Conflict and Consensus in the Designation of Deviance

This paper identifies theoretical and empirical problems in a conflict perspective on crime and deviance. We then propose an alternative apposition of consensus and conflict viewpoints. This new approach is grounded in empirical definitions of the conditions under which consensus and conflict can be said to exist, and is used to generate propositions about attitudes toward empirically identified “consensus” and “conflict crimes.” The support found for these propositions encourages a shift from regarding attitudes toward deviance as simple instruments of coercion, to a view in which these attitudes are accorded a wider significance in the combined processes of deviance definition, status allocation and, eventually, the cooptive maintenance of political authority.