CRI205 Final

social process theories

• study of the operations of social institutions, such as family, peer groups, and school

• crime is a result of learning norms, values, and behaviors

• social learning can involve both the actual techniques of crime and the psychological aspects of criminality

• most people refrain from criminal activity and few of those who do commit crimes remain persistent chronic offenders in adulthood

socialization

• human development and learning, primarily in the family, secondary in institutions

• if our relationships are positive and supportive, we will be able to succeed within the rules of society

• if our relationships are dysfunctional and destructive, conventional success is more difficult

parental efficacy

• the ability of parents to be supportive of their children and control them effectively in non coercive ways

• delinquency is reduced when parents provide the type of structure that integrates children into families while giving them the ability to assert their individuality and regulate their own behavior

effects of abuse on children

• children who grew up in homes where parents are physically or sexually abusive, harshly physically disciplined, are prone to later antisocial behavior

• effects of abuse are long-term

• children whose parents are harsh, angry and irritable are likely to behave the same way

stigmatize

to create a label that taints a person’s identity, changing them in the eyes of others

relationship between school and criminality

• children who do poorly in school and feel alienated are the most likely to engage in criminality

• classroom-based emotional support is important for high risk children and lowers criminality

social learning theory

people learn the techniques and attitudes of crime from observation

• either directly from criminal peers or indirectly in the media

• rewarded interactions are copied, and punished interactions are avoided

• people are born good and learn to be bad

control theory

looks at how society controls, manages, and restrains behavior

• maintains that crime occurs when the forces that bind people are weakened or broken

• people are born bad and must be controlled to be good

labeling theory

society creates deviance through the designation of individual behavior as deviant

• people become criminals when they are labeled as such and they accept those labels as a personal identity

• whether people are good or bad, their actions are controlled by the reaction of others

differential association theory

Edwin H. Sutherland

criminal acts are related to exposure to an excess amount of antisocial attitudes and values

• criminality stemmed from neither individual traits nor socio-economic position; rather it is a function of a learning process that could affect anyone

principles of differential association

• crime is learned in the same manner as any other behavior

• crime is learned in interaction with other persons

• learning crime occurs within intimate personal groups

• learning crime include techniques, and supporting motives, rationalizations, and attitudes

• the reaction to social rules is not uniform

• a criminal perceives more benefits to violating the law when acquaintances have definitions that are favorable toward criminality

• learning definitions favorable to criminality produces illegal behavior

testing differential association

• friendship patterns of delinquent youths, recent friendships have more of an effect than older friendships

• longitudinal analysis

differential reinforcement theory

crime is learned behavior, combining differential association with learning

• people do not learn to be all deviant or all conforming, rather they strike a balance between the two

• direct conditioning occurs when behavior is either rewarded or punished during interaction with others

• differential association involves learning from direct or indirect interaction with others

• cognitive definitions are attitudes that are favorable or unfavorable toward a behavior and can either stimulate or extinguish that behavior

• behavior is reinforced when positive rewards are gained or when punishment is avoided

• main influence on behavior comes from groups that control individuals reinforcement and punishment such as peer and friendship groups, schools, church

neutralization theory

offenders drift into periods of crime by neutralizing conventional values

• most delinquents and criminals actually hold conventional values and attitudes but master techniques that enable them to neutralize those values and drift between illegitimate and conventional behavior

• subterranean values

• drift

• techniques of neutralization

subterranean values

immorality is entrenched in the culture but is otherwise publicly condemned

• people commonly hold both subterranean and conventional values- few people are all good or all bad

drift

youth move in and out of delinquency and have both conventional and deviant values

techniques of neutralization

a strategy of cognitive dissonance used by deviants to counteract moral constraints

• offenders develop a distinct set of justifications for law violating behavior

• criminality is the result of the neutralization of accepted social values

offenders process of developing a distinct set of justifications for law-violating behavior

1. they voice a sense of guilt over their illegal acts

2. they often respect and admire honest law abiding persons

3. they draw a line between those whom they can victimize and those they cannot

4. they are not immune to the demands of conformity, participating in the same social functions as law abiding people

Skyes and Matza’s techniques of neutralization

• deny responsibility- illegality it was not their fault but due to forces beyond their control

• deny injury- the harm is neutralized by denying the wrongfulness of an act

• deny the victim- the victim of crime had it coming and so doesn’t deserve sympathy

