Is Killing Wrong?: A Study in Pure Sociology

by Mark Cooney, Donald Black

Overview

"Thou shalt not kill" is arguably the most basic moral and legal principle in any society. Yet while some killers are pilloried and punished, others are absolved and acquitted, and still others are lauded and lionized. Why? The traditional answer is that how killers are treated depends on the nature of their killing, whether it was aggressive or defensive, intentional or accidental. But those factors cannot explain the enormous variation in legal officials' and citizens' responses to real-life homicides. Cooney argues that a radically new style of thought—pure sociology—can. Conceived by the sociologist Donald Black, pure sociology makes no reference to psychology, to any single person's intent, or even to individuals as such. Instead, pure sociology explains behavior in terms of its social geometry—its location and direction in a multidimensional social space.

Is Killing Wrong? provides the most comprehensive assessment of pure sociology yet attempted. Drawing on data from well over one hundred societies, including the modern-day United States, it represents the most thorough account yet of case-level social control, or the response to conduct defined as wrong. In doing so, it demonstrates that the law and morality of homicide are neither universal nor relative but geometrical, as predicted by Black's theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813933047
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	03/19/2012
Series:	Studies in Pure Sociology
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Cooney is Professor of Sociology at the University of Georgia and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Georgia Law School.

What People are Saying About This

Richard Rosenfeld

Mark Cooney's Is Killing Wrong? is a masterful application of pure sociology to the social response to homicide. Drawing on voluminous historical, cross-cultural, and current social science evidence, Cooney shows that the response to homicide, ranging from praise to the death penalty, is tied to the social statuses and relationships of victims, perpetrators, and third parties. This book should be required reading for legal scholars, criminologists, and sociologists who study homicide and its control, and anyone who doubts that morality is a product of social structure.(Richard Rosenfeld, University of Missouri, St. Louis, coauthor of Crime and the American Dream)

Editorial Reviews

"Mark Cooney's Is Killing Wrong? is a masterful application of pure sociology to the social response to homicide. Drawing on voluminous historical, cross-cultural, and current social science evidence, Cooney shows that the response to homicide, ranging from praise to the death penalty, is tied to the social statuses and relationships of victims, perpetrators, and third parties. This book should be required reading for legal scholars, criminologists, and sociologists who study homicide and its control, and anyone who doubts that morality is a product of social structure. "—Richard Rosenfeld, University of Missouri, St. Louis, author of coauthor of Crime and the American Dream

From the Publisher

Mark Cooney's Is Killing Wrong? is a masterful application of pure sociology to the social response to homicide. Drawing on voluminous historical, cross-cultural, and current social science evidence, Cooney shows that the response to homicide, ranging from praise to the death penalty, is tied to the social statuses and relationships of victims, perpetrators, and third parties. This book should be required reading for legal scholars, criminologists, and sociologists who study homicide and its control, and anyone who doubts that morality is a product of social structure.

Richard Rosenfeld