Strain Theory

Society has become fragmented with the loss of community, yet at the same time, we are managing to stay intact. This is because of our widespread pursuit of a common societal goal: the American Dream. When thinking of the America Dream, most think of a nice house with a perfect family, a great job, a nice car. At the root of all of this is money. We all desire money. In the media, we are constantly bombarded by messages telling us that with material wealth, comes happiness. We become greedy, and will do anything to attain this goal. Most use legitimate means to become successful. We work hard, get a good education and a good job. However, in our society, there is much emphasis placed on the goal itself, with weak emphasis on the legitimate ways of achieving it. This leads to a strain in society and creates innovators. Innovators are people who become creative and use illegitimate means to achieve this goal. For example, when someone is in need of money, rather than picking up a few extra shifts, they may just rob a bank. This is not an accepted way of getting money, but it is getting money nonetheless. Merton defines these illegitimate acts as being illegal, and this is where wilding comes in. 

Wilding

Wilding is basically any act done in complete self interest at the expense of others. This act is not necessarily illegal, yet it is always harmful. For example, extreme cases of wilding could be murdering someone for their life insurance policy or robbing a bank. However, everyone engages in wilding, most cases being much less serious and at times very accepted. For example, look at the show The Apprentice. People are constantly backstabbing each other, lying and cheating simply to get ahead. This is wilding since it is for self benefit, and it harms someone else. This is very common in competitive jobs. The bottom line is, wilding is the term for both legal and non-illegal actions performed in self interest at the expense of others. It is interesting to see how we accept some actions that are just as harmful as others that are not. 

It is evident that we socially construct what we label as criminal, when at times, it is the very same act as something completely normal. 

Example:

Someone is selling a drug to make a profit. One is selling Prozac, one is selling marijuana. The act itself is exactly the same, yet we view one as criminal and one as completely normal and encouraged. 

What is also funny:

There are 106,000 deaths per year IN HOSPITALS from side effects and reactions with prescribed medications...marijuana? zero. All illegal drugs: 10,000

Class 2/9

Cultivation Theory

Television reinforces certain values and beliefs. The more television we watch, the more cultivation occurs. Repetitive viewing over a long period of time gives us certain perceptions of the world that are skewed. For example, heavy viewers tend to believe:

 -crime rates are higher  

 -racism is a thing of the past because of the portrayal of the successful middle class black family this also making people less empathetic towards blacks living in poverty(if this middle class black family on tv did it, these poor black families have no excuse, they could easily become successful if they tried)

 -we need more policing accompanied by harsher and longer sentences

 -their own neighborhoods to be unsafe

 -fear of crime as one of their most compelling problems

Effects Research-the study of how media images bring about negative effects in their viewers

Mass Society(a sociological approach)

In this theory, the masses are imagined as ignorant and docile who are vulnerable to negative influence. They are seen as potentially unruly and prone to violence. As industrialization and urbanization took hold, society became atomized into fragmented communities. this led to increased vulnerability. People became detached from traditional social ties and kinship. Moral cohesion begins to disappear, social ties became dismantled, and morals were no longer in place. With this phenomenon, crime and anti-social behavior increased. One connection people did maintain was that of the media. The media was a way for people to cope with this fragmented and individualistic lifestyle. It was significant enough to control people's thoughts and values. 

Problems-how is society atomized, but also centrally controlled by the media? Also, this thoery claims that people are completely malleable and easily manipulated when this is often not the case. 

Behaviorism(a psychological approach) 

People's identities and behaviors are shaped by their responses to external stimuli. You can elicit certain responses from people in a predictable way. Basically, you can train people through a system of rewards and punishments. 

Positivism

This is a way of approaching the social world through observation and scientific methods. They believe that society works in a cause and effect manor, and you can predict human behavior. 

cause(external stimuli)--->effect(behavior)

Hypodermic Syringe Model

The media 'injects' values, ideas and information directly into a passive receiver.

Questions

Here are some questions for you all to ponder over. This is all opinion so you can't be wrong! Write your hearts out!

