Violence
1.
2.
Violence
Roots of violence
GST
Strain
ANGER
Criminal
Behavior
Assignment # 4
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According to Agnew, males and females
tend to experience different types of
strain.
Males: 1) financial problems; 2) work-related
problems, 3) status; 4) conflict and competition
with peers;
Females: 1) abortion; 2) STD 3) verbal, sexual,
and physical victimization; 4) gender-based
discrimination; 5) child care problems; 6)
stressors involving family and friends; 7) low
prestige at work; 8) fitting in (looks+popularity);
Assignment # 4
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Males and females differ in terms of their
emotional reactions to strain.
Males: Anger+Moral outrage
 Females: Anger+Fear
+Depression+Anxiety+Guilt+Self-blame
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Assignment # 4
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Males and females differ in terms of their
behavioral reactions to strain.
Males: Crime and delinquency
Females: Self-destructive behaviors such as
eating disorders, alcohol/drugs, running
away from home, self-injuring, selfcutting, prostitution.
Final Exam
New Format
 50 Multiple Choice Questions
 Practice questions?
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Roots of violence
What causes people to
behave violently?
 Adults and violence
 Children and violence
 Several competing
explanations
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Sources of Violence
Ineffective families
Personal Traits
Substance abuse
Violence
Firearm availability
Cultural Values
Ganging
Regional Values
Human Instincts
Personality Traits
Abnormal personality structures
 Depression, impulsivity, aggression,
dishonesty, pathological lying, lack of
remorse, psychopathology
 Many murderers kill themselves shortly
after committing their crime
 There cases when people who commit
murder wait for the execution (form of
“Suicide-murder”)
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Ineffective families
Absent/deviant parents
 Inconsistent discipline
 Lack of supervision
 Abused children
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Patterson’s Social-Interactional
Developmental Model (1989)
Children and their environment are in
constant interchange
 The start of antisocial behavior happens
in dysfunctional families (harsh and
inconsistent discipline, little positive
parental involvement, poor monitoring)
 Family members directly “train” the child
to perform antisocial behaviors
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Patterson’s Social-Interactional
Developmental Model (1989)
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In dysfunctional families, coercion is a way of life
Child might see that only coercion can stop other
family members from employing hitting
Antisocial children manifest “conduct problems”
outside the home (rejected by peers)
Later they gravitate toward “deviant peer groups”
This association reinforces delinquent behavior
Later these children will have dysfunctional
families and promote coercion
Mark Colvin-Differential Coercion Theory
Non-coercive and consistent
 Non-coercive and erratic
 Coercive and consistent (depression)
 Coercive and erratic (chronic criminal)
 Likelihood of crime varies according to the
amount of coercion experienced
 Low coercion produces low anger, high selfesteem, strong social bonds
 High erratic coercion produces high anger, low
self-esteem, weak social bonds
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Mark Colvin-Differential Coercion Theory
Individuals with background of coercion
are more likely to get involved in coercive
situations and respond to them with
violence
 They create and maintain the cycle of
coercion (coercive to future
children+partners)
 They become caught up in a coercive cycle
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Abused Children
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Eric and Lyle Menendez were convicted of firstdegree murder for the brutal shotgun slaying of
their parents in Beverly Hills. Their defense was
based on the “abuse excuse”
The apparent motives ranged from the brothers’
fear of their father’s abuse to their desire to
collect $11 million in insurance
Evolutionary factors
Human instincts (survival
instinct)
 Violent behavior is
committed predominantly
by males
 Sexually aggressive males
have been the ones most
likely to produce children
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Exposure to violence
At home, school,
neighborhood
 Mental health
 Deviant behavior
 Victimization
 Vulnerable to the lure of
gangs and other deviant
groups
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Cultural/Regional Values
Violence-prone
subcultures
 Violence is used to solve
social conflicts and
dilemmas
 Ganging
 Regional values (murder
rate is higher in the
South)
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Ganging
Rising homicide rates in the 1960s and
1970s have been linked to increased gang
activity and drug trafficking in central cities
 Patterns of violence in large cities strongly
influence national trends
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Homicide rates
Cultural Values
“Legitimation of violence” hypothesis
(Archer, Gartner, 1984) argues that during
wartime pro-violent values are reinforced
and these values are carried over to postwar
periods
 Increase in homicide rates after World War

II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War are
consistent with this idea
Firearm availability
Greater social acceptance of
violence as method of conflict
resolution
 Violence is deeply woven into the
fabric of American culture (street
talk, prime-time television
programming, “gangsta rap”
music lyrics)
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