Postmodernist views on crime:
Intro:
Postmodernists criticise traditional views of crime and deviance,
claiming that traditional theories or metanarratives no longer
describe the modern world
They say we live in a fragmented society and can pick and mix our
moral codes. People make active choices about how to behave and
what they require
Postmodernists view the category of crime as simply a social
construction, based on a narrow legal definition, reflecting an
outdated meta-narrative of the law, which does not reflect the
diversity of postmodern society
Point 1: Edgework
Edgework is the sociological concept which describes the way
people take voluntary social or physical risk
It implies that people enjoy the emotional intensity of danger/fear,
so they might participate in extreme sports to enjoy the proximity to
death
Lyng says that many young people, participation in crime is a form
of edgework because there is a risk and a sense of fear, combined
with excitement and control
People now “pick and mix” beliefs, choosing ideas that are both
familiar and unfamiliar to make personal belief systems rather than
accepting one traditional belief system
Katz argues that other sociological theories have failed to examine
the role of pleasure in committing crime
Different crimes provide different thrills, that can vary from the
“sneaky thrills” of shoplifting to the “righteous slaughter” of murder
By understanding the emotional thrills, we can understand why
males commit crime. For example, robbery, which is largely
undertaken, he claims, for the chaos, thrill and potential danger of
the act
Point 2: Globalisation and crime
The concept globalisation describes a situation where the world is
said to have become “smaller”
Communication, technology and cheap travel mean that people
have become more globally aware
Postmodernists point out that it is not harder to control crime
because much crime is global in scope. For example, internet crime
means that criminals and victims may not be in the same country
Landry published an article in which he says that due to technology
and globalisation, time and space appear compressed. By this, he
means that travel is both quicker and easier
This has had the effect of bringing a wider range of potential victims
to criminals and also of enabling criminals to escape from the
scenes of their actions
Intro:
Postmodernists criticise traditional views of crime and deviance,
claiming that traditional theories or metanarratives no longer
describe the modern world
They say we live in a fragmented society and can pick and mix our
moral codes. People make active choices about how to behave and
what they require
Postmodernists view the category of crime as simply a social
construction, based on a narrow legal definition, reflecting an
outdated meta-narrative of the law, which does not reflect the
diversity of postmodern society
Point 1: Edgework
Edgework is the sociological concept which describes the way
people take voluntary social or physical risk
It implies that people enjoy the emotional intensity of danger/fear,
so they might participate in extreme sports to enjoy the proximity to
death
Lyng says that many young people, participation in crime is a form
of edgework because there is a risk and a sense of fear, combined
with excitement and control
People now “pick and mix” beliefs, choosing ideas that are both
familiar and unfamiliar to make personal belief systems rather than
accepting one traditional belief system
Katz argues that other sociological theories have failed to examine
the role of pleasure in committing crime
Different crimes provide different thrills, that can vary from the
“sneaky thrills” of shoplifting to the “righteous slaughter” of murder
By understanding the emotional thrills, we can understand why
males commit crime. For example, robbery, which is largely
undertaken, he claims, for the chaos, thrill and potential danger of
the act
Point 2: Globalisation and crime
The concept globalisation describes a situation where the world is
said to have become “smaller”
Communication, technology and cheap travel mean that people
have become more globally aware
Postmodernists point out that it is not harder to control crime
because much crime is global in scope. For example, internet crime
means that criminals and victims may not be in the same country
Landry published an article in which he says that due to technology
and globalisation, time and space appear compressed. By this, he
means that travel is both quicker and easier
This has had the effect of bringing a wider range of potential victims
to criminals and also of enabling criminals to escape from the
scenes of their actions
