SECTION 3: THEORIES OF CRIME III — VIOLENCE & GENDER

Defining violence (Malešević, 2013): What claim by Steven Pinker does Malešević challenge?

Pinker's claim that modernity reduced violence over time

Defining violence (Malešević, 2013): What does Malešević argue about modern violence?

Modern societies haven't reduced violence, they've reorganized it into more bureaucratic, large-scale, and institutionalized forms

Defining violence (Malešević, 2013): How has violence changed in modern societies according to Malešević?

It has become more organized, centralized, and impersonal, carried out through states and institutions

Levels of Violence: What are the three levels of violence Malešević identifies?

1. Macro (interpersonal)

2. Mezzo (inter-group/intra-polity)

3. Macro (inter-polity

Levels of Violence: What characterizes micro-level violence?

interpersonal acts like murder, rare historically, as human are biologically poor at violence and tend to avoid it

Levels of Violence: What defines mezzo-level violence?

violence between or within groups

- Pre modern: used for hierarchy and status

- Modern: ideological and bureaucratic, e.g. wars, genocide

Levels of Violence: What defines macro-level violence?

violence between states

- Pre-modern wars: small-scale and ritualized

-Modern wars: total, industrialized, and mass-scale (e.g. World Wars)

Levels of Violence: What enables large scale modern violence?

The state, bureaucracy, and ideology that allows mass organizations and rationalization of killing

From Violence as Status → Status as Violence: How was violence justified in pre-modern societies?

Through status and hierarchy, violence maintained social order

From Violence as Status → Status as Violence: How is violence justified in modern societies?

Through ideology and equality, e.g. genocides justified as purification or protecting moral ideals

From Violence as Status → Status as Violence: What role does the state play in modern violence (Weber)?

The state monopolizes the legitimate use of violence in the name of social order and progress

Paradox of Modernity: What is the paradox of modernity in relation to violence?

the modern age, while often assumed to be less violent than previous eras, has simultaneously created the conditions for unprecedented, organized mass destruction

Paradox of Modernity: What does Bauman argue in relation to this paradox?

modern bureaucracy enables moral distancing and administrative murder where killing is routinized and depersonalized (e.g. Holocaust)

Key concept: organized brutality: What does Malešević mean by organized brutality?

violence in modern societies is not reduced but centralized, rationalized, and bureaucratically managed

Key concept: organized brutality: How is modern violence distinct from past violence?

It is impersonal, large scale, and often justified (e.g. wars, colonization, police repression)

Žižek's Three Forms of Violence: What are Žižek's three forms of violence?

1. Subjective violence

2. Symbolic Violence

3. Systemic violence

Žižek's Three Forms of Violence: What is Subjective violence?

viable and direct (crime, terrorism)

Žižek's Three Forms of Violence: What is symbolic violence?

Through language and meaning systems

Žižek's Three Forms of Violence: What is systemic violence?

Hidden within institutions and economic structures

Žižek's Three Forms of Violence: Which type of violence is least visible but more pervasive according to Žižek?

Systemic violence as its built into social and economic systems

Žižek's Three Forms of Violence: How does Žižek model expand the definition of violence?

it includes not only physical acts but also structural linguistic harms that sustain inequality

Gender-Based and Domestic Violence (Walby et al., 2014): What does Walby et al. criticize mainstream criminology for ignoring?

gender based and domestic violence, focusing instead on male-on-male public violence

Gender-Based and Domestic Violence (Walby et al., 2014): Define Domestic violenc

Violence between partners or family members

Gender-Based and Domestic Violence (Walby et al., 2014): Define Gender-based violence

violence targeted at individuals because of their gender identity

Gender-Based and Domestic Violence (Walby et al., 2014): How does the UN (1993) define violence against women?

Any act of gender based violence causing physical, sexual, or psychological harm, threats, or deprivation of liberty

Four Divergences Between Mainstream & Gendered Approaches: 1. Direction of Violence - what differs?

gendered approach sees violence as directional, from advantaged to disadvantaged

• (e.g. men --> women)

Four Divergences Between Mainstream & Gendered Approaches: 2. Definition of Violence - what differs?

Gender perspective uses a broader definition, including psychological and economic abuse

Four Divergences Between Mainstream & Gendered Approaches: 3. Relationship importance - what differs?

Traditional data ignores the victim-offender relationship, which is central in domestic violence

Four Divergences Between Mainstream & Gendered Approaches: 4. Measurement Focus - what differs?

• Mainstream focuses on number of events

• gendered research focuses on number of victims, changing perceptions of prevalence

Mainstreaming gender-based violence: What is the goal of mainstreaming gender based violence

to integrate gender perspectives into the core of criminology, not treat them as seperate

Mainstreaming gender-based violence: What are key challenges to mainstreaming?

inconsistent categories, data sources, and measurement methods (e.g. police data vs. victimization surveyrs)

Mainstreaming gender-based violence: What solutions do Walby et al. propose?

Modify mainstream crime categories to incorporate gender dynamics and relationships

Conclusions (Walby et al.): What is the main conclusion about violence

violence is gendered - includes intimate, family, and systemic forms, not just male-on-male public crime

Conclusions (Walby et al.): What is often overestimated in crime data?

The share of violence committed by strangers

• because most violence occurs within relationships

Conclusions (Walby et al.): How does integrating gender transform criminology?

it broadens definitions, improves measurements, and redefines what counts as violence

Connections: What is the key debate between Malešević and Pinker?

Whether violence has declines (Pinker) or been reorganized and centralized (Malešević)

Connections: How do micro and macro violence differ?

Micro: individual, interpersonal acts

Macro: institutional or state level, often bureaucratic and ideologial

Connection: What is Walby e al. key contribution to criminology?

arguing for mainstreaming gender-based violence into core criminological theory and research