NCJ Number
86075
Journal
Social Research Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1981) Pages: 135-156
Date Published
1981
Length
22 pages
Annotation
The article identifies emerging modes of understanding and defining violence within the context of contemporary criminology, with attention directed to the victims of violence, radical criminology, and violence as a symptom and consequence of a legitimacy crisis.
Abstract
The study of violence and of victims of violence has tended to narrowly focus on legalisms, rather than on promoting victim consciousness and extending victims' rights, although feminism's increasing influence is changing this. However, no attention has been paid to forms of violent crime perpetrated by the state and corporate interests. Radical criminology has tried to apply the Marxist conception of violence to an understanding of crime and criminal justice in contemporary American society. It has attempted to expand awareness of the violence committed by government against the people and to show that at least some of the violence committed by people is directed toward obtaining basic human rights. Radical criminology, however, must examine the often gross forms of violence associated with noncapitalist systems to remain a viable movement. The public perception of an existing legitimate legal and social order should constrain violence, but the political context within which violence occurs is in a state of flux. In the United States, the decline in confidence in the government coincides with an increase in all types of crimes, including violent crime. The specific nature of the interrelationship between these two developments requires more attention. A total of 22 footnotes are included.