International Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory (IJCST - York University)
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Micropanics: A Theoretical Explanation for Anti-Gay Hate Crime Perpetration
Full text linkLesbians and gay men continue to be framed as a threat to traditional American social institutions, particular the family. Recent research in the social sciences has identified attitudes toward homosexuality, belief in homosexuality as a moral choice, and heterosexism as significant predictors of hate crime victimization (Alden and Parker 2005). Unfortunately, prior research has failed to explain how certain individuals who maintain platforms of sexual prejudice make the leap to committing hate crimes against lesbians and gay men. By incorporating elements of Cohen’s (1972) moral panics, Tajfel and Turner’s (1986) social identity theory and Sykes and Matza’s (1957) techniques of neutralization this paper proposes that anti-gay hate crimes serve as isolated incidents of moral panic referred to herein as micropanics
Effect of Crime on the Wellbeing of the Elderly: A Content Analysis Study of Indian Elderly
Full text linkThe cases of crimes against the elderly are rising fast in India. Today, they are facing problems such as cheating, robbery, theft, mistreatment and murder. The paper analyses the different variables such as sex of victim, crime rate of an area and crime scene through content analysis and paper also examines victim-offender relationship through news items and other studies. These news items have been collected relating to crimes against the elderly from March 2012 to July 2012 (Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran –Hindi language news papers, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Edition). The findings have shown that a number of elderly have been murdered and victimised due to property. Finally, the paper critically analyses the provisions initiated by the State for safety and security of the elderly. Study found that government has started “elderly helpline” in which elderly may register their problems. Government has also initiated “neighbourhood watch progamme” in collaboration with NGOs
Crises in Female Existence: Female Foeticide and Infanticide in India
Full text linkIn the era of science and technology people are being remedied from rarest of rare diseases by medical science, however, this boon of medical science is being misused in carrying out abortion knowing the female sex by ultra-sonography, amniotesis and other techniques. Consequently, the cases of female foeticide and infanticide are increasing fast in the several part of India. Moreover, if the baby girl takes birth, she is deprived of love and affection of the parents as she is abandoned to die on canals, coverts and footpath. This has been the reason that sex ratio is 1000:914 among 0-6 year old boys and girls which is declining day by day. The paper implies that female foeticide and infanticide are the insidious problem in Indian society which violate right to birth and protection of life of foetus and infant. The paper also examines the last three census of child sex ratio (0-6 years) which is decreasing on an alarming rate. Finally, the paper examines the status of remedial process and legal provisions to control female foeticide and infanticide
Spatial Pattern of Crime in Nigerian Traditional City: The Ile-Ife Experience
Full text linkThis study identified the prevalence and spatial occurrence of criminal activities in Ile-Ife. Data were obtained through the stratification of the study area into the traditional town centre, middle income, high income and post crisis residential areas. Sample was selected using systematic sampling. The study established that residents’ socio-economic attributes varied significantly. Rate of occurrence of crime measured through an index tagged Crime Rate of Occurrence Index (CROI) showed that store breaking with CROI of 3.44 was the most prevalent crime in the traditional town centre. House breaking was the most prevalent crime in the middle income (CROI=4.24) as well as the high income (CROI=3.96) residential areas. With an index of 3.34, attempted rape was perceived to be the major challenge in post crisis residential area. Pearson Product Momentum Correlation coefficient revealed that store breaking had high positive correlation with average monthly income (r=0.765,
Radio Regulation in Portugal: a contribution to the study of a decision-making process
Full text linkBetween 1987 and 1988 were approved two radio laws in Portugal, reflecting two different political atmospheres: law no. 8/87, a left-wing supported law, and law no. 87/88 supported by the right-wing in the parliament. Both laws were concerned with privatization and liberalization of radio. The first law (8/87) was concerned with regulation aspects such as the restriction of property to prevent concentration. The second law (87/88) ended the process of liberalization of the radio. The purpose of this paper is to study the decision-making processes and the key players involved in bringing these two laws about. It pays special attention to the political system and the parliamentary debates of that period. Its main goal is to identify political and external actors (radio groups, lobby groups, etc.), main themes and arguments, and the negotiation strategies that resulted in the acceptance of the proposals
Deviance in Cybercommunities – The Case of Second Life
Full text linkWe consider the prevailing views that cybercommunities have high levels of deviant behaviour due to three fundamental characteristics that they carry: (i) a considerable plurality of values; (ii) a lack of physicality; and (iii) a strong perception of anonymity. We analyse the roles that these three characteristics play in explaining the nature and frequency of deviance by examining the structural relationship between cybercommunities and the modern real world using Giddens’ work on modernity. The analysis builds upon empirical investigations of the cybercommunity Second Life. Our research suggests that a cybercommunity like Second Life, far from being an abstract deviant community, is more accurately construed as a world of amplified human possibilities, one where constructed self-identities can find rich interpersonal and social relationships