• condemn the condemners- the world is corrupt so it is unfair to condemn misconduct

• appeal to higher loyalties- justify illegality as an expression of loyalty to one’s peers

addition to Skyes and Matza’s by Minor, Klockars, and Coleman

• the defense of necessity- something is morally wrong, but okay if it is necessary

• the metaphor of the ledger- the balance of good qualities make up for the bad

• the denial of the laws necessity- the law itself is not fair or just

• the claim that everybody else is doing it- the criticism of being singled out

• the claim of entitlement- the individual feels they are entitled to the gains of crime

white collar neutralization

• white collar deviance is more important because of the relative power such people have

• appeal to higher loyalties and denial of injury were the reasons such criminals cited most often for their crimes

• financial desperation, frustration at a lack of advancement, and the feeling that everyone else was doing it were also found to be reasons

testing neutralization theory

• would show that a person neutralized their moral beliefs before drifting into criminality, unless rationalizations can also be after the fact

• possible criminals and noncriminals have different moral values and that neutralizing them is therefore unnecessary

• validity of the model depends on research showing that all people share similar moral values and must neutralize them in order to engage in criminal behavior

• institutionalized youths excuse deviant behaviors to a significantly greater degree than the general population does

• almost anyone who criminal acts has learned to rationalize their guilt

social control theories

assumes that all people have the potential to violate the law and that modern society resents many activities for illegal activity

• control theorists argue that people obey the law because behavior and passions are controlled by internal and external forces

• commitment to conformity

commitment to conformity

a positive orientation to society’s rules, where the individual internalizes those rules

• might believe that if they are caught in criminal activity it will hurt a parent or jeopardize their chance at university

• a persons behavior is controlled by attachment and commitment to conventional institutions, individuals, and processes

self concept and crime

• early control theory speculated that low self control was a product of weak self esteem

• delinquents have weak ego ideals and lacked personal controls

• poor self concept= more likely to be a criminal

• self rejection

self rejection

the consequence of being labeled whereby the negative stigma is internalized

containment theory

• containments insulate youths from crime, and include a strong self-concept and a positive support from others

• a strong self image can counteract: internal pushes, external pressures, and external pulls

• all people perceive inducements to crime, some are better able to resist them

elements of the social bond

• attachment: a person’s sensitivity to and interest in others, without which a person loses their ability to relate coherently to others

• commitment: involves the time, energy, and effort expanded in conventional lines of action such as getting a education and saving money for the future

• involvement: in conventional activities leaves little time for illegal behavior

• belief: involves the extent to which the individual believes in conventional norms

labelling theory

explains career formation in terms of destructive social interactions and encounters

• roots in symbolic interaction theory

• people are assigned a variety of symbolic labels in their interaction with others such as mental disorder, difficult patient, or even victim

• negative levels stigmatize people and weaken their self-image

• a devalued status can cause permanent harm when conferred by a significant other

• institutions such as police, the courts, and correctional agencies produce stigmas that are so harmful to the very people they’re trying to help which ends up amplifying criminal behavior

crime and labeling theory

killing can mean different things, the same things have been switching between legal illegal for all history (abortions, homosexuality, etc) whats important is who does the labeling

differential enforcement

the law is differentially applied, benefiting those who hold economic and social power and penalizing the powerless

• members of minority groups and people living in poverty are more likely to be prosecuted for criminal offenses and receive harsher punishments when convicted

• law is differentially applied to favor the powerful members of society who direct its content and penalizes people whose actions represent a threat to those in control

social distance

power differences between labeller and labellee, typically related to race, class, and ethnicity

consequences of labeling

• the creation of stigma

• the effect on self-image

• master status

• dramatization of evil

master status

an identity that overrides others, such as drug-dealer, a more important status than citizen

dramatization of evil

the reaction to deviance sets up a feedback effect that the individual internalizes

primary deviance

deviant acts that go unsanctioned and that do not redefine the self-image of the offender

• involves norm violations that have little influence on the actor and can be quickly forgotten

secondary deviance

when the deviant acts are sanctioned, the label becomes a basis for identity and more deviance

• occurs when a deviant event comes to the attention to those who apply a negative label

• if successful, secondary deviance involves re-socialization into a deviant role

retrospective reading

the reassessment of a person’s past to fit a current generalized label

• both self and other do this reading and re-evaluation

general theory of deviance

• begins with the assumption that people who cannot conform to a social group standards face negative sanctions

