Encyclopedia of

Criminological Theory
Turk, Austin T.: The
Criminalization Process

Contributors: Richard G. Greenleaf

Editors: Francis T. Cullen & Pamela Wilcox
Book Title: Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory
Chapter Title: "Turk, Austin T.: The Criminalization Process"
Pub. Date: 2010
Access Date: September 12, 2014
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks
Print ISBN: 9781412959186
Online ISBN: 9781412959193
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412959193.n266
Print pages: 969-972
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Austin T. Turk has been referred to as “the deviance theorist who has persisted
longest in an effort to develop a non-Marxist framework for the analysis of conflict
processes” (Orcutt, 1983, p. 321). Approximately 40 years ago, in the book Criminality
and Legal Order, Turk presented his theory of criminalization and normative-legal
conflict. He described the conditions under which differences between authorities
and subjects will result in overt conflict. Authorities are decision makers (e.g., police,
judges, lawyers, prosecutors) and subjects are individuals affected by those decisions.
Subjects are distinguished from authorities by their inability to manipulate the legal
processes. Turk was influenced by the work of Ralf Dahrendorf, who introduced the
terms domination and subjection in Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society.

According to Turk, the potential for authority-subject conflict is always present.

However, not all authorities have equal opportunity to influence the law. Turk
claims “first-line enforcers,” such as the police, have the greatest impact on subject
criminalization. While norms of deference usually maintain the balance of the authority-
subject relationship, in certain situations, police must rely upon coercion to gain
compliance; Turk refers to this as “nightstick law.”

Similar to Thorston Sellin, Turk claims that criminality is the result of cultural distinctions.
Subjects may be unaware of or may not accept specific legal rules. Turk (1966, p. 285)
discusses variation in cultural norms:

The greater the cultural differences between the evaluator and violator,
the less likely are psychological sanctions which assume a capacity and
readiness to subtle cues to get through to the violator, and therefore
sanctioning will have to be more physically coercive in order to enforce
the norm.

Nonviolent forms of persuasion by authorities, such as verbal announcements or

body language, may be insufficient to achieve the compliance of people who harbor
conflicting views or values. For example, when officers encounter citizens from a
different culture, race, or ethnicity, the odds of conflict increase.

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The Role of Cultural and Social Norms

In certain situations, according to Turk, cultural (i.e., written laws, procedures, and
written policies) and social (i.e., actual behavior or the law as it is enforced) norms
determine when conflict is more or less likely to occur. The odds of conflict are greatest
when there is consistency between cultural and social norms, as conflict is fundamental
in the composition of the authority-subject relationship. If authorities and subjects
harbor contrasting beliefs and act accordingly with these beliefs, there is little room
left for compromise. However, conflict is less likely if cultural and social norms are
disparate. While cultural beliefs may clash, both authorities and subjects fail to practice
what they preach. Turk argues, “neither party is very prone to fight over an essentially
meaningless set of symbols” (1969, p. 56).

In Criminality and Legal Order, Turk presents four basic situations affecting the odds
of authority-subject conflict; each one has a different potential [p. 969 ↓ ] for conflict.
These situations are the (1) congruence of norms for both authorities and subjects
(high-high), (2) congruence of norms for subjects but not authorities (high-low), (3)
congruence of norms for authorities but not subjects (high-low), and (4) congruence of
norms for neither authorities or subjects (low-low). In situations 2 and 3, the likelihood
of overt conflict falls in the middle range. However, conflict is more likely if it is the
authorities’ cultural and social norms that are congruent since authorities are less
tolerant than subjects are in accommodating any differences. “Flagrant, persistent
disregard for the law will, nevertheless, force authorities to act to demonstrate that
they are still in charge, that they are still able to assert their will against resistance in
showdown” (Turk, 1969, p. 64).

In the event that cultural norms do clash, authorities and subjects will appeal to their
own distinct values. While authorities are inclined to appeal to legal rules or written
policies, subjects tend to appeal to extralegal norms, such as their right to privacy or
natural law.

