of Black's propositions,

empirically

test

their predictions,

and discuss

the

im-

plications

for the sociology

of criminal

law.

*

Address

all

communications

to: Michael

R.

Gottfredson;

Criminal Justice

Research

Center;

One

Alton Road; Albany,

NY 12203.

I

Black discusses

"styles

of law"

as

well as quan-

tity of

law. The styles

include penal,

compensatory,

therapeutic

and conciliatory

(Black,

1976:4-5).

Be-

cause

of the nature

of our

data, we will

limit our

discussion

to penal

(criminal)

law.

3

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3/17

4

AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL

REVIEW

The task that Black

(1976:7)

sets for

himself is to

illustrate

a strategy for

the

construction

of

sociological

theory

that

.. .

predicts and explains

social life with-

out regard to the individual as such. It

neither assumes

nor implies

that he is, for

instance,

rational, goal-directed,

pleasure

seeking,

or pain avoiding."

Black is par-

ticularly

concerned

about

avoiding expla-

nations that

rely on individual

motivation.

For example,

he argues repeatedly

that

both the theory

of law and

"the

theory

of

illegal

behavior" explain

the

same facts

(e.g.,

the crime rate).

The theory

of

illegal

behavior,

however,ex-

plains these facts with the principlesthat

motivate

an

individual o violate the

law....

The theory of

law predictsthe

same facts,

but as

an

aspect

of

the

behavior

of

law,

not

of

the motivation

of the individual. (Black,

1976:9)

As

a

consequence

of

this

macrotheoretical

approach,

Black

is careful to avoid

expla-

nations

or propositions

that

rely

directly

upon

variations

in

the

behavior of

indi-

viduals.

He

argues

that the behavior

of

law,

in all respects,

can

be

explained

by

social

structural

variations and

by

the

relative

social structural positions

of

the

actors

(e.g.,

the victim

and

the offender),

without reference

to how the nature

of

individual

behavior

affects the behavior

of

law.

One

of

the

major

difficulties facing

those

who

would test Black's theory

of

law is

that he is not

explicit

about

how

the

objective seriousness of the offense

should

be handled. Contrary

to

the tradi-

tional sociological

use of

the term

serious-

ness,

as

incorporating

the

consequences

of acts

to

individuals,

such

as

bodily

in-

jury

or financial

loss

(see

Sellin

and

Wolfgang,

1964),

Black

defines the seri-

ousness

of infractions

by

the amount of

law

that

they

evoke.

Thus,

Black argues

that

"[i]f

a

poor

man commits

a

crime

against

another

poor

man,

for

example,

this is less serious than if both are

wealthy.

Less

happens

.

.

.,"

and

that

"the

more

organized

the victim of a

crime,

for

instance,

the more

serious

is the of-

fense"

(Black,

1976:17,95).

For

Black

(1976:9),

". . .

the

seriousness

of deviant

behavior

is

defined

by

the

quantity

of

law

to

which

it is

subject."

What

this

implies,

therefore, is that Black's entire theoretical

framework is

designed

to

account

for

the

quantity of law without

including

the

con-

sequences

of the

deviance

to the victim

as

a dimension of the theory. This is so be-

cause

the

quantity

of law is

Black's de-

pendent

variable-a

quantity

that

varies

as a function of

stratification, morphol-

ogy,

culture, organization,

and

(nonlegal)

social

control-and, thus,

"seriousness"

is not

defined apart from the

dependent

variable itself. Hence,

Black

does not use

seriousness

in

its traditional

sense to

ex-

plain

variations in the

quantity

of

law.

None

of

the

formal

propositions presented

incorporates harm to the victim as a con-

sideration,

and never is

variation

in

litiga-

tion, arrest, prosecution,

or

sentencing

accounted

for

by

Black

in

terms of

varia-

tion

in

conduct.

Although Black

frequently uses such

phrases

as "all else

constant" (e.g.,

Black, 1976:28,47,114)

when stating a

theoretical proposition,

such qualifica-

tions can reasonably

apply only to vari-

ables

included in the

theory.

If

"all else

constant"

can refer to variables not incor-

porated

by

the

theory

then the

theory

must be

rejected as untestable.

If

"all

else" is

limited to dimensions and prop-

ositions

formally specified

by Black, then

the

consequences of legal infractions to

individuals

must

be considered by Black

to be

irrelevant

in

accounting for

the

quan-

tity of

law.

For example, in connection

with his

stratification propositions, Black

(1976:31) notes ". . . that these principles

apply

whatever

the

actual behavior of

the

lower

ranks-whether,

for

example,

it

is

more or less

violent

or

predatory-since

their

conduct is more

likely

to be defined

as

illegal

no matter

what

they

do." On the

basis of

such statements and the context

within

which Black

discusses

his

theory of

law,

he must

be

interpreted as

arguing

that

the

individual consequences

of

legal

in-

fractions, such things as

injury and mone-

tary loss, are not an important considera-

tion in

explaining

the

behavior

of law.

At a

minimum,

he

must be

interpreted as argu-

ing that the

individual

consequences

of

legal

infractions, such as harm to victims

of

crimes

(seriousness

of the offense

in

its

conventional

use),

are less

important

than

stratification, morphology,

culture, orga-



4/17

A STUDY OF THE

BEHAVIOR OF LAW

5

nization, and social control

in

determining

the behavior

of law. An alternative

to

Black's theory

of law, therefore, is one

that explains

the behavior of law as

a func-

tion of the individual consequences of

legal infractions

(such as harm to

the vic-

tim) rather than as a

function of Black's

five dimensions

(and their associated

propositions). Our alternative

model is

simply

that

the behavior of criminal

law

depends primarily

on

what

happens be-

tween the victim and

the offender; the ex-

tent of harm suffered

is the

principal

de-

terminant

of the

quantity

of law.

The Data

Many of

the

propositions

set forth

by

Black can be tested

using data

available

from the

National Crime Survey

(NCS)

conducted by

the Bureau

of the Census

for

the

Law

Enforcement

Assistance Ad-

ministration.

Because the methods and

procedures used

in these victimization

surveys

have been discussed

in

detail

elsewhere (U.S.

Bureau of the

Census,

1975;

Hindelang

et

al., 1978), they

will

be

described only briefly here.

