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0Criminology-in theory and practice-is a f o r m of cultural production.We are creating a way of understanding and a way of living in the world.Our production, however. is mediated by our location in the class structure. Whether our expressions are critical and reflexive or merely reflections of capitalism is shaped by our ability to think dialectically and by our conscious involvement in the class struggle. We are in Ihe position-intellectually and socially-to think about and act upon the production of a socialist future. e are at the same time products of our culture and creators W of it. People make'their own history, Marx (1963: 15) noted, "but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past." The objective material conditions of the time provide the setting for the possibilities of creation, change, and revolution. While our daily struggle is one of transforming the existing order, of removing conditions of oppression and making an authentic existence, the old social order will not perish until all the productive forces and contradictions of that order have become obstacles to its further development. Thus, history is made both subjectively and objectively, as the result of class struggle and as the development of the economic modes of production. AUTHOR'S NOTE: Prewnred in the theor.I'plenar.i.session a/ /he annual meeting of

Relatively few of the many theories developed by sociologists have been stated in other than verbal symbols. Although the supposed advantages of more rigorous formalizations have been discussed at length, many sociologists maintain that the assertion by mathematical model-builders that their approach will actually advance thinking in substantive areas of sociology still remains to be demonstrated. The present paper is an attempt to show some of the ways in which this approach can yield new insights into old theories. First, Sutherland's widely used formulation in criminology is translated into set theory statements. Then, the value of this translation is shown by developing a set of underlying postulates from which the nine major propositions of the theory can be formally derived. Finally, additional propo sitions are shown to follow as logical consequences of the re formulated theory in such a way that a strategy for its empirical verification is obtained.