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Conflict Tied to Organization and

Sophistication
Conflict between authorities and subjects is also associated with levels of organization
and sophistication. Organization is determined by both the social complexity of a
relationship and by social support. When a characteristic has been integrated into a
system of relationships (implying that it is a critical part of some role which the individual
performs), then it can be projected that a sizable degree of coercion would be required
to put a stop to the behavioral pattern (Turk, 1969, p. 58).

Authorities are organized by definition, as the authority structure itself implies an

extensive degree of organization by controlling members of a society. Subjects,
however, may or may not be highly organized. The more social support subjects have
for their behavior, the less inclined they will be to compromise. Turk also discusses
the simplicity and complexity of the behavior. Activities that are more complex (i.e.,
activated into a system of relationships or some important role the individual performs)
are more organized and are more challenging to break.

Turk describes sophistication as the knowledge used in order to manipulate the

opposition. The odds of conflict are greater when authorities and subjects are
unsophisticated. Unsophisticated subjects are less skilled in assessing the strengths
and weaknesses of their position relative to authorities and, consequently are less able
to avoid open warfare with authorities. Less sophisticated authorities are unable to
achieve their goals without the need for coercive force. Sophistication is apparently a
prerequisite for enduring authority; therefore, it may be reasoned that just as authority
implies organization, it also entails sophistication. However, social control agents,
such as the police, vary a great deal to the extent to which their practices are affected
by the appreciation for knowledge. The various combinations of organization and
sophistication result in differing probabilities of conflict within the respective congruent
and incongruent conditions. The result is a matrix with 32 possibilities. The likelihood
for conflict is greatest when subjects are organized and authorities and subjects lack
sophistication.

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Turk (1969, p. 63) cautions that the cells in the matrix do not represent any empirical
observations but only relative odds of conflict:

[W]e do not know just how unlikely is conflict in this minimum chance
situation…. All that can be postulated is that this will be the lowest value
of the 32 possibilities and that the value will be somewhere above .00,
because the authorities are, after all, on public record against an
attribute actually found in some part of the population.

Critiques of Turk's Theory

Turk's theory has been criticized by both conflict and consensus criminologists. His
attempt to generate a non-ideological conflict theory has been called submissive,
abstract, and tautological. In their critique of Turk's theory, Ian Taylor and colleagues
call it “one of permanent adjustment of the subordinate to the powerful under present
social arrangements” (p. 251). They suggest that criminologists focus instead on
the origin of conflict, which they view as social and economic inequality. However,
Turk is less troubled with the sources of conflict than with the conditions in which it is
manifested.

[p. 970 ↓ ]

Consensus theorists have also criticized Turk for dismissing a significant body of
knowledge which has shown that consensus rather than conflict characterizes American
society (Akers, 1979). Turk maintains, however, that consensus is just an illusion.
He claims “whether they realize it or not, people are inevitably involved in intergroup
struggles over who shall have what resources in a finite world” (1982, p. 35).

Turk's level of abstraction has raised some concerns about tautology. For example,
the contention that systems of social control serve the need of authorities seems true
by definition (Orcutt, 1983). So does the allegation that “lawbreaking is taken to be
an indicator of failure or lack of authority; it is a measure of the extent to which rulers
and ruled, decision-makers and decision-acceptors, are not bound together in a stable

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authority relationship” (Turk, 1969, p. 48). Taylor et al. have claimed that Turk's overall
abstraction exaggerates what are actually modest theoretical contributions.

Research on Turk's Theory

Given the wide-ranging recognition of Turk's theory, there have been only a few
empirical studies published on it since its inception. The challenge is to pinpoint
measureable indicators of sophistication, organization, and cultural and social
norms. Examining domestic violence police reports in Charleston, South Carolina,
Richard Greenleaf and Lonn Lanza-Kaduce identified markers for sophistication and
organization. They found that greater organization (e.g., if the disputants were married,
more than one individual was arrested, and whether there were witnesses to the
assault) and a lack of sophistication (the extent of police experience, the sobriety of the
subject, and if the call was in progress) predicted police-citizen conflict.