In these surveys,

multistage cluster

sampling

is used to select

representative

samples

of

Americans twelve

years

of

age

or

older

in order to ask them about com-

mon assault and

theft

victimizations

that

they

may

have suffered

during

the

six

months

preceding

the interview.

In

this

design about 130,000

persons are inter-

viewed twice per year.

The

data

used here

are for crimes reported as having occurred

during

1974, 1975,

or 1976.

This

paper

is

limited to

personal

crimes

in which there

was

some

actual contact

between the vic-

tim and the offender-rape, robbery,

as-

sault,

and personal larceny (e.g.,

purse

snatch).

Because of

the

complex

sampling

design,

data

weighted

to yield

valid na-

tional estimates

are used

here. For

these

years

the mean

weight

is

about

1,000.2

The

victimization survey

data

are

par-

ticularly well-suited to testing many of

Black's

propositions

because

he

explicitly

frames

much of

his

discussion

in

terms of

criminal

law

examples,

such

as

complaints

to the

police,

arrests,

and

prosecutions.

The

victimization

survey

data

not

only

contain

the requisite

information

Black

discusses about the victim (e.g., social

rank)

and

the

offender

(e.g., number

of

offenders)

but

also

contain

the

informa-

tion

necessary

to assess

a variety

of

ecological

propositions

set

forth

by

Black.

Furthermore,

one

of the

principal

mea-

sures

of the

quantity

of law

discussed

by

Black

(1976:3)

is

complaint

to the

police:

A complaint

o a

legal

official,

for

example,

is morelaw

than

no

complaint,

whether

t

is

a

call to

the police,

a

visit

to a

regulatory

agency, or a lawsuit.Each is an increasein

the

quantity

of law.

For the

crimes

of

common

theft

and

as-

sault,

initiation

of

the criminal

justice

process

is almost

exclusively

in the

hands

of

the victim (Reiss,

1971;

Hindelang

and

Gottfredson,

1976).

Because

victimization

data

include

both

crimes

reported

to

the

police

and

crimes

not

reported

to

the

police,

they

permit

an empirical

assess-

ment of many of Black's propositions re-

garding

initiation

of

the criminal

law.

Consequently,

most

of

this paper

will cen-

ter

on Black's propositions

within

the con-

text

of the

victim's

decision

about

report-

ing

the

offense

to

the

police.

With the

victimization

survey

data

it

is possible

to

assess propositions

relating

to

each

of

Black's

five

major

dimensions.

The

first of

these

is stratification.

Stratification

Black

(1976:

1

1)

defines

stratification

as

the

"vertical aspect

of

social

life,"

the

"uneven

distribution

of the material

con-

ditions

of existence,

such

as food

and

shelter,

and

the

means

by

which

these

are

produced,

such

as

land,

raw

materials,

tools,

domestic animals,

and slaves."

Ac-

cording

to

Black,

the

quantity

of law

var-

ies directly with social rank, and down-

ward

law

(e.g.,

a

complaint

by

a

wealthier

man

against

a

poorer

man)

is more

likely

than

upward

law:

In

the case

of

a

crime,

for

instance,

a

victim

who

is above

the

offender

in rank

is

more

likely

to

call

the

police

than

a

victim

whose

rank

is lower

than

the offender's

....

Hold

2

The weights reflect the inverse of the probability

of selection, adjusted for within-strata nonresponse,

among other factors. See U.S. Bureau

of the Census

(1975) for details.



5/17

6

AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

constant the

offender's rank and wealthier

people

complain more about

everything. In

criminalmatters,for

instance, the

likelihood

of

a

call to

the police increases with the rank

of the

victim. (1976:21,

27)

With the

victimization

survey data it is

possible to

test this proposition

by exam-

ining the

extent to

which reporting crimes

to

the

police varies as a function of

the

social

rank of

the victim. Most

research

literature

indicates that

offenders

in

crimes

of

common

theft and assault

are

drawn

disproportionately

from

lower

ranks. Because Black

(1976:31,

30) stipu-

lates these findings (".

. .

criminality var-

ies inversely with rank . . . "), from his

stipulation

and his

proposition

it follows

that

the

proportion

of

victims

reporting

their victimizations to

the

police

will

in-

crease with

the

victim's

rank. Table

1

shows the

relationship

between the vic-

tim's

family

income

(Black's

principal

in-

dicator of social

rank) and

proportionate

reporting of victimizations to

the police.3

In

order

to examine the effects of harm

to

the victim

on

reporting

to

the

police,

the data in

Table

1

are

tabulated

also

by

seriousness

level as

measured by the

Sellin-Wolfgang

(1964)

seriousness scale.

This

seriousness

scoring system was de-

veloped using a

magnitude estimation

procedure and it is

designed to

take into

account

the extent and

nature

of

bodily

injury,

weapon use,

intimidation, forcible

sexual

intercourse, and financial loss.4

Table

1

shows a substantial seriousness

effect;

as the

gravity

of

the

victimization

increases so too does

reporting

to

the

police.

Contrary

to Black's

hypothesis,

however, there is little systematic variabil-

ity in

rates of reporting

to the

police,

as a

function of

income.

Collapsing

across

seriousness

level,

the

gamma

for Table

1

between

reporting

to the

police

and

family

income is

-.017; within seriousness levels

the gammas

range

from -.037 to .110. On

the other hand,

the

gamma

for the

rela-

tionship

between

reporting

and

serious-

ness level

(collapsing across

income)

is

.305.

This

effect

is of

similar

magnitude

within income categories (gammas range

from .260 to

.453). Clearly,

Table

1

is not

consistent

with

Black's stratification

pos-

tulate.

One need not

accept

the

stipulation

made

by

Black

regarding

the

inverse rela-

tionship between

criminality and

rank

in

order

to

assess Black's

stratification pos-

tulate with

these data.

A

corollary to the

proposition

tested

above is that people

with

less wealth

are "less

likely to call

upon law in their dealings with

one an-

other

. . .

"

(1976:

17).

What this

implies,

then,

is

that

victimizations between per-

sons

known to

each

other

(and, hence,

likely

to

be

similar in

social

rank)

are

more

likely to be

reported to the

police by per-

sons of

higher rank

than by

persons of

lower rank.

