Turk draws on the analysis of modern society presented by Ralf Dahrendorf. Dahrendorf expanded on Marxism's emphasis on the social relations of production as a key to understanding power and focused on the struggle in a modern industrial society for institutional authority . This authority can be linked to economic position, but it is not necessarily dependent upon it. Within this general framework, Turk focuses on legal conflict and criminalization. Turk's answer to these questions is summarized a set of six propositions.
Conflict is more probable the less sophisticated the subjects.
Equilibrium is difficult, if not completely impossible to achieve. The behavior of any group, and perhaps most importantly, the cultural meaning and significance attached to the behavior is destined to provoke a negative reaction from another group.