Informed by Turk and guided by Greenleaf and Lanza-Kaduce, Robert Weidner and
William Terrill examined observational data and concluded that police-citizen conflict
was related to organization and sophistication. This connection remained strong despite
the introduction of several control variables. Weidner and Terrill concluded that “like
Greenleaf and Lanza-Kaduce … we found support for the idea that the likelihood of
police-suspect conflict is negatively related to the level of officer's and subject's ability to
manipulate situations or sophistication” (p. 100).

Most recently, Brian Kowalski and Richard Lundman examined Turk's theory at police
traffic stops. They found mixed results claiming, “Net of control measures, including
the legal reason for the stop, and extralegal measures, such as driver gender, the data
provide modest to strong support for parts of Turk's (1969) theory and absolutely no
support for others” (p. 814).

Conclusion
According to Robert Bohm, Turk's conflict theory is not considered a radical theory since
he does not emphasize the root causes of authority, power, or the economic structures

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of society. For Turk, what is critical is the balance between coercion and consensus
and the authority-subject relationship. Turk views lawbreaking as an indicator of the
failure of authority. “Therefore, any political community, whether called democratic or
totalitarian, will be maintained in part by coercion; no social order can ever depend fully
upon the consent of the governed” (Turk, 1969, p. 48, emphasis in the original).

Richard G.Greenleaf

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412959193.n266
See also

• Bonger, Willem: Capitalism and Crime

• Chambliss, William J.: Power, Conflict, and Crime
• Sellin, Thorsten: Culture Conflict and Crime
• Vold, George B.: Group Conflict Theory

References and Further Readings

Akers, R. A. Further critical thoughts on Marxist criminology: Comments on

Turk, Quinney, Toby, and Klockars . Criminology 16 527–543. (1979). http://
dx.doi.org/10.1111/crim.1979.16.issue-4

Bohm, R. M. (1997). A primer on crime and delinquency . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Dahrendorf, R. (1959). Class and class conflict in industrial society . Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press.

Gibbons, D. (1979). The criminological enterprise: Theories and perspectives .

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Greenleaf, R. G., and Lanza-Kaduce, L. Sophistication, organization, and authority-

subject conflict: Rediscovering and unraveling Turk's theory or norm resistance .
Criminology 33 565–586. (1995). http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/crim.1995.33.issue-4

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Kowalski, B. R., and Lundman, R. J. Sociologist Austin Turk and policing: Structural
reinforcers and reversals of the positional authority of police . Sociological Forum 23
814–844. (2008). http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2008.00095.x

Lanza-Kaduce, L., and Greenleaf, R. G. Police-citizen encounters:

Turk on norm resistance . Justice Quarterly 11 605–623. (1994). http://
dx.doi.org/10.1080/07418829400092451

Lanza-Kaduce, L., and Greenleaf, R. G. Age and race deference reversals: Extending
Turk on police-citizen conflict . Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency 37 221–
236. (2000). http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022427800037002004

Orcutt, J. (1983). Analyzing deviance . Chicago: Dorsey.

Sellin, T. (1938). Culture conflict and crime . New York: Social Science Council.

Taylor, I., Walton, P., & Young, J. (1973). The new criminology . New York: Harper &
Row. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203405284

Turk, A. T. Conflict and criminality . American Sociological Review 31 338–352. (1966).

http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2090822

Turk, A. T. (1969). Criminality and legal order . Chicago: Rand McNally.

Turk, A. T. (1982). Political criminality: The defiance and defense of authority . Newbury
Park, CA: Sage.

Weidner, R., and Terrill, W. A test of Turk's theory on norm resistance using
observational data on police-suspect encounters . Journal of Research in Crime and
Delinquency 42 84–109. (2005). http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022427804266543

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