Respondents in

the survey

were

asked

whether the

offender

was

someone

known

to

them (a

relative,

a

good friend, or a casual acquaintance) or

was a

stranger.

The data

presented

in

Table

1

were

analyzed

separately

for

crimes

involving persons reported

by

vic-

tims to

be

nonstrangers.

The results for

crimes

between

nonstrangers,

shown in

Table

2, are

parallel

to

those shown

in

Table

1.

For

nonstranger victimizations

only,

collapsing across

seriousness,

the

gamma between

income and

reporting to

the

police

is

equal

to

-.102;

within

serious-

ness levels gammas ranged from - .110 to

.050.

Thus,

Black's

prediction

that people

with

less wealth

are less

likely

to

call

upon

law in

their

dealings

with

one

another does

not

find

support

in

these data.

Another

stratification

hypothesis

put

forth

by

Black

(1976:15)

is that

wherever

people

are more

equal

there

is

less

law:

I

Victims

were

asked

whether

"the

police

were

informed of this incident in any way?" Those re-

sponding

"no" or

"don't

know"

were classified

as

"no"

for the

purpose

of this

paper.

"Yes"

included

victimizations

reported

to the

police by

the victim

or

someone

in

the

victim's household,

victimizations

reported

by

"someone

else"

and victimizations

in

which

the "police

[were] on

the scene."

Virtually

all

of the

"yes" responses

(95%)

involved

reports

to

the

police.

4

According

to

this method

elements

of the

vic-

timization

are scored

for

seriousness

resulting

in

seriousness

scores

that range

from

zero to

26.

A

victimization

resulting

in a score of zero would

be

an

attempted crime in which no injury or loss was suf-

fered

and in which

no

weapon

was used.

A score

of

26 is indicative

of

a homicide,

although homicide

is

not among

the

crimes

counted

in the survey.

Vic-

timization

events

are concentrated

among

the

lower

seriousness

scores (Hindelang,

1976: Chap.

6).

In

order to

have

a sufficient

number

of

(unweighted)

victimizations,

four

seriousness

levels

were

used:

level

1

=

O

and

1;

level 2

=

2 and 3;

level

3

=

4 and

5;

and

level

4

=

6

or

more.



6/17


7/17

8

AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

X

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t

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c

N

Cl

.E

~ON

NIt

q

Cl

-t

-

O f

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8/17

A STUDY OF

THE BEHAVIOR

OF LAW

9

Table 3. Proportion of Victimizations

Reported

to Police by Seriousness Level

and Ratio of Number of

Families in Respondent's

Neighborhood with Annual

Incomes under

$5,000 to Total Families in

Neighborhood,

United States, 1974-1976

Proportion

of Families in

Respondent's Neighborhood

with incomes under $5,000

Seriousness

Level

0-10%

11-20W 21-30W

31-100%

Total Gamma

1

35% 37%

38% 37%

37% .023

(1,108,504)

(1,524,432) (839,712)

(745,554) (4,218,202)

2 37%

37%

41%

41%

39%W

.047

(1,671,796)

(2,297,852) (1,364,830)

(1,185,060) (6,519,538)

3

54% 54%

56%

47% 53%

-.051

(1,126,276) (1,641,788)

(997,065) (989,873)

(4,755,002)

4

75%

75% 73%

70%

73%

-.069

(393,980) (608,400)

(419,024)

(506,002) (1,927,406)

Total 45%

46%

48% 46%

.026

(4,300,556) (6,072,472) (3,620,631) (3,426,488) (17,420,147)

families

within

the

victim's

neighborhood

with

annual family incomes of less

than

$5,000.

According to Black's theory

of

law, as

the proportion of families under

$5,000

increases, the rate of reporting to

the

police decreases. Once

again, even at

this level of

aggregation, reporting

is

con-

sistently

related to seriousness level

within each category of neighborhood in-

come level.

There is, however, little sys-

tematic evidence to

support the

proposi-

tion

derived from Black's

theory of law.

In

addition, when the data are regrouped

according to the

percentage

of

all families

with an

annual

family

income of

$15,000

or

more, the

very slight

effect in

Table

3

changes

to

a trend

of

a

similarly weak

magnitude

opposite

to

that predicted by

his

theory.

In

sum, areal stratification

does not produce findings of notable mag-

nitude nor findings

consistently

in

the

direction required by the

theory.

Morphology

The

second dimension relevant to

Black's

(1976:37) theory

of law is mor-

phology:

Morphology

s the

horizontal

aspect

of social

life, the distributionof people in relationto

one

another, including

their

division of

labor,

networks

of

interaction, ntimacy,and

integration. t varies across social settings of

every

kind, whether societies, communities,

neighborhoods,

or

organizations.

.

.

One

village or tribe may have a greater

divisionof

labor-more

differentiation-than

another

....

Some settings are

intimate,

others

im-

personal.

In

some, nearly

every

one partici-

pates

in everything)

in

others, many

are

marginal

or alone.

Morphology

is a central

dimension

in

The

Behavior

of Law because

of its

implica-

tions for

the degree

to which

people

are

involved

in each other's

lives

(Black,

1976:40). Black

contends

that law is

in-

active among intimates and is used in-

creasingly

as

relational

distance increases,

until the point

at which people

exist

en-

tirely

independently

of each

other,

a

point

rarely reached

in modern

societies.

This

observation

is

embodied

in

the

proposi-

tion that

"the relationship

between

law

and

relational

distance

is curvilinear"

(Black,

1976:41).

Up

to a

point,

Black

(1976:46)

notes,

a

community's

size is

predictive of its rate of litigation.

This

derivation can

be tested

with the

victimization

survey

data

by examining

the relationship

between

the size

of the

community

in which

the victim

resides

and the

proportion

of respondents

who

told interviewers that

they had

reported

the victimization

to

the police.

From the

victimization

data

it

is possible to

obtain

the size

of the place

in which the respon-

dent

resided at

the time of

the interview.

These place sizes have been divided into

six

groups as shown

in

Table

4. According

to

Black's theory

of

law,

as place size

increases,

so too should

the proportion

of

victimizations

reported

to the police.

The data

in Table

4

do

not support the

hypothesis.

