Combining the disciplines of criminology, sociology, economics, anthropology, and history, as well as the general concepts of historical materialism developed by Marx and Engels, the analysis focuses on the structure and functions of the society and the interactions of political, ideological, and economic forces. It discusses the overt forms of government violence, including warfare, forced labor, penal sanctions, and Aztec human sacrifice. It also argues that both the Aztec legal system and the Spanish law that replaced it were developed to define social and economic relationships in the interests of the dominant class operating within a particular form of economic organization. The author concludes that the high level of violence in contemporary Mexico reflects the desperation, anger, and frustration of a people mired in and brutalized by 400 years of exploitation and still in a basically colonial position that is subordinate within the capitalist world system. Index and 233 references