Transcript Violence in Society: Rape and Murder

VIOLENCE IN SOCIETY
Chapter 5
Chapter Overview
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Who’s most fearful of violence in the U.S.?
What makes violence a social problem?
Rates of violence and cross-cultural comparisons
Violence from a biological, psychological and
sociological perspective
Rape and murder
The future of the problem
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Do you think violence in our society is a social
problem? What are the foundations for
people’s fear of violence? Who do you think is
most likely to be fearful or concerned about
violence on our society?
The next 4 slides address these questions
Interpreting Table 5.1(the previous 2
slides)
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Sex: Not surprisingly, women are more fearful than men.
Race-Ethnicity: African Americans and other minorities are more fearful of
walking alone at night. Why? How do we interpret these statistics? How
might history be influential (see the film Violence: An American Tradition)?
What about poverty levels (on average, minorities are poorer)?
Age: It looks like 30-49 year olds are the least afraid, but not by much.
Education: The more education you have the less likely you are to be
fearful. In part, this is because the more education you have, the more
money you will make, and the more likely you are to live and work in a
relatively “safe” place.
Interpreting Table 5.1 continued
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Income Level: The lower your income, the more likely you are to be
fearful. In part, this is due to where you live if you are poor. People
with low incomes are more likely to turn to street crime to achieve
cultural goals. Statistically, we also see that crime rates are higher in
poor neighborhoods.
Politics: Democrats are the most fearful? You may be wondering about
the relationship is between politics and fear. While it’s more complex
than this, we do know that people in higher income brackets tend to
vote Republican, and that many minorities vote Democrat. We know that
higher income means less fear of walking alone (see above), and if you
are white (a non-minority) you are less fearful.
What Makes Violence a Social
Problem?
Violence: the use of force to injure people or
to destroy their property
 The amount of violence (an objective
condition) does not make violence a social
problem.
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 If
this was the case, then violence as a social problem
would be LESS of a concern today (see the statistics on
the next slide).
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It’s the Subjective concerns about violence
make it a social problem.
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This figure illustrates the Objective Conditions of Violence
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As you can see, rates of violence have dropped- but enough to quell peoples fears? No.
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So why have crime rates dropped? One of the main reasons is that our government has
implemented tougher laws. While this has resulted in fewer street crimes, our prisons are
overflowing (creating another social problem!)
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This figure illustrates the frequency of violence in the U.S
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Murder is represented by the orange bar and rape the purple bar
It’s important to be wary of crime statistics – these numbers are not exact. Some countries
keep very poor records and rapes are underreported in many places
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Keep in mind that these are reported rapes, actual numbers are
likely much higher (consider that only 38% of all women raped in
the US ever report it).
Looking at the problem of violence
theoretically
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Biological Explanations
 Sigmund Freud
 The tendency to act aggressively is part of human
nature, rooted in the desires of the id
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problem with this explanation is that it doesn’t explain
why some societies are more violent than others
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Psychological Explanations
 John Dollard’s Frustration–Aggression Theory of
Violence
 frustration
(violence) results from being unable to
achieve a desired goal
 research confirms that people are likely to be more
aggressive when they are frustrated
Psychological explanations
continued
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Behavior Modification theory
 Stresses that behavior is LEARNED
 If behavior is rewarded (reinforced), that behavior will occur again
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Ex. if acting violently is rewarded with higher status, it is likely to
happen again. If you were to rob someone at gunpoint and you
were rewarded with money and valuable goods, then you are more
likely to do it again.
Modeling theory
 Stresses that behavior is LEARNED
 Modeling refers to copying another person’s behavior
 Research shows that kids model the behavior of adults, other kids and
characters of TV
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The average American has the TV on for 7 hours per day. Each year
youngsters watch approximately 12,000 violent acts of violence on TV.
The American Medical Association has reported that the level of
violence on TV was hazardous to your health (yet little is done to
regulate violence on TV)
Sociological explanations
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Sociological approach to understanding
violence
 Sociologists
stress environmental causes
 Sociologists examine how social life shapes
and encourages—or discourages—violence
Sociological explanations: symbolic
interactionism
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Edwin Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory
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People learn violence by interacting with other violent individuals. If
your friends or family act violently, you are more likely to act
violently.
People learn, from the different groups they associate with techniques,
attitudes, motives, drives, and rationalizations for violence.
Marvin Wolfgang’s Subcultures of Violence
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Subcultural Theory
 People who grow up in a subculture that approves violent behavior
have a higher chance of becoming violent
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Ex. gangs
Symbolic Interactionism
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Fitting the theories together
 Theories
complement one another well
 Subcultural theory stresses that violence is woven
into the life of some groups (subcultures).
 Differential association theory explains how
people learn from other violent people that
violence is a suitable response.
Sociological explanations:
functionalism
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Robert Merton’s Strain Theory
 Success is a goal in our society, yet everyone does not have the means to
be successful.
 Ex. money (success) is a goal as it gains you access to nice cars, nice
clothes and a number of other desirable things
 However, the means to achieve the goal (legitimately) are lacking for
some people. The system is not functioning to meet people’s needs,
resulting in strain, or frustration, for some segment of the population
(those at the bottom).
 Strain is the result of limited means to achieve a goal
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This may cause crime/violence
Strain Theory explains why high crime rates exist among poor
minorities—they experience fewer means to achieve success
Sociological explanations: conflict
theory
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Violence is inherent in society as various groups
compete for limited social and economic resources
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Social classes find themselves competing over limited resources.