At each

seriousness

level the

general

trend is

for

the rate

of

reporting

to



9/17

10

AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL

REVIEW

Table 4.

Proportions

of

Victimizations Reported to

the

Police, by

Seriousness Level, and

Size

of

Place,

United

States, 1974-1976a

Place Size

Seriousness

Under

10,000- 50,000-

250,000- 500,000-

1,000,000

Level 10,000 49,000 249,000 499,999 999,999 or more Total Gamma

1

44%

37%

37%

34%

31%

32%

36%

-.112

(546,280)

(957,077)

(970,599)

(309,680)

(457,445)

(466,765) (3,707,846)

2

46%

38%

37% 33%

38%

38%

38%

-.060

(792,968) (1,385,821)

(1,395,100)

(540,047) (730,028)

(776,311)

(5,620,275)

3

53%

57%

54%

49Wo

50o

54%

54%

-.034

(629,018)

(1,001,677)

(980,465)

(405,247) (505,470)

(646,540) (4,168,417)

4

82%

73%

76%

70o 68% 72%

73% -.096

(201,721)

(361,688)

(345,854)

(170,045) (238,581)

(406,385) (1,724,274)

Total

51%

46%

45%

42%

43% 47% - .041

(2,169,986) (3,706,262)

(3,692,019)

(1,425,018)

(1,931,525)

(2.296,001)

a

Cases

in

which the

place

size

has

not

been classified

by

the Bureau

of

the

Census are not included in this

table.

the police to decrease as the size of the

place in which the respondent lives

in-

creases.

Among morphological variables Black

includes radial location, the proximity of

individuals to the center of social life.

Employed persons are

more

integrated

than unemployed and married persons are

more integrated than single persons

(Black, 1976:48). The proposition related

to

radial location

is that "law

varies

di-

rectly with integration" (1976:48). From

this it

follows that (other things being

equal),

for

example, persons

who

are

un-

married and unemployed

will

have lower

rates of reporting to the police than will

persons

who are married and

employed.

To

test

this

proposition, respondents were

categorized with respect to marital status

and employment status. For this purpose,

persons keeping

house were

categorized

as

employed.6

Table 5 shows rates

of

reporting to the

police by employment status and marital

status. A comparison of proportions re-

porting

their victimizations to the

police

among those who

were

married vs. those

who were never married indicates that the

former are

more

likely

than

the latter

to

invoke the criminal justice process.

This

tendency is slightly greater for less serious

victimizations.7

Because Black views

married people as more integrated than

single people these results

are

consistent

with his radical location

hypothesis. Em-

ployment status, a second

indicator of so-

cial integration, however,

is not consis-

tently

related

to

reporting

to the

police

in

the direction predicted by Black's theory

of law. Furthermore,

to the extent that

being in school is viewed as being more

integrated than being unemployed, the

data are generally inconsistent

with

the

integration

proposition.8

For example,

among persons

who have

never been mar-

ried, those

in

school were

less likely than

those unemployed to report

victimizations

to the police (e.g., seriousness level 1,

29%o

s.

35%).

Black also hypothesizes that the quan-

tity of law is related to population density.

The greater the density, the greater the

law.

A

density indicator

available among

the neighborhood characteristics

is

the

ratio of the number of

housing units

in

structures

containing

five or more units

to

the

total number of housing units. Contrary

to

his theory

of

law, there

is

a slight

trend

for the

proportion

of

victimizations

re-

ported

to the

police

to decrease as popula-

tion

density increases (data

not shown

in

tabular form).

For

the least serious victimi-

6

The

"other"

category

shown

in

Table

5

includes

retired

persons

and

persons

who

were unable

to

work.

When tabulated

separately "persons

keeping

house"

were

found

to have

rates

of

reporting

similar

to

those

of employed

persons.

7

Because

of the

number

of cells

in relation

to

the

number of

unweighted

cases

available, for

this

por-

tion

of

the

analysis it

was

necessary to

dichotomize

seriousness. Low

seriousness

includes

Sellin-

Wolfgang

scores

0

through 3

and

high

seriousness

includes

scores

of

4

or

more.

8

Respondents

were

dichotomized into

those

under 35

and

those 35

and

older and

these

findings

maintained.



10/17

A STUDY OF THE BEHAVIOR OF LAW 11

0 oc

~~~

C~~~~l

C-)~~~~~C

0)~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~0

CZ

C ~ ~ ~

l C

Cu~ ~ ~

~~~C0

0)

t-

U

~~~

'0)~ ~~0

c~~~ 0)

~ ~

0

0'6C

"Cl

CZ

0)~ ~

~~~~0 0

0~~~~~~~0

r

00

00

CZ

nations,

40% of

victims residing

in areas

with

no housing units

in structures

con-

taining

five or

more units

and

32%

of vic-

tims residing

in areas with

more than

15%

of housing units in structures containing

five or

more units,

reported

their

victimi-

zations

to the police.

For the

most serious

victimizations,

the respective

figures are

75%

and

71%.

Thus, among

those

mor-

phological

propositions

tested,

only that

relating to

greater reporting

by

married

than

single persons

received support.

Culture

The third dimension discussed by Black

(1976:61)

is culture:

Culture

s the

symbolic

aspect

of social life,

including

expressions

of what is true, good,

and beautiful.

It thus includes

ideas

about

the

nature

of

reality,

whether theoretical

or

practical,

and whether supernatural,

metaphysical,

or empirical.

.

.

Culture

n-

cludes

aesthetic

life

of all

sorts,

the fine

arts

and

the

popular,

such as

poetry

and

painting,

clothing

and

other

decorative

art,

architec-

ture, and even the culinaryarts.

Like

stratification,

culture

varies among

societies

and

within

societies among

indi-

viduals.

"An

individual's

culture depends

upon

how many

ideas

he has,

what he

wears,

eats,

makes,

watches,

and

plays"

(Black,

1976:64).

As an indicator

of the

culture

of individuals,

Black

uses

educa-

tion.

Whether

on the

individual

or

societal

level,

"law

varies directly

with

culture"

(Black, 1976:63). That is, for example,

"literate

and educated people

are

more

likely

to bring

lawsuits against

others"

(Black,

1976:64).

