Abstract
In view of the shortcomings of sociological theories on crime and deviance this paper urges a research strategy aimed at the discovery of empirical regularities. As one such example, data from Uniform Crime Reports and the U.S. Census are used to study the relation of criminal differentiation to age and occupa tional differentiation. Criminal differentiation is high among the young, decreasing until the early thirties and then increasing. That is, individuals in the late teens tend to be arrested for of fenses that are relatively rare in other age groups. The increase in criminal differentiation after age 30 does not reach the high levels of the late teens. Criminal differentiation and occupational differentiation are found to be directly related for two census years, 1950 and 1960. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
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