Sociology of Crime and Deviance 1/30/06- I missed first lecture, and since then have

taken hand written notes. First, on a sheet of paper in the red spiral notebook, then on the
printed out version of the PowerPoint.
He was writing on the board something like:
Psych
-personality
-IQ
-Development/Cognition (ie. Poor impulse control, etc.)
Biol
-Genes (ie. Gene for risk taking, disobeying authority, etc.)
-Hormones (testosterone, etc. reason for more boys)
-Socio-biology (innate properties of the human species that favor crime and
deviance, for example agression)
Soc
-Positivism (takes mechanistic view, there are hiddden laws, quantitative
measures such as survery research)
-learn
-strain
-control
-Interpretation>>meaning, motivation.
Mainstream Theories of Crime
These theories:
Are dominant in contemporary criminology
Are often amenable to positivism
Tend to focus on explaining the deviant individual- what is it about ppl who break
the law compared to those who dont?
Fall into three camps
Social Learning Perspectives
Key Name: Edwin Sutherland Key Text: Principles of Criminology 1939. Differential Association Theory
Argument: differential association theory- its all about who you hang out with.
Differential association with diff types of people. Typically small group setting,
delinquent youth focus, assoc. in small groups critical and had number of small
implications: learning the method of crime, Rationalizatons and motivations for
crime, a small group reinforces a particular worldview upon you. Makes you think
crime is fair or fun. (ie. Teenage kids skateboarding on freezing cold day?)
Learn: Techniques. Motivations. (Most crimes can be seen as risky or boring, but
small group can change these interpretations)
Influences: Chicago School, Tarde (1843-04).- Most influential sociolgy school,
street corner gangs, hobos, and so on. Polish immigrant peasant. TARDE- A
DUDE- THEORY OF IMITATION. There is a trickle down effect from high

status groups to low status groups. Like fashion. There are other things that aref
forms of imitation- languages. If someone enters small group setting, they will
immitate the other people.
Modification: Daniel Glaser Differential Identification theory- Said Sutherland
was a bit mechanistic, but he says what is more important is the person
subjectively identifying with the role model. Shifting away from Sutherlands
positivism to a situation looking at who people look up to, opens us up eventually
to thinking about the role of the media (he didnt talk about that). Role Models
More
Recent elaboration: Ronald Akers.- He had psychology training, spruced up the
theory by looking at reinforcement. What happens immediately after. Combining
Skinner with Sutherland.
social learning theory- do they get positive or neg stimulus after. Teenage
delinquency- those who received immediate positive peer feedback.
Reinforcement, feedback and peer groups- these small groups give positive
feedback to criminal acts, not like if cops came first.
More recent book Social Learning and Social Structure 1998.- Particularly the
community setting tips the odds of different kinds of feedback coming. Odds
much higher if you grow up in a failing community. IF growing up in Amish
community, you wont get positive feedback. The odds of diffferent kinds of
feedback vary by what kind of community you live in. Find movement towards
convergence.
Tries to tie environment to learning
Strain theory
Two levels: societal organization, individual situation.- maybe even whole
societies, focus attention on weak institutions, weak social regulation. The other is
the Gap between what ppl want compared to whatthey can attain.
Durkheim. 1890s. Anomie theory.- Weak social norms=higher levels of suicides.
Rapid industrialization, breakdown of customary results on behavior. Rural
settings= more purpose than in urban settings, stronger norms. Economic
prosperity increases suicide. Do they move somewhere else? Like lottery winners.
Merton. 1938. Goals v. Means.- He picked up on the individual level of Strain.
Key to understanding- there is this junction b/w socially approved goals and
realistic ways of attaining them. America, number one value is to get rich, but
means to achieve are not evenly distributed only a few people can really make it.
You need to inherit wealth or have above average intelligence, white, male,
people without these have a big block. Then, crime happens, it is a form of
innovation, they have to make another way to get to get to material rewards.
Crime is a resolution of the tension b/w these two things.
Messner and Rosenfeld. 1994. American dream. More structural.- Argued the
situation had gotten worse since the 1930s, suggested that Capitalist values were
taking over America. Alternative things were becoming devalued. Not- capitalist
institutions were becoming weaker. Neo-Marxist line. In Mertons days, can
become priest or school teacher and still have sense of pride, but now not as much
any more. Parents number one concern is education.

Albert Cohen. 1955. status frustration. Alternative subculture.- Phillip Smith likes
this theory a lot. Delinquent acts are not about making money. It is more about
doing crazy things and smashing things up. So whats really going on here?- Kids
who do well in school attain status, enabled you to get positive feedback from
school and kids and feel good about yourself. Unless good at a sport or
something, they get staus frustration, an alternative subculture forms. They form
their alternative kid subculture, transvaluation, devalues everything that
theyre bad at and values everything theyre good at. It flips the values around.
Look up to people who flunk, vandalize, attract attention of the authorities. This
theory is more about dignity of self, attempt to find place in the world. This is a
pathway to a terrible life.
More
Cloward and Ohlin 1960. blocked opportunities.- Pretty much same thing from
different angle, they talk about blocked opportunity, these working class have less
legitimate opportunity in life and then form their own subcultures. Measuring
blocked opportunities vs. Status frustration. How many times have you been
offered a job? Vs. How many people think youre a waste of space? Then model
them against each each other.
Agnew 1992. negative relations and events.- ID negative events, apply negative
feelings on self, feelings of injustice. Times when you get negative promotional
energy from someone. When subject to continuing negative relations in their daily
lives, want to give positive life experiences. Communities, which are
disorganized, more likely trouble with cops, more likely negative relationships.
All these theories seem to think that neighborhoods can cause this stuff.
All talk about different aspects of same thing. Emphasis.- All these separate
theories converge here.
Control Theory
Travis Hirschi. Causes of Delinquency 1969.- Try to explain why people are
straight rather than why theyre crooked. Most people have the kinds of social ties
that subject them to social control.
Role of social ties
Attachment. (social tie to valued individual such as parent of teacher, if you look
up to them then youll take them seriously when they say youve done bad)
Commitment. (ties to institutions like school) Involvement. (routine activities,
time use, how mcuh of your time is soaked up in legitimate activities.
Extracurriculars, etc. Strong correlation between the time right after school ends
and crime and deviance. Belief.- (about your connection to abstract social values,
do you believe in obeying the law, right and wrong, hardwork, etc). If you score
high on these you will be less likely to be deviant.
Elaboration: Hirschi and Gottfredson. 1969. internal control. Early socialization.(Keep seeing original theory and then people going on with minor elaborations!)
Trying to connect control theory with biological stuff. Focused to much on
immediate socail ties and not development of the self. This is a bit too
mechanistic. What is important is early socialization. If have before the age of 14,
your self will be made so that deviance seems unnatractive to you- even in the

absence of strong ties! What were the ties between the age of 5 and 15? Not
ties when youre 25. You internalize this method of social control.
Elaboration: Sampson and Laub. lifecourse criminology- where were at at the
moment, he likes this- as we grow older, enter and exit labor market, married and
divorced, traces movement through the life course and rates of offending. The
amt. of social ties we have varies during life and theres correlation with deviance.
Many people give up deviance around their early 20s. Reason- they develop
certain kinds of social ties- first worthwile job with some kind of career track.
Commitment- institution emploeyer. Or married, long-term relationships. Simply
living with a woman. Gangs of guys dont get let in at the clubs, but guys with a
woman do get let in. Indicator of sanity. Those who dont give up deviance never
develop social control. Teenage delinquents tend to encourage each other and egg
each other on.
Elaboration. Hagan power control theory- 1970s teaming up Tracis Hershey
with feminism. Why do women do less deviance than men? Structure of family.
Young girls tend to be policed by parents in terms of their sexuality, subject to
more surveilence and scrutiny, etc. In contrast, teenage boys are allowed to roam
around on bicycles and come back at meal time. Girls subject to high levels of
social control- esp. working class families. Then why arent middle class girls
doing higher levels of deviance. He says working class families are more
traditional than middle class families if they are treated more like middle class
boys.
Summary- Striking how similar a lot of these theories are. Sutherland learning, other
person social ties. It is about who you are learning from.
Theories not incompatible.- We can combine them. Not about which is true or
false, but about which one explains the most. Whats more important, time in
activity or people you are learning from.
Social ties, social location common to all.- Connections b/w individuals, social
influence, differences between good areas and bad areas.- latter less opporunity
for conformtiy.
Focus on explaining delinquency and problems with this.- Most of these theories
developed with an eye for explaining teenage youth offending. We might think for
example about issue of white collar crime- big problem for these theorists- people
who dont need the money, dont have developmental problems, etc.
Problem of diverse individual outcomes.- People in the same kind of sturcutal
category will have divergent life paths. Family in trouble, one kind at Yale other
in prison. Presumably similar sorts of social ties, but then something happened to
divide them.
Neglects: opportunity/situation; meaning/experience; politics/labeling- He enjoys
these things the most- next few lectures. The nature of the individual, the other
thing to ask, are there tings around worth stealing, are they easy to steal,
Opportunity Structue- Hes interested in this. Missing out on meaning and
experience. Sutherland learning theory Politics/labeling- crime- will cover next
Thursday. Do they classify it as crime