The left

panel

of Table

6

shows again

that

the seriousness

of

the

victimization

is

closely

related

to

reporting

to

the

police.

Regardless

of an

individual's

educational

level,

more serious

victimizations

are

more likely

to

be reported

to

the

police.

The

victim's

educational

level

(excluding

those still in school), as Black's theory

predicts,

is

directly

related

to

reporting

to

the

police.

The

overall

strength

of

this re-

lationship

is,

however,

very

weak.

Col-

lapsing

across

seriousness,

the

gamma

for

the relationship

between

individual

educa-

tional level

and

reporting

to

the

police

is

.109 and

within

seriousness

rows

gammas



11/17

12

AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL

REVIEW

CZOUT~E?R

tndo

s~~~~~I

N

rq

:

g

V.

CZgOsm

e

;__

~

c

tao

range from

.190 for the

least

serious

vic-

timizations to

.063 for

the second least

serious

victimizations.

As

with most

dimensions

in

Black's

theory, culture is seen also as an impor-

tant

predictor

of

variations

in

law across

areas. Once

again,

the

neighborhood

characteristic data

were

used as an indi-

cator of the culture of

areas.

Specifically

the

proportion of

persons

25 to 54

years

of

age

who were

college graduates

to all

per-

sons

25 to

54

years

of

age

was used. The

right panel of Table

6

shows

these areal

data. According to

Black, as

the

propor-

tion

of

educated persons

increases,

so

too

should reporting to the police. Contrary to

this

expectation,

there is

a

slight negative

association

between areal education

and

reporting to

the

police

(gamma

=

-.112);

within the

seriousness

rows the gammas

range from

-.122

to

-

.062.

In

sum,

Black's

cultural propositions are

neither

consistently

nor

strongly

supported.

Organization

Organizations thecorporateaspectof social

life, the

capacity or collective

action.

This

is

found in

any group, whether a

couple

or

a

gang

of

playmates,

a

club,

family,

or

firm,

a

political party,

municipality,

or

state. But

some

groups

are more

organized

han

others.

...

A

society may be

more

or less

organized.

.

Even one individual

may

be

more

organized

han another-as measured

by

his

memberships. Finally, any

group is, by

definition,

more

organized

hanan

individual

on his

own.

(Black, 1976:85,

86)

The first

proposition related to

organiza-

tion is that

"law varies

directly

with

orga-

nization"

(Black,

1976:86). Parallel to

the

stratification

proposition

that downward

law is

greater

than upward law,

Black

(1976:92) argues

that "law is greater

in

a

direction

toward

less

organization than

toward

more

organization." This

implies

that

a

collectivity is more

likely to litigate

against an

individual than vice

versa.

In

connection with criminal offenses, for

example,

"the

police

are

more

likely

to

hear

about a

robbery of a

business than a

robbery

of

an individual

on the street"

(Black,

1976:95).

To this

point

the

use of

victimization

data has

been

restricted to

personal

crimes,

but because the

National

Crime



12/17

A

STUDY

OF

THE

BEHAVIOR

OF

LAW

13

Survey includes

a

survey

of

a national

probability sample

of

business establish-

ments it is possible to compare reporting

rates according to whether the victim

was

an individual or an organization. In sup-

port of Black's hypothesis, the data indi-

cate that although about one-half

of

the

robberies of

individuals

are reported

to

the police, more than four out

of five rob-

beries of business establishments are

re-

ported to the police.

Black also conceives

of

organization

as

applying

to individuals and

to collections

of individuals. Black considers

two

or

more individuals, by definition, to be

more organized than a single individual.

As noted above, Black puts

forth the

proposition that "law is greater

in

a direc-

tion

toward

less

organization" (Black,

1976:86).

If

victims

of

personal

crimes

are

dichotomized

into less

organized (single

individuals) and

more

organized (two

or

more individuals) and offenders are

simi-

larly dichotomized, Black makes

an

explicit prediction regarding

the rank-

order of the resultant four-fold classifica-

tion with respect to invocation of law.

Specifically,

the

most

likely

to

report

their

victimizations to the police are two

or

more persons

who

are victimized by a

lone individual,

then two or more

persons

victimized by two or more offenders,

then

a lone

victim

of a lone

offender,

and

fi-

nally the

lone victim

of

two or

more of-

fenders

(Black, 1976:97).

The

relevant

data are presented

in

Table

7. With seri-

ousness level controlled, the rank-orderof

cells does not consistently

conform to

predictions derived from Black's theory of

law. This is because

although there

is a

systematic "victim" effect along

the

organizational dimension, there

is

not a

parallel

systematic

"offender"

effect

along

this

dimension. In

sum, there

is evi-

dence

consistent

with the theory

that

more

organized victims

are

systematically

more likely to invoke the law, but there is

no

consistent

(or

substantial)

evidence

that "the more

organized the

offender, the

more of

this immunity

[from

law] he en-

joys"

(Black,

1976:93).

Once again, a

comparatively

strong

seriousness effect is

apparent.

Social Control

Black's

(1976:107)

final

dimension is

social control:

Social

control is the

normativeaspect

of

so-

cial life. It

defines and

responds to deviant

behavior,

specifying

what ought to be:

what

is

rightor

wrong, whatis a

violation,

obliga-

tion,

abnormality,or disruption.

Law

is

so-

cial

control,

but

so are

etiquette, custom,

ethics,

bureaucracy, and the

treatment of

mentalillness.

As with

the other dimensions relevant to

the

behavior

of

law, social control

is

a

quantity

that varies

across

societies,

communities,

organizations,

families and

friendships-a

quantity

with

which

law

varies

inversely

(Black,

1976:107).

In

set-

tings

which

permit

people

continuously

to

observe

and react

to

each other's

conduct,

law

is

less

important

as a mechanism

of

social

control.

This

proposition

can be

tested

by

examining

variations

in

report-

ing

victimizations

to the

police

across

rural, suburban, and urban areas. Much of

Black's discussion

implies

that

in rural

areas,

in

which informal controls

are

tradi-

tionally

viewed

as

stronger

than

in

anon-

ymous

cities,

rates

of

reporting

to

the

police

will

be

lower than those

in

urban

Table 7.

