Serious consideration of the policy implications has been hindered by traditional criminology's preoccupation with individual deviant behavior, the confusion of nonpartisan conflict analysis with radical revolutionism, and conflict theorists' aversion to piecemeal reformism. Conflict theory challenges every assumption of traditional criminology. It clearly distinguishes between crime, the behavior of offenders, and criminalization, the behavior of law enforcers that produces criminality. It also posits the fundamental causal importance of social structure. It leads to five general principles for policymaking: (1) policymaking as a political process and not simply the application of technical knowledge, (2) a focus on changing structures and relationships rather than persons, (3) policies as part of a broad strategy of change, (4) strategies emphasizing field rather than command controls, and (5) the goal of a more viable society rather than a more docile one. Among the specific proposals are a nationwide system of gun control, the abolition of capital punishment, the incarceration of heinous violent offenders at least until they are well into or past middle age, the cessation of prison construction, and the creation of paid part-time community service jobs for youth. Additional recommendations focus on mechanisms needed for structural transformation. Notes and 18 references