Predatory and Dispute-Related Violence: A Social Interactionist Approach (From Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 5, P 103-125, 1993, Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds. - See NCJ-159998)

• NCJ Number: 160004
• Author(s): R B Felson
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter applies a social interactionist approach and the routine activities theory to criminal violence.

Abstract

The two types of criminal violence discussed here include predatory violence, which is physical aggression oriented toward gaining compliance and bullying victims, and dispute-related violence, which is aggression aimed at rectifying a perceived wrong. Factors that produce conflict include stress and alleged transgressions, while inhibiting factors include external constraints, moral inhibition, and self-control. Violence is examined as a means of informal control, exercised by parents and police as well as adversarial parties. The routine activity theory, generally applied to predatory violence, is modified here to be applied to dispute-related violence. Incidents can involve both dispute-related and predatory violence; either type of violence seeks to attain the general goals of social influence, justice, and favorable social identity. 1 table, 12 notes, and 78 references