The Rise in the Amount of Violent Crime - Essay Example

?In disadvantaged areas around the world, young men find expressions of their masculinity through violence. Discuss. In the modern world there is widespread concern about the rise in the amount of violent crime, and it is clear that most of this violence is committed by young men. Sociologists have developed many theories to explain this, including Marxist theories related to power in society and feminist theories related to patriarchy. Gender and violence are clearly related in some way, but there is still much debate about the definitions, language and approach that should be taken. Additional factors such as social class, poverty, culture and race are also involved, and this makes it difficult to isolate the element of gender and analyse its role in society. This paper introduces recent theories about gender in society and suggests an appropriate way of approaching the subject. It then considers how far and why young men in disadvantaged areas might choose to use violence as a means of expressing their masculinity. Finding an appropriate vocabulary is an important first step in understanding how gender affects behaviour: “Talking about gender for most people is the equivalent of fish talking about water.” (Lorber, 1994, 21) A great deal of human experience of gender is taken for granted because it occurs on an unconscious level. It is not something that individuals work out themselves, but rather it is the result of repeated interactions with other people who convey the prevailing values and boundaries of society. Lorber stresses the social nature of gender: “To explain why gendering is done from birth, constantly and by everyone, we have to look not only at the way individuals experience gender but at gender as a social institution.” (Lorber, 1994, 21). This means that gender attributes and behaviours are embedded structurally within society: Gerson and Peiss (1985, 327) define gender as “ a set of socially constructed relationships which are reproduced through people’s actions.” Following this line of reasoning, the way that we behave within culturally prescribed boundaries can be described as “doing gender.” (Lorber, 1994; West and Zimmerman, 1987) The way that society works is on the basis of a set of roles which are arranged within hierarchies. From birth babies are assigned to male or female gender, and this results in a whole set of traditional responses which reinforce that gender. Because there is pressure from the family, and from society at large, boys and girls internalize a lot of these notions of gender and grow up “doing gender” themselves, in ways that are defined by others. This is what it means when we say that gender is socially constructed. The dominance of patriarchy in most human societies ensures that there is a widespread tendency to accord more status and prestige to men, in relation to women. Organized violence tends to be the work of men, and this is a pattern that has been evident throughout history as successive male governments launch into wars with each other. Culture does have some influence in the way that this occurs, however, and Connell points out that “Commercial capitalism calls on a calculative masculinity and the class struggles of industrialization call on a combative one. Their combination, competitiveness, is institutionalized in ‘business’ and becomes a central theme in the new form of hegemonic masculinity” (Connell, 1987, p. 156). Western industrialized capitalism, therefore, produces a particularly restrictive form of masculinity which has assertion of power and resistance to this power built into its fabric. Dominant males oppress females and also weaker males. This is the force that lies behind unfairness in comparative wage levels, inequality in access to jobs, promotions and all kinds of opportunities. In communities which are generally disadvantaged both men and women are subjected to prejudice from the more affluent parts of society and this brings their status closer together, at the bottom of social hierarchies. When a group is subjected to economic pressures, and lack of access to work opportunities, women often outperform men in school studies and in employment levels. (Almquist, 1987) This can have the effect that men are further humiliated and excluded from the lifestyle that they would ideally aspire to, and it can cause resentment and despair. One study on the experience of young men in Soweto has shown, for example, that when exclusion and poverty were widespread in large but confined space like the township, there was an understandable rise in violent behaviour which became tied to territorial defence and gang hostility. (Glaser, 1998) Furthermore, this initial jostling for prestige became embedded into the culture of the area: “The most visible gangs, which became the subcultural role models, had names and clearly recognisable leadership and territory.” (Glaser: 1998, p. 719) The system thus perpetuates itself for future generations. While patriarchy generally disadvantages women, the other side of that is an increased expectation upon men to play the role of family provider and protector. When women achieve greater power through work and its financial benefits, men who have no employment feel a slight to their masculinity. Susan Faludi’s insightful study (1999) analyses the disappointment of post-war American males who feel resentful about the erosion of their status in society and reveals that male anger and violence are a reaction to feelings of powerlessness. Women, who have endured centuries of powerlessness both resist it without resorting to violence and adapt to it, finding constructive ways to carve out their own agendas. Men in this situation cannot easily change their position through the traditional routes of employment, because social deprivation blocks this path. Any jobs available are likely to be low status ones, perceived a demeaning to men, who retain their patriarchal notion of privilege in the workplace, and this causes them to seek other avenues for self- advancement and the gaining of prestige among peers and in front of