• those exposed to negative social sanctions experience self-rejection and poorer self-images

• some acts are defiant, showing contempt for the source of the negative labels, while others are planned to distance the target from further contact with the source of criticism

• imposing social sanctions on adolescents leafs to self-rejection, deviant peer associations, and eventual deviance amplification

differential social control

• self evaluation reflect actual perceived appraisals made by others

• labeled youths may join with similarly outcast delinquent peers, who facilitate their behavior

• this effect amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the process has been linked to delinquent behavior and other problems, including depression

reflective role-taking

• youth delinquents give an inner voice to their perceptions of how significant others feel

• when these groups are dysfunctional, such as when parents use drugs, they encourage rather than control antisocial behavior

reflected appraisal

youth’s evaluation is based on their perceptions of how others evaluate them

• reflected appraisal as a rule violator has significant effect on delinquency

• focuses more on social control and symbolic interaction

is labeling theory valid?

• its inability to specify the conditions that must exist before an act or an individual is labeled deviant

• fails to explain crime rates

• ignores the onset of deviance as well as the decision to forgo a deviant career

• argues that some crimes are universally sanctioned

developmental criminology

an approach that examines change in a criminal career over the life course

• the view that criminality is stable over one’s life is being challenged

integrated theories

• divided into three groups on the basis of their views of human development and change: multifactor theories, latent trait theories, and life-course theories

multifactor theories

integrating individual factors and concepts into complex explanations of criminality

• combine variables that have been used in structural, socialization, conflict, choice, and trait theories

• explains criminal career formation and desistance

• a model based on the concept of traits may explain the flow of crime over the life cycle by looking at characteristics that control the inclination to commit crimes

• stresses the influence of changing interpersonal and structural factors

latent traits

conditions present at birth that lead some people to become crime prone over their life course

• those who carry these latent traits are in danger of becoming career criminals, regardless of personal characteristics

• because latent traits are stable, fluctuations in offending over time reflect criminal opportunities and not the propensity to commit crime

• integrates concepts usually associated with trait theories with those of rational choice theories

• assumes that change occurs not in people but in their criminal opportunties

life course theory

criminal offending patterns change over time, influenced by conditions or events

• some career criminals may desist from crime, while others escalate their rate of involvement

• some may specialize or become generalists

• some are influenced by family matters, financial needs, or changes in lifestyle

• stresses the influence of changing interpersonal and structural factors

common ground between multifactor, latent, and life course

the criminal career is a passage along which people travel, and their journey is influenced by events and circumstances such as

• structural factors: income and status

• socialization factors: family and peer relations

• biological factors: size and strength

• psychological factors: intelligence and personality

• opportunity factors: free time, inadequate protection, easily stolen merchandise

the social development model (SDM)

the attempt to integrate social control, social learning, and structural models of crime

• community level risk factors make some people susceptible to developing antisocial behaviors

• as a child matures, pre-existing risk factors are either reinforced or neutralized through socialization

• provides an accurate picture of the onset of continuation of violent and antisocial behavior for both early onset offenders who engage in antisocial acts in childhood and for later-onset offenders

• also predicts the onset and continuation of delinquency and drug abuse, where both social learning and control bonding predict gang membership

pro social bonds

bonds develop within family life that provide pro-social bonds opportunities and feedback

• childrens antisocial behavior arises from interaction with antisocial peers over the life course

elliotts integrated theory

adolescents who live in social disorganized areas (A) who are improperly socialized (B) face a significant risk of perceiving strain (C) which leads to weakened bonds with conventional group, activities, and norms (D) weak conventional bonds and high levels of perceived strain lead some youths to reject conventional social values (E) and seek out deviant peer groups (F) from these delinquent associations come positive reinforcements and role model for deviance (G) attachment to delinquent groups, when combined with weak bonding to conventional groups and norms, leads to a high level of delinquent behavior and drug abuse (H)

• combines the features of strain, social learning, and control theories into a single theoretical model

integrated structural marxist theory

integrated approach looks at a person’s influence within relations of material production

• crime is a result of family relationships marked by conflict and despair and is influenced by the quality of a person’s work experience

• wage earners who occupy inferior positions are more likely to experience negative relationships with supervisors and employers

• creates strain and alienation in families, juveniles in families become alienated from parents

• negative social relations at home and school result in strain, which is reinforced by alienated peers and results in patterns of violent behavior or economic crime

the glueck research

• conducted longitudinal studies to research the life cycle of delinquent careers so as to determine the factors that predicted persistent offending using interviews and records

• research focused on early onset of delinquency as the harbinger of a criminal career

• most important factor related to personal and social factors was found to be the nature of family relations, such as quality of discipline and emotional ties with parents

four best way to achieve reductions in criminality

• join the military

• get a job

• change your environment

• change your neighborhood

four critical cognitive transformations as key to the healing process

• a basic openness to change

• exposure to a positive development

• a willingness to establish a replacement self to substitute for the older identity

• a transformation in the way the actor views the deviant lifestyle

• process is complete when the actor no longer sees their past life and behaviors has personally relevant

Multisystemic therapy (MST)

• home based treatment for juveniles addresses the relationships among family, peers, school, and community

• targets chronic violent and substance-abusing juveniles who are high risk

• aim is to empower parents with the skills and resources needed to help their children cope

conflict theorists view on crime

the outcome of class struggle

• conflict promotes crime by creating a social atmosphere in which the law is a mechanism for controlling dissatisfied members of society while maintaining the position of the powerful

• explains why crimes of the wealthy are sanctioned much more leniently than lower class crimes

• reject the notion that law is designed to maintain a tranquil and fair society and that criminals are simply violent and predatory people

• conflict can be functional when it results in positive social change

• conflict has been a significant element of the human condition since the dawn of time, shaping human behavior and culture

conflict theory

criminal behavior is caused by economic inequality and law defined by those in power

productive forces and productive relations

production has 2 components

• productive forces: which include technology, energy sources, and material resources

• relations of production: which exist among the people producing goods and services

marx view on crime

• crime as the product of law enforcement policies akin to a labelling process

• saw a connection between criminality and inequality

• working people committed crime because their choice was between a slow death by starvation or a speedy one at the hands of law

• the only crimes available to the poor are the severely sanctioned street crime

willem bonger

• believed that society is divided into have and have-nots, on the basis of system of production in force

• every society has a ruling class and an inferior class

• almost no act is punished unless it heeds the interests of the dominant ruling class

• the legal system discriminates against people who are poor by defending the actions of people who are wealthy

ralf dahrendorf

• society is organized into imperatively coordinated associations (those who possess authority and use it for social domination and those who lack authority and are dominated)

• unified conflict theory of human behavior

  1. every society is at every point subject to processes of change

  2. every society displays at every point dissent and conflict

  3. every element in a society renders a contribution to its disintegration and change

  4. every society is based on the coercion of some of its members by others

unified conflict theory of human behavior

1. every society is at every point subject to processes of change

2. every society displays at every point dissent and conflict

3. every element in a society renders a contribution to its disintegration and change

4. every society is based on the coercion of some of its members by others

george vold

• argued that laws are created by politically oriented groups seeking the government’s assistance to help them defend their rights and protect their interests

• if a group can marshal enough support, a law will be created to hamper and curb the interests of some opposition group

• every stage of the process is marked by conflict, criminal acts are. a consequence of direct contact between forces struggling to control society

modern conflict theory

• criminologists began to view the justice system as a mechanism for controlling the lower class and maintaining the status quo

• labelling theorists rejected the simplistic notion that crime is morally wrong and studied the interactions among crime, the criminal, the victim, and social control agencies

• identifying the “real” crime in society such as profiteering, sexism and racism

• evaluating how the criminal law is used as a mechanism of social control

objectives of conflict criminology

• describe how control over the political and economic systems affects the administration of criminal justice

• show how definitions of crime favor those who control the justice system

• to show how justice in society is skewed so that those who deserve to be punished the most are actually punished the least while those whose crimes are relatively minor and committed out of economic necessity receive stricter sanctions

social reality of crime

quinney’s conflict theory on the relationship between society and crime

• conflict exists between social groups the people who hold power will create laws to benefit themselves

• criminal definitions are based on factors such as: changing social conditions, emerging interests, increasing demands that political, economic, and religious interests be protected, changing conceptions of public interest

propositions of the social reality of crime

1. crime is a definition of human conduct created by politically authorized agents

2. criminal definitions describe behaviors that conflict with the interest of those that have the power to shape public policy

3. criminal definitions are applied by those that have the power to shape the enforcement and administration of criminal law

4. behavior is structured in segmentally organized society in relation to criminal definitions, and persons engage in actions that have relative probabilities of being defined as criminal

