Donald Black Stratification Analysis

Donald Black, a theoretical sociologist and professor at the University of Virginia, is a prominent figure in the sociology of law, morality, and conflict. Black became increasingly influential in the analyze of the deviance of law through his cross-national assessment of social groups. Black’s exerts, “Stratification” and “Morphology,” each from his 1976 publication The Behaviors of Law, describes law as a quantitative and relative variable in relation to dimensions of social life. Black describes stratification, the first dimension, as the vertical aspect of social life. Stratification explores the uneven distributions of conditions, and the inequality of wealth. On the other hand, morphology is the horizontal aspects of life, which explores the quality and style of law. Conclusively, Black reflects on the tangible aspects of social life, and the variable elements of law. According to Black, the core of Stratification is that the exists legal advantages that wealthier people have over everyone else. Stratification centers around the magnitude of difference in wealth, vertical segmentation, and vertical mobility. Black illustrate that the quality …show more content…
Black designates relational distance as the measure of scope, frequency, and length of interaction between people, the maturity of the relationship, and the extent of their social network. Black states that the relationship between law and relational distance is curvilinear. Black illustrates that levels of intimacy reduce law, such that intimates are less likely to call the police about each other. Black further explains how an intimate’s associates can “shield” them from the law, through the falsifying of the case and hiding of the suspect. On another note, Black suggests that people who live in “different worlds,” or people who are more distant than strangers, have little to no law. Generally, at the extremes of intimacy, law efficiencies are