The Social Structure of Right and Wrong

This revised paperback edition features a new prologue and updated citations. The book extends the theoretical approach of Black's classic "Behavior of Law" (Academic Press, 1976) to a dramatically larger universe: the handling of conflict across societies and history. It also introduces and illustrates Black's "pure sociology", a new theoretical paradigm applicable to human behavior of every kind. It provides current sociological theory on largely unexplored topics such as vengeance, discipline, avoidance, pacification, negotiation and toleration. It contains new concepts and typologies applicable to partisan and nonpartisan forms of conflict management. It illustrates modern theoretical perspectives on: crime as self-help; the broadening liability of organizations; social control of the self; the behavior of third parties; partisanship as social gravitation; and moralism as social repulsion.