Adler describes the consensus and conflict theories of the origin of deviance and the resultant definitions of crime and construction of criminal laws.

1. In what ways is consensus theory like positivism?

   Positivism is that philosophical position which affirms the existence of an objective reality "out there" along with our ability to approach the study of that reality objectively, neutrally, and to measure variables, collect data, interpret that data, and draw conclusions about the "truth" of that reality from our unbiased scientific studies.

   Consensus theory resembles positivism in its affirmation that there is an accepted collective sense of "right behavior" out there, and that our legislative creators of law, and our enforcers of that law can agree on what that "right behavior" is. Consensus theorists quote Durkheim: "We can . . . say that an act is criminal when it offends strong and defined states of the collective conscience."This language suggests that we can agree on what should be done in a normative sense, and that we can agree on ways to correct deviance from that norm.