Violence: Exam 2 Flashcards
Why do people appear to get involved in violent conflicts and even kill themselves over matters that seem trivial (e.g., an insult, not giving someone the right of way in a street, etc.)?
“Senseless Violence”
Gould’s argues that violent conflict occurs because?
People are interested in achieving dominance or superiority in a relationship.
The actual substantive issues over which individuals compete (such as money or physical things) may not matter much. What matters is?
Achieving dominance, which is often symbolic in nature.
Having the right of way on a narrow avenue is an important symbol of deference; it signals that the other person is of higher rank or status. This is an example of?
Achieving Dominance
we are constantly competing for dominance in relationships.
Gould’s Framework
We are either trying to attain dominance and assert our higher rank over others or…
have our status respected and reinforced.
Conflict and violence is more likely to arise in what type of relationships?
relationships where individuals are unclear about their rank.
When is it more likely to be challenged and lead to conflict and possibly violence?
Attempting to establish superiority
In hierarchical relationships such as that between a boss and a subordinate
The higher status of the former is clearly defined.
Most violent conflict occurs between?
People with prior relation not between strangers.
4 out of 5 victims of homicide in the U.S. are?
Socially tied to their attackers.
If greater exposure explained why homicide victims and offenders are socially related then family members would?
Kill each other more frequently than acquaintances, and this is not the case.
Brothers are more likely to kill brothers, and sisters are more likely to kill sisters.
Homicides would be evenly distributed within nuclear families, but they are not.
When a son kills a parent he is more likely to kill his?
Father
A daughter is more likely to kill?
A Mother
Spouses are more likely to kill?
Each other than anyone else in the family.
What are the types of relations where rank is more contested
Sons, Daughters, and Spouses
Gould’s argues that “violence happens when people get caught in…………. and when for various reasons the contest is ………. using external social cues concerning the proper outcome.
Contests for social rank……..Difficult to resolve
If Gould’s notion is right then some kinds of relations are more…………………………. than others, regardless of the kinds of people in those relations.
vulnerable to serious conflict
The more ambiguous the relation …………………. the more likely violence is.
Who should be expected to outrank
One sign that the conflict is about rank is?
There is a sensitivity to process and not just the substance and outcome of a dispute.
What is important in establishing rank?
Gestures
Tone
Demeanor
Go, To, Doctor
Example of conflict over rank on
pages 74-75.
Even when material things are involved (e.g., money), the conflict over these material things?
Really hides the true origin of a conflict over rank.
Example on page 78 and pages 82-83
Hypothesis: “Killings due to symbolic matters should be more typical of…………………. relations, whereas killings due to substantive matters should be more typical of …………relations”
symmetric relations……………..asymmetric relations
Asymmetric relationships are?
Many people do not feel like equals in their relationships. Feeling of inadequacy
Symmetric relationships are?
A vague sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and BALANCE.
A second related hypothesis Gould tests has to do with retaliatory violence, that is?
when an assailant “was seeking revenge for a prior offense against himself or herself.” (p. 96)
Retaliatory violence is a response to?
Perceived humiliation.
Since such violence does not accomplish anything more than annihilating a rival, it cannot be plausibly interpreted as a result of conflict over substantial matters, but rather over?
symbolic dominance.
Retaliatory violence should also be more common in…………..relations?
symmetric relations than asymmetric ones. See Table 7.
Gould argues that those individuals whose sense of self is more embedded in the…………than devoted to the……………. are more prone to violence when deference claims are challenged.”
past ……… future
A future-oriented person is more likely to let affronts to his status go unchallenged because?
He weighs the consequences for his future self more heavily.
A person who