2/1/06 Tuesday was Mainstream Positivist, people trying to behave like scientists,
experimental or statistical methods. Next week Tues, more of a humanistsic point of
view.
Sociology of Crime and Deviance
Interactionist ApproachesProblems with mainstream
Background not meaning- (Referring to positivist that focus on social traits that
might predispose them to crime, i.e. low IQ, contexts that propel them to crime,
but not looking at the meanings of crime for the criminal. Humainist point of
view= it makes sense to them, makes them feel good, etc.)
Mechanistic (Travis Hershey: Choir practice, counts hours, likelihood of
becoming of deviant. No room here for volunteerism or choice)
Unreflexive (About some core assumptions. Crime is not really qiestioned, just
take the state definition. Positivists dont undersatdnd that crime and deviance are
socially constructed. Abortion, marijuana, etc. Engages in stat work unreflexive
about who is the criminal. Person with criminal record. Leaves out undetected
deviance in general population who got away with it. Only dealt with criminals
,labeled as such by society)
Symbolic Interactionism: Core Ideas- 1960s theoretical perspective started to question
positivism bring social constructivism back. MLK JR. ex from b4.
Herbert Blumer (Philosopher of Simbolic Interactionism- act inbasis of meanings
People act on basis of meanings- (Cars that get keyed. What kinds of cars get
keyed, very nice ones, Mercedes overrepresented compared to Corvettes? Why do
people do this? Symbolic- Someone should write a paper about people who
drive expensive automobiles, stealing american jobs by driving Mercedes?
Why do people key, etc.
Meanings arise from interaction, interpretation- (Blumer gets this from
Sutherland. Mainstream positivist. People talking about things in small groups led
to particular perspectives on the world. (Socially not individually)
Action not behavior (In case of humans, need to think about action- motivated
behavior with a certain amount of free will and interpretation. Backup from
neuroscience. Interpretation and emotion is kind of short cut that helps you move
on in life, these abnormal people are paralyzied by indecision when no emotions.
Implications for criminology
Meanings for perpetrators- (Fundamentally different from looking at race,
neighborhood, etc. this is subjective world and subculture.
Meanings for society- (Involves thinking about what crime and criminality mean
for the wider population. The nature of law, media framing, etc.
Social construction of deviance- (Look at how some events are framed up as
deviant or acceptable. Explore the wasy people talk about it and ways particular
forms of deviance are invented. Race, politics, etc. Wouldnt get at this with
simply a positivist approach.)

 Qualitative and interpretative methods- (Content analysis of the media. Reading a

bunch of newspaper stories, interviews with people (his taxi drivers), focus
groups, participant observation, etc. Researcher trying to undersatnd from within
the group by hanging out with the group. Thats the ethnographic method.
Focus can be on personal experiences or public meanings (Its a scale, some
work is more about meaning of crime from society at large. We can look at
experience of crime, the end to the right is the way people talk about things. The
left is involved?
Study 1
Howard Becker.(Starting from the public meaning end, going the other way, this
guy is public meaning. Famous for Labeling theory)
Labeling theory
Key book: Outsiders. 1963.-(Collection of papers that pushed perspective of
social constructionism. What is deviance? Trashes two then existing approaches.
Statistical and functionalist views of deviance. Problems with these.- (Statisticalthings viewed as unusual, vary from the norm. Problem: Not just unusual,
considered morally wrong. Many forms of deviance are good, like charity. Son of
Yao- 79. Functionalist- things are deviant which are bad for society. From
social constructivist point of view- problem- whats bad for one part of
society is good for another, not clear who the arbitrator is. MLK for example
was good for oppressed people, but people in the south didnt think so. Marijuana
is a good example- MS or Aids people=good, might be bad for motorists.
Focus on social construction - (Becker has social constructivist p.o.v.- social
groups have social power...
Key statements
social groups construct deviance by making the rules whose infraction
constitutes deviance (Becker. Radically constructivist. Deviance is whatever
people label as deviance. Dr. King is no longer deviant. Minority can impose their
idea of right and wrong on everyone else. (About who makes the rules)
deviant is one to whom that label has been successfully applied (Caught and
labeled as Deviants. Behavior labeled as bad. Anti-positivist p.o.v. Not how many
ppl are skateboarding? He asks who makes the rules that makes skateboarding
illegal and why do only some of the ppl that do these things get caught and
labelled as deviant? (About policy and The process- criminal justice)
Note: shift to societal response.- (How do we identify and label particular
individuals. Why does label stick to some and not to others?
Themes of power and discretion- (Power to define deviance. Why do police
arrest some people? Why do middle class offenders have easier time than working
class offenders i nthe court room? (Generally power and discretion are found in
symbolic interactionism screws lower people b/c people with the power makes the
rules. Who gets booked for drunk driving? Not cops or lawyers or judges,
discretion works to their advantage. If no status or no resources, they are picked
upon. Skateboarders are picked upon. These groups dont have any power, so

picked on by people around shopping malls, but other social groups bend the law
to their benefit. Skateboarding harmless.
Master status. Snowball effect. (In our lives well have a number of statusessocial roles, descriptions people might use to say who we are. Someone might be
a mother, accountant, a good cook, and a Yale grad. Four different statuses. What
happens if woman commits a crime? The status as criminal takes over as a master
status. Washes out all the other statuses we might have. Becker argues this I think.
Others become uninteresting, dont care about latest accounting procedures, once
she tells you shes a criminal, only care about what you did, etc.
High status person is a drug dealer, that takes over. The statuses that can bridge us are
forgotten like they watch basketball, listen to same music, but once you know theyre a
drug dealer, other points of human connection drop out- Criminal is master status.
Separation out as deviant vs. not. The result of this separation is a snowball effect,
deviants hang out with each other as outsiders, in a search for identity, form Deviant
subcultures, like Cowens argument. Once ur in the subculture, you learn the values that
lead to more deviance.) Ex. Kid caught at school smoking marijuana other kids parents
wont let their kids hang out, only kids that talk to you are the real drug dealing kids. Big
effects come from smaller conditions driven by STATUS. Some reent experiments- white
and black people (actors) given same senarios of life, one had spent last 3 years in prison
one had been in oil rig in Alaska, who gets offered a job? Ethnographic. Deal with them
with fear.
Diversion: From Labeling Theory to Radical Criminology- (Around 1970 becomes fused
with near-Marxism- two social groups, dominant class and working class< binary view of
society.
Radical criminology = marxism + findings of Symbolic Interactionism.(Dominant class makes up law and discression works to disadvantage of the
working class. )
From Marxism: CJS = class control, crime is political, crime was necessary (riots,
rebellions, i.e. Shoplifting to feed family..
From labeling: selective rule making, discretion (Crimes of the powerful, not
paying minimum wage, etc was not punished, discression used to get popwerful
people off the hook. Two parrallel legal systems subjected to class control and one
for rich people who tended to get off all the time. One for powerful one for the
powerless. Whenever someone from Congress is guilty for something, check
themsleves into rehab, b/c smart lawyers and can pay for rehab, if not, they go to
jail.
Problems
Romantic vision (Hoodlums were Robin Hood figures trying to feed
communities, etc. Poor people tend to predate on other poor people. Most
criminals only commit crimes within a few streets of where they live. They
werent engaged in social activity. Sexual violence example of difficult to say this
is acrime of the poor trying to resolve injustices of society.
Fits some scenarios only

 left realism- (Complete U-turn, instead of arguing that CJS is picking on them,
saying poor communities need more police protection and regulation whereas
before they thought kind of self-regulating. More energy given to catching white
collar criminals? (We want cops down here too to sort out these gangs and give us
same protection under the laws as rich people get)
Study 2
Erving Goffman (sociology, zoology, other forms of knowledge)
Asylums. 1961- extremely fdamous influential book. Part of 60s stuyle
Romantic movemnt suggesting mental problems labeling was part of effort of
social control. Part of a wave of books about mental illness not existing,
confinement is bad for people who were mentally ill, mental illness would is an
attempt at social control One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Nice people
misunderstood.
Continued
Ethnographic effort subjective experience- (Inmate of mental assylum, spent all
of his days and several nights in Naval hospital in MD with ppl classified as
mentally ill. How does hospital work as a social setting. There is a component of
labeling here- process to people being defined as mentally ill by the institution.
Incredible book, read this shit.
total institution- (Hughes invented this, but Goffman most associated with it
Institutions- do they contrl all of our lives or just part of our lives. A total
institution is one that controls pretty much everything- (i.e. prison total institution,
church would be at other end of the scale. IN between you have a range, like how
Yale is semi-total institution. Sanctions if you violate them. (Free criterion- clear
boundy around the institution, separated off from outside world, the interior
organization is very rationalized, time tables, collective eating and sleeping
arrangemnts, clear understadnings about behavior and limits to behavior.
Heiracrical and interior organization. So boundy, hierarchical, routine, staffinmante divsiion. Army. Amish Communities- dont have boundry. Rehab centers,
cult societies. Totalitararian things- South Korea. Monistary. They dont have
staff-inmate division. Awful. Airplanes and b-ball practice but doesnt control you
24 hours/day. Reality TV shows.
2/6/07 Continued from before Interactionist Approaches- Finishing up Symbolic
Interactionism
rite of passage-developed by Goffman. Process of labeling. As inmante entered
mental hosp lost citizen status and given inmate status. When people show up you
strip them of their more dignified citizenship status, and give them degraded
inmate status. Right of passage=system of beuricratic activities, taking away life
history, listing personal possessions for storage, disinfecting, haircutting,
undressing, assigning to corridors. Lose one identity and given another. Shower,
anti-lice powder thrown over them, etc. Escape from Alcatraz. Philip likes this.
Interactionist understanding of self. Society gives us a sense of self and society
takes it away. Strong person to resist this.

