Violence
(these ideas
drawn from Goode, 1994-2008
chapter 7.
See the disclaimer)
What is violence?
- Labeling and approval
- Rioters vs freedom fighters
- Political and ideological factors
- Who is defining?
Covert Institutional Violence
- Inequalities
- Prejudice
- Pychological
- Justifiable
- Excusable
- Lack of attention
Cross Cultural
- Biological theories-aggression
as natural
- Universality? Mead: Arapesh vs.
Mundugumor
- Tasaday, Lepcha, Pygmies
Sociological Focus:
- Not universal
- Rates vary--what is it about a
society...?
- Degrees tolerated and approved
- Targets (in vs. out groups)(Kaingang)
- Modern Nation State- Out-group
vs in-group
Family Violence
(What follows
in this sectionis data from Gelles and Strauss's 1980 study. For current data
on domestic violence see the Bureau of Justice's Intimate
Partner Violence in the USA. See also EndAbuse.org
and the fact
sheet from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
-
Intimate--1000's of times more
common than street violence
-
The Family as a Violent Institution
-
Relationship: stranger=assault,
relative=OK, typically not viewed as violence
Social Image of Seriousness
(140 equals least)(Rossi, et al, 1974)
| Beat spouse |
91 |
| Beat stranger |
64 |
| Stranger rape |
13 |
| Rape former spouse |
62 |
- Even when death of a victim is
involved; still more lenient attitude toward offender
- Perhaps worse for child abuse
- 300 homicides in Houston:
- Of all killers of relatives- 61%
received no penalty
- 53% recevied no penalty if killed
friend
- 36% no penalty if killed stranger
1993-MO: father pays for son's defense
in attempted murder of father
Spouse Abuse
(What follows in this sectionis
data from Gelles and Strauss's 1980 study. For current data on domestic violence
see the Bureau of Justice's Intimate
Partner Violence in the USA. See also EndAbuse.org
and the fact sheet
from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
-
Husband vs Wife: Male inflicts
more damage, more repeat, wife typically in self defense, wife often pregnant,
economic dependence.
-
Wife: often uses weapon and
ends up killing spouse
| Type |
Past Year |
Ever |
| Thrown |
7% |
16% |
| Slapped |
7% |
18% |
| Shoved |
13% |
23% |
| Beat up |
1.5% |
5% |
| Used weapon |
1% |
4% |
(Gelles and Straus, 1980)
- Weapon=2 million incidents
- underestimate: recall, married
vs. separated
- Marriage license=Hitting license
- Social Norm
- Overall--1/3 of couples per year,
2/3 ever (some report of violence)
- Rate of spousal violence that
meets definition of assault=6,100/100,000 (official assault=280/100,000)
Why?
- Patriarchy: Male--power
- Economic dependency
- Common Law-"Rule of Thumb
- Unemployment 2x as likely
- Part-time 3x as likely
- Poverty: 6x more likely (lowest
vs. highest class)
- Failure
- Powerlessness
- Stress
Why Stay?
- Blaming the victim (Talk shows--both
sick)
- Common, learned helplessness--Cultural
- Woman's value--relation to man
- Women- lack of control over lives
- Within violent family
- Degree/intensity
- Frequency
- As these vary==> leave
- Resource availability
- Sherman and Beck: Minneapolis
- Call back:
- 37% advised
- 33% off premise
- 19% arrested
- Major impact on policing-arrest
rate up (4x in NY)
- Problem with replication: employment
status as intervening variable.
Child Abuse: Have you
beat your kids today?
