Law and Stratification

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Law and Stratification

• Sociology 641

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Introduction

• Allocative vs. Distributive issues
• Allocative Are resources used efficiently?
• Distributive Are resources distributed
  equitably?
• Stratification The unequal distribution of
  rewards to various positions within the social
  structure
• Law often reflects and perpetuates structured
  inequalities

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Blacks Empirical Generalization

• Black, Donald (1976), The Behavior of Law.

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E.g. Race and the Death Penalty
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Instrumentalist Models

• Basics Law is used by dominant groups as a tool
  for perpetuating their domination
• Examples
• Chambliss on vagrancy laws
• Contemporary examples

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Chambliss, William J. (1964), "A Sociological
Analysis of the Law of Vagrancy," Social
Problems, 1267-77.

• 1349 First English Vagrancy statute
• Why this law at this time?
• Culture vs. elite economic interests
• Vagrancy laws serve to ensure a supply of
  affordable manorial labor
• Dormancy period
• 1500s Vagrancy laws serve to control vagabonds
  and protect intercity trade

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Other Examples of Instrumentalism

• Obviously
• Fugitive slave laws
• Right-to-work laws
• Laws against political agitation
• Etc.
• More subtly
• Welfare laws
• Tax laws
• Public education laws
• Etc.
• In application
• Drug laws
• Etc.

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Structuralist Models

• Basics The legal system may be structured in a
  way that makes it systematically more
  advantageous to some groups than to others
• Bias without an act of collective political will.

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Galanter, Marc (1974), "Why the 'Haves' Come Out
Ahead Speculations on the Limits of Legal
Change," Law Society Review 995-160.

• One Shotters vs. Repeat Players
• One-shotter (OS)
• A party that encounters the legal system only
  occasionally and unpredictably
• Repeat player (RP)
• A party that engages in repeated litigation AND
  that has the resources to pursue long-run legal
  interests.
• Defining criteria
• How often are you in court?
• How important is each individual suit?

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Advantages of RPs

• General
• Advance intelligence
• Economies of scale
• Familiarity with law
• Tactical
• Play the odds
• Play for rules
• Play for substance (rules that penetrate)

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Two Additional Notes

• What makes Galanter structuralist?
• Intentional behavior, but not conspiracy
• No need for organized political intention or
  direct elite control
• Structuralism beyond OS-RP
• Legal professions
• Courts
• Legal rules
• Etc.