 Power, identity, rewards system- highly power driven where all is in staff. The
institutuion works by reshaping ID and making them into conformists. Slightly
romantic concept of this. Show conformity, get rewards, if they show they
havent changed ID, get punsihed in some way. Play by the rules to accumulate
rewards and avoid punishment. Goffman says this remakes the self in nast ways,
become robotized. Says its bad, takes away individualism, but...coping
Coping strategies- situational withdrawal- withdrawal from situaton of being in
an institution- someone who listens to radio or reads novels can forget their in the
institution for a little while. Intransagent Line- refusing to cooperate with
authority- brings down upon you punishment after punishment, but you
keep your sense of self. The Great Escape
-Colonization- involved the inmate enthusiastically adopting the institution. Theyve
never had life so good before and they beling there. It unravels the whole logic of the
place. Trumps the fact that youre being subject to power and control. This does
happen. Very sad. Feel that prison is relatively safe place to be.
-Conversion- Prisoner adopts staff worldview. Taking on board their values and
beliefs. Stockholm situation- people Identify with person who takes them hostage.
Come to agree that they are right. Patty Hearsch in the 70s. After a year or two she
converted to their Marxist philosophy.
-small moments of resistance that they include in their everyday lives. Participating in
forbidden activities, like gambling or drinking alcohol. using official property for
illegal used, like cutting the legs off of their trousers for shorts or nun using glass on
the book case for mirror. If you show you have a little degree of autonomy then you
protect an element of self. High school: do things to make sure you have a bit of
control over teachers and stuff.
Study 3
Becker. Becoming Marijuana User. 1953 (same guy as labeling theory)
Interview Study- (Becker was an interesting character who is a talented Jazz
musician, hanging out with them in the 50s, gave him entre into world of
marijuana smokers. Jazz musicians thought that smoking helped improvisation.
Continued.
Problem with trait and predisposition theories- (Trait theories ID underlying
group of users, for exaple jazz msuicians, minorities, or men. Predisposition
theories point to some kind of mental or physical attribute of the individual. They
pick on a predictor, and then go from there, which is wrong because not everyone
in that group is doing that drug. Jazz musician is predictor, so lets say 50% did,
now even less. Other problem-dont explain why people shift in and out of drug
use. IF there is a causal law that is driving this, then big problem in start/stop
behavior. Thats the problem with these positivist theories.
Argues for sequence of social experiences, acquired meanings and
understandings.- ([Hes a symbolic interactist. He was noticeing jazz musicians
sitting backstage having a joint together taking about the quality and how it might
improve their playing. Sequence 1. Novice- theyre non-user observe othe rppl
having fun. Their response in curiosity. Theres a small amount of fear- will I be

able to control myslef, but you have knowledge that other ppl seem to enjoy this.
2. Novice tries to get high, but usually fail first few times. A. Technical issuerolling the joint, dont really know what to do. PPl didnt hold the smoke down
long enough 3. Slowly learns the techniques for taking the required dosage.
Becker then argues that ppl can have required dosage and still not get high. Dont
feel any different from way they normally do. Process of social construction
going on. They have to learn to encourage within themselves certain symptoms.
They have to recognize that theyre high, talk to experienced users, you should
feel mellow, relaxed, happy, etc. How did the first guy figure it out? Requires
socialization. Highly critizized in medical literature. THC- but Beckers finding is
reinforced by some experiments. We know from psychological stunts that people
can start to act drunk when they arent really drinking alcohol. Expectation causes
a large part of your responses. 4. Last phase- feeling the high and intepreting it as
pleasurable. Simply taking coulod be interpreted in many way. The argument is
made that you have to ignore symptoms or reinterpret with positive spin. Have to
respin the phenomenon. How would you feel if someone put a large amount of
grain alcohol in cereal?- Youd feel like shit. But in social situation- loss of
control is good. So, theres a sequence, have to decide that its pleasurable
instead of unpleasurable. The interactions play a huge role in this. If someone
can answer the questions Yes to the answer of are you high and are you
enjoying it, they will go on being a marijuana user. Interactionist and
positivist theory. Learn to be deviant in an active way. Becker is not doing the
somethings missing explanation, he says youve been actively socialized into
deviance as opposed to the things that say something social is missing.
Fits other experiences.- lots of deviant acts involve people being socialized into
them. Binge drinking. Its unpleasant to drink to excess and then throw up, but
people keep doing it. Eating spicy food, have to be actively socialized. Certain
kinds of sex acts. Curiosity followed by experimentation, was that fun?
Common in sport- coach will give you weird descriptions as to how it is supposed
to feel.
Active socialization not failed socialization
Study 4
Jack Katz. Seductions of Crime. 1988. Becker-style critique of background factors. Not self-interest either.- (Many
people who commit crimes are form the wrong kind social groups.
foreground- (Not the background. The experience of crime, not the crime scene
itself.
Moral emotions and experience. (things like rage, anger, righteousness, attempts
to attain staus, disgust.
Example: stick-up. (Interesting crime. From talking to bank robbers in prison and
stuff, very little planning, spur of the moment activities. Even bank robbers have
done a minimum amount of casing (research) usually dont have idea of how
much money is there. Yield for robbing bank very small, nearly 80% of bank
robberies are solved. People get arrested for every 5 to ten offenses? Kats says

better working at McDonalds for minimum wage and make more money, better
lifestyly. Therefore says its a non-rational activity. Therfore he says its about the
self or emotion rewards. Why would you want to do this then?- Sensual moral
advantage(feeling of superiority before the crime superiority over everyone else
int he situation. You are going to redefine the situation, thus you are in control of
the situation. You have this knowledge that youre going to change everyone
elses day. You can also play with the victims before they know theyre a victim.
For example, you can ask what time is is to see if they have a fancy watch, then
you know you can steal it. Often when people rob gas station store, they ask for
things first. Ask for cigarettes, then pull out gun when they give you the bag. Kats
mentions one case where people dial up pizza, rob the delivery guy.
declaration- (person actually says, This is a stick-up. They want to dramatize
the fact that theyre doing a crime. Expression of dominance. Youre saying Im in
control of the situation and youre not, youd be foolish to challenge me. People
who run away sometimes get shot, one of the worst things you can do is run away,
best you can do is cooperate, theyre not involved in the rational world that we
are, they want the sisuation to unfold in a way that confirms their own identity. ;
identity commitment- perserveres in the crime of stick-up throught their
lifecourse. Even after they go to jail, they try to maintain identity as a badassman who can intimidate others. Notoriety. People engaged in transendental..You
cant give it up, admitting that youre a failure, enjoy the respect, to stop would be
to deny true essence of self.
2/08/06- More
Example: Righteous slaughter- Most common homicide=automobile accidents,
number 2 is homocide in the course of robbery or predatory crime, but third is
known as righteous slaughter- involves someone killing someone else for what
looks like a really trivial reason- arguments that get out of control.
Stand up for the good.- Says theyre about more. Theyre about big things
embodies in little things, such as respect, social respectability, property rights, etc.
killer doesnt try to escape. He is kind of puzzled at what he was done. Someone
does something against these big things, they have to be sacrificed, because they
are attacking something trascendental. They transform their own humiliation into
rage. They become embodiment of rage, they think of themselves as standing upf
for the good, and theyre going to sacrifice the other person to stand up for it.-He
likes it, arguments arent about the trivial thing they seem to be about. Basically
senseless, but emotions kick in and killer thinks theyre righteous.
Emotional moral dynamic
Example: shoplifting- girls shoplift lipstick, sometimes keep as souvenirs instead
of actually using it
sneaky thrill- The doing of it is whats fun, not the shoplifting itself
Game, magic power, plays with boundaries of self. (Appear normal on the inside
but inner turmoil is a gamelike thrill. Clear winner and loser. Most scenarios in
life have ambiguous outcomes, but in games you do, at least for a little while. You
either get away with it or you get arrested, the great thing about shoplifting.

People report a feeling of being in a magic world, like they had suspended ordinary time
and space. Comment about Flow the other week. Just like that. Shoplifting is an
attempt to enter a kind of dream world.
Plays with boundaries- explains why adolescence in particular shoplift. They have higher
leel of identity conflict. Public self v. private self, and shoplifting taps into this high level
of self-conciousness. Wynonna Ryder. England in the 70s- women from Saudi Arabia
shoplifting, no financial constraint- totally non-racional. Shoplifting involves game
difference between real and fake.
Next Powerpoint
Crime Data- Why do we need crime data?
-Planning and Policy
-Resource Allocation
-Theoretical Understanding
Genric Issues and Probloems
-Multiple offending and recording: incidents, offenders, offences-the same even
might involve several people or several crimes. Western- one crime event (ballroom
brawl) involves maybe 40 crimes- shooting people, harm and assault, threatening with
deadly weapon, etc. You could also say there were 21 people involved. If you count
number of offenses can make it seem like more is going on than if you just count the
instances. You have to know what youre counting Makes comparable statistics quite
difficult.
-Comparibility-across legal jurisdictions, and across nations, like grand theft auto
different crimes called diff things in diff states and countries. Like grand Theft auto- this
crime doesnt exist in many countries, like England. They just call it theft. Grand is just
b/c worth a lot of money. How do you separate it out in data from other countries,
murder- nightmre for cross-national research. Surveys done in diff countries, like for
domestic violence- measured in diff ways.
-Access: confidentiality, politics- Improved over time between universities and law
enforcement agencies, but universities sometimes become corrupted
-Crime v. Deviance
Very little info for incidents rates on low level anti social behavior, like spitting in public,
que jumping.
-Presentation/reporting
FBI creates image of crime being out of control. The aggregate category, the most
prevalent offenses are most trivial, gives impression of serious ones happeneing as well
Reported Crime
-Public notify authorityHow do we know how much drugs imported into US? Official crime stats include police
discovering or people calling in. FBI uniform crime reports
-Usually the Police

Problems with reported Crime Data

-Under-reporting. Why?
-Distrust of police, fear, shame, fear of reprisals (domestic violence),
investments of time or trivial in trivial events, crime goes unnoticed (like stealing one
piece of jewelry), if victim is afraid of the police- people who are themselves criminals
make great targets for criminal activity because they cant go to the police because he
was involved in illegal betting. Domestic violence- some people think its normal, dont
realize law is being broken, even if they think its wrong. (Bad data for... trivial,
victimless, etc.)
-nothing police could do, take care of the problems themselves, the cost of
reporting are greater than any potential benefits. Car window example- insurance.
-Good data for...- serious crimes against the person, property, crimes perpetrated
by strangers, people dont want to against peple that are known to them. Like calling cops
when kid steals your car. Very bad for low level crimes, crimes committed by people who
know the victim, prostitution (report youslevs). Very bad for corporate crime, people
dont phone police about that.
Other Official data
-Eg. Court convictions, prison census- what are they in prison for, how may,
etc. Further down the processing tree, grounds that crime really did take place.
CRIME- REPorted crime- Court convictions- prison census. Filtering taking place.
People migh be reporting to the police crimes that didnt take place, much higher
confidence level by the time you get to court convictions.
Crime Victim Surveys: Objective, Method, Characteristics
A reported crime to the police was only the tip of the iceberg. By doing a survey of the
general polulation, we could start to get at the stuff below the surface, the invisible figure
of crime.
National Sample Survey- We miss out on crime with official police statistics, these
surveys are trying to get at the rest. National sample survey- by phone or by mail, within
the last 12 months, have any of the following things happened to you?
Victimization and vicctim characteristic- dont have good offender characteristics, but
not good victim characteristics, opposite of police stats- where you ask about the victim.
Asked about household, self, in past year?
Findings
-Trivial events very common- no one reporting things like car windows
-People dont find them particularly traumatic
-Serious crimes rare by contrast- one in a hundred or lower. Violent assault not
that common, the serious ones just have a higher likelihood of being reported
-Repeat victimization- (relatively common) There might be a social
relationship, or something like if being bullied once, then twice, if your house is broken
into, might be again. This is quite serious b/c peoples lives are made terrible by this,
whereas other never victims.

