Donald Black’s “pure sociology,” first set out in his Behavior of Law in 1976, is probably cited more frequently than any other theoretical perspective by researchers studying the use of force by the police. However, his hypotheses have never been systematically tested in relation to this phenomenon. This article reports a partial test of Black’s theory focusing on the role of stratification in explaining police behavior. Officers in one Mexican, one U.S., and three Venezuelan police departments completed a survey in which vignettes were used to elicit dispositions to employ force in encounters with highor low-status citizens who were described in varying confrontational stances. The results did not provide support for Black’s hypotheses concerning stratification and the behavior of law; rather, the key predictor of officers’ disposition to use force was the citizen’s behavior in the encounter. This latter variable merits theoretical attention.
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