Proportion

of

Victimizations

Reported

to the Police

by Seriousness

Level,

Number of

Victims,

and

Number

of

Offenders,

United

States,

1974-1976

Seriousness

Level

1 2 3 4

Number of

Victims

Number

of

Victims

Number of

Victims

Number

of

Victims

More

More

More

More

Number

of

Than

Than

Than

Than

Offenders

One

One

One

One

One

One

One One

One

34%

55%

36%

53%

44%

66%

71%

86%

(2,618,328)

(450,508)

(3,564,729)

(738,883)

(2,390,365)

(940,594)

(791,691)

(159,048)

More Than

34%

59%W

38%

54%

49%o

69%o

70%W

80%W

One

(989,576)

(360,232)

(1,556,805)

(593,099)

(1,003,481)

(672,093)

(693,466)

(294,856)



13/17

14

AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL

REVIEW

areas. When

the victimization

data are

disaggregated

according

to

the place of the

victim's residence

(data not shown in

tabular form)-within the central

city of

an SMSA (urban), the balance of an

SMSA

(suburban),

or

outside an

SMSA

(rural)-there is

virtually no relationship

between

urbanization and

reporting to the

police. For the

least serious

victimiza-

tions,

the

percentages of

victims

reporting

to

the police in

urban, suburban,

and rural

areas are

36%, 40%o

nd

40%.

For

the

most

serious

victimizations the respective fig-

ures

are 74%, 82% and 79%.

Social control

is

hypothesized

not

only

to vary across macroareas but across

microareas as well.

Black

(1976:110)

maintains that

private social

settings have

more

social control

(other than

law) and,

as a

consequence,

less law

than

do

public

settings.

In

connection with

reporting

crimes

to

the

police,

it

follows

from

this

premise that

reporting should be greater

for

victimizations

occurring

in

public

places ("on the street" and in public con-

veyances) than in homes or offices. The

relevant data are presented in Table 8.

The most private of the places shown in

Table 8 is the home and the least private is

"on

the street.'" These data are contrary

to the prediction that where nonlegal so-

cial control is the greatest (the home), re-

porting to the police will be the least and,

conversely, where nonlegal

social

control

is the least (the street), reporting to the

police

will be the

greatest.

For

each

seri-

ousness

level

rates

of

reporting

to the

police for victimizations occurring

on

the

street were lower than those for victimiza-

tions occurring in the home. They were

also lower

than the rates

for victimizations

occurring "near the home,"

where

social

control

would be

expected

to

be

greater

because

the

crime

occurred within the vic-

tim's own

neighborhood (Black,

1976:109). As a place of occurrence,

"'office/factory" is,

in

Black's

terms,

sub-

ject

to

more

nonlegal social

control than

Table

8. Proportion of

Victimizations

Reported to the

Police,

by Seriousness

Level, Place

of

Occurrence,

and Prior Relationship between Victim and Offender, United States, 1974-1976

Place of

Occurrence

Inside

Commercial

Seriousness Own

Building/Public

Office/

Near

On

Inside

Level Home

Conveyance

Factory

Home

Street

School

Other

Total

stranger 64% 40%

54%

41%

38%

14%

46%

38%

(109,687)

(563,677)

(20,931)

(203,340)

(1,579,663) (292,063)

(241,930) (3,011,291)

1 non-

stranger

49%

38%

24%

51%

35%

11%

31%

36%

(350,178)

(180,818)

(31,665)

(143,252)

(553,573)

(223,076)

(284,418) (1,740,979)

total

53%

40%W

36%

45% 38%

12% 38%

37%

(459,865) (744,494) (52,596) (346,592) (2,133,236) (525,139) (490,398) (4,752,270)

stranger

53%

36% 36%

57%

40%

13% 42% 40%

(251,568)

(1,182,976) (74,458)

(425,562)

(2,446,669) (260,978)

(426,690)

(5,068,901)

2

non-

stranger

52% 27%

16%

56%

32%

13% 30%

36%

(509,410)

(277,995)

(102,491)

(2,953,348)

(536,816)

(205,508)

(260,771)

(2,188,340)

total

52%

34%

25%

57%

39%

13% 37% 39%

(760,979)

(1,460,972) (176,949)

(720,910)

(2,983,485) (466,486)

(687,461)

(7,257,241)

stranger

69Wo

58%

68%

67%

51%

26%

57%

55%

(254,764)

(520,362)

(28,683)

(362,835)

(2,002,965)

(96,996)

(417,622) (3,684,226)

3

non-

stranger

63%

43%

11%

62% 46% 1

6% 42% 50%

(427,788)

(187,233) (23,314)

(269,687)

(470,283) (98,012)

(260,562)

(1,736,875)

total 65% 54% 42% 65% 50%o 21% 52% 53%

(682,552)

(707,595) (51,997)

(632,518)

(2,473,248) (195,008)

(678,184)

(5,421,101)

stranger

85%

78%

76%

88% 70%

25%

69%o

74%

(224,342)

(217,423) (11,474)

(107,126)

(964,752) (8,997)

(130,691)

(1,664,805)

4 non-

stranger 72%

75%

100o

79%o

71%

51%

71%

72%

(176,050)

(30,678)

(1,217)

(43,696)

(103,593) (7,497)

(68,011) (430,742)

total

80%

78%

78%

86% 70%

37%

70%

73%

(400,391)

(248,101) (12,691)

(150,823)

(1,068,345) (16,994)

(198,702)

(2,095,548)



14/17

A

STUDY

OF

THE

BEHAVIOR OF LAW

15

the

street. Rates

of

reporting are higher

(but not consistently) for crimes occurring

on the

street than

for

those occurring

in

offices and factories. Victimizations tak-

ing place "inside schools" have the low-

est rates of reporting to the police, regard-

less of seriousness level. To the extent

that the school is viewed as an institution

having its own independent system of so-

cial controls,

then these school

data are

supportive of Black's proposition.

Also shown in Table 8 are rates of re-

porting to

the

police disaggregated

on the

basis

of

prior relationship between the

vic-

tim

and the offender.

