NCJ Number
138561
Journal
Qualitative Sociology Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1988) Pages: 302- 318
Date Published
1988
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Using interview data related to 83 obscene telephone call incidents, this study analyzes how obscene callers manipulate conventional telephone interactions and exploit social relationships to assault their victims.
Abstract
Obscene callers construct a situation which leads the recipients of their calls into a conversation and sets the victims up to receive abuse. The organizational structure of telephone conversations is based on the distribution rule, greeting terms as identity clues, turn taking, and recognition. Obscene callers manipulate these conventions by violating conversational form or by using conventional form to make the call more difficult to recognize. Another approach used by callers is to play upon the recipients' attempts to place the call into a recognizable social relationship. All the telephone call recipients interviewed for this study had negative conceptions of their callers, usually attributing the callers' behavior to mental illness or social inadequacy. Obscene telephone calls are an example of an activity that lacks deference for women's personal space. Moral judgments by others may cause a woman victim to feel defensive about the acceptability of her behavior, challenge her sense of credibility, and degrade the value of her judgment. 11 notes and 30 references