Violence in the Age of Uncertainty (From Crime and Insecurity: The Governance of Safety in Europe, P 52-74, 2002, Adam Crawford, ed. -- See NCJ-197556)

• NCJ Number: 197558
• Author(s): Zygmunt Bauman
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This chapter analyzes how individuals and societies structure themselves so as to attempt to reduce their anxieties about becoming victims of random violence.

Abstract

The uncertainties of events and experiences that may threaten the lives of individuals and the order of society stimulate anxiety and efforts to bring order and predictability to life. The fear of being violently attacked leads to both public and private efforts to identify the sources of such threats and enact laws, employ security personnel and barriers, and apply force that will constrain and eliminate the sources of violence. There is a strong perception among successful consumers that persons who lack consumer power and social skills (the "underclass") are the source of violence and threats. Rather than adopt measures likely to upgrade their consumer power and social skills, measures are adopted that serve to isolate, restrain, and incapacitate the "underclass." More severe penalties, more police officers, the use of private police, the increased use of imprisonment and capital punishment, and the erection of gated communities that house only successful consumers all serve to target the street crime of the underclass and allay the anxieties of the successful consumers who fear the disruption of their lives. Those who own and consume much have little to fear from the measures used to control the underclass, which becomes the scapegoat for the fears and anxieties of those who have gained a measure of status in the consumer society. 15 references