This is

useful

for two

reasons: first, because as place of occur-

rence varies so too does the proportion

of

incidents involving victims and offenders

who

were previously

known to

each

other

(e.g., victimizations occurring in the

vic-

tim's

home involve a disproportionate

number of nonstranger victimizations);

second, because Black suggests that

in-

creased

social control

in

private settings

derives both from the fact that persons

interacting in private settings are likely to

be

friends and acquaintances (among

whom

on-going nonlegal mechanisms

of

social control exist) and that many re-

stricted

places (factories, offices, schools,

etc.)

have their

own

systems

of

security

(Black, 1976:110).

When the

prior

rela-

tionship between the

victim and the

of-

fender is

controlled,

the overall

findings

noted above generally maintain. One ex-

ception

is

that

stranger

victimizations

occurring in offices/factories have rates of

reporting that are generally higher than

those

occurring between strangers

on

the

street.

Black argues that law varies even

with

the

time

of

day. "When people go

to

sleep,

for

instance,

most social control

re-

laxes as well and law increases"

(1976:110). Consistent

with

this

hypoth-

esis is

the

finding

that

for

victimizations of

low seriousness reporting to the police

in-

creases from one-third for those victimiza-

tions

occurring during

the

daytime

to

one-half for

those

occurring

between mid-

night

and

six a.m. As

seriousness

in-

creases,

the

strength

of this

relationship

decreases,

such that for the most

serious

victimizations there

is

little variation

in

reporting

to

the

police by

time

of

occur-

rence

(daytime, 74%; 6 p.m. to

midnight,

75%; midnight to

six

a.m., 72%).

Thus,

overall, the

social control

dimension re-

ceives only

partial

support.

Discussion

The

Behavior of Law

is

an

important

contribution to

the sociology of

law both

because of

the

empirical questions that it

raises and

because it is

generally set

forth

in

such an explicit

manner that it is

testa-

ble.

Black

predicts

that law, which

can be

quantified in

a variety

of ways, is

associ-

ated

with several

critical

dimensions;

Black predicts the direction of these asso-

ciations, and

the conditions

under which

these

associations hold.

Through the use

of

a

great variety of

concrete examples

Black

facilitates the

research task by

translating

central concepts

into

indi-

cators.

The ability

of Black's theory

to

explain

reporting to

the

police

can be

summarized

briefly. According

to

the

stratification

postulates

of

Black's

theory

of

law

as

they

have been

operationalized

here, reporting

to the

police

should

have varied

directly

with the

victim's

rank, should have been

greater for

victimizations

among wealthy

nonstrangers

than among less

wealthy

nonstrangers,

should

have been greater

for

victimizations

between

strangers

than

for

victimizations

between

nonstrangers,

and

should

have varied

directly

with

areal

income. With

the exception of a

slightly

greater overall rate of reporting for

stranger victimizations than

for

nonstranger

victimizations, these stratifi-

cation

propositions

were

not

supported.

The

propositions

relating

to

morphol-

ogy

lead

to the

expectation

that

law

will

be

used

increasingly

as relational

distance

in-

creases.

In

the

context

of

reporting

vic-

timizations

to the

police,

this

implies

that

reporting

will

be

greater

for

larger

com-

munities

than for smaller communities

and

for more densely populated areas than for

less

densely populated

areas.

The

proposi-

tion that law varies

directly

with

integra-

tion

implies

that

reporting

to the

police

will

be

greater

for

employed persons

than

for

unemployed

persons

and

for married

persons

than

for

single persons.

Of

these

four

morphological

expectations

support



15/17

16 AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

is

found only for

the hypothesis that

mar-

ried persons

have a higher rate

of

report-

ing

to the

police than do

single persons.

Following

Black,

educational level

was

used as the indicator of individual and

neighborhood culture to test

the

proposi-

tion that law

varies

directly

with

culture.

Although

there

is

weak

support

for

this

proposition on

the individual

level,

there

is

weak

evidence contrary to the

hypoth-

esis

on

the areal level.

At

neither the indi-

vidual

level nor the

areal level

is

the

rela-

tionship between education

and

reporting

to

the police as

substantial as

required

by

Black's theory.

Black proposes that law varies directly

with

organization and

hence

the

finding

that

business

establishments

have

a

higher

rate

of

reporting

to the

police

than do

in-

dividuals

is consistent with

Black's

orga-

nizational

hypothesis.

On

the

other

hand,

his

theoretical predictions

regarding

varia-

tions in

rates of

reporting

to the

police

according

to

whether the victim and

the

offender

have greater or

lesser organiza-

tion

are not

consistently supported. The

organization of the victim is associated

with

greater reporting to

the police

but,

contrary to

theoretical

expectations, the

organization of

offenders

does

not

reduce

reporting to the

police.

The

proposition that

law varies in-

versely with

other forms of

social control

was

operationalized

by

examining

rates of

reporting

by extent of

urbanization,

time

of

occurrence,

and

place of

occurrence.

Rates of reporting were found to be ho-

mogeneous across

levels of

urbanization,

but

were found to

vary

somewhat across

time and

place

of

occurrence.

Although

the

data

relating

to

time of

occurrence for

victimizations of low

seriousness

are con-

sistent

with Black's

theoretical

predic-

tions,

those

relating

to

extent

of urbaniza-

tion

are

not, and those

relating to place of

occurrence

offer

only

partial support.

Most

of

the

predictions of

Black's

theory of law are not compatible with

these

victimization

survey

data

on the in-

vocation of the

criminal law.

For a

theory

that

purports

that

".

. . it

is

possible

to

explain all

of

[the behavior of

law]"

(Black,

1976:4),

these

results cannot

be

considered

encouraging. On the

other

hand, at the

trivariate

level, when the di-

mensions central to

Black's theory

of law

are

controlled,

in

every

case there is evi-

dence of

a substantial

seriousness effect.

This is true when both characteristics of

individuals

(Tables 1, 2, 5, and 6)

and

characteristics

of

areas (Tables 3, 4,

and 6)

are

controlled. Also, without exception,

at

the trivariate level the seriousness

effect is

greater-usually

much greater-than

the

effects of the indicators central

to Black's

theory

of

law. In

the few instances

in

which there is some support

for Black's

hypotheses, the strength

of support de-

creases as seriousness

increases.

