The Social Construction of Crime and Deviance, Lecture notes of Criminology

Download The Social Construction of Crime and Deviance and more Lecture notes Criminology in PDF only on Docsity! Fahmida Begum The Social Construction of Crime and Deviance Notes Week 1 Notes: The Social Construction of Crime and ‘Deviance’  The law and what counts as crime is not the same across time and in different countries.  It is shaped as societies change and the balance of power between different groups change  The three examples of change were usually introduced by social movements such as Suffragettes, Bristol Bus Boycotts and LGBTQ+ movements  Power comes from below as well as above Week 2 Notes: What is Social Construction? Origins of social construction  Social construction is a specific group of theories to analyse how members of society and/or different social groups within that society, through interaction, ‘construct’ their social world. Values are- The cultural standards that people use to decide what is good or bad, what is right or wrong. They serve as ideals and guidelines that individuals live by. Beliefs are- Specific ideas about what people think is true about the social world. Different cultures have different values  Western countries like the US tend to value individualism and stress the importance of individual needs, whereas countries like South Korea tend to value collectivism and stress the importance of groups of individual. Social control can be: 1. Formal: Codified into legislation and the purview of police, courts, prisons 2. Informal: Groups of families, peers and authority figures (teachers, doctors, religious leaders), popular culture that all have varying levels of influence on behaviour Norms- The rules and expectations that guide behaviour within a society. Norms can be constraining and a form of social control. Social control is a regular feature of ‘socialisation’. How one grows and comes to learn about the values and norms of society. Fahmida Begum Social groups with power have primary (but not total) control over what gets defined as deviant and by extension, what or who gets criminalised. They may have more presence within law enforcement agencies, medical establishments, politics, educational institutions and other powerful agencies in society. Power Three dimensional concept of power (Lukes, 2005):  Overt power  Covert power  The power to shape beliefs and desires Overt power- Gaining obedience or compliance- Your will wins out over another. - Making sure someone or some group will obey you - Not necessary the use of physical force. Covert power- Controlling what gets spoken about and securing people’s compliance on that issue. - Excluding certain topics from the agenda - Excluding the voice and concerns of oppressed groups Compliance- people ‘buy into’ the power relationship. - Beliefs and desires conform to dominant norms and practices - They may not recognise other people’s oppression under it or their own Theories:  Some theorists (Dahl, 1961) state power is held by competing groups in society.  Other theorists (Foucault, 1977) speak on how power is apparent when there is resistance to it.  Weber (1946) types of ‘authority’ based on traditional, legal or charismatic bases.  Feminists theorists often speak of the power men hold through patriarchy. Criminalisation: • Positivist and Classical Criminology of the 19th century used to see deviance an objective characteristic of those deemed criminal and that scholars should look for explanatory causes. • This changed when social constructionists of deviance largely observed that deviance was in the “eye of the beholder” and as society changed what gets counted as deviance did as well. • Crime is a type of deviance. A deviant act can become criminalised through condemnation, political action and social change (Ritzer and Ryan, 2011) Fahmida Begum  Gender dysphoria is still currently categorised in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) which may influence the construction of trans people as experiencing a ‘mental illness’.  It can therefore be argued that gender dysphoria’s association with the DSM, which also categorises several ‘fetishes’ associated with sexual deviance, heavily influence the construction of trans people as mentally ill. Therefore, it can be argued that the construction of trans people as ‘mentally ill’ positions them as ‘less than’ the dominant, gender normative majority. 21st century- ‘New Breed’ discourse: Media representations of female violence are often framed within a ‘masculine’ discourse. As a society, we struggle to understand female criminality and therefore frame it within ‘masculine’ discourse. Adler (1975) - Violent females are freakish and behave like men (aggressive and violent) Shaw (1995) - Criminology struggles to investigate violent committed by women because the image of the violent women is based on that of male violence; macho, tough, aggressive. - We have no way of conceptualising female violence, apart from in terms of its ‘unnaturalness’. Jewkes (2005) - When women commit serious and violent crimes, they are often described in the media as;  Sexualised  Intense scrutiny of physical appearance  Bad wives and/or mothers  Lesbians  When co-offending with men, depicted as ‘evil manipulators’ or a ‘non- agent’ Chivalry thesis and Deviance: Pollack (1950) - Women benefit from a ‘gender contract’ which constructs women as in need of male protection - Women are able to easily conceal their offending (because they are naturally manipulative) Worrall (1990) Fahmida Begum - Women are not sanctioned for the same behaviour that would lead to men being punished Double deviance: Heidensohn (1995) - When women break expectations of ‘femininity’, they are treated more harshly than men. - ‘unnatural aggression’ Eaton (1986) - Criminal men and women who conformed to gendered stereotypes were treated more leniently than those who did not (including single women and gay men). Week 4 