-Lower class victimization

Lower class people relatively immune from this??what?
-Fear of crime common
People in middle class lifestyles- crime consciouness, how might srve particularly vested
interests.
STRENGTHS
-Good at crimes against property and person in satable populations by unknown
stranger. Very bad at environmental crime and white collar crime. Survey methodology=
need fixed abode or phone line, which takes outr a lot of valuable information- who are
drifters victims of crime disproportionally. The unknown stranger is best- unwilling to
report crime in people they actually know.
-Provide point of comparison with reported statistics
About 1:4 assaults get reported, whearas auto-theft is more reliable- have to fill out for
insurance companies
-Eg. NCVS 2004. Reporting around... percentages
PROBLEMS
-Recognition and definition
-common sense of what is a crime doesnt match legal category. Cant simply
ask the question, were you civtim of domestic violence, b/c different people have
different perceptions of that.
-Sample- missing out on groups- people who distrust authoirity, who are moving around,
illegal immigrants with mexicans and stuff, very vulnerable to victimization, crimes
against organizations. Shoplifting and toxic waste dumping not there because of
household surface?
-Victimless crimes- one on one interviews in private settings
-Victim category unappealing- people dont like putting there hand up to being a victim.
Thats why ppl dont like to apply for victims compensation. Victim=powerlessness,
loser.
-Confidentiality/fear (particlularly w/ sexual assualt, which is usually done by
somebody in the home)
-we have to get ito specialist surveys
-Ignore local differences
-might have good info on whites vs. blacks victimization, and on one city versus
another, but thats not where the action is, off the chart is black victimization rates in
particular parts of the city. The really interesting stuff is concentrated in geographically
specific areas, but these surveys arent blitzing those areas.
More...
-Middle Class Bias (also Pension bias?)
-middle class poelpe like to bitch about what happened, but the poor people who
are actually the victims of crime dont fill them out.
-Old people like filling out surveys, young men dont
Recall and inaccurate recording

-People cant distinguish between the years. When did you get in a fight at the
pub?
Sections at night quite croweded, might have better experience if you switch to the day.
NCVS 2006- bring on Tuesday.
Meanings and complexities. Sequences: People cant recall where. Have you been
victim, well yes, but doesnt tell us what happened.
Specialized Crime Surveys
-Issue or locality focus- domestic violence or neighborhood instability. Locality
focus would focus on a hot spot, like a park. Failed public space. A particular housing
project.
-Findings...Risk distribution, trauma
The crime level goes off the scale in these little locations. Certain areas where crime
severely affects peoples lives, South Chicago, etc. Crime is off the scale ppl victimized
repeatedly. Locality focus we find this very strongly. Trauma- ppl repeatedly victimized
afftects mental health. Esp. sexual assault. These surveys picked up on these problem
areas.
-Problem: Comparability
Eg. Bureau of Justice Stats City Level survey- washes out effect of concentrated
criminality.
ETHNOGRAPHIC WORK
-Interviews, participant observation Good for
-experience of victimizization, what would otherwise be
unreprted crime, finding out about these confidential illegal activities not picked up
on survey research.
Problems- cant generalize- drug market not the same for two cities, latino
vs. white women in domestic violence
- bias on the part of the person collecting the information.
Ethnographic work usually involves high level of sensitivity, but these
people make readings of situations, most notably male researchers
might be more insensitive to womens victimization.
National Crime Victimization Survey
-1972, redisen 1992
-2004. 84K households, 149K persons
-84,00 answer no to all the questions. Its an expensive underatking
Casting a big net to get a small number of fish.
-Unit= act of victimization
-Includes: crimes of violence, crimes against property
-Includes: victim characteristics...
More...

Enables...victimization risks to be claculates and compared for social racial

geographical categories.
-we can track if any particular crime is going up or down. B/c using
same instrument every year, if systematic flaw in question, stays same.
-excludes: kids, business, non-permanent residents, homicide, arson.
Fbi_UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS
-19290 j. Edgar Hoover- Aggregate offenses are sent in
-handbook to try to standardize- each state has its own laws and nightmare to
get the stuff to fall out into regular categories. Theyll send out instructions for what
counts as what in FBI speak.
-Unit= offence
Includes: homicide, rape, serious crimes, assault, theft, arson
-used to make up crime index categories violent crime property crime
Most crime in America is simple assault, numbers largely more trivial offences but
this is all about the serious crimes.
MORE...
Problems. Coordination
Victim/offender info. Limited offence pool.
Response: National Incident Based reporting system- these include
hate crimes, now n=known as bias crimes. Intensive and resource intensive.
Something else...
Looking at NCVS
Men get more out of marriage than women do.
Age- why only young people? People who break crimes are victims as well? Victims
because they are in the social places (bars, etc.) where these crimes take place. Ability to
actually inflict damage, Young people have less common sense, personality and risk
assessment, anti-social, dangerous and stupid stuff.
Income- Rich buffered from crime- 20 times difference in age, but income doesnt do
quite as much, middle sized factor. A lot of this has to do with where people live. Higher
income= relatively well-adjusted community
Region- Risk factor- west- but not that strong- maybe frontier mentality, gun-ho- believe
violence is solution to social problems
Urban vs. Suburban vs. Rural- Urban a bit more risky
Renting v. Owning- Renting moderately more risky-

Female, widowed, over 65, large income, live in Northeast, somewhere Rural (Cape
Cod), own your own home,
Male, never-married, 12-15, no money, live in the West, Urban environment, renting
Table 4- Race variable, black- 2.7% compared to 2% moderately more risky, but this is an
aggragate reading. In certain areas, or other things, much more...
Table 7 or 8- Rape and Sexual assault dont have the same dynamic with respect to
income?
Table 9-Men tend to be victimized by stangers. For women, only is unknown people.
Men by strangers, women by people they know.
Why?- How do people spend their time away from home? Women tend to be cautious
about encountering strangers in public when theyre on their own. Men are encountering
this is structure of daily lives. Women tend more time in the home- not likely to
encounter strangers.
Percent of crime reported to the police, 2005.
More serious more often reported.
Increased tendency to report to the police recently- increased pubic confidence in the
police, the police should make more of this as a complement/achievement. High
confidence in African American community. African American Women- also very
confident- police should make more of this, quite an amazing finding.
2/15/07- Powerpoint= Victimology
Review: Most of the attention is to identifying deviance and deciding who is the deviant
and what is special about these people in terms of social stuff. This is about who is the
victim, not who is the criminal. Very differnet questions.
Sociology of Crime and Deviance: Victimology and Victims of Crime
Early Victim Typologies
Hans von Hentig. The Criminal and his Victim 1948.- [The problems of the
offender-oriented nature of crimininolgy. Relationship b/w victims and offenders,
victims play a part in crime committed against them.
Role of victim in the crime.- [Interactionist approach, like Jack Katz study of
righeteous slaughter. Like the person who splashed them with chili sauce. Hentig
noted that the victim conspired, provoked the criminal. The victim might be
someone also involved in criminal act. Conspire with them to do a crime, then
commit a crime against them. Number of fights get out of control, start with
victim saying insulting to the perp. Real life not clean distinction b/w the guilty
and the innocent.

Victim proneness[likelihood. Mismatch of the list, not very sysstematic.

Personality traits, social properties, etc.
Young, female, old, mentally defective, immigrants, minorities, dull normals,
depressed, wanton, lonesome, heartbroken, tormentor fighting victim.[ These
people are vulnerable. Mental health problems. Unable to protect themselves.]
More
Benjamin Mendelsohn
Typology of victims from innocent to guilty.[ think about victims in terms of their
attributes, entirely inncent or partly guilty. 6 categories: completely innocent
(youn children) all the way to guily victim who was subsequently killed. Victim
involved in some kind of shady relationships.
Marvin Wolfgang. Victim precipitation.[ Imprtant concept- used this to refer to
murdersin which the victim started the crime activity. The eventual victim was
often the first person to use force.
Patterns in Criminal Homicide Findings. [Study of homicided in Philadelphia.
26% of cases, evetual dead person was first to throw the punch. A lot of people
who end up dead have some sort of responsibility.]
Lifestyle and Victimization- [early 1970s;
Focus on routines, activities both vocational and recreational.[ daily routine, what
kind of things do you do? Number of hours outside the home, what parts of the
cityu do you go to, whats your job, where do you sped your spare time? Major
impact on risk of victimization. Taxi driver vs. woman golf country club person.
Violent crime/ person-person involving strangers]
Risk. [below]
Cohen and Felson. 3 elements for predatory crime. [attractive as a target suitable
target valuable in some way. 2. No capable guardians of the target 3.
Motivated offenders. Three basic constituent things for a crime to take place.
These three coe together= crime situation, particularly for proerty crime. Common
feature of Caper films, how do you get around the guardians.][Some peoples
routine activities bring these three things together. Location and time of day make
a big difference. Bars, night-clubs, red-light districts, whereas staying at home
doesnt]
Characteristics of Classical Victimology
Victim characteristics. [personality, demographics, what is it that makes some ppl
more picked upon than others?]
Victim contribution.[negligence-like leaving doors unlocked, etc.
Crimes against person.[Household burglary compared to womens entry into
workforce]
Victim routines
Core Concepts/Findings
Victim precipitation [what he does to initiate crime sequence]
Facilitation [victim doing something that makes them an easier target; wandering
around drunk at night]
Vulnerability [similar concept]