The essential division is between the capitalist class and workers
(the wealthy (capitalist) vs. middle/working class)
The situation is particularly tense for working-class males.
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Over the last several decades we have seen a restructuring of the economy
so that there are fewer “blue collar” jobs. Most decent paying jobs today
require a college education. This leaves many poor men with limited
education with little to look forward to.
Also, because women have entered the workforce in growing numbers, men
are now competing with women for jobs.
Conflict theory continued
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If we look beneath the surface and realize that the capitalist
class is actually more violent than the working class.
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It’s the form of violence that distinguishes workers from capitalists
The conflict theorists would ask: who has the power? Answer: the
wealthy. They control the government (the politicians and police
officers) and according to conflict theories the government
suppresses the underclass.
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It is in their best interest to keep those at the bottom at the bottom (it
ultimately results in more wealth for the wealthy). The wealthy also
control the armed forces, which work to protect investments, such as oil,
overseas. It’s because of this power to control society and wage war that
conflict theorists argue that the capitalist class is far more violent than the
underclass.
Types of Violence: Rape and Murder
Two most serious forms of physical violence are
rape and murder
 Forcible Rape: form of assault where one
forces another to have any type of sexual
relations against that person’s will
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Statutory Rape: sexual intercourse between an
adult and a minor
Rape
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Today, rape is perceived as social rather than personal problem
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Feminists: traditional definition of rape (as a personal problem) places
blame on the victim, not the perpetrator
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Ex. asking if the victim did something to provoke the offender (i.e. dressing a
certain way) makes it a personal issue- this is called blaming the victim,
something sociologists, and feminists, reject
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Feminist revision removed burden of guilt from victim and placed it on perpetrator
Rape is an outcome of inequality or patriarchy: control by men of a
disproportionately large share of power. Rape is about violence and power, not
passion. Remember that with power comes the ability to DEFINE social situations
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It hasn’t always been this way (in fact, it hasn’t been this way throughout history).
Rape is now referred to as criminal sexual assault
The Social Patterns of Rape
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FBI: 89,000 American women are forcibly raped each year
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Predictable social patterns
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This is the number of women who report it- approximately 200,000 is more
accurate
Statistics show that a women is more likely to be raped by someone she
knows than by a stranger
Acquaintanceship; place; time; season; age; income; race–ethnicity;
geography; region; weapon are predictable (see text)
Sociologists conclude that rape is not the act of a few sick men, but, rather,
is a learned behavior that is intimately linked to our patriarchal culture
Injury, rape, and resistance
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Woman who resists her attacker less likely to be raped
Profiling the Rapist
10 profiles of rapists based on confessions: See pages 132-134 in
your book
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10.
Woman Hater
Sadist
Generally violence-prone
Revenge
Political
- soldier rape: rape committed by a soldier on a country’s inhabitants
during wartime
Walter Mitty rapist
Opportunist
Date Rapists, also called Acquaintance Rapists
Recreational Rapist
Husband rapist attacks his own wife
Reactions to Rape
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The trauma of rape does not end with the physical
attack
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Dealing with the legal system/pressing charges
 In only 40% of reported rapes is someone arrested
 Victim subjected to “legal rape” or reliving the attack
 Police have grown more sensitive to rape victims
Homosexual rape
Women are not the only rape victims
 Men are also victims of rape (overwhelming by other
men) especially in prisons
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Murder
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The social patterns of murder
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Least likely to be committed by a stranger
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Men are overwhelming the “murderers” in our society (over 90%)
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Guns are the weapon of choice (67% of murderers kill with a gun)
Guns as a symbol if masculinity; reinforced over and over in the media
Our culture romanticizes the use of guns by cowboys, hunters, gangsters, and
villains. Our film this week illustrates this well.
Guns are also highly effective and readily available in our society
Most dangerous time of the week is Saturday night
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Only 22% of murders are committed by a stranger (see the next slide)
As a result, Saturday Night Specials refer to any inexpensive handgun
U.S. murder rates have plunged 43%
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This is a result of tougher crime laws that have placed more potentially violent
offenders in prison
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The purple bars in this figure illustrates the number of men who commit
murder, and the yellow bars illustrate the number of women who commit
murder
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We live in one of the safest states. Notice where the highest concentration
of dangerous states are
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New Orleans easily tops the list as the most dangerous city in the US. Those of
you looking for safety may want to consider Plano, Texas (I’ll take Honolulu  )
The Future of the Problem
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Conflict theory indicates that tensions will remain in our
society
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Functionalist perspective explains that violence is functional
enough to be perpetuated and maintained
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As long as there is economic and social disparity there will be crime
and violence.
As long as people benefit from violence, whether it be money, or
status, or satisfaction (i.e. killing for revenge) it will continue.
Symbolic interactionist perspective focuses on violence as a
cultural symbol used to resolve conflict
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Ex. by pairing masculinity with violence, violence becomes a symbol
for masculinity. So to prove one’s masculinity one may use violence
The Future of the Problem
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The Sociological perspective on violence is essential to understanding
our present and future state- there is not some genetic predisposition
for psychopathology in our society. Violence, murder, and rape are a
result of social structure and history.
Understanding the social basis of violence can be used to implement
beneficial solutions. For example, reducing economic inequality and
providing legitimate opportunities for success will reduce the need
to resort to crime and violence. This translates into better schools,
meaningful work, and higher wages for more people.
What other solutions can you think of?