Social Class and Violent Behavior*

This paper examines the relationship between violent behavior and a variety of measures of social class. Police records from one study and questionnaire data from two studies are analyzed. The strength of the relationship between class and violence varies significantly, depending primarily on the measure of class used. The implications of these findings are potentially profound for class‐based theories of crime and delinquency. Methodological implications of the findings are significant for sampling issues as well as for conceptualizations of class.