5. conceptions of crime are constructed and diffused in society by various means of communication

6. the social reality of crime entails constructing criminal conceptions, applying criminal definitions, and developing of behavior to criminal definitions

norm resistance

the interaction between authorities and subjects produces open conflict

• both authorities and subjects are committed to opposing cultural norms, people with group support will be resistant to authority or change, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of opponents helps avoid conflict with authorities

dangerous classes

being single, young, urban, male, and ethnic can result in harsher treatments in the criminal justice system

correctionalist

simply correcting behavior rather than seeing its cause, such as in economic relations

fundamentals of marxist criminology

• mostly ignore formal theory

• crime and criminal justice must be viewed in a historical, social, and economic context

• part of the radical agenda is to make the public aware that crimes of power are just as much as crimes of burglary and robbery

• criminals are products of society and its economic system

• criminality is a function of the social and economic organization of society

• to control crime and reduce criminality, one must end the social conditions that promote crimesurp

surplus value

labor produces wealth that exceeds their wages; that wealth goes to the capitalist class as profits

• surplus value has been increased through globalization as production shifts to regions of the world with lower wages and fewer restrictions

instrumental marxism

the law is designed to advance the interests of particular groups or organizations

• law is shaped by the economic, social, and political interests of the ruling class

• views the criminal law and criminal justice system solely as instruments for controlling the poor; the state is the tool of the capitalist

• society is based on an advanced capitalist economy

• the state is organized to serve the interests of the dominant economic class

• the law is a state instrument that maintains the existing social and economic order

• crime control occurs through institutions established and administered by the elite

• contradictions in capitalism require that the lower classes remain oppressed by the law

• the collapse of capitalism and creation of a socialist society will solve crimes

marx view on privilege

• linked crime to differentials in privilege- rights of life, liberty, and happiness; traits of intelligence, sensitivity, and humanity; material goods of monetary wealth, luxuries, and land

• how violence and coercion are used are the main factors determining which social groups gets to define and hold privilege

structural marxism

maintains the overall capitalist system, not just the rights of few

• disagrees with the view that the relationship between law and capitalism always works for people who are rich and against people who are poor

• law is designed to keep the capitalist system operating efficiently and anyone who rocks the boat will be sanctioned

• law defines any person who disturbs or hinders capitalist modes of appropriating the product of human labor, process of socialization, capitalist ideology, etc into question as deviant

ways of dealing with those oppose operation of capitalism (instrumental marxism)

• normalize formerly illegal acts

• conversion - co-opting deviants by making them part of the system

• containment involves segregating deviants into isolated geographic areas so they can be easily controlled

• supports some criminal enterprises, such as organized crime through money laundering

critique of marxist criminology

• the old tradition of helping the underdog

• capitalism is blamed for every human vibe and for predatory and personal crime

• overlooks the distinctions between people in different classes

• suspects even those practices and freedoms that most people cherish as the cornerstones of democracy

left realism

crime is a problem experienced by the poor, and crime prevention strategies would help

basic principles of left realism

• crime is a symbol of the antisocial nature of capitalism

• the relationship with the public determines the efficacy of policing

• the relationship between the victim and offender determines the impact of crime

• the relationship between the state and the offender is a major factor in recidivism

• relative deprivation leads to discontent, lack of solutions leads to crime

• local crime surveys provide the best measure of crime in any one area

• anti crime strategies should be short term and avoid crime control solutions

pre-emptive deterrence

community organization efforts can reduce crime before it is necessary to use police force

• aim to reduce the number of marginalized youth

marxist feminism

capitalism is based on private property, male domination, and the exploitation of women

• gender inequality stems from unequal power of men and women in a capitalist society

• origin of gender differences can be traced to the development of private property and male domination of the laws of inheritance

• women are controlled be capitalism and are economically and biologically controlled by men: double marginality

• capitalism renders women powerless, they are forced to commit less serious, nonviolent, self destructive crimes, such as drug abuse

radical feminism

the view that female crime is caused by male patriarchy and the subordination and control of women by men

• sexual and physical exploitation of young girls may cause the girls to run away or abuse substances, both of which are labeled as deviant behavior

• the female criminal herself is a victim

• many girls involved in delinquency, crime, and violence have themselves been the victims in their youth and later as adults

power control theory

crime and delinquency rates are a function of class position (power) and family functions (control)

