Is Killing Wrong? A Study in Pure Sociology

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Synopsis

"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.