Opportunity [refers to the opportunity structure in certrain situations. We can stop

crimes by limiting the amount of opportunity. Target hardening, increased
surveillance, etc.]
Attractiveness [People, property. Like cars]
Impunity [some people can be victimized and wont go to the police, like cant go
to police being slugged by the prostititute, why criminals make good tagrets cuz
dont like going to the police]
Advantages to this perspective.[ Becker talked about. Gets us away from
common sense, makes us think about interactions that lead to crime. Good for
people in private security agencies. What they ought to do is deter people from
this. What can you do to take away opportunity- Target hardening, increase
likelihood of being caught, security guards (guardians).
New Directions in Victimology
Focus on certain types of victims (repeat, high risk, high harm, women) [Women=
major research area. Big push from feminist criminology. Overwhelmingly in the
case of domestic violence, but others such as repeat victimization. Some people
are like magnets to victimization. High harm= like children- cant shrug off harm
very easily]
Radical Victimology (victim stereotypes, moralistic binaries, ideological
functions, media, capitalism)[ Neo-Marxist labeling theory. Law used to control
classes. Used to rebadge polical protest as a form of crime. Argues that there are
strong stereotypes of victim as vulnerable and innocent, media makes it seem this
way. Media represents old people as victims, but we know from data not much
victimization in that category. When you think of mugging, think of some granny
beatn up by grown men. Moralistic binaries- separating out nasty people.
Idealogical function= distract attention from social problems and structural causes
of crime. Like if media report of granny beaten up, media report focuses on
terrible men, innocent granny, but not about the housing project and personalityies
and motivations. Media can sell more material focusing on the morality. Want to
read about nasty people rob nice granny, so media plays into it. Capitalism is
responsible for social inequalities that generate crime. A ton of capitallist
industry- alarm systems, children trackers, selling mobile phones to your kids, a
ton of capitalist interest that prey on peoples fear of crime. The people who need
this stuff are ones in bad areas who cant afford it.
Collectivities as victims.[ Referes to fact that classical victimology is obsessed
with individual victim, but there are other kinds of victims, like corporatons,
stores, organizations, groups (afr. Amer eg), 2nd biggest victim of crime in
America is Wal-Mart. Heavily victimized.
Sellin and Wolfgang (1964). secondary and tertiary victimization. [Primaryindividual, secondary-commercial establishments (theaters, railroads, and stores).
These are collectivities. Tertiary- no clear individual group thats harmed, like
toxic waste dumping or violating emissions standards, no one, but everyone.
Other examples- offenses against public order, like indecent exposure. Violated a
diffuse social norm.
more

The state as a victim of crime. [Biggest victim of crime in America. Tax evasion,
welfare fraud, dubious billing practices, Why is the state such a huge civtim?
Examples.
Why? - [Big target, why cheat on taxes or fake license? Youre getting back at
them, lot of people have a grudge against the state. Why should I be paying for
the war in Iraq? Use grudge to raionalize. Like a drop in the bucket. People whod
never dream of doing this to there neighbors, so big they can take the hit. Same
thing with Wal-Mart. Tax evasion, not taking, just not giving. Hackers thought
they werent taking anything material. , next reason, low risk. No face-to-face
interaction, theres no individual victim- faceless victim no real witness.
Relatively easy to conceal. Do it in privacy of own home in your spare time, you
choose time and place- complete control over the whole process. Far easier than
stealing box of cereal from wal-mart. State is easy to victimize: large, faceless,
low risk of detection, can do at our own time and place!
Victim Experiences, Victim Movements
Costs of victim hood.[ loss of posessions, medical bills, quality of life,
constrained behavior to separate out from mental health aspects. Behavioral costchange your routine, lose a bit of choice and freedom, loss of social esteem, with
victim label comes shame, etc. Nuisance, like drivers license being stolen. DMV,
etc. House is broken into- elocks, new glass, etc. But health costs more serious
The changing role of victim over history [Up until about two hundred years ago,
victims had active role. Responsible for collecting evidence, presenting to
magistrate, you do the work yourself, bring prosecution forward, and so on.
Arguably this was a huge hassel, but it did make them feel in control of the
situation. But then. The rise of pro policing, laws about evidence, rise of the legal
profession, and the victim becaomes increasingly preriferal to the prosecution
process, theyre sidelined. Victims feel increasingly left out. NO special status.
Denied inforamtion about what charges and what is evidence against acused.
Prosecution ignores them. Basically just want a good witness statement from
them. Victim put on trial themselves and defense attorneys try to make them
appear responsible. No impact in sentencing. General feeling of being
unimportant.
Van Dijk typology of victim movements
[Many forms. 1. Care ideology- mvmt trying to proide welfare sevices for victims.Deal
with Social and economic costs of victimhood. Ex. Battered Women Shelters i.e.
basically offering a welfare service, social workers involved in this sort of acticvity.
Rehabilitation ideaology- more about offender than the victim. Involve victims in the
process by involving in counseling or mediation with the offender. Closely tied to
restorative justice. Strong role for victims in this- actgive role in decideing about
forgiveness and so on. Rehabilitating offender, but at the same time, much stronger role
than in taditional adversarial justice. 2. Retribution Idealogy- says victims should have
more of a say in punishment, etc. [retibution says victims should be heard, whereas care
was more about talking and reaching forgiveness, etc. This says victims need more of a
central role. Like Mothers Against Drunk Driving- says they should be given murder
sentences, etc. Getting tough on a particular crime. 3. Radical Justice Ideology- Argues

for the need to move beyond criminal law, focuses strongly onneed for community
solutions. Alternative justice systems make use of local traditions and customs. This is
not rettibly important, but own justice systems and traditions.
What do victims actually want? Retribution Ideology firts quite well, favor getting tough,
want stories to be heard in court setting, some go for rehabilitation idealogy.
Topic number 3- only 1 person, women moving out of the home, internet and shit.
Topic 4- 3 or 4 good for people who like theory
#5- about 8
#6- 2 or 3
Underage drinking very interesting and he will help people out
Sociology of Crime and Deviance (2/19/07)
Moral Panics
Approaches to Social Problems- Marxist- real social inequality- problem really exists.
Functionalist- anything that dangers social stability. People who do social policy- little
things like smoking, poverty, domestic violence floating around causing problems.
Objectivist variants Marxist, functionalist, policy.[suggests that social problems
really exist. Anything that threatens life, danger to public safety unambiguously a
social problem. Problems exist outside the way we think about them. Mar
Constructivist- Problems are talked into being. Only when someone makes claim
thats persuasive that problem exists. Extreme form- deny any problem beyond
social construction of problems. Argue that a problem exists when we have
organized collective action to do something about it. Example a campaign against
drunk driving. Criminalization- people lobby to get laws made. If tension in
media, public debate and talk. Current problem trans-fat. Problem identified and
talked into being. Now being dealt with
Contextual constructivist- middle ground position- yeah, there are real problems,
but these can be amplified or muted according to social process. So, we have a
continuum:
Objective to contextually constructed to totally constructed [continuum shows our
theoretical construction as well as the actions we take. Like if you want to discredit, you
say theyre doing constructivist.]
Scientists, social science, labeling theorists.
Were going to be talking somewhere between Constructivist and contextual
constructivist
Moral Crusades
Howard Becker- featured in Outsiders where he mentions labeling theory-[issue
where groups campaigning to have something problematized moral crusade
Characteristics.

 Example: marijuana criminalization in 1930s- [only was illegal in 16 states, even

there rarely enforced. By 1937 every state had laws against marijuana use, mass
arrests, a lot of attention in the media. Headlines sensationalist. Why does this
happen? Becker says that moral entrepeuneurs- individuals who go ougt and
campaign- generate a market for their idea. Not the church, but the federal
beureu of narcotics- advised govt on problem- gave numbers out- created
new group of outsiders called marijuana users. If the Federal Beureu of
narcotics is doing this because they want to get a job. Whole federal industry is
caught up in regulating alcohol. Invented new problem that allow them all to keep
their jobs. Have to appear efficient enough that theyre making money and prove
that the problem still exists. If you solve drug crisis, youre out of a job.
Other examples- violent video games, downloading music, sensoring rap music,
abortion- strongly crusaderish activity, gay marriage, polygamy
Problems- whats insufficient or puzzling about concept of moral crusade. Hard to
identify a lead group or institution trying to make a big deal out of it, quite often
problem emerges spontanuesly w/o ral leadership and no divergent opinion.
Diffuse anxieties with a high level of consensus? I dont get what the hell hes
talking about
Stanley Cohen
First study of moral panic- [pictures- British flag on sheds- shows beach hut
situated on shitty beach. Only old people- rocky beach, no sunshine. Beach huts
rented out to retired people. Other thing is little scooter- subclultre known as the
mudds, put mirrors all over it, bottom right pic- riot. So riot at the british
seaside, rocks are thrown, beach huts destroyed, people raced around on motor
bikes a skooters, Mawds? Mawds didnt get along with rockers, when these two
groups met in summer of 1964- Crapton- wrecked a few of the pensioners beach
houses. 100 youths arrested for seaside riot- suddenly not the most important
issue. In Parliament, questions asked about Youth Violence. Editorials ran on the
topic, interviews on television. Courtroom stuff covered. Cohen argued that this
was sensationalist account, given excessive attention. Moral panic was that
youths were out of control, Britain becoming more violent.
What happened.
(pictures on powerpoint)
What happened next. (This is still Cohen)
Key concepts: Folk devil [stereotyped image of the bad guy. Every moral panic
has a stereotype. . Sensitization (process in which almost anything that can be
linked to the panic is linked even if weak and irrelevant. E.g. mother of riot
mawd run over by bus Papers know they have a key signal to attrack peoples
attention. The media loves this. Theyll mention all kinds of irrelevant categories
of deviance). Deviance amplification (media starts to generate the forms of
disorder that it reports upon The media started to anticipate seaside violence.
People would go to this seaside on public holidays in the summer and have fights.
The media would spend the day s b4hand predicting the violence, generates sense
of fear and anxiety- trigger for violence. The people who want to fight will
gravitate toward the people the media tell them will have a fight).

