The Struggle for Control: A Study of Law, Disputes, and Deviance(SUNY series in Deviance and Social Control)

This book offers a study of deviance and dispute management in a comparative perspective. Conventional wisdom and professional knowledge assume a clear line between the study of disputes and deviance. The authors provide the basic steps for integrating the study of disputes with research on the sociology of law and deviance. They examine the conditions crucial to dispute analysis: the nature of social and political relationships, informal and formal social control, cost, time, and access to dispute forums.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface Acknowledgments 1. The Scope Introduction Disputes, Law, and Deviance The Setting Social Relationships and Disputing Rationalization and Access to Dispute Forums Time Cost The Politics of Dispute Management in Costa Rica: An Introduction to the Case 2. The Disputing Process Case 1 - Resident or Squatter? Case 2 - The Colorado Camp Case 3 - The House Without a Home Case 4 - Denouncing the Campesino Case 5 - The Fruit of the Land Case 6 - The Sierpe Gift Case 7 - The Absentee Landlord and the Local Case 8 - The Inspection Case 9 - The Rainy Season 3. An Analysis of Dispute Management: The Absence of Resolution The Nature of the Social Relationship Simplex/Multiplex Insiders/Outsiders Social Context and Social Relationships Access and Social Context Time and Social Context Cost and Social Context 4. Conflict and the Struggle for Control Cultural Dimensions Tide-Time Milla Maritima Private/Productive Property Nonviolent Disputing Encompassing Issues Modes of Dispute Management Social Control and Deviance Epilogue: Justice and Social Control Appendix A: Agrarian Reform in Central America Introduction Rationalization and Land Reform The World-Polity Perspective Land Tenure and Reform The Incorporation of Central America The Commodification of Land World System Impact Conclusion Appendix B: The Rationalization of Law in Costa Rica Rationalization Rationalization of the Law in Costa Rica Increased Rationalization Section I: Agrarian Reform in Costa Rica Notes References Subject Index Author Index

About the Author :
Pat Lauderdale is Professor of Justice and Adjunct Professor of Law at Arizona State University. Michael Cruit is Acting Director of Herbert Blumer Institute, Costa Rica.

Review :
"A brilliant synthesis of sensitive and insightful case studies and the development of hypotheses and a multi-level model of 'dispute management.' It is this difficult combination that makes this work a distinctive and powerful contribution to this relatively unexplored , yet increasingly important, domain of research." - Ray Corrado, Criminology, Simon Fraser University "This study is a gold mine of insights, revelations, and critical reflections on the inter-connectedness of social psychological, social, cultural, economic, political, demographic, and geographic factors. It penetrates, unpacks, and reveals the inter-connectedness of both important micro-level and macro-level social, economic, and political structure."- Richard L. Harris, Harvard University