Notes: ‘Race, Faith and Culture Scientific Racism (1850’s)- Robert Knox ‘Races of Man’ 1. Biological variation between races is seen as permeant (later proved to be incorrect initially by Darwin) 2. This permanent variation determines cultural variation 3. This serves as the basis of conflict between groups and individuals 4. Some races are naturally superior Rationale behind the idea of ‘Race’ - This theorising was used to justify the state of colonialism as it was in the mid- 19th Century - Concerted effort to find a justification for the direction imperialism and colonialism had taken - But by the 1940s race was abandoned in science - Genetics ruled out race - social political construction Does race still matter? • Theoretical discussions on ‘race’ and ethnicity suggest that racialized marginalisation is still a concern • Critical Race Theory – emerging theory which aims to challenge taken for granted assumptions • Exploring examples in theory will allow us to make sense of trends in inequalities across ethnicity The war on drugs: Crack vs Powder Cocaine… • Anti-drug abuse Act 1986: introduced a hard line on crack cocaine possession – 100:1 ratio powder: rock Fahmida Begum • In effect until the 2010 Fair sentencing Act repealed it • Possession of crack carries sentence equivalent to that where an offender is carrying 100 times the volume in powder cocaine • Led to mandatory minimum sentences i.e., no matter what the circumstances you get either 5 or 10 years for possession For example: • 5 grams of crack or 500 grams of powder cocaine = 5 years • 50 grams of crack or 5000 grams of powder cocaine = 10 years • In In the USA the 1986 Anti-Drug abuse law played out with highly racialised outcomes • Statistics suggest a massive disparity between actual use of crack cocaine and conviction for African Americans • The health issue of addiction is criminalised with highly racialised outcomes Institutional Racism? • Stephen Lawrence murder – MacPherson enquiry 1999 Institutional racism consists of the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people. (para. 6.34) What about religion and faith? • Securitisation strategies shifted from a focus on the ‘ethnic Irish’ in the 1970s- 1990s to the ‘Religious Muslim’ post 2005 (see Hickman et al 2011) • Irish threat was contextualised by national sovereignty, independence and republicanism in a cultural intersection of the political and religious • In practice a range if ‘risk’ factors were used to detain suspects Post 2005: • 11th September 2001 – Attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York: claimed by Osama Bin Laden and later ‘Al-Qaeda’ • 7th July 2005 – Bombings on public transport in several sites in London • 2006 – Prevent is developed as part of the UK Government’s wider counter- terror strategy Fahmida Begum - The Etoro people viewed heterosexuality as sinful and promoted homosexuality. History of Lesbianism & Global Homosexuality  Derives from Greek island of Lesbos, home to Sappho  Poetry focused on a love of women and girls  Early modern Europe  Lesbianism was believed to be caused by an enlarged clitoris (Tribade)  This became a class issue, in which Tribades were believed to be lower-class who wanted to corrupt virtuous women  In the United Kingdom, not explicit legislation around lesbianism  However, there were instances of policing of lesbianism, but often under the guise of charges such as insanity and immorality Socially and in the context of Hazing  ReBack et al. (2018) found through 31 semi-structured interviews with heterosexual men who reported infrequent sexual encounters with men that it was often due to  The easy, uncomplicated nature of a sexual encounter with a man that often circumvented the sexual politics of a typical male-female interactions  The sexual experimentation that took place with these partners  The default nature of such encounters when a woman was unavailable or perceived to be unattainable.  Heteroflexibility  Considered a modern identity  Hazing (US context)  Elephant Circles  Many initiation rituals have a homoerotic undertone to them  Lots of nudity and physical contact Erasure of Bisexual identities  Due to binary opposites, bisexuality is often erased (man/woman, gay/straight)  Bisexuality in men is generally not constructed in mainstream media discourse  Bisexuality in relation to women is most often constructed within heteronormative ideals of sexuality  Female bisexuality is constructed as a performance for the heterosexual male gaze  Often stereotypes around bisexuality influence the perception of the dominant majority Fahmida Begum  Confused, greedy, not ready to fully ‘come out’ yet The HomoCriminal  Criminology has long had an interest in the lives of LGBT people  Deviancy or invisibility model looking for cures and answers  ‘Criminological knowledge has been used to regulate queer lives in unjust ways, and for many years, queer people were spoken about by criminologists, sexologists, and others seeking to ‘know’ about those considered sexually deviant.’ (Ball, 2014: 544)  LGBT people have a long history with the police and criminal justice system as both victims and offenders  Lombroso (1876)  Homosexuals as ‘insane criminals’  Lesbianism as a sexual ‘perversion’ but not as a criminal identity  Early criminologists in the 1950’s and 1960’s began to examine homosexuality (a concept that also included gender non-conformity) as a social, as opposed to an individual problem.  Mainstream Criminologies could still be characterised as heteronormative  Binaries reduced to Homo/Hetero and Male/Female The HomoCriminal- The Deviant  Howard Becker – ‘Outsiders’ (1963)  Labelling theory and how no act is inherently deviant until a label is successfully applied.  However, he does note on the first page that this value-free theory of deviant behaviour does not mean we must accept and allow everything.  