Sociocultural Overview of Criminal Violence (From Violence and the Violent Individual - Proceedings, P 97-115, 1981, J Ray Hays et al, ed. See NCJ-87659)

• NCJ Number: 87663
• Author(s): M E Wolfgang
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Spectrum Publications, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter, focusing on the sociocultural aspects of violent behavior, notes that violence in the family is partly a reflection of violent expressions in the culture generally.

Abstract

However, serious crimes within the family, such as homicide, are most commonly related to subcultural values that either do not inhibit physical responses or condone and encourage them. Within the broader cultural context, there is a subculture of violence characterized by a set of values, attitudes, and beliefs which share a commitment to the use of physical aggression as a major mode of personal interaction and a device for solving problems. Dispersing the members who share commitment to the violence value could also cause a break in the intergenerational and intragenerational communication of this value system. Dispersion can be accomplished in many ways and does not necessarily imply massive population shifts, although urban renewal, slum clearance, and housing projects do suggest feasible methods. Resocializing and relearning processes can occur when the old socialization and old learning are forgotten or denied their validity. Child violence among blacks is dramatically high and exceeds by as much as 12 times the rate among similarly aged whites. Sociologically, a subculture of violence thesis may be used to explain much of this violence that is generated by a value system geared to a ready response of physical assault. Activities can be promoted in the home and schools to socialize children, even those from a subculture of violence, into nonviolence, to desensitize them to linguistic and behavioral cues that evoke violence. The chapter provides 18 references.