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Category Archives: Assignment 5
Haldol
This is an advertisement for the psychotropic drug Haldol. It was featured in a psychiatric journal in the sixties, which will bring a couple of things to mind. The “belligerent” man depicted in the picture is clearly a black man, in an aggressive, assaultive stance.
This advertisement was run right around the civil rights era, which does something to explain the unexplained aggressive, assaultive, and belligerent behavior. What do you do when someone just wont stay in their place? You confine and medicate them against their will. This ad is a lot to swallow.
I don’t know whether such a thing actually did take place at the time, but the insinuation is enough for me. Everything about this advertisement screams social control. The words are made to instill fear within the reader, to cause a sort of panic about what could be, and will be possible, if certain measures and precautions are not taken.
The ad is also careful to add: Usually leaves patients relatively alert and responsive. Relative to what- a vegetable? What happens not usually? Who cares, this guy just wont stay in his place.
Seriously though, this is maybe the most racist ad I’ve ever seen, even for the time. The way it panders to a deep-seated psychological fear about the unrest of a disenfranchised race is pretty low ball. It’s hard to think of something more offensive. And again, the implications of locking someone up and medicating them because they threaten your political and economic stability is just terrible. Really, really terrible.
Social Control Tool? Absolutely.
Posted in Assignment 5
Tagged control, deviant behavior, medicalization of deviance, Moral Panic, racism, society
92 Comments
EyeWitness ID’s
In this article of the NY Times, it talks about eyewitness id’s, and how most of the time they are wrong. These is actually interesting because this interferes with statistics. Of course we have the statistics of what percent are wrong, but it makes you think why would you call something in if you are lying. I think this is what they are trying to do in the supreme court now. Can those who lie of eyewitness be convicted for lying and providing wrong information? Then it brings up the issue of maybe it was just an honest mistake. How will the court know what an honest mistake is, or whether maybe you are trying to cover up someone or something. The supreme court will visit this issue after 34 years where it has not been brought up. I think this also links to women and their statement. Even though the article does not mention anything about women and their statements, but after all of our readings, we know that we can sound convincing, and if we convince the jury of something that we did not see, then someone innocent might get to go to jail. Eyewitness “research shows that juries tend to ‘over believe’ eyewitness testimony.” In the long run a lot of innocent people might be wrongfully convicted because of this.
-Armenis P.
Graffiti Summit and the Broken Windows Theory
The embedded video relates to the class reading “Broken Windows” by Wilson and Kelling. A news anchor woman interviews the Corpus Christi Police Chief about a Graffiti Summit taking place in his town that night. The PC says that graffiti has been happening in bigger, higher profiler areas, churches, etc. He said past graffiti summits in their town have attracted elected officials, citizens, and other law enforcement agencies looking to collaborate with and help the CCPD prevent graffiti. The PC mentions that state representatives proposed new laws to combat graffiti, and that judges have issued harsher penalties for graffiti. The news anchor even comments that the community’s involvement is necessary for this undertaking to be successful. All of this reflects the article’s emphasis on collaboration being important to police maintaining order in a community:
“These rules were defined and enforced in collaboration with the “regulars” on the street…If someone violated them the regulars not only turned to [the police officer] for help but also ridiculed the violator” (Wilson & Kelling, 2).
When the PC said
“we’re not there yet, but we’re definitely taking a bite out of graffiti”
this reminded me of an officer’s description of running out gang members from neighborhoods in the article:
“We kick ass” (Wilson & Kelling, 8).
By pursuing these quality of life issues, not violent crimes, the police do really feel like they are accomplishing something and not wasting their resources.
When the news anchor comments that
“Graffiti leads to other crime.”
the PC says she is right. He says that it not only leads to other crimes such as petty theft, but that it’s an important quality of life issue. This harkens back to the “Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program” that was done in Newark in the 1970’s, which was
“designed to improve the quality of community life…” (Wilson & Kelling, 1).
The news anchor brings up criminology’s Broken Windows Theory. According to her, the theory says that when a community isn’t taken care of, then people stop caring about the community and commit more crime. The class article says this about the theory:
“Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken… one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing” (Wilson & Kelling, 2-3).
The PC affirms the anchor’s statement, and says the Broken Windows Theory was used to deter crime in NYC. The way he says this suggests to me that, because NYC used this measure, that it is a good idea to use it as a model for other police departments.
– Kelly Reznick
PA Flash Mobs (again)
I remember discussing this topic 2 weeks ago in regards to the issue of flash mobs. Well this article clearly exposes the dangers related to this practice, where several muggings, attacks or teenage/gang fights occur, endangering other innocent bystanders. The solution to this problem has been found by imposing a curfew for minors or youngster in University City.