Police Corruption in India
Full text linkPolice as a Law enforcing agency is an important institution of that social control which existed in some form or the other in all society in all ages. Police is an integral part of the present day society. A society in the present set up cannot live and progress without an effective, sincere and honest police force. The Indian police have its roots in the ancient period and the present day police are the outcome of an evolutionary process. The bad things which it has inherited from the old system include corruption among policemen today. Corruption exists in one form or the other in the police system. Corruption has infected every sphere of modern life. It has vitiated the moral values of the society and the police force cannot be an exception. In fact, corruption of police is not a new phenomenon, but the irony is that the issue has seldom been seized by the organization with a sense of seriousness. In this paper an attempt has been made to discuss the various aspects of police corruption in India. The author has tried to discuss the various factors responsible for police corruption and suggest some remedies to control the corruption among policemen. The main objective of the paper is to discuss the extent, causes and remedies of police corruption and explain the extent of distrust that create against police due to corruption. The basis of the discussion is from secondary sources like police commission reports, books, magazines, news paper, and other sources
Relativizing Universality: Sociological Reactions to Liberal Universalism
Full text linkThis paper offers an appraisal of the relationship between sociology and philosophy grounded in a critique of the former discipline’s failure to contend with the dominance of neoliberalism in the run up to the financial crisis. In the first instance, it considers the prevailing philosophical ethos after the end of the Cold War and what Francis Fukuyama (1992) called the ‘End of History’. It observes the emergence of an increasingly unchallenged political monad around the conjoined principles of liberal democracy and neoliberal economics and its ascendance to the status of socio-historical universality despite becoming increasingly problematic. The second half of the essay then carries this political-philosophical analysis into an exploration of contemporary sociology and its approach to the intellectual critique of dominant ideas and structures. It proposes that an emergent strain of philosophical relativism has inadvertently moved us away from some of the critical responsibilities of the traditional intellectual and eroded our capacity to offer practical alternatives to overwhelmingly neoliberal governance. The article ends on the hopeful note that a slight change in tack might push us toward reclaiming responsibilities and revitalising the debate on social transformation
A Systems Approach to Test the Usefulness of a Model to Challenge Organisational Change
Full text linkThe impact of a proposition concerning the split of the structure of a precision engineering company into two clusters was holistically analysed and verified for consistency, as regards the structure design parameters. A conceptual model supported by both the schools of strategists and structuralists was used as an audit tool for ordered questioning, debate, learning and dialectical discussion. Moreover, the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), provided orientation to theoretical validation of the model whose outcomes identified the potential, desirable and feasible change of both manufacturing systems and production planning and control (PPC). A situational, hermeneutics, interpretivist, learning oriented process of enquiry, rather different from best practice views, was shown adequate to the problem nature and to the case study confirming the interest of the two clusters. Thus, formal planning and control procedures exhibited a very weak stand requiring both development in line with the contingency factors and complementarity with the other work co-ordination mechanisms. This holistic, systemic, strategic and structured approach produced the reviewing and reformatting of the manufacturing strategy decision areas and recommended that PPC procedures should be further analysed in detail, in order to fit the two clusters. To sum up, the audit tool was found useful and it was also able to identify potential change in a credible way, to classify it as desirable/undesirable by following a learning process and, to discuss its feasibility in the context of a specific organisational culture. Thus, SSM provided an original contribution to Operations Research through the design of complex organisations under a systems view
The Health Status of Rural Elderly Women in India: A Case Study
Full text linkAgeing is a global phenomenon. In India, majority of 75 percent of elderly persons reside in rural areas out of which about 48.2 percent of comprise women. Today these elderly women face miserable conditions in their life, as they are family-bonded and refuse to move to old-age homes. Their health problems coupled with emotional wellbeing are serious crises facing Indian society at large. In order to study the condition of elderly women in rural areas, the present study was conducted focusing on their socio-economic and health status. It was incidental that the elderly women have also psychological problems like depression, isolation, loneliness and frustration. If these problems are not dealt effectively, they can become a source of tension and stress. This is what constitutes the substantive concern of the present study