Core features of moral panic

Concern- [something that is a worry to people dealing with sex religion or violenc
Hostility- [toward some group, toward the folk devil]
Consensus-[crusades are usually 20% of ppl make 80% of the noise.]
Disproportionality-[back to Cohens original point. Quite contensious. People say
it isnt disproportional.
Volatility-[refers to intense burst of interest that will then disappear. 2 or 3 days
each summer and then no one will want to be listening anymore.
Other recent examples?- [crusade is different than a panic- big difference is lack
of clear leadership organizations, but a lot of overlap.]
Two Approaches
Material interests v. real moral concerns- [material= suggest that theres a group
that stands to benefit. One way to explain a panic is to look at groups who stand to
benefit, and suggest that this is why its perpetuated. Reduced moral concernsmaybe a lot of poverty and unemployment, but their concern is refracted into
complaining about welfare abuse and drugs. Real problems refracted into panic.
Also societal needs for integration, that panics are genuine, people do take them
seriously.]
Top down or bottom up- Top down- interest groups lobbying. Bottom up- grass
roots movement in society. Good example of bottom up would be food scares.
Theres been a number of food scares in the last twenty years- bird flu trans fats,
etc. Official govt scientists say no problem, but people still wont buy those eggsdistrust of authority. ].
Theoretical Camps
Critical Theory-[vision suggests society exists in elites and masses. Govt
agencies like the church want to retain power and the panic has some connection
to wanting to retain that power. Typically argue that panic is diversion from more
pressing or serious problem.
Elites. Power. Diversion. Scapegoats (folk devil) The reading by Wilding.
Functionalism-[tends to argue that society has need for moral boundries or sense
of direction. Wed be w/o sense of direction and aimless fighting without moral
boundries.
Moral Boundaries. Societal Needs.- recommittment to core values. A little bit
problematic, but talk about morality
Common features: constructivism, hidden cause, false consciousness-[critical
theory= social inequality, but these guys say lack of moral direction- both point to
hidden cause of whats really going on. Someting happening at a structural level.
Forced consciousness- people dont know whats really going on. Dont
understand true hidden structural causes. .
Critical Theory Example
Stuart Hall et al. 1978. (fucking computer was messed up and missed this)
Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order
Birmingham School hegemony, power, capitalism etc..

 Early 1970s mugging frightening new strain of crime- argued that mugging
was out of control. Criminals making law abiding people afraid to go out. British
have negative view of US cities. New breed of crime imported from America.
[supports ruling group, this group suggested that we can measure popular culture
and media as...[hegemony- ruling through ideas? Dominate through power of
ideas magnified by the media. Thatcherism is example of something.
Symptom- Granny beat up by kids picture. Kind of sterotype. Kids from Pakistan
and India and Afro-Caribbean

Indicators (of panic) : press, [media stories over time. They like to talk
about minor local crimes] jail sentences [out of proportion, like 10 years in jail for
stealing handbag and hitting on the head], politicians[saying law and order out of
control]
Real level of crime the same.[amount of attention disproportionatecharacteristic of a moral panic]
Explanation: capitalism, inequality, anxiety, legitimacy, ideology, law and order
politics, state repression [1970s- a lot of social anxiety- economy out of shape,
people a bit unhappy with capitalism and British govt. Letimicacy- people thinks
something stinks=legitimation crisis. Theres something wrong with capitalism.
Channel free floating anxiety and direct against a particular social group, in this
case the minority immigrant youth in Britain. Back then Britain heavily defined
by whiteness immigrants not accepted. According to Hall should be channeled
against big business and industry in Capitalism. The govr should implement what
Hall dubbed Law and Order politics- brand of politics where politics go on and on
endlessly building more prisions, more resources to police, curfews, tougher
sentences, etc. Its very dangerous if youre a politician now and dont follow this.
Law and order politics were legitimated. The state could engage in repression of
legitimate protest? Mask- clamping down on more political forms of protest
before it happens?
Causal chain???- [How does free floating anxiety translate into journalists writing
stories about mugging and judges giving tougher sentences?
Illustrated Times 1863.

Functionalist Example
Kai Erikson Wayward Puritans. 1963.-[formed head American Sociological
Association- 2 Pulitzers.
17th Century. Massachusetts Bay Puritan Colony. 3 crime waves[ Wrong term
to use- should say imagined crime waves. Book not about ral crime taking place,
but about how relatively minor events perceoved as serious. ]
Durkheimian perspective: moral boundaries.[ crime identified by a society in
situation of anamy? SO that society can reform its moral boundries. Anamy=lack
of moral direction. A society will somehow come to identify and talk about
deviance so it knows what its direction might be.
1636. Antinomian controversy.-[ppl preaching individualistic Christianity. The
Antonomians believed should all gather in someones front parlor, interpret Bible

for yourself. Hardly any Doctrinal differences b/w today and Puritans? Series of
high profile trials- Eriksons point=relatively trivial differences become important
in this situation.
1656. Quaker invasion.-[arrived in America, lot of persecution in
Massachussetts. No evidence that Quakers were doing anything deviant besides
dressing different and not showing up to Puritan Church. 4 executed, some
flogged, criminal offenses for hacving long hair, etc.
1692. Witch trials-[Erikson makes point of no actual Witchcraft, girls were just
hysterical, phony testimony taken seriously- rumors of vast conspiracy. This
really stuck people thought serious until 19 people executed and a ton in prison. S
More.
In all cases persecution for trivial activities, minor differences, no real evidence of
harm.
Cultural boundaries as cause.-[Puritan Massachussetts. Puritan was more about
collectivist led by charismatic leaders, one of whom was the founder. Cotton
Mather and his father. Something like Impacience. Basically a collective
organization. Reaffirm this sense of group mission. By punishing this small
group, reestablish collective order of the community.
Antinomian controversy: made collectivistic order clear.
Quakers: loss of charismatic leaders, changes in England, loss of purpose [Run
by Fundamentalists- miserable place for a hedonist. These guys died, what do you
do when charismatic finder dies? Oliver Cromwell and son Richard chopped King
Charles I head off made England run by religious fundamentalists. Charles IIdrinking, gambling, antithesis of what Puritan would like. Isolation- loss of
purpose. By persecuting a few Quakers you get a sense of direction back. Hating
people makes us feel good about ourselves.
More.
Witches: political autonomy-[rescined. Okay Puritans you can have Mass. Do
whatever you want. But, English changes mind, sends over Royal governor to run
the province.] , factionalism[familes all fighting each other over land. Who is
going to be the mayor. Fairly united colony starts to become a bunch of fighting
families free floating anxiety.], migration, loss of wilderness[ previously on the
frontier surrounded by Woods full of Indians- strong sense of holding together
sense of extrenal enemies. But Indians had been pushed back. The frontier was
gone. The sense of living an enchanted life was disappearing. This leads to
persecution for witches.-Collected dillusion.
Common Problems
Causality and agency- [1. Both say theres an underlying cause. How does this
translate into decisions and actions? About relationship between structure and
motivation? Why if Cromwell dies in England do people decide to pick on
Quakers? You have to say free floating anxiety, sense of crisis.
Alternative explanations-[basic story-3- feminist story- women soft target, annie
hutchinson was very clever and they didnt like this. Argument based more upon

power than culture. 2. IN every one of these cases, boring older men telling
everyone else what to think by picking on weak people. Argument can be made
that its oligarchical. Marxist argument about struggle between older agricultural
based wealth and young emerging urban wealth.
The End of Moral Panics
Angela McRobbie and Sarah Thornton. British Journal of Sociology. 1995.
[concepts kind of played out now, no more mileage in it.
Concept in traditional form now of little use. Why?
Media pluralism.-[shift in the nature of the media since 1970 in Britain and
elsewhere. There were dominant national newspapers that were uncritical, costs of
production relativcely high so diff for alternative media to exist. National papers
had a lock, but by 1995 not even close to true anymore. The specialist papers
could provide different kinds of stories- multiple narratives. No coherent
storyline. Pluralism=mixed messages=never help panics
Some seek panic- [situations become a little crazy because panic seekeing has
eventuated in society. Rolling Stones- manager Andrew New Algdon- told them to
smash hotel rooms, take drugs, behave recklessly b/c fans wanted to be assoc with
this in 1968. Later copied by Sex Pistols in 1976- Swearing and insulting their
hosts on television. This panic seeking activcity now found in rap artists.
Establish reputation for being bad. Actively created from the bottom up.
Marginal fight back.[massive explosion of PR skills. You can take a degree in
public relations or marketing. Skills before only held by higher people, but
organizations and groups that were once inarticulate start to look much smarter.
Woman representing single mothers organization. Environmentalist image
transformation is an example- much more skilled and professional looking from
tree huggers before.
More.
Panic up as well as down[media likes to suggest troubles at the top, not bottom of
society. People at the top had been strangely insulated by media. Like how
President Kennedy never got reported about being with Marilyn Monroe.
Muckraking for poele at top of the tree is now to be encouraged in journalism.
John Major-Prime Minister in England. Back to Basics was his political slogan.
Reflexive media-[refers to way media is reflexive about own activity now. Not
necessarily critical, but media reports on what the medias doing. Large
component of newspaper coverage is about what is the newspaper coverage. How
doe papers cover this? How is media framing the trial? People are more aware
that they shouldnt trust everything. People are aware of how media can spin
things in different ways.
Reality/representation blurred.- [post-modern point. What goes on is often the
product of the reporting itslef. We cant say here is the reality and here is a
desciption of that reality. One example would be anything to do with Michael
Jackson- he is just a simulation of who he wants to be? The idea of the real
Michael Jackson. Representations and symbols filter back into what we used to
think was real, constructed by a cultural domain. Rap music- supposed to be
really bad. The reality of their real behavior is simulation of what they think life