(What follows
in this sectionis data from Gelles and Strauss's 1980 study. For current data
on domestic violence see the Bureau of Justice's Intimate
Partner Violence in the USA. See also EndAbuse.org
and the fact
sheet from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
-
Your child vs. mine
-
Spectrum: routine-----murder
-
If we view physical punishment
as OK, then abuse will be a significant part of the reality we construct
-
Where force is legitimate, abuse
will be common
| |
Normal |
Good |
Necessary |
| Adult slap a child |
77% |
71% |
70% |
| Adult slap adult |
28/23% |
15/9% |
8/4% |
Hitting Kids==> Norm
Widely practiced
| |
Past year |
Ever |
| Spank/slap |
58% |
71% |
| Push |
41% |
46% |
| Hit with object |
13% |
20% |
| Thrown object |
5% |
9% |
| Kicked, beaten |
3% |
4% |
| Beat up |
1% |
4% |
| Used weapon |
.1% |
3% |
Of most violent, past year==>
1.4-1.9 million events
Patterns
- More time spent with children
- Child's behavior reflects on their
competence
- Frustration (lack of role opportunities)
- Sons mostmost often the victims:
Social role- "Men can take it"
- Authoritarianism
- Having been abused, social learning
- Unemployment, Stress, Poverty,
isolation
Incest
-
Taboo: recently receiving attention.
-
Product of sexually repressive
society
-
Incest vs. Sexual Victimization
- Child can't consent
- Coercion and intimidation
- Adult victimizes child
Women not typically the victimizers
- Boys victimized by fathers
- Sex roles-male as aggressor, control
- Patriarchy
- Father's power, especially over
children, especially over female children
- Brother-sister: males older, females-long
term problems--most never marry
Victims: ~19% females, 9% males (1998 study: 20%)
Victimizers: brothers, uncles, fathers/stepfathers
- Stepfathers-7x rate of natural
fathers
- 1/6 of females with stepfathers--abused,
more frequent
Father-Daughter: overall--traumatic, long-term, no positive aspects.
- 87% father sole economic
provider
Associated factors:
- Wife out of
picture
- Mother/daughter
estranged
- Daughter assumes
wifely household tasks--distortion of role structure--"surrogate
wife"
Costs to victim:
- Exploitation-impacts
ability to give/receive affection
- Secrecy--tension and
intimacy
- Mother/daughter competition
- Sexual object
- Guilt
- Self-blame
Homicide
- Violence as routine
- subjective vs objective concern
- urban-rural spread
- Categories: Targets and Circumstances
- Act vs definition and interpretation
(plea bargain)
- Non-criminal
- Excusable--accident
- Justifiable--legally sanctioned
- Self-defense
- Line of duty
- Mercy killing?
- Battered wife syndrome?
- Criminal: ~16,137 per year
(2004)
- 1st--premeditated
and deliberate
- 2nd--no premeditation
- Either of the above
if death occurs during the course of a felony
- Manslaughter
- Voluntary-result
of an act that injures
- Involuntary-less
directly related to injurious act
- Criminally negligent
homicide--DWI
- USA: 5.7 per
100,000. Internationally: 75 per 100,000 in South Africa to 0.6 per 100,000
in Ireland
- Tolerance and definition vary:
What killing equals Murder?
- Social Construction of Murder
- Killing versus murder
- Toleration
- Approval
- Necessity
- Abortion, Death Penalty,
Assisted Suicides
- Murder: Positivism
- Distorted
media image
- Heat of the moment
realit
- Murders justify--vindication
- Intimacy
- Victims and prepetrators:
same group
- Intraracial
- African Americans
more likely to kill and be killed
- Murder and social
class
- Men versus women
- Homicide rates vary
dramatically from society to society
Murder Myths
- One violent crime every xx seconds
- Subjective vs objective reality
and concern
- Murder mystery
- Course of a felony-panic
- The "psycho"
- Gangland- although gang related
homicides are increasing
Murder realities (2004)
- Intimate (felony murder becoming
more common)
- Unplanned, yet form of vindication
- Intra-racial
- Relationship
- Stranger: 15-25%
- Family: 13%
- Friends and acquaintances:
35%
- Propinquity
- Frequency of interaction
- Intimacy-intensity of emotions
- Importance of attitudes of
those with whom we are involved.
- Age
- Killers, under 25, median
18
- Victims 18 and older
- Urban versus Rural: And in urban
areas- Not random: Specific neighborhoods
- South/West vs Midwest/East
- Race
- 49% Of victims--African American
- Intra-racial
- If victim is A-A: 92% killer
A-A
- If victim is W: 93% killer
W
- Holds for Hispanics
- Back to the relationship
- SES
- Acts defined as murder--more
likely lower class (Powerful kill more)
- Not poverty per se, but economic
inequality.
- Henry and Short on suicide
vs. murder and SES.