• radical feminist model

• uses class and gender differences to explain the onset of criminality

• paternalistic families: male siblings exhibit more delinquent behaviors

• egalitarian families: daughters law-violating behaviors mirror that of her brothers

• implies that middle class youth of both sexes will have higher crime rates than their lower-class peers

deconstructionism

the analysis of language to see how racism or sexism become institutionalized

semiotics

language is a set of signs that describe the world by conveying shared meanings

restorative justice

mediation as an alternative to the court system to heal personal injury and community

• emphasizes a holistic response to crime

• the needs of victims, offenders, and communities can only be met in smaller, less formal, and more cohesive social groups

three principles of restorative justice

1. community ownership of conflict (including crime)

2. material and symbolic reparation for victims and the community

3. social reintegration of the offender

peacemaking criminology

a restorative approach that stresses mediation and conflict resolution to end crime

• believes that the main purpose of criminology is to promote a just and peaceful society

• promotes idea that mutual aid rather than coercive punishment is key to a harmonious society

summary of Unsettled Times: Indigenous Incarceration and Links

• high rates of indigenous incarceration reflect how colonialistic structures and logics persist today, colonial logics made invisible a construction of the colonized as inferior that subordinated their welfare to the colonizer

• to manage colonies, penitentiaries would be erected in more populated areas within 5-7 years of joining the federation, racial themes of pathology and contamination (colonial logic) in penal administration to segregate populations

• labor in the penitentiary was instrumental, abuse and punishment in residential schools, and prevention of indigenous mobility through pass system

• post-war era shifted colonialism from overt domination to a cultural model of acknowledgement while the same colonizing relationship that subordinates Indigenous interests to the state was retained

• new knowledge around the “native criminal”, negative stereo types and rapid prison growth causing increasing rates of indigenous incarceration

• penal advances and expansion acting in tandem with the receding of formal colonization practices, the prison took over as the new expression of colonialism

modern colonialism

extracted tribute, goods, and wealth from the countries that it conquered and consisted of a restructuring of local economies, markets and governance

4 main products of modern colonialism

1. the racialization of relations between colonizers and colonized, as well as sex, class, and age, among others

2. the formation of a new capitalist system of exploitation that included slavery, servitude, and simple commodity production

3. eurocentrism as the new mode of production and control, with subjectivity developed within the experience of the colonizer

4. the establishment of the nation-state as anew system of control and collective authority

epistemic violence

a repressive ordering that has become such a pervasive part of our modern ontological fabric and psyche that we hail to recognize its patterns or challenge its structures

politics of recognition

the now expansive range of recognition-based models of liberal pluralism that seek to reconcile Indigenous assertions of nationhood with settler state sovereignty

methods within Unsettled Times: Indigenous Incarceration and Links

• The policing of modern logics within the penitentiary was achieved through a micro-regulation over labor and economics, moral instruction and schooling, and the health of the body 

• Medical practitioners were interested in solving the “Indian problem” by constructing malnutrition as evidence of laziness and apathy 

• Indigenous mobility was restricted through a pass system whereby Indian agent authorization and regular reporting to the police chief was required to travel off-reserve 

• Recommended Native programming including community liaison, after-care support, legal advocacy, less policing, reduced jail sentences for liquor offenses, the expansion of existing criminal justice services, the hiring of native people in the system, the elimination of residential schools, and addressing treaty and land rights

summary of crime, media, culture - modern serial killers

• serial killing usually has individualized focus on the aetiology (the cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of disease or condition) and biography of particular offenders, serial killers are distinctively modern

• several distinctively modern phoneme, including anonymity, rationality, and the mass media, provide the key institutional frameworks, motivations, and opportunity structures characteristics of contemporary forms of serial killings

• Murderers embrace and reproduce the wider cultural codings that have devalued, stigmatized, and marginalized specific groups reflecting back and acting upon modernity’s distinctive valuations

mass media and its effects on serial killers

• Mass media is a vital component of serial killing, fosters a culture of celebrity (like Ted Bundy), provides a symbiotic relationship (opportunities to capture public's attention by capitalizing on the themes of serial killing while giving the serial killer attention)

Anonymity and its affects on serial killers

• Increased social anonymity is a fundamental precondition for the rise of serial murderers because strangers are candidates for potential victimization, pre-modern villages people knew each other

rationalization and its affects on serial killers

The rational strategizing about murder can one of the most integral and pleasurable aspects of killing itself, modern subjects are involved in an elaborate process of role playing