Laurentiu Stan
Rogue Officers
What makes good police officers turn bad? Some people may not even say that they are bad, some may say that they are just doing there jobs to the full extent. When I read the Voice article on NYPD the main thing that stood out was the rapist who eluded arrest for so long because his case was being mishandled. As far as all the tickets and all of the summons and extra arrests go that’s their not necessarily doing anything illegal, they are just following the rules to the full extent. Its up to the police officer whether he wants to let someone go, write them a ticket, or arrest them and I feel that as citizens we are in no position to pass judgment onto them. In blatant cases of police abuse, like taking bribes or planting evidence, that is obviously wrong and illegal. A lot of people say the cops are just thugs with guns and things of that nature, but my response to them is what is your alternative? What other better and more effective solution do you have for catching murderers and rapist? The fact of the matter is that these people put their lives on the line day in and day for lousy pay and no respect. What do they get in return, accusations and threats, when someone breaks into your house at 3 a.m. I’d like to see who the first person you call is. The clip I provide is by Officer Schoolcraft and his recordings. I don’t condone everything the cops did, but I admit they have a very difficult occupation and need some slack. NYPD Corruption
Bernays and Modern Day Democratic Propaganda
This youtube video is a small clip from the BBC’s documentary “Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis. The documentary is divided into three parts, each approximately one hour long. This clip is from the hour long segment that focuses on Edward Bernays.
Professor Mckinney once mentioned Bernays in the opening weeks of the course. Edward Bernays was a nephew of the renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud. Bernays lived in America, and is commonly heralded as the “father of public relations”. The documentary explains how he was the engine behind what essentially was democratic propaganda. Bernays was able to mold and shape the mentality, ideologies and desires of the mass public in ways that would satisfy their inner desires and keep them docile and happy.
One of the most striking examples of Bernay’s mastermind in the field of public relations has to do with cigarette smoking. In the late 1920’s, cigarette smoking was almost exclusively a man’s hobby. Almost no women smoked cigarettes. In fact, a certain psychoanalyst at the time believe that cigarettes were a manifestation of the penis and were a symbol of male empowerment. Bernays was hired to figure out a way to advertise and promote cigarettes, so that they would instead symbolize female empowerment. He wanted to change the common sentiments about cigarettes so they could be portrayed as the female version of the penis.
The clip explains how he was able to do so by having an exhibition during a parade in NYC where a group of models were hired to provocatively smoke. This started the trend of women smoking and allowed cigarette companies for the first time to sell their cigarettes to women.
I think this is a great example of labeling theory and Durkheim’s social fact. It shows how some of our seemingly innate and inherent desires and preferences are actually the result of our social environment. If someone was smart and subtle enough, they could change our environment just enough so our desires and preferences could be changed to their liking. We, as a society, once believed that cigarette smoking was not womanly. But Bernays successfully changed this idea, through the subconscious and subtle art of public relations and advertising.
This is a prime example of what Durkheim referred to when he said that the majority of what we think and desire is not based on our natural unique preferences, but they are instead molded, shaped and influenced by the society around us. Though we are convinced that our desires come from within us, internally, the actual fact of the matter is that they are imposed upon us externally. We take many socially constructed ideas (democracy, free markets, freedom, liberty, equality) as rational facts, when in truth they are ideas that are imposed on us by an invisible ruling elite like Edward Bernays. These democractic propaganda puppeteers are responsible for controlling the behavior of the masses in America, so as to keep them content and docile with the status quo.
I think this quote sums it up nicely: “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
Broken Windows Theory
I came across a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj9WsGbaNAY explaining the broken windows theory and I just wanted to give my opinion on it. I have to agree to an extent that when your walking in a neighborhood that has been vandalized and corrupt, we do tend to join in with them and maybe throw garbage on the floor instead of in a trash can as we normally would. There is one difference though. I think the broken window theory applies only to young children and teenagers.
Being an adult, I cant imagine that an adult would change the way in which they were raised and are going to quickly adapt to acting like a criminal or not for the lonesome fact that crime is all around us or isnt present at all. Adults have a more conceptual mind and we have certain attributes and learned behavior that is instilled in us from childhood that carry on into our adulthood. I think children and teenagers adapt much more quickly to certain environments than an adult would. If an adult sees another adult get into a street fight, we would automatically call the cops and usually dont like to be involved. A child or teenager would add fuel to the fire and get excited seeing a fight. They would run to the scene and possibly join in even though they normally wouldnt do that.
Therefore, even though we try to change the environment of a bad neighborhood, I dont think criminals would care if the neighborhood was cleaned up and looked pleasant to walk through; its the way people think in their minds and a criminal will still act like a criminal if he or she wants to regardless of their surroundings.
A New Playground for Deviance!!
While looking for some articles on deviance I came across one that really struck me and is becoming more controversial as well and is something that needs our immediate attention. While hearing about death of college students by means of cyber bulling on facebook, I feel that as technology advances and this world shrinks, deviant behavior takes on a new form, cyber bullying is becoming a bigger issue each day.
The article that I came across puts emphasis on this growing concern. Technological advances no longer keep bulling in the school yards and lunch room it occurs on the internet as kids bully each other; often ruining lives, to the point where it is tragic like the student who killed himself atRutgersUniversity. It comes to a point where this issue must be taken more seriously. The internet is becoming a new campus for criminal activity and it needs to be policed.
Technological advancement in today’s society is great, however the continuous advancement lead to new doors opening up for this technological deviance to occur. Sure we police our cities, schools, but are we really doing enough to handle what is going on the internet. It’s a breeding ground to allow a new birth of deviant behavior. It’s a deviant behavior that takes place behind closed doors so when you may think your child may be okay, safe in his/her room, it may not be as safe as you think. Deviance is taking a on different form and we should be aware now more than ever.
http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/guy-weaver/cyber-bullying-the-digital-age-and-deviance/
Graffiti: A democratic art form
I found the discussion in class yesterday about graffiti and its relation to the “Broken Windows Theory” interesting, so I decided to do some research on the topic. I found an extremely interesting article from The New York Times called “A Sociologist’s Look at Graffiti” by Sewell Chan.
George Snyder, a Baruch Sociologist basically acts as a cultural anthropologist and does some ethnography on graffiti writers, hanging out with them, getting to know them and understand them. Snyder believes “graffiti writers are a subculture that use their own experiences to build legitimate careers and are not practitioners of vandalism and social disorder”.
However, Rudolph Giuliani and police commissioner, Raymond Kelly would disagree with Snyder. Giuliani had embraced the idea of the “Broken Windows Theory” and created the “Quality of Life” campaign in order to try and gain urban stability in the 1990’s. The “Quality of Life” was designed to threaten and bully people with massive police force. Giuliani and Kelly sought to fight petty crimes and issue things like “C summonses” which we have seen still occurs today from “The NYPD Tapes”. Graffiti was a sign of disorder to Giuliani and the police force that must be dealt with and controlled.
However, Snyder points out that “unlike other “Quality of Life” crimes, graffiti does not tend to be focused in poor neighborhoods with high rates of violent crime”. He explains that graffiti writers want to write in places that will be seen like in the Lower East Side and SoHo. He says that these are the places that have the most graffiti and they are not poor areas with a lot of crime.
Snyder met with graffiti writer, Espo in 1996 who created a billboard in Williamsburg, Brooklyn aimed at Giuliani which reads, “Greetings from EspoLand, Where the Quality of Life is Offensive”.
Espo whose real name is Stephen Powers, became well known and store owners would ask him to paint their store fronts. He also worked with The New York Times and eventually was arrested by the Giuliani administration for previous illegal writings. I also found a short documentary of Espo and other writers, and Espo states that he painted commercial gates and he considered it to be “an active public service”. I found that interesting because he did honestly make the gates look better and store owners did eventually recognize that.
Synder says, “In its purest form graffiti is a democratic art form that revels in the American Dream”. I agree with this statement because graffiti is truly freedom of one’s expression and is not regulated by the government or corporate. I believe this is why Giuliani and many others despise graffiti because it scares them and they don’t want radical ideas floating around into the masses head or they simply just cant recognize and enjoy the natural beauty of an urban art. I believe graffiti artists are extremely talented, genuine and sincere and I believe most of these drawings and paintings scream the truth about politics and freedom in America.
If interested in graffiti and art in general, I recommend watching these two documentaries: “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop”.
Posted in Assignment 5
Tagged Broken Windows Theory, Graffiti, The Quality of Life Campaign
17 Comments
Can new technology predict and prevent crimes?
New technology, seen here, is allowing police precincts to use computers in order to predict, where and when crime will occur in certain neighborhoods. The Santa Cruz police department recently invested in software that uses a complicated algorithm that has all the data of crime from the last eight years. This technology is able to pinpoint crime hotspots, since it also takes into account the time of year, the time of day and even the weather. The program was created by a mathematician and an anthropologist (not a criminologist interestingly) and based it on earthquake shock waves. According to the article “A specific crime is broken down to the two most likely chunks of time it will probably occur, say noon to 1 p.m. or 4 to 5 p.m., so if an officer is working during that time, he or she knows to check that area” . This new piece of equipment may be very helpful for precincts that are strapped for cash and lacking policing staff. Apparently, the crime tracking data seems to be working and the algorithm has already correctly predicted 40 percent of crimes and had led to five arrests. Furthermore, Police said burglaries were down 27 percent in July compared to the same month last year. The technology also has led to officers questioning people merely for being in a hot spot. While I think this is a good idea, it definitely seems to have its flaws. No technology can truly predict what a person is going to do. I also would question if these statistics were manipulated to justify the cost of inputting the system.
