SOPHISTICATION, ORGANIZATION, AND AUTHORITY SUBJECT CONFLICT - REDISCOVERING AND UNRAVELING TURKS THEORY OF NORM RESISTANCE

While it has been more than a quarter of a century since Austin Turk p roposed his non-partisan conflict theory in Criminality and Legal Orde r, little effort has been made to assess this work empirically. This s tudy applies Turk's theory to police-citizen encounters at domestic di sputes in a southern city. Five hypotheses are advanced and analyzed. The findings indicate that after controlling for race, sex, and area o f the city, overt conflict between the police and citizens is related to the organization and sophistication of the participants involved.