-How would we go about changing our perception of crime? Would we be able to at all?

-Could a shift in media coverage increase our awareness of what is reality rather than what we fear? 

-How do television shows play into our perception of crime?

-So if prison doesn't work, what could we do that would?

-Over 80% of the people in prison are there for drugs, what would happen if we released them? Would the people of the American be supportive if they knew the benefits?

-Going back to the basics, why do we focus on lower class crimes? Is it because they are more appealing to watch? Maybe the 4 conglomerates that own most of the news stations have something to do with it. Would they screen what we view to keep their reputation?

-Why is it that we enjoy watching the news, even with the tragedies and disasters? Do you agree with Dirkheim's 'moral workout?'

-Does pushing others out make us feel connected? Do we create others to help us feel normal?

Today's Class 2/2

Fact vs. Fiction

As we discussed today, it is apparent that there is a huge gap between our perception of crime, and what is reality. We have a set of assumptions about our society in regards to crime such as what counts as criminal, who is criminal, and what makes our society safer. The main source of this deception we face is present in the media. Most of the crimes we see on the news are lower-class crimes. We see violence, robbery, rape, and theft. Rarely do we see the crimes that impact us the most, such as economic crimes. This over portrayal of lower-class crimes leads many to believe that these are the crimes that are happening most frequently, and these are the ones to worry about. Urban legends are another way of highlighting this gap. Every family I know sorts through their halloween candy, throwing away unwrapped or homemade goods in fear that they may be poisoned. There have only been 2 documented cases of this ever happening, yet our fear makes us believe that it could be a reality for any unsuspecting child. We believe that it happens all the time.

Labeling Theory

Although we only touched briefly upon this, it is in fact one of my favorite theories so I thought I would add it in here. We started out talking about Megan's Law. This is the informal name for laws in the U.S. that require law enforcement agencies to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. Anyone can go online and see the name, photograph, address, and crime of all registered sex offenders in their city. This law was created in wake of the rape and murder of a young girl. If her parents had known that a sex offender was living down the street, they would have never allowed her to play near his home. Although this case is devastating, critics of this law contend that it is an extreme case. Ninety-six percent of child rape victims know their attacker. This law fits into Labeling Theory because that is exactly what it is doing. Becker's theory is a criminological notion that being given a criminal label ultimately leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy where an individual is stigmatized and begins to internalize this stigma. They then eventually live up to this label given to them. Sex offenders are a great example of what this theory is all about. Because of a single crime, they are labeled for life. The crime may not even be serious, like the example today of a man mooning a crowd where there happened to be a child; however, even if it is a serious crime, there is little hope that the individual would be able to turn their life around. No matter where they go, there is no such thing as a fresh start. They are constantly labeled, so they either give in to this and act out, or they go underground. In this case, they are unable to be monitored at all. Sex offenders aren't the only ones facing this dilemma, it is true for any person that has committed a crime. Most are unable to escape their mistake, so why even try?

Sensation vs. Rationality

Sensation is one of the main reasons why there is a disjuncture between fact and fiction in regards to crime and criminality. On any day, I would rather watch a 1/2 hour of television than read a scientific journal where the print is tiny, the material is dry, and the content is utterly boring. Because of this, we are only exposed to certain material, and this is why we have these 'common sense' assumptions about crime. Scientific journals and other materials of this sort are formatted this way because they represent what is fact. However, what most fail to recognize, is that most would rather be entertained than bored to death. Maybe our society would have different assumptions if the facts were glamorized. 

Moral Workouts

Durkheim argues that we need crime in our society. Due to our need to feel like we are part of a community, we are consumed with these sensational stories so we can collectively feel emotion together. For example, after 9/11 our country experienced a wave of patriotism. We all experienced anger as a whole, even those most of us weren't personally affected. We enjoy watching the news because it provides us with daily moral workouts in which we collectively feel anger or sadness or other countless emotions. It gives us a sense of community that we seem to have lost with the advancing technology.