Mentally ill 4 times  General criminals 6 times  Drug users 8 times  Homosexuals over 30 times Week 7 Notes: Fahmida Begum Constructing Terrorism and the Terrorist Threat What is terrorism? UK terrorism Act (2000): The use or threat of action designed to influence the government or an international governmental organisation or to intimidate the public, or a section of the public; made for the purposes of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause; and it involves or causes: • Serious violence against a person; • Serious damage to a property; • A threat to a person's life; • A serious risk to the health and safety of the public; or • Serious interference with or disruption to an electronic system. An essentially contests concept • Terrorism is one of many ‘essentially contested concepts’ (Gallie, 1955-56, p. 168). • Impossible to find any agreement over the meaning of the term? (Jackson et al, 2011, p. 100). • Four notable difficulties in defining terrorism. – History of the term. – Terrorism is used very widely. – Inherent subjectivity. – Terrorism is a pejorative. Constructing terrorism and the terrorist threat  Terrorism is a social fact  What it is and who ’is’ a terrorist appears flexible  A process of social construction produces knowledge about what terrorism is and what threat it poses. - Politics - Law - TV, film, video games - The built environment (e.g., airport security, CCTV) Terrorism and the West in the 21st century • In the West terrorism has rapidly risen to the top of national security agendas. • The existence of terrorism and its ever-present threat are observable all around us. Fahmida Begum (Allen 1999, p.11) Positive Eugenics- “Desirable social traits could be increased by encouraging reproduction among those deemed most genetically fit”. (Allen 1999, p.11) Eugenics and social control - Societal and Political Mechanisms to regulate behaviour, reinforce norms - Criminality could be eradicated by preventing those identified as criminal from breeding. Forced Sterilisation - America – ‘compulsory sterilization laws adopted by over 30 states that led to more than 60,000 sterilizations of disabled individuals’ - UDHR (1948) – forced sterilization violates at least four articles of the UDHR - Isn’t until as late as the 1980’s that some states repeal their sterilization legislation Modern eugenics  Repairing faulty genes  Removal of genes to prevent or treat genetic disease  Use of embryonic stem cells  Prenatal diagnosis  IVF – preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)  Gene Doping – EPO, Lance Armstrong Critiquing eugenics  Biological inheritability is not a group issue but an individual one;  Social reasons for crimes and indeed for physical characteristics can’t be ignored;  Statistical correlations are not the same as causes;  If crime changes over time how can criminality be inherited?  Studies comparing criminals with non-criminals fail to acknowledge that many criminals are never identified;  IQ tests measure knowledge about language and norms of dominant cultures Week 10 Notes: The Social Construction of the Environment and Ecocide A ground-zero for zemiology Fahmida Begum Punishment in society is often disproportionate to the harms caused by most offenders (White, 2013b) No matter how violent or harmful an act it must be defined and socially constructed as a crime. The range of acts that appear as crime are huge. The people who commit them are not particular category apart. Zemiology and Mens Rea - The killer who intends to kill someone is punished but what of the mine executive who knows that cutting safety corners will harm and likely kill many and does not change their course of action? (Reimann, 1998 Cited in Hillyard and Tombs (2004)); White, 2011). - Can allow for allocation of corporate and collective responsibility (The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007) - Can also encourage a collective response and redress as opposed to individual responsibility via “risk” discourses around crime Ecocide- The destruction of whole environments that host human communities and biodiversity of animals and plants. - Can happen through the effects of climate change-droughts, unpredictable weather patterns, unprecedented flooding - But also, through extractive industries-Mining, industrial agriculture, dam- building-often results in dispossession of lands of vulnerable indigenous communities. Week 11 Notes: Debilitating Disorders or Manufacturing Madness? What is a personality disorder? - “Characteristic enduring behaviours and inner experiences which deviate markedly from cultural norms…” (ICD-11) How personality disorders manifest:  Cognition  Impulse Control  Affectivity  Relating  Can be seen as being ‘odd’ and unable to ‘fit in’ Fahmida Begum Mental illness vs Personality disorder MD - Episodic or acute - Consistent symptoms - Broad agreement on diagnostic criteria (for the most part) - Often treatable in most patients PD - Pervasive – a pattern of how someone is - Culturally dependent - Controversial diagnosis - Dispute over whether they can or should be treated Types of personality disorder:  Paranoid Personality Disorder  Schizoid Personality Disorder  Schizotypal Personality Disorder  Antisocial Personality Disorder  Borderline Personality Disorder  Histrionic Personality Disorder  Narcissistic Personality Disorder  Avoidant Personality Disorder  Dependent Personality Disorder  Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. Potential causes of PD’s - Excessive praise for good behaviour - Excessive criticism for bad behaviour during childhood - Being praised for exceptional looks or abilities by adults, as a child - Severe emotional abuse in childhood - Inconsistent or unreliable caregiving from parents - Etc… Diagnosing personality disorders Inflexible, dysfunctional, maladaptive behaviour across social situations (not just specific to one environment) Personal distress and/or impact on social environment (causing harm to self and others) Deviation is stable and over a long period: onset in adolescence