In criminology the development of pluralist and class conflict perspectives occurred as a reaction to the consensus model of society and law underlying traditional criminological theory. Holding that law was a codification of consen- sual values. traditional criminology provided few insights into the sociology of law or the criminal labeling process. ln contrast. conflict perspectives are concerned more with develop- ing a sociology of law and law enforcement than with finding out why some people are more likely to commit crimes than others. Attention turns to the interests embodied in law. The sociology of deviance adopted a pluralist model of society. From this perspective criminal devi- ance could be understood in terms ofthe clashes of normative systems. with crime resulting from the power of certain social groups to impose their values on others. As a form of conflict the- ory. Marxist perspectives have attempted to sys- tematize the understanding of power and vested interests by interpreting them as class interests. An analysis of the state—the institution exclu- sively invested with the power to define crime- has become central to Marxist theory. The var- ious conflict perspectives all share an interest in the sociology of social control. The question is Whether conflict models generally are appropri- ate for understanding the formation of all crim- inal laws