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Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Chapter 5
Violence in Society: Rape
and Murder
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Problem in Sociological
Perspective
• Violence: the use of force to injure people or
to destroy their property
• Types of Violence
 Situational group violence: unplanned and
spontaneous
 Organized group violence: planned but
unauthorized
 Institutionalized group violence: violence carried
out by agents of the government
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
What Makes Violence a
Social Problem?
•The amount of violence (an objective
condition) does not make violence a
social problem.
•Subjective concerns about violence
make it a social problem.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Continued on next two slides
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Objective Dimension of
Violence
•Rate Of Violence
 Number of violent crimes for each
100,000 Americans
• Always be wary of crime statistics
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Looking at the Problem
Theoretically
• Biological Explanations
 Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909)
• Atavistic: biological throwbacks to earlier period when
humanity was violent and primitive
 Konrad Lorenz (1966)
• Claimed that evolution was the key to explaining
violence
 Psychologist John Dollard
• Frustration–Aggression Theory of Violence
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Psychological theories
 Behavior Modification
• Stress that if some behavior is rewarded (“reinforced”),
that behavior will occur again
 Modeling
• Copying another person’s behavior
• Sociological approach to understanding
violence
 Sociologists stress environmental causes
 Examine how social life shapes and
encourages—or discourages—violence
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Symbolic Interactionism
• Edwin Sutherland: Differential Association
 People learn violence by interacting with other
violent individuals.
 People learn techniques, attitudes, motives, drives,
and rationalizations for violence.
 Excess of definitions
 Most significant interactions in which people learn
violence take place earliest in life, are the most
frequent, endure the longest, and are the most
emotional or meaningful.
 Mechanisms for learning violence are the same as
those used to learn nonviolence.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Marvin Wolfgang: Subcultures of Violence
 Subcultural Theory
• People who grow up in subculture that approves
violent behavior have higher chance of becoming
violent
• Fitting the theories together
 Theories complement one another well
• Subcultural theory stresses that violence is woven
into the life of some groups.
• Differential association explains how people learn
that violence is a suitable response from other
violent people.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Functionalism
•Emile Durkheim: asking the
sociological question
 Normal Violence: violence that a group
normally (or usually) has
 Concluded that a society regulates total
murder rates
 Anomie: feelings of disconnectedness and
anxiety
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Robert Merton: Strain Theory
 Used Durkheim’s anomie to explain crime in the
U.S.
 Success becomes a cultural goal
 Cultural Means: ways to reach cultural goal
 Strain (or frustration and anxiety) that comes from
limited means may motivate some to commit
crime
 Strain Theory explains why high crime rates exist
among poor minorities—they experience fewer
means to achieve success
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Gottfredson and Hirschi: Control Theory
 Control Theory: places root cause of committing illegal
acts on a lack of self-control
 Causes of low self-control are negative and tend to
show themselves in the absence of nurture, discipline,
or training
 Ineffective child-rearing practices are the major cause
of low self control
 Minimum requirements of effective child rearing:
• Adequate monitoring of the child’s behavior
• Recognition of deviant behavior when it occurs
• Fair and consistent punishment of such behavior when it
occurs
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Conflict Theory
• Violence is inherent in society
 Social classes find themselves competing over
limited resources.
 Essential division is between owners of
production and workers.
 Situation is particularly tense for working-class
males.
 Look beneath the surface and realize that
capitalist class is actually more violent than the
working class.
 Form of violence that distinguishes workers from
capitalists
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Research Findings
Two most serious forms of physical violence:
rape and murder
• Forcible Rape: form of assault where one
forces another to have any type of sexual
relations against that person’s will
• Statutory Rape: sexual intercourse between
an adult and a minor
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Rape
• Rape perceived as social rather than
personal problem
• Feminists: traditional definition of rape places
blame on the victim, not perpetrator
 Feminist revision removed burden of guilt from
victim and placed on perpetrator
 Rape is an outcome of patriarchy: control by men
of a disproportionately large share of power
• Legal definitions of rape changed and
replaced with Criminal Sexual Assault
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Social Patterns of Rape
• FBI: 89,000 American women are forcibly raped
each year
 The National Crime Victimization Survey
• Predictable social patterns
 Acquaintanceship; place; time; season; age; income;
race–ethnicity; geography; region; weapon
 Sociologists conclude that rape is not the act of a few
sick men, but, rather, is intimately linked to our patriarchal
culture.
• Injury, rape, and resistance
 Woman who resists her attacker less likely to be raped,
but more likely to be injured
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Profiling the Rapist
10 profiles of rapists based on confessions:
 Woman Hater
 Sadist
 Generally Violence-prone
 Revenge
 Political
• Soldier Rape: rape committed by a soldier on a
country’s inhabitants during wartime
 Walter Mitty rapist
 Opportunist
 Date Rapists, also called Acquaintance Rapists
 Recreational Rapist
 Husband rapist attacks his own wife
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Reactions to Rape
• The trauma of rape
 Does not end with the physical attack
• Dealing with their trauma
 Expressive or Controlled
• Dealing with the legal system
 Police departments have grown more sensitive to rape
victims
 In only 40% of reported rapes is someone arrested
 “Legal Rape”
• Homosexual rape
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Murder
• The social patterns of murder
 Least likely to be committed by a stranger
 Perpetrators share characteristics of social class,
sex, age, and race–ethnicity with rapists
 Men as killers identify guns as masculine
 Most dangerous time of the week is Saturday night
• Saturday Night Specials refer to any inexpensive
handgun
 U.S. murder rates have plunged 43%
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Explaining Social Patterns
• Acquaintanceship: most killed by someone they
know
• Poverty: Conflict Theory—people in poverty may be
striking out at one another instead of at their
oppressors.
• Functionalists adopt both strain theory and control
theory.
• The meaning behind murder: Symbolic
Interaction—in some poor subcultures criminal
behavior enhances a person’s reputation.
 Social classes also resolve disputes differently.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Killing as a manly act: the measure of one’s
capacity as a man
 Women are less likely to be socialized into
violence
• Racial–ethnic differences
 African Americans kill at a higher rate than other
races.
• More likely to be poor
• Subculture identifies masculinity with the willingness
to defend oneself aggressively
 Interracial patterns: Functionalists stress a
connection between race–ethnicity and money
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Mass Murder: killing of four or more people in
a single episode
• Serial Murder: killing of several people in three
or more separate events
• Four social policies for prevention of violence:
 Programs that teach equality
 Social policies that increase the likelihood that
rapists will be punished
 Support research to determine how our culture
creates a climate of violence
 Gun control
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Future of the Problem
• Conflict theory indicates that tensions will remain
in our society
• Functionalist perspective explains that violence is
functional enough to be perpetuated and
maintained
• Symbolic interactionist perspective focuses on
violence as a cultural symbol used to resolve
conflict
• Sociological perspective on violence essential to
understanding our present and future state
• Understanding of the social basis of violence can
be used to implement beneficial solutions
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved