Great University District bars and clubs in Seattle!

CULTURAL/SUBCULTURAL and SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL

• based on Wolfgang
• criminologist are substantially sociologists
• Patterns of Criminal Homicide: Wolfgang, 1958: focused on the individual meaning; had access to individual level case files
• Most of the theory on murder is based one aggregate-level data
• Criticism – “culturally deterministic” – ignores individual-level difference within cultures or that the majority of people within a culture are conformers
• “Homicide is a situated transaction.”
• VP-murders: Wolfgang – ¼ of all murders in Philadelphia are victim-precipitated; definition – victim is a direct, positive precipitator; the FIRST to use physical force, show use of a deadly weapon, commence interplay, show violence; what social event accompanies this? Answer: situated transactions (?)

SOCIAL STRUCTURAL

• Cultural theories aren’t quite as promising.
• Early sociology looked at social structure and a number of other things.
• UCRs provide readily available data…as well as Census data (aggregate level)
• Lots of research on social structure (particularly class structure
• Inequality and crime à “common sense” notion
• “Absolute poverty”: higher rates of crime among the poor
• Why would poverty produce crime? You’re desperate and there’s a need/despair; hopelessness/survival; this idea has been shown to be TOO SIMPLE
• “Dangerous Classes” – poor, living in decrepit areas, crime, violence, murder…AKA called “underclass” today
• Countries with higher poverty vs. countries with lower poverty? Highest crime rates NOT found in the former!
• Instead, look at “relative poverty” – difference between the haves and the have-nots produces frustrated desire and thus more motivation to commit crimes (Blau)
• Today, top 1% of U.S. owns 40% of the wealth!
• Size of gap between rich and poor affects general health
• Seattle: middle ranking in inequality, middle in health