in the ghetto should be all about. Representation to which they orient their
behavior.
2/27/07- Socy 141- Victimless Crime
Origins
Edwin Schur Crimes Without Victims 1965.[ single-handedly got concept on
the map. Heres his quote:
Situations in which one person obtains from another, in a direct and fair
exchange a commodity or personal service which is socially disapproved and
legally proscribedit is the combination of an exchange transaction and lack of
apparent harm to others that constitutes the core of the victimless crime situation
here defined.
Says theyre like market transactions. People argue about whether actually harm.
Just happens to be illegal.
More
Common examples [teenage drinking, prostitution, drugs, speeding at night by
yourself (problematic), downloading music, abortion, polygamy, organ selling,
euthanasia, pornography] [academic literature zeros in on drugs and prostitution]
Political and policy implications arising from concept hence is contested label.
[if ppl says something is a victimless crime, inevitable decriminilization
connotation. Carries with it some policy charge. Lot of debate. Is prostitution
consistent with Marxist theory=intellectual debate, but were talking about policy]
Implicit theme: over-reach of law into lifestyle and moral regulation issues.
[ argues state has got big boots on and is interfering, tyranny of the majority,
people who talk about victimless crimes have libertarian element to them. State
nannying them into waht they think is good for us. Small state things, roll back
the laws, lets have the minimum amouint required.]
Dimensions: Inappropriate, ineffective, counter-productive, negative
impacts/unintended consequences[Inappropriateness- OVER-REACH, polygamy,
group-sex, that term is over-reach? Regulation is ineffective. Theres nothing
much you can do about victimless crimes b/c consensual behind closed doors.
Gambling dens survive, illegal alcohol consumption. You can pass as many laws
as you want but diff to enforce b/c no witnesses, no complaints, etc. Police dont
have any info. Efforts to control are expensive, which is counterproductive.
Making things illegal is counterproductive- just encourages illegitimate markets,
generates black markets and police corruption drives away potential tax revenue,
can create a halo of prestige arising from illegal status. Under-age drinking more
fun because its illegal. Converts law abiding people into people with a criminal
label. Creates negative lableing of otherwise upstanding citizens. Creates
organized crime, gangs, etc.
Themes: stigma, black markets, no complainant, arbitrary, moral majority [drug
user worse than alcohol user, black markets- illegality generator and stuff]
Critique and evaluation

Exchange focus[ buying drugs victimless but not taking drugs. This exchange
focus has been critiqued. Came up in examples like the parking and the reckless
driving in the middle of the night. No clear exchange, just illegal activity with no
risk to others. Quite a lot of activities that are illegal but dont need other people.
Base-jumping off the Sears Tower
Hidden victims (diffuse). Examples.[ even more victims in these crimes going on.
Low level harms to wider community. Came from people who wanted to continue
to see prostitution illegalized, etc. Gambling- basically state wants to maximize
tax revenue from gambling. Libertarian view. Abortion- the fetus is the victim.
Some diffuse victimization as young women as a whole. Availability of abortion
leads to unsafe sex practices and self-esteem issues, etc. Underage Drinking- risk
to the community b/c young people can be reckless or whatever- argument for
potential harms. Hidden victim is the young person- not actually able to make
rational decision. Always a hidden victim somewhere. Pornography- community
as a whole. Diffuse victimization- women degraded in some way.
Direct victims. Examples. (centrality of freedom/autonomy discourse)[[people
involved in the exchange transaction or in the activity are themselves victgims
even though they dont recognize it. The base jumper is putting himself at risk
unnecessarily, drug addict likely to become hooked, Prostitute at risk of STD
violent assault, etc. They try to argue that the ppl themselves are dsomehow in
denail about whats really going on. They dont have full freedom or soverignty.
Comes back to autonomy.
However: (see below) [these things are quite often moral issues about whether
something is good or bad. People have a gut reaction about these things. IF we
hate homosexuality, make it a crime.
Intuitive sense, moral issues, controversial issues, arbitrary cross-nationally, body
and lifestyle, moral entrepreneurs[lot of cultural relevance involved. Dutch are
cool about prostitution and marijuana, i.e. Polygamy in New Guinea. Involve
FUN AND BODY AND LIFESTYLE. Brings like Puritan shit into it. Generally a
strong tie there. Criminalizing a victimless crime clamps down on other peoples
freedom to have fun with their bodies. Moral entrepueners seem to play a role in
campaigning or something like that.
Note political use of sociological term too hence has to be on the agenda!

EXAMPLE 1: DRUGS?- [hypothetical argument]

Decriminalization hinges on victimless crime label.[if want to be legalized have to
argue that current criminilation is unecessary. Basically 3 courses to the argument.
Arguments:
1 - Arbitrary (time, space, moral entrepreneurs). [
2 Paradoxes of illegality. [making it illegal is bad]
3 -- Low Harm/not cause of harm/user autonomy [not particularly harmful
activity]
More.

Evaluation:
1- Arbitrary. Eg. USA history of drug use and legislation.[ alcohol currently
legal despite always being involved in murder. 1/3 of the time. Caffeinne quite
dangerous substance. Heart attacks rots gut out, etc. Something at the age of
Mariner, Confessions of opium user- good books. Marijuana gives visions- people
seen as profets in India. Drug illegality- case of opium- in victorian era huge.
Criminalization tied to fear of the Chinese. Gold Rush- drug became associated
with Chinese Opium dens. Tied to fears of white women being seduced by
chinese men who couldnt control their sexuality. All tied into this shit.
Pharmaceutical companies jumped on ship to get control of opium- makes ppl feel
good. Lock on opium is huge for profits. Users have been redefined as addicts.
Trace this to other drugs as well. Cocaine tied to African-Americaness. Crack
penalties harsher than for powder cocaine.
Clear evidence of arbitrary, moralistic discourse.
2- Paradoxes of Illegality [Lot of research shows that drug users resort to crime
to pay for their habit. Domestic burglary in particular driven by needs for quick
cash supply. Street prostituion strongly assoc with drug use.
Organized crime, gangs[ none of this would exist if drugs were freely available,
etc. these people would be out of business. HEALTH CRIMES- come with
illegality. Injected with rat posion, etc. Not knowing how much youre putting
into your system.
Petty crime.

more
3 Social harm/victim status?
Can investigate with patterns of drug use.[ people who say drug use has been
unfairly stigmatized. Addiction is in fact fairly unusal. Many different ways
people can use in daily lives: experimental use. Many people dont continue to
use after expreimental phase. Some people click with some drugs but not with
others. Point to recreational use. Social settings- X is a night club drug. It is the
social setting that drives the drug use, not other things. Situational use- like truck
drivers taking amphetimenes. Situational drug use common with students. These
forms arguablly arent a big problem Intensified use- taking to cope with daily
life. Cant function without them. Robert Downey Jr. being on cocaine all the
time, couldnt function without out it. Compulsive drug use- people can;t regulate
themselves at all. The distribution across this range varies. Cocaine and marijuana
usually regular or situational, haroine will push you to the ends. Hallucinogens
fail at the level of experimental use. Takes particular kind of person to keep going
on them.
Stereotype (addiction).[ actually very varied]
Reality controlled use, orthodox motivation, limited exploitation
Patterns of use vary (typology)[[controlled use is the norm. Take drugs on
weekends like alcohol. The motivation seems to be fairly standard. For fun, to
relax. Dont seem to be explouted by anybody in particular.

What about diffuse victimization? (poverty effect?) [[if we went to a crack

neighborhood it is easy to point to crack and say that its the problem here. Cheap
way out of responsibility. Community actually being torn about by poverty and
gangs coming about through illegality.

More
What about health problems? [exist]
Can be attributed in part to social regulation.
Eg. HIV risks, drug quality [injecting drug use= HIV, but other hand HIV risk
comes from illegality. Facilitate by giving free needles and shooting galleries.]
Sidestep: if health matters, why not legal drugs too? [in addition to alcohol.]
Legal drug statistics. [50,000,000 regular smokers in US, 18 million alcoholics.
Alcohol related deaths around 60 times the rate of drugs?
Who uses drugs? What can this tell us?
Measurement problems (arrest data v. survey)[ biased sample taken from the
bottom of sociaty who come to the attention of the police. Survey data tends to do
a bit better, but underdisclosure. ]
In general: marijuana, cocaine, high status. Crack: low status
Risk factors: male, young, weak ties and responsibilities [Other forms of illegality
agree with this] [whether they continue to use depends on social setting]
Also: blocked opportunity, peer groups, access.[ lack of legitimate opp leaves ppl
with time on their hands.
Strong lifecourse qualities not drug-determined [age, quality and nature of
social ties]
How widespread?
US High School Seniors 2001. Past 12 months. Alcohol 73%, Marijuana 37%,
Cocaine/crack 5%, heroin 1%..
60% said drugs available in school.
General population 2000.. 11% used in last year, 6% in past month. Concentrated
in 18-25 age group.
Workforce survey. 1998. 7% current users employed full time
So how can society function??
So?
On the one hand:[drug use is actually quite widespread]
Use is widespread but most people, cope and/or lose interest.
Illegal status seems arbitrary [particularly with respect to alcohol, but big industry
is involves so untouochable]
Prohibition and poverty contribute to social problems.
This fits the victimless crime label
However

Some people have serious problems, dependency and generate social problems.
[seems to fit victimless crime label]
2000 hospital admissions. Cocaine= 174K, Heroin 94K, Marijuana 96K.
Need to avoid one-size fits all model one way or the other.[ lot of people taking
up a lot of time. Have to avoid the one size fits all model]
victimless crime fits well for most casual users, less so for persistent users. [fits
most of the time pretty well, but small percentage of people with real addiction
problem who go on to generate a ton of crime. Not all drug use is really a
victimless crime.]
Question: general liberty v. protecting some.