women. When urban communities are excluded from employment through lack of skills there is a tendency to drift towards violence as an outlet for frustration and an avenue for demonstration of virility and power. Opportunities for the display of masculine competence and power are offered to middle class urban and suburban young people in abundance, through sports and hobbies, for example. Prowess in competitive sports is prized by young people, and especially boys, as a demonstration of skill and prestige. Fandom provides another avenue to these rewards through collective action but to fully participate in sports, as a spectator or as a participant, requires a certain level of wealth and an environment which provides appropriate facilities. In disadvantaged areas these opportunities are often lacking. In adolescence, particularly, there is a period of identity forming which is partly unconscious, and determined by the society around the individual, and partly a matter of making choices, and entering into a circle of trusted friends. Many studies have shown the importance of peer pressure in this age group and this pressure is what helps to form ideas of what it means to be a male or a female. Research has shown that men generally have a different attitude to risk than women: “males of all ages are more likely than females to engage in over 30 behaviours that increase the risk of disease, injury and death.” (Courtenay, 2000, p. 1386) In urban and disadvantaged communities the prevalence of drugs and guns makes the life of young male gang members highly dangerous. There is also a difference in the level of pressure that men and women experience in having to uphold the status quo: “Research indicates that men and boys experience comparatively greater social pressure than women and girls to endorse gendered societal prescriptions.” (Courtenay, 2000, p. 1387) It stands to reason that a group which has an advantage in society, i.e. men, should want to maintain the stratifications that guarantee that advantage, while women have more incentive to challenge the patriarchal norms in the hope of gaining more equality. The problem for men in disadvantaged areas, however, is that they are under pressure to remain notions of superior strength, power and prestige because of the widely held stereotypical view of masculinity, but they lack access to jobs, money and status because of the social deprivation in their surroundings. They just cannot win in this situation. The truth is, that factors such as class, race and ethnicity work together in the way that an individual constructs an identity and works out how his identity fits in with the surrounding society, or in some cases, stands in opposition to the prevailing roles and standards in society. People form groups and sub-groups which share important values and objectives and this social aspect reinforces certain views about the self, including what it means to be a young man, for example, and how this young man is expected to behave. In urban street crime gangs, boys turn to robbery as a way of gaining much needed cash. In this situation the existence of a peer group is an essential part of the whole notion of masculinity. The public committing of crimes and sharing of the proceeds creates a new set of norms, and those are in opposition to mainstream and law abiding society, but they make perfect sense to the criminal group. Here, too, power is at the root of the transaction: “Robbery provides a public ceremony of domination and humiliation of others… as such robbery provides an available resource with which to accomplish gender, and, therefore, to construct a specific type of public masculinity… ‘hardmen’ or men who court danger and who, through force of will, subject others to it.” (Messerschmidt: 1993, p. 107) In gang situations the young men in the group are not just “doing gender” but they are finding a way of achieving the status of a full male identity. They are actually achieving their gender. In a way this is akin to coming-of-age rituals in some religions, or trials of manhood in some rural cultures, and the pressure is most acute on those who are on brink of that vital transition: “the most aggressive and violent behaviour among gang members occurs during that adolescent status crisis, between childhood and adulthood.” (Vigil: 2003, no page number) In the new millennium there are increasing cases of violent crime being photographed using mobile technology and then being passed from person to person, or posted on the internet, thus creating a wider public for these exhibitions of violence. Items valued by young men such as clothes, technology and disposable cash are the practical rewards from this activity and this shows that masculinity in this sub-culture has acquired connotations of crime: “Within the social setting of the street group, robbery is an acceptable practice for accomplishing gender.” (Messerschmidt: 1993, p. 108). In recent years there has been a spate of school shootings carried out by young males, and researchers have pointed out that it is not so much the form of the shootings that needs to be explored, but their content: “the stories and narratives that accompany the violence, the relationships and interactions among students, and local school and gender cultures.” (Kimmel and Mahler, 2003, p. 1440) It appears that distribution of school shootings is skewed towards states with a republican majority, rural or suburban areas, and white male perpetrators. The boys who carried out the shootings were also bullied and subjected to “gay baiting” which is a form of taunting, accusing them of being gay, even though in almost all cases there was no evidence to suggest that they were actually gay. What this shows is a particularly homophobic and aggressive kind of peer pressure which contributed to a sudden outbreak of violent behaviour: “Theirs are stories of ‘cultural marginalization’ based on criteria for adequate gender performance, specifically the enactment of codes of masculinity.” (Kimmel and Mahler, 2003, p. 1445) The expectation of peers is that boys are clearly and indisputable masculine and