The centrality of seriousness to the

phenomenon

of reporting to

the police,

particularly

in

conjunction

with the

rela-

tive weakness

of the

dimensions at the

core

of

Black's

theory

of

law, suggests

that

an adequate theory

of criminal

law

must

incorporate

some measure

of the

consequences

of legal infractions

to

indi-

viduals in

order to be an accurate

model.

It is, of course, conceivable

that the rela-

tion between variability

in conduct and

variability in the behavior of law is con-

fined

to reporting of victimizations

to the

police

and is not

of

importance

to

the

quantity of

criminal

law in

other spheres.

However, research concerning

arrest

(Hindelang, 1974; Hagan,

1972; Goldman,

1963), prosecution

(Hagan,

1974)

and

sentencing (Green,

1964; Hagan, 1974;

Chiricos

and

Waldo, 1975)

indicates

that

the gravity of the

infraction against legal

norms is a major determinant of the quan-

tity of

criminal

law

in

general.

To be consistent with

the available

data,

an

adequate

theory

of the behavior

of

criminal law must incorporate

a

proposi-

tion

stating

that

the

quantity

of

criminal

law varies directly

with the

serious-

ness

of

the

infraction. That is,

the

gravity

of the

infraction

against

legal

norms

is

a major

determinant

of how

individuals and legal systems

react

to the

infraction. Such a proposition, however,

is

explicitly

ruled out of Black's theory

by

his stance that the behavior of law

can be

explained

".

.

. without

regard

to the

.

.

.

conduct of

the

deviant"

(Black, 1976:118).

By

excluding

individual conduct from

his

theory,

Black has excluded what

our data



16/17

A STUDY

OF

THE BEHAVIOR OF LAW 17

(and the data of others cited above) have

shown to be an extremely important de-

terminant of the quantity of criminal law.

Unlike Black's definition

of

seriousness

(cited above), seriousness as we have

conceptualized and operationalized it can

be defined independently of the quantity

of

law. The available

research data

sup-

port the notion that within societies there

is general consensus regarding the rank

order

of

common-law infractions

by

seri-

ousness (Rossi et al., 1974). Specifically,

it has been found that such rankings are

generally

consistent

(i.e.,

correlations on

the order of .9) across social class, educa-

tion, race, sex, and age (Rossi et al.,

1974). Furthermore, replications

of the

Sellin-Wolfgang seriousness

scale

in

Canada (Akman

et

al., 1967),

in

Puerto

Rico

(Velez-Diaz and Magargee, 1971),

and

in

England, Taiwan, Brazil, and

Mexico (Pease et al., 1975) show a general

cross-cultural consensus as

well. These

studies suggest that

within and across

societies there

is

general agreement

on

elements

of

many

criminal infractions that

make them more or less serious.9 The data

indicate that variation

in

these elements of

seriousness substantially affects variation

in

the quantity

of

law and cannot be ig-

nored

if

the theory is to model the be-

havior

of

the criminal

law.10

REFERENCES

Akman,

D.,

A. Normandeau,

and

S.

Turner

1967

"The

measurement

of

delinquency

in

Canada." Journal of Criminal Law,

Criminology,

and

Police

Science

58:330-7.

Black,

D.

1976

The Behavior

of

Law.

New

York:

Aca-

demic

Press.

Chiricos,

T.,

and

G.

Waldo

1975 "Socioeconomic

status

and

criminal

sentencing:

an

empirical

assessment

of a

conflict

proposition."

American Sociologi-

cal

Review

40:753-72.

9

See

also Newman's

(1976)

analysis

of

data from

India, Indonesia,

Iran,

Italy,

Yugoslavia,

and

the

United

States.

10

Although

it seems

as though

seriousness

also

would be

predictive

of invocation

of the

law in

some

other

spheres

as

well

(e.g.,

civil),

we

have

limited

our discussion

of the

behavior

of law

to the

criminal

law.

Thus,

Black's

theory

is

much

more

general

(in

applying

to

all

of law)

and

we do

not

maintain

that

our

seriousness

model

would

work

as

well-or

Black's

theory

as

poorly-if

tested

in

contexts

out-

side of

the criminal

law.

Goldman,

N.

1963 The

Differential

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of Juvenile

Of-

fenders

for

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New

York:

National

Council

on

Crime

and

Delin-

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Green, E.

1970

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and criminal

arrest."

American Sociological

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35:476-90.

Hagan,

J.

1972

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perspective,

the delinquent,

and

the police:

a review

of the

literature."

Canadian

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Criminology

and

Cor-

rections

14:150-65.

1974

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attributes

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criminal

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an assessment

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sociological

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and

Society

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8:357-83.

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M.

1974 "Decisions of shoplifting victims to invoke

the

criminal justice

process."

Social

Prob-

lems

21:580-93.

1976

Criminal

Victimization

in Eight

American

Cities. Cambridge,

Ma.: Ballinger.

Hindelang,

M.

and

M.

Gottfredson

1976

"The

victim's

decision

not to

invoke the

criminal justice

process."

Pp.

57-78

in

W.

McDonald

(ed.),

Criminal

Justice

and

the

Victim. Beverly

Hills:

Sage.

Hindelang,

M.,

M.

Gottfredson

and J.

Garofalo

1978

Victims

of Personal

Crimes:

An

Empirical

Foundation

for a Theory

of Personal

Vic-

timization. Cambridge, Ma.: Ballinger

Press.

Law Enforcement

Assistance

Administration,

U.S.

Department

of Justice,

National

Institute

of

Law

Enforcement

and

Criminal

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tics Division

1972 San

Jose

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Known

Crime

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D.C.:

U.S. Govern-

ment Printing

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Michaels,

P.

1978 "Review

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The

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Nader,

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n.d. Prepublication review of The Behavior

of

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quoted

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its dust

cover.

Newman,

G.

1976

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New

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K.,

J. Ireson

and

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coun-

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17/17

18

AMERICAN

SOCIOLOGICAL

REVIEW

Sellin, T. and

M.

Wolfgang

1964 The

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New

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L.

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61:549-53.

COMMON

SENSE IN

THE

SOCIOLOGY OF

LAW*

DONALD BLACK

Yale University

American Sociological Review 1979, V

Documents

A Study of the Behavior of Law [Michael R. Gottfredson and Michael J. Hindelang, 1979]