SOCIOLOGY OF CRIME AND DEVIANCE- PROSTITUTION

Roles: Lots of deviant activity in subcultures, roles in subcultures. Looking at
prostitution values. Question of beliefs and cultureal values that help to sustain
the deviant activity.
Main Story: Complexity Cross-national and within nation legality varies. Not always a victimless
crime.[ varies cross nationally. Acceptability in Holland, certain types legal but
not others. Not always a victimless crime
Stereotypes sometimes true, usually not.-[stereotype drug addict powerless,
doesnt want to be doing this, needs rescuing, male domination. Usually not the
case from social science research. ]
Stigma. [whether up-scale, down-scale, legal or illegal stigmatized even more
than drug use. Dont want to tell people thats how youre making your money.
Diverse experiences and ways of doing business
Ways of Doing Prostitution
1- Streetwalkers[working our way up the scale][they work at street corners.
Bottom of hierarchy, higher odds of drug addiction, higher of assalut by the
public, higher of abusive home background, higher risk of arrest- big problem for
data set>>biased view of prostitutes as lower class, etc.
Probabilities: drugs, risk, arrest.
Way of doing business[job requirement- provide sexual services very quickly,
pay not good per job. 20 bucks a trick, so depends on how many you can get
through in a nights work. In motor vehicel between 5 and 15 minutes. Functional
operation. Important job skill, get client off very quickly. Other skill is assesing
for signs of danger. Are they a lunatic? Are they unpredicatble, unstable? Split
second judment. Taxi Trivers.
Relationship to pimp- [male character who often subjects them to violence
claims that he loves them and is protecting them. Girls often love the pimp in
return. Very weird dysfunctional thing. Never seen this well represented in filmsomeone should.
Background problematic high risk of problematic to a child, etc.
Victimless crime? -theyre being beaten up by customers, by the pimp,
supporting drug habit, so can argue that it is not.

More.
2. Brothel workers- [further up hierarchy. Legal in Nevada, regulated by the
state, the Mustang Ranch?, Much safer, safety in numbers, less violence and
sexual assault. Body guard man, lots of women.
Characteristics police much less of a problem, cant raid brothels. Person at the
door knows what cop looks like if undercover. You have to have customer solicit
you first b/c then you can do peaceful entrapment. Hard for police to collect valid
evidence. Massage parlor, something like that gives protecton. Posing to be
something else.
Advantages: safety, legal
3. Call girls [top of the tree. High income. Different b/c more physically
attractive, better social skills, higher educated. Differs because shes expected to
interact in non-sexual ways. Providing companionship and conversation. The
people who could afford to pay for this are going to be upscale. Network of
personal clients over time, much less dealing with strangers. Strange intermittant
encounters. Can get rid of people you dont like. Reasonably affable people on
regular basis. Danger is screening people, but once you know them youre in
relatively safe position. A bit of role play. Has to play role of girlfriend or
business partner. Might bump into someone.
Characteristics
Skills
Other Players
Pimp [Whole subculture involved here. ROLES- expectations about behavior
like going to see the doctor, make your body available. Not tell him what to
do. Prostitution is the same deal. Pimp very interesting characters. They live off
the earnings of prostitutes but avoid doing any work themselves.
Characteristics, Role, Advantages- [Lazy, exploitative, refer to women as a
stable of his family. Might find his legitimate legal wife in the stable. Dealing
with police, offering what he would call protection. Preventing the women from
working for someone else. Pimp doesnt really do much. Beat the women up, stop
other men from beating them up, provide accomodations, basically lazy.
Advantage- free sexual access to the women. Drive pimp-mobile. The pimp has
community responsibilities- occupying a social role. BE flashy extroverted and to
show off- brag about their easy lifestyle. We expect rockstars to be extreme
characters. Basically nasty people whio do abuse the women.
Other players
Madam- [kind of like female version of the pimp. Organizes, give medical
sercices, keep the books, formal prostitute. Non-commisioned officer in the army.
Keeps spirits up, recruits clients. Not well research.
Characteristics, Role, Advantages
John- [customer, most are normal.

 Types of John- [occasional- holiday or business trip. Whose lifestyle doesnt

allow them to have long-stable relationships. Migrant workers, etc.
HABITUAL- want to be special friends, have them as a girlfriend, can take
up too much of your time and energy. Many prostitues are business oriented,
and this love shit prevents from getting on with the job. COMPULSIVE JOHNpsychologically disturbed. Crazy and dangerous.
Characteristics, advantages.- [Possibility of sexual encounters without
emotional entanglement. He has call girls come to his house cuz hes stressed out,
they come and have casual sex. Like the dude is House. Looking for sexual
variety. Not enough fantasies. Spouse is weird about some stuff or something like
that. Advantage to prostitution as opposed to extramarital affair. People can
rationalize it more easily. Screwing up two familes in extramarital affair.
Prostitution cheaper and less time consuming than dating.Less time, effort, and
energy. Just want sexual activity. This is rational thing to do. Hugh Grantoccasional John. Heidi Fleiss is madam. Eventually went to jail. Very strong
business ethic. The prostitution thing didnt hurt Hugh Grant at all.
Background and Values
Stereotype. Why? [social services and the police. A lot more goes on than you
think. If you look on internet yourslf. 5% of women over 18 have had sex for
money at one point in their lives.
Is it really a minority activity? [above, not really a minority activity. People are
involved in relationship b/c higher status, security, etc.]
Prostitute worldview on sex, their job, family [they view it as a transaction,
business thing, functionally efficient. If you get emotionally involved, cant work
well in any job really. The same women will have sex with an emotional
component with their boyfriends or husbands. For most people that comes
together, In prostituton you can separate it out. Women see themselves as in
control. Goes against sterotype of being forced into it. Dont see themselves as
expolited. Goes against victimless crime model. Family values very strong, very
conservative in conventional values. Kids together, mortgage, etc.
Roberta Perkins findings -50% of sample were married and some have children,
etc. Prostitutes werent primarily from working/undeerclass most not from broken
homes. She used social networks. Not police. Police view is scewed. How do they
get involved in the first place then? below
Prostitute subculture: beliefs, skills
-comparative advantage in prostitution compared to other things. Many of the
women who turn to it had jobs like teachers and nurses, and one advantage was
simply that you coudl make more money. Not about getting away from abuse, for
many is was a case of lifestyle upgrading from low-pay legitimate job. Not a forced
choice, just going from mediocre to better lifestyle. Immediate situational triggers
that pushed someone over the edge- unpaid medical bill, college tuition, etc. Unpaid
bills or unemployment. Have to pay the mortgae. Entry often through a personal
connection. There was a personal contact involved. You knew a friend of a friend, tell
you who to contact, etc.

What do they think?- good pay, freedom, friendship with collegues. High level of
solidarity working together. Negative aspects- sex with men you dont like- repulsive
people. Cant interact honestly with other ppl about your job. Risk of police. STDs
aids and stuff like that. Job just like any with benefits and costs.
Prostitute subculture- believe theyre doing socially beneficial activities- stress
dealing, keeping families together, etc. Fits with data from other female occupations.
Women say this more than men.
Skills: attracting, screening, avoiding police, avoiding personal ties to the
customers, getting to spend more money on extra services, and of course fighting
rivals off your turf. Symbolic interactionist finding- face to face interaction people
telling you what you;re doing, how to do it, how you should feel about it. You should
feel like its a business transaction. Classic subculture face to face subculture situation
Women enter think that theyre doing it for a short time. Eventually realize
doing something deviant. Others will think so too.
Psychological- find it stressful. Psychologically damaging.
Decriminalisation
Arguments for and against- Why should we decriminalize?- Better safety for the
women- halth and physical safety. We can have doctors doing checks, not backdoor. This is the Dutch Model. Two consenting adults, their business and no one
elses. Illegal= morality disguising iteself as law. Wont have to spend money
trying to find it- waste of resources. Women are making a lot of money- maybe
we can get a tax out of this if legal. This would make pimps unnecessary, which is
the cause of most of the bad shit like beating the girls up. It would reduce the
stigma. Correlation between legality and stigma. Remove public solicitation. The
state could control the issue to avoid spill-over into residential neighborhoods.
Arguments against- legalizing will encourage divorce, facilitate spread of STDs,
morally wrong and state shouldnt condone immoral activity, more chance for
exploitation in labor market, feminist- inherently degrading- objectifies women.
Dilemma for feminism why? [ reading by Kessler? Dilemma is prostitutes
generally report that its a free choice, dont feel dominated, they should have
right to control their own bodies. They say that what they do is not different from
hair-dressers, or house cleaners which involve intimate body contact. Much
feminism is about choice, not being stygmatized. Whole idea of women being
sexual is taboo, so prostitutes are kind of feminist heros breaking down sexual
taboos. But argument against says it errodes womens soverignty and degrades
them, reduces women to bodies and not minds. Something essentialist. Sexuality
is close to your true self. Different from nurse because it is sale of deeper part of
your identity. Feminists say they choose only because of structure of opportunity
in the labor market. Their jobs dont pay very much. Denied legitimate
opportunities.
-The transaction is power-related. The man is dramatizing male power.
Philosphical feminist argument. Enactment of domination.
False consciousness- they think its okay but really its bad. Interesting problem
where subjective reality doesnt conform to intellectual experts.
Feminists should be working with prostitutes instead of moral critque- Kessler.

 Victimless crime??? Depends on (a) theoretical take and (b) where you look.
Prostitution somehow inherently bad. Depends if youre a drug addict, abused by a
pimp, or if youre making this as a free choice from position of labor market strength.
3/6/07- Prostitution Video- In a sense, not just a one-on-one transaction, a greater
system.