heterosexual. Homophobia is a defence mechanism against being labelled unmanly or in some way inadequate as compared to the hegemonic masculinity that is expected. Feminist scholars have pointed out that men carry out far more violent crimes than women, and maintain that when women are the victims of this violence, there is an underlying perception on the part of the men that women are either too powerful, in which case they need to be suppressed, or too weak, in which case their rights can be ignored. Violence against women then becomes “a defence of traditional masculine authority.” (Oakley: 2002, p. 38) It is not, however, a simple male to female correlation, and Oakley goes on to explain that other factors come into play as well: “The men most likely to be convicted of crime are those at the economic margins of society- the unemployed, the poor, disadvantaged youth and ethnic minorities” (Oakley: 2002, p. 38) Whitehead argues that some male youth violence occurs because young men feel under too much pressure from society, and indeed from women, to the point that they feel under siege and lash out to free themselves from the oppressive burden of expectations that is placed upon them: “Such masculinist polarization is also apparent in the intransigent behaviour of young (insecure) males… and in the proliferation of a laddish youth culture” (Whitehead: 2002, p. 220) There is a paradoxical resentment of female expectations and simultaneous dependence on female approval in the violent expressions of disaffected male youth: “it should be noted that in all these radicalized expressions of masculinity, as in others, there is invariably some element of approving female gaze. In this respect, forms of femininity can be seen to collude in the reification of masculinities…” (Whitehead: 2002, p. 220) If young disadvantaged male youths are finding violence a way to express their masculinity, then it seems that young disadvantaged female youths are finding a parallel way to reinforce and promote this kind of behaviour through their own female display of appreciation and approval. In conclusion, then, these studies seem to imply that it is the factor of gender that is pushing these young urban males into high risk lifestyles and a preference for demonstrating their power and prestige with knives and guns. On reflection, however, it is clear that such a linking between masculinity and violence is the result of culture much more than gender. Gilmore, for example, studied Semai and Tahitian cultures and also the biological “fight or flight” function that that provides a hormone reaction to stress in all animals. Gilmore observes that “those cultures that have a pronounced manhood ideology seem to be the ones that have chosen fight as a survival strategy… The Semai and the Tahitians, for whatever historical reasons, have elected a strategy of avoiding confrontations…they flee.” (Gilmore: 1990, p. 219) We can say, therefore, that across the world many young males may very well find themselves expressing their masculinity through violence, but the deeper reason for this connection between their gender and the violent act is entirely cultural. There is no absolute link between disadvantage and violence, or between youth and violence, or between masculinity and violence but a conflation of these three variables of youth, masculinity and disadvantage in a western capitalist environment presents sufficient stress and motivation for many young and economically disadvantaged males to turn to violence. The greater the gap between the ideals of masculinity that the young men see on television and in the streets through wealth and the possession of prestige objects, the more incentive there is to abandon all efforts at joining the privileged elite who do not need to fight to demonstrate their superior status. Random robberies, or gang based territorial raids, provide a public stage upon which young males try out the trappings of rebellious masculinity. References Almquist, E. (1987) Labor market gendered inequality in minority groups. Gender & Society 1, pp. 400-414. Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble. London and New York: Routledge. Connell, R.W (1987) Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Courtenay, W.H. (2000) Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: a theory of gender and health. Social Science and Medicine 50, pp. 1385-1401. Faludi, S. (1999) Stiffed; The betrayal of the modernman. London: Chatto and Windus. Gerson, J.M. and Peiss, K. (1985) Boundaries, negotiation, consciousness: reconceptualising gender relations. Social Problems 32 (4), 317-331. Gilmore, D. D. (1990) Manhood in the Making: cultural concepts of masculinity. New Haven: Yale University Press. Glaser, C. (1998) Swines, Hazels, and the Dirty Dozen: Masculinity, Territoriality and the Youth Gangs of Soweto, 1960-1976. Journal of South African Studies 24 (4), 719-737. Hanke, R. (1992) Redesigning men: Hegemonic masculinity in transition. In S. Craig (ed.), Men, Masculinity and the Media, London: Sage, pp. 185-198. Kilmartin, C. (2000) The Masculine Self. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Kimmel, M.S., and Mahler, M. (2003) Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia and Violence: Random School Shootings 1982-2001. American Behavioral Scientist 46, pp. 1439-1458. Lorber, J. (1994) ‘Night to His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 21-24. Messerschmidt, J. W. (1993) Masculinities and Crime: Critique and Reconceptualisation of Theory. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Messerschmidt, J.W. (2004) Flesh & Blood: Adolescent Gender Diversity and Violence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Oakley, A. (2002) Gender on Planet Earth. Cambridge: Polity Press. Vigil, J.D. (2003) Urban violence and street gangs. Annual Review of Anthropology, 32, 225-242. Available online at: http://www.streetgangs.com/magazine/072003diegopaper.html West, C. and Zimmerman, D. (1987) Doing Gender. Gender & Society 1 pp. 125-151. Whitehead, S. (2002) Men and Masculinities: Key themes and new directions. Cambridge: Polity Press. Read More