The Behavior of Law, Special Edition

This is a fairly complex analysis of how "Law"....interacts with various segments of our society. How do you measure law and law enforcement??? This author does a fantastic job.....this should be required reading for those in law enforcement; from District Attorney Down...to Cop on the beat. Quite an experience in the reality of Law.

A must have

This book examines law (when the government levies sanctions against deviance) as a natural phenomena. Like gravity or electrical charge, the quantity of law varies across time and space, even down to the individual situation or relationship. One assault or theft results in lots of arrest, prosecution, and prison time, while another doesn't even get reported to the police. One homicide results in the death penalty, while in another case the killer walks free. Black draws on a wide variety of cross-cultural and historical examples to argue that in all human societies, law obeys the same fundamental patterns. Using a purely sociological approach, he proposes simple principles that explain variation in law across societies, parts of society, and across individual cases. It's an amazing example of one can make a scientific sociological theory, and was the foundation of a how line of research and theory on how social relationships shape law and other forms of conflict management.

Donald Black's The Behavior of Law is not for the faint of heart. Mr. Black, a professor of sociology at Yale University, first published his mini-textbook some 40 years ago, yet it remains a staple in law classrooms. The book's inviting purple cover and thin spine beckon many a weary college student to flip through its crisp white pages and read what they/we believe will be an "easy-read" due to its size. However, don't let him fool you - the pages are full of well-researched and fascinating ideas that can make one's head spin. Yet it is still intriguing all the same - I for one can say I thoroughly enjoyed reading this text book cover to cover! Black argues that behavior is a part of reality, and therefore all things behave including society. He thus breaks down society into 5 subsections (which also are the titles of the chapters of his book): stratification, morphology, culture, organization, and social control (he also has a chapter on anarchy, however does not include that in his groupings of society). One must be asking how law fits in here. Black goes on to describe law as governmental social control - the inevitable and unavoidable. This can get a bit confusing and wordy. However, once out of the introduction chapter and on to the meaty chapters, or those that contain the bulk of his argument in example and descriptive terms, Black's argument becomes very clear and, dare I say, easy to understand. He gets right to the point every time, gives clear examples, explains them in relation to his argument and even calls up counter arguments which further solidify his argument, as well as the reader's understanding of Black's concepts. One of the unique aspects of Black's book that only further adds to its appeal is his use of basic and easy-to-understand examples. Country-specific and modern societal references help the reader to relate Black's argument to that which they know and understand, further assisting in the overall comprehension of the book. This book helps readers to understand the many correlations between law and society, as well as the law itself (particularly the US system), its functions, its role, its evolution and its adaptability. Lastly, you don't have to be a lawyer or an ivy-league professor to read this book - anyone can pick it up and understand the argument that Black is making because we witness the phenomena he describes every day. This may not be the best vacation book to read while on the beach, but if you ever have a spare weekend, sit down, grab a pen and get ready to annotate this book with your own free flowing ideas. I can guarantee you won't regret it.

YES. good price, very cheap

good

I had to buy this book for a college class. I'm pretty impressed with the book. It's easy to read and understand if you already have taken a few human behavior classes and have a general understanding of the law and socioeconomic status. Once you get the general understanding of the book it gets kind of repetitive, but it's good for people that may not understand the concept.

Black explains us how law - that supreme controller of our behavior - itself behaves (or variates) through history and across the world! Actually he is only telling us some of the basic findings of the sociology of justice, but his crisp and courageously reductive way to present his generalizations is really stimulating. The behavioral space of law (so to speak) - from pure anarchy to an all-pervading rule of law - is structured with few central variables (stratification, culture, other forms of social control...) Simple conceptualization is however coupled with short yet interesting, often colorful, examples about respective rules. But Black doesn't try to do too much with his generalizations (certainly no absolute quantification is attempted), so I found them in no way unduly simplistic. An interesting and originally crafted map to (at least some of) the basics of the sociology of justice.