- NYC: rate in the poorest precinct-203
versus rate in the wealthiest-4
- Relative deprivation
- Gender
- Men kill and are killed by
men (90% of offenders male/72% of victims of male offenders are male)
- Women kill and are killed
by men (10% of offenders/73% of victims of female offenders are male)
- 90% of offenders who murder
males are male only 10% of female murder victions are killed by females.
Subculture of violence
- Group norm
- Situationally defined: machismo
vs passivity
- Not all situations, violence is
not valued in and of itself
- Not all=Target--in group vs. out
- Link: manhood and violence
- Victim Precipitation
- Both parties accept legitimacy
(26%)
- Murder transaction
- Assault-no one died
- Victim and perpetrator--similar
pasts: legal troubles, previous fights, alcohol.
- Most of us not participators,
but could/would in right circumstances--Subculture defines appropriateness
(manhood, family, country, etc.)
- Not all situations, degree
of participation
- Sub-culture vs. Race and/or
Class
- Structural inequality and
changing perception of life chances and appropriateness of violence
- Jack
Katz: Righteous
Slaughter--humiliation=>Righteousness=>Rage
- A universal Primal Crime
- The verb "to kill" is descriptive.
It refers to the simple taking of human life, regardless of motive or circumstances.
- The verb "to murder" is a
certain kind of killing - an unauthorized, deviant, and criminal form
of killing.
- "Murder" is a loaded, evaluative
term.
Thus: the same act, the taking of
human life, is judged to be acceptable or unacceptable according to who is doing
the judging
- A very hard, concrete, and
seemingly indisputable fact - the taking of human life, the death of a human
being - is judge differently, is subjectively evaluated and placed into vastly
different categories according to how it is seen by observers and audiences
surrounding the killer and the victim.
- The legal status of a killing
is determined by the law, the CJS, and the courts
Making a judgement one way or another will transform a given act, from the
criminal to non criminal behavior, and vice versa.
Murder in the United States Two Basic forms of non-criminal homicide
1. Excusable - or an accident - killing someone who jumps in
front of your car
2. Justifiable - killing that results from the dictates of a legal demand
- police killing a felon "in the line of duty"
What is or is not murder is socially
constructed. The basic question we have to ask is: What sorts of killings
qualify as criminal? CRIMINAL HOMICIDE: the
willful taking of human life, is not a random event
Rape
-
Changing definition
-
Sex and violence--pseudo-sexual:
Act vs. Motive
- Sexual nature
- Sex/violence fused for
some
- Rape is instrumental for
some
- Rape as a sexual adventure
- Victim's age--younger
- Perpetrators choose women
of same or younger age
S. Brownmiller: criminal concerns
related to the emergence of a monetary economy. First laws criminalized only
the rape of a virgin--financial loss
Official definitions and patterns
- Rape vs. sexual assault
- Forcibly and against victims's
will (problems)
- Statutory rape
- Rate-UCR:
94,000 rapes in 2004. 32/100,000; NCVS:160 rapes and sexual assaults/100,000
(2005) 150,000. Actual figure~2-10X
Reporting Rape:
- Age (more younger victims, less
likely to report)
- Education
- SES (more frequent in working
and lower classes)
- Attitudes toward pre-marital sex
- VIOLENCE
Audiences and Definitions
Inclusiveness and exclusiveness
Rapist's vocabulary of motive (Scully
and Marolla, 1984)
- 47/114: admit, but excused (drunk,
etc)
- 32/114: sex yes, but not rape
- 35/114: deny
- Construction of reality
General Public
(see Goode 4th-6th editions)
- 7 scenarios, all rape: 54% define
- 1 extreme: only 92% define
- Characteristics of respondents
- Females: similar to those
who report
- Males: definition of situation
as consensual
- Conservative view of women's
roles--blame the victim
- Characteristics of victim
- Dress, place, previous behavior
- Relationship: if any, esp. sexual:
low probability of definition. Once grant sexual right, man possesses
CJS: simple vs. aggravated
- Aggravated: pursued, and high
conviction. 1966--juries 4x more likely;
- 1977 police: 5% of aggravated,
24% simple--unfounded; 1987 indictments: 33%/7%
Victim:
- 595@Eastern U. - 2% raped/16%
sex forced
- 1989 Study: 1 out of every 3 Females
and 1 out of every 10 Males (by Acquaintance)
Blaming the victim:
- Victim precipitation
- Rape myth
- Conviction problems if any complicity
(condom case)
- Females as sexual objects
- Trial as second rape
Myths and reality
- Most not violent
- Most not defined as rape
- Marital rape (~28 states)
- Acquaintance rape/date rape
Men who Rape
Theories: individual, cultural,
structural, situational
- Psychopathological:
- Too restrictive
- Is rape alien to society?
