The relationship between crime and culture has not been neglected. It has intrigued criminologists for years. As deviance or abnormal behaviour it has an even longer history in sociology and psychology (cf. Wirth : 1931). Though the seminal thinking can be ascribed to sources as diverse as Durkheim, Ferri, Savigny, Duguit, Marx and even Montesquieu, it is Thorsten Sellin (1938) who is generally credited with pionneering the cultural conflict approach in criminology. It is certainly Sellin who encouraged studies of the relationship between cultural norms and crime when inter alia he compared the older social imperatives of the different migrant groups in America with the requirements of the modern law. He was able to demonstrate that acts forbidden by law might well be enjoined by the culture or by the social system to which the migrants belonged.