Reminders & Follow-up to Reports on Chapters 2 & 3 of "Crime Types"

REMINDERS:

I am looking forward to reports on Chapters 4 & 5 tomorrow (Tues., 10/18). Please remember to submit your proposed questions for the midterm exam. I need those questions by Thursday of this week because I will begin making up the midterm exam (scheduled for next Tues., 10/25) by the end of this week. Finally, let me remind everyone to be READING "CRIME TYPES" ALONG WITH THESE REPORTS. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE READ THROUGH CHAPTER 5 BY THE END OF THIS WEEK.


FOLLOW-UP TO CHAPTER 2: HOMICIDE AND ASSAULT

A. Let me first of all clarify that homicide and assault tend to be INTRA-AGED, INTRA-RACIAL (that is, within the same age and racial group), whereas for gender, homicide tends to be INTRA-GENDERED, but assault is more INTER-GENDERED (that is, male on female), especially violent sex crimes, of course.

B. In terms of methodology, most articles involve interviews either with criminals themselves or victims. It is difficult, if not impossible, to do broad surveys. Have to work with a "captive" population (no pun intended).

C. The report on the article on gangs stressed their violent nature. But we'll see in "Gang Leader for a Day" that that is not all there is to gangs.

D. In terms of theoretical connections (which the Green Family neglected to do), I believe Differential Association/Social Learning was perhaps the most relevant. In this context, Sykes and Matza's "Techniques of Neutralization" comes up in a couple articles, and Sykes and Matza's concept is connected with Differential Asssociation/Social Learning.

E. A couple of my own observations.

1. Most homicides start out as an assault, often in the context of a heated argument, which escalates to the point where someone is killed. The encouragement of a crowd and the availablity of a weapon (usually a gun) are also contributing factors. There is also significant involvement of alcohol and/or drugs in violent incidents.

2. Some of the specific examples of Sykes and Matza's "techniques of neutralization" that come up are: (1) in the case of the professional hitman, "denial of victim," "denial of injury," and "denial of responsibility" are used in rationalizing what the hitman does for a living. Also, an interesting application is how women who are battered rationalize the behavior of their abusers, in a sense neutralizing the responsibility of their spouses.

3. An interesting, although minor, point appears in the article on gang violence when a gang member was asked what he believes needs to be done to eliminate gangs. He reeponded that the only way to do that would be to simply kill them -- wipe 'em out -- which I do not believe is a morally viable or justifiable option. But it reveals that all these young people know is violence, so for them it makes sense that they would see violence as the only solution to gangs.

4. Finally, a point that comes through loud and clear is the role of guns, especially assaults which escalate to homicides. This would seem to suggest that gun control might help to reduce the incidence of homicides.


FOLLOW-UP TO CHAPTER 3: VIOLENT SEX CRIMES

A. I especially appreciated the theoretical connections that the Blue Family made with this chapter. Differential Association (again) seemed pertinent, especially when talking about gang rape or group sexual asaults -- behavior, attitudes being learned. Clearly challenges Deterrence and Rational Choice theory, as evidenced by the high recidivism rate for sexual offenses. But the one-in-ten figure is really NOT very high compared to recidivism rates for other crimes. What distinguishes it is that those re-arrested were re-arrested for rape. The other recidivism figure of 42%, I assume, involved being re-arrested for any other crime.

B. Let me stress again, as I did in class, that NCVS statistics are especially relevant to this type of crime which is grossly underreported.

C. One -- perhaps counterintuitive -- finding which was not brought out: "A study by Kleck and Sayles (1990) reveals that resistance, especially violent forms of resistance, serves as effective means of (1) preventing rape completion, and (2) reducing the level of injuries sustained by the victim."

D. It goes without saying that alcohol and drugs are often implicated or involved in violent sex crimes (just as we saw in the case of homicide and assault).

E. Important to note that rape is often committed NOT for the purpose of sexual gratification but out of a desire to dominate and control -- rape is as much a violent act as it is a sexual act.

F. There are many types or categories of rape: stranger rape, gang rape, and some relatively new ones: acquaintance or date rape and wife rape.

G. Dabney outlines some theories of rape in the introduction: (1) gender inequality, (2) pornography, (3) social disorganization, (4) legitimation of violence theory (pp. 82-83). They all make some sense, although I would question the corelations on which gender inequality and pornography theories are based. For example, gender inequality predicts that rape would be higher in patriarchal (male dominant) societies. But Japan is very patriarchal, yet has a very low rape rate.

H. "Riding the Bull at Gilley's" strongly challenges the "PSYCHOPATHOLOGY" view -- that "rape is the result of idiosyncratic mental diseases and that it often includes an uncontrollable sexual impulse." (p. 91) That is, there are not just some sick men out there. Rather, there is a cultural dimension -- how rape is rationalized as male perogative and women are stereotyped as sex objects mainly.

I. This cultural or social dimension also comes theough in the gang rape on campus article. To combat this problem, it is suggested that men need an attitude adjustment. And in the article on wife rape, it is suggested that men be taught not to treat women as sex objects, even if they happen to be their wives and feel entitled to treat them that way.


PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY OF THE ABOVE FOLLOW-UP MATERIAL MIGHT BE THE BASIS FOR QUESTIONS YOU MAY SEE ON THE MIDTERM EXAM.

Hope to see everyone in class tomorrow.