- Psychological:
Rapist as different from other men.
- Malamuth asks men: If no chance
of getting caught, would you? 35% yes. Would you use force (vs. rape) 50%
answer yes.
- Proclivity: believe rape
myth, have used force, aroused by tapes of rape--similar results with convicted
rapists.
Malamuth, et al 1992:
- Proximate causes- attitudes
as above, anger towards women, impersonal sex.
- Distal factors: abused as
child, socially poor and violent parents.
- Structural:
- Economic/Social class
- Comparative
- Racism
- Age , Region, etc.
- Radical/feminist:
"Why don't all men rape?"
- Situational:
- Routine activity
- Target availability
- Defensible space
- Cultural/Subcultural:
- Normalcy
- Exaggeration
- Learned- (group rapes) subculture
of rapists: Planning, recreation.
- Psychological/cultural:
Groth's typology (Men
Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender, 1979,
Plenum Press)
- Sadistic: 5% (rare, sex and
violence fused)
- Anger: 40% (violent, psychological/social
factors)
- Power: 55% (contempt, little
force, domination of will, control, sociocultural factors)
Summary, Forcible
Rape:
- Forcible Rape is regarded
primarily as a violent rather than a sexual act, but:
- Rape is an assault
- Rape as a pseudosexual
act - one that is motivated more by hostility and the urge to exercise
power than by passion.
Rape as a violent act.
- Legally and by definition,
forcible rape is a violent act.
- Thus, rape is always and by
definition a violent act
- Rape is never free from its
violent character.
- Rape--being against the victim's
will is violent.
This does not mean that rape
cannot be other things
- The "rape isn't about sex,
it's about violence" cliché sets up a false dichotomy
- Essentalist perspective and
assumes that there is one and only one way of looking at rape
- We need to consider the subjectivity
of the Rapist.
- Violence and sex are fused.
There is something erotic and sexually exciting about inflicting violence
upon women
- Rape is instrumental.
It allows men to gain sexual access to otherwise unattainable women.
- Rape is "recreation and
adventure" "the element of danger" makes rape "all the more exciting"
Rapists make up a mixed motivational
bag, and violence does not represent the primary motive of all of them
- even though they always engage in a violent act when they rape. The
act is always violent, though the motive need not be.
We must examine how rape is
seen, defined and judged by audiences. A CONTINUUM OF JUDGEMENTS
- exclusive - (SCULLY
AND MAROLLA)-
- inclusive - radical
feminist - all intercourse between men and women, however consensual
it may appear, represents an assault, an act of aggression, an invasion, a
violation - RAPE.
- moderately exclusive
- held by sexual and sex and gender-role traditionalists and conservatives
- "Nice girls don't get raped." If women don't engage in all these sexually
provocative activities, they won't bring on men's sexual attention in the
first place. Most Americans hold this view and will blame woman for a sexual
attack against her. They restrict their notion of what rape is to a relatively
narrow set of acts.
- moderately inclusive
- held by sexual and sex and gender-role liberals. Men
have no right to force women to do anything sexual; if they do, its rape.
This position is held by a minority of the American public.
- Three Crucial Audiences:
- The General Public
- The CJS, including
the police
- The victims of rape.
Conclusions
- Societal values don't support
violence, but do support male dominance. Extreme-->rape.
- We expect men to take the initiative,
be aggressive.
- Female autonomy is devalued. Double
standard.
- This context provides the "raw
material," rape is 'just' an extreme version of socially approved forms
of interaction.
White Collar Crime and Organizational
Deviance
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/violence.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and
Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated:
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 3:13 PM