Social Dynamics of Crime and Control: New Theories for a World in Transition (Onati International Series in Law and Society)

280 Pages·2000·13.65 MB·English

by  Susanne Karstedt

SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF CRIME AND CONTROL
Foreword
In Social Dynamic of Crime and Control critical criminology has come of age.
Long restricted to the margins of the discipline in which a correctional perspec-
tive has been the centerpiece, this volume reflects the growing importance of
"social reaction", "constructionist", "constitutive" and cultural approaches to
crime and social order. It includes extensive discussions of the influence of the
social dynamics of markets on crime, the limits and contexts of legal control, the
cultural dynamics of crime, and it incorporates a serious approach to a theory
of crime linking labelling to systems theory. Although most of the contributors
are European, it includes major contributions from the US and Australia and
reflects throughout the perspectives of an international criminology.
The book is the product of a workshop held several years ago at the
International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL) in Onati, Spain. The HSL
is a partnership between the Research Committee on the Sociology of Law and
the Basque Government. For more than a decade it has conducted an inter-
national master's programme in the sociology of law and hosted hundreds of
workshops devoted to sociolegal studies. It maintains an extensive sociolegal
library open to scholars from any country and any relevant discipline. Detailed
information about the IISL can be found at wtutv.iisj.es. This book is the most
recent publication in the Onati International Series in Law and Society, a series
that publishes the best manuscripts produced from Onati workshops conducted
in English. A similar series, Colecion Onati: Derecho Y Sociedad, is published
in Spanish.
William L.F. Felstiner
Eve Darian-Smith
Preface
This volume assembles recent perspectives and fresh approaches in the field of
criminology. It gives an overview of new paths that criminologists take to meet
the challenges of social dynamics in different fields of the discipline. Scholars of
criminology and sociol-legal studies have contributed to the volume thus fur-
thering an integrative and complex perspective on crime and control. This vol-
ume includes the papers from a conference that took place at the International
Institute for the Sociology of Law at Ofiati, Spain, from 23 to 24 October 1997.
The VW-Foundation in Germany generously funded the conference. We are
in particular indebted to Dr Hagen Hof of the VW-Foundation for his advice
and support. We owe further thanks to the staff of the International Institute at
Ofiati, especially Mrs Malen Gordoa, who all contributed to the perfect organ-
isation and the inspiring atmosphere of the workshop.
SUSANNE KARSTEDT, KAI-D. BUSSMANN
Bielefeld, Halle (Saale), September 1999

Contents
List of Contributors xi
1. Introduction: Social Change as a Challenge for Criminological
Theory 1
Susanne Karstedt and Kai-D. Bussmann
PART I: CRIME AND THE SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF MARKETS
2. Market Dominance, Crime and Globalisation 13
Steven F. Messner and Richard Rosenfeld
3. Subterranean Sources of Subcultural Delinquency Beyond the
American Dream 27
John Hagan, Gerd Hefler, Gabriele Classen, Klaus Boehnke, and
Hans Merkens
4. Knights of Crime: The Success of "Pre-Modern" Structures in the
Illegal Economy 53
Susanne Karstedt
5. Extortion, Corruption and Trust: A Structural-Constructionist
Perspective 69
Thomas Ohlemacher
PART II: SOCIAL DYNAMICS AND THE LIMITS OF LEGAL CONTROL
6. Republican Theory, the Good Society and Crime Control 85
John Braithwaite
7. After the Welfare State: Whither Informal Law? 105
Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer
8. Shaming and the Regulation of Fraud and Business "Misconduct":
Some Preliminary Explorations 117
Michael Levi
x Contents
9. Multinational Firms as Agents of Civic Virtues 133
Erhard Blankenburg
PART HI: CULTURAL DYNAMICS: CONTEXTS OF CRIME AND CONTROL
10. Translating Social Control: Reflections on the Comparison of
Italian and North-American Cultures Concerning Social Control,
with a Few Consequences for a "Critical" Criminology 143
Dario Melossi
11. "Community" and Governance: A Cultural Comparison 157
Nicola Lacey and Lucia Zedner
12. The Gang Myth 171
Jack Katz
13. Explaining the Absence of Violence: A Comparative Approach 189
Willem de Haan
PART IV: THE INDIVIDUAL IN A DYNAMIC SOCIETY: CHALLENGES AND CHANCES
14. Desistance from Crime: Life History, Turning Points and
Implications for Theory Construction in Criminology 207
Elmar G. M Weitekamp, Hans-Jurgen Kerner, Wolfgang Stelly and
Jiirgen Thomas
15. A Theory of Motivation and the Life Course 229
Joan McCord
16. Variation, Selection and Stabilisation: An Evolutionary Theory of
Crime and Control 243
Kai-D. Bussmann
Index 257
Contributors
Klaus Boehnke, Technical University Chemnitz—Zwickan, Germany
Erhard Blankenburg, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
John Braithwaite, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Kai-D Bussmann, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Gabriele Classen, Free University, Berlin, Germany
Willem de Haan, Department of Criminal Law, University of Groningen, The
Netherlands
John Hagan, University of Toronto, Canada
Gerd Hefler, Technical University, Chemnitz—Zwicken, Germany
Susanne Karstedt, Institute for Demographic Research and Social Policy,
University of Bielefeld, Germany
Jack Katz, Department of Sociology, UCLA, USA
Hans-Jiirgen Kerner, Institute of Criminology, University of Tuebingen,
Germany
Nicola Lacey, Department of Law, London School of Economics, UK
Michael Levi, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, UK
Joan McCord, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer, Department of Sociology, Ludwig Maximilians
University, Munich, Germany
Dario Melossi, Faculty of Law, University of Bologna, Italy
Hans Merkens, Free University, Berlin, Germany
Steven Messner, Department of Sociology, SUNY—Albany, NY, USA
Thomas Ohlemacher, Institute of Criminological Research, Lower Saxony,
Germany
Richard Rosenfeld, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice,
University of Missouri St Louis, USA
Wolfgang Stelly, Institute of Criminology, University of Tuebingen, Germany
Jiirgen Thomas, Institute of Criminology, University of Tuebingen, Germany
ElmarWeitekamp, Institute of Criminology, University of Tuebingen, Germany
Lucia Zedner, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, UK

1
Introduction: Social Change as a
Challenge for Criminological Theory
SUSANNE KARSTEDT and KAI-D. BUSSMANN
T
HIS VOLUME OWES its title to one of the most influential sociological
works of the century: Pitirim Sorokin's "Social and Cultural Dynamics".
Sorokin's classic gives a broad perspective on the history of social and
cultural change. In contrast, this volume is very modest in its intentions. It assem-
bles very different perspectives on social dynamics, crime and control that direct
theorising and research in the field. Like other social scientists, criminologists
struggle to keep pace with the transformation of societies all over the world, and
to link their theories with the dynamics of social change. Criminologists tradi-
tionally are vivid observers of social change. Increasing rates of crime are seen as
indicators of the "dark side" of social change, and the disruptive and disintegra-
tive processes that are an integral part of social transformation.
In fact, these dark sides seem to be fairly obvious. De-industrialisation, wide-
spread unemployment and the emergence of the "service society" change the
face of cities and regions. The increasingly competitive mechanisms of markets
put pressure on the bonds that are the foundations of society. The powerful
mechanisms of self-regulation in social institutions, communities or even fami-
lies seem to fall apart in an increasingly "individualised" society, and conse-
quently, the "non-state" forms of social control are weakened. There is no
doubt that the dismantling of the welfare state has an impact on crime and social
control at national levels.
In a "fragmented society" violent conflicts as well as property crimes will
spread. Criminologists forecast an increase of violent crimes in those groups of
society that are most affected by social and economic pressures. The structure
and distribution of different types of crimes will reflect the emerging distribu-
tions of winners and losers in national societies. The populations in West and
East European countries experience new uncertainties in their life courses. The
dynamics of social change directly affect the life courses of juveniles through sit-
uations of stress and strain, which are causal factors for delinquent involve-
ment. Furthermore, globalisation provides new opportunities for white collar
and organised crime. Criminologists predict an increase of economic and cor-
porate crime on the national level and in the global marketplace.
2 Introduction: Social Change as a Challenge
Now, such profound and rapid changes generate apocalyptic and dramatic
predictions of rising crime rates, as well as of an extraordinary spread of vio-
lence on a yet unknown scale. But theories that link social change and criminal
behaviour have to be aware of the "double movement" (see Messner and
Rosenfeld, Chapter 2) of social change and the counteracting forces that emerge
during the process. Social change does not necessarily and inevitably cause soar-
ing crime rates. But crime, and in particular violent crime, provide "symbols" of
the insecurity and anxieties of a population that experiences the dynamics of
social change in everyday life. Moral panics and popular "myths" about crime
(see Katz, Chapter 12) therefore seem to be an integral part of social change.
Recognition of these transformations in societies stimulated a broad range of
new theoretical approaches in criminology. Not a single, but many "futures"
opened up for criminological theory (Nelken 1994). Post-critical, realistic,
reflexive, republican and constitutive criminology provide if not answers, at
least new questions and innovative theoretical concepts.
Behind the diversity of theoretical reasoning, we find some common lines of
arguments. Theories mostly promote an integrative perspective, that bridges the
gap between classical etiological criminology and a constructionist approach.
Criminologists realise the limits of state control, and they direct their attention
to informal mechanisms of social control as well as to the interaction of formal
and informal control. Socio-legal and criminological research thus becomes
more integrated. Finally, they base their approaches on a diversity of theoretical
models of social structure and power.
At the same time, criminologists return to their well-established traditions.
The dynamics of social change at the end of the twentieth century seem to have
much in common with the first industrial revolution and the process of mod-
ernisation in the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth century. The
extension of markets, the break-down of institutions that restrained markets,
the rapid pace of social change, and the devastating impact on parts of the pop-
ulation: these characteristics of the first industrial revolution seem to repeat
themselves. Just like during the first industrial revolution these processes
become first and most distinctly visible in the cities. The emergence of a "new
underclass" in American inner cities or in French suburbs has redirected atten-
tion to the relation between social conflicts, inequality and crime. In the metro-
politan areas of Western industrialised countries, criminologists find the visible
signs of processes of social exclusion, the "tribalisation" of urban social life, and
the "decay of the civilized city" (Eisner 1997).
This volume gives an overview of the different paths that criminologists take
to meet the challenges of social dynamics in their theoretical approaches, in
empirical research and criminal justice policies in various fields of the discipline.
Scholars of criminology and socio-legal studies have contributed to the volume,
thus furthering an integrative perspective on crime and control. They gathered
at a conference at the International Institute of Law at Onati, Spain, in October
1997, which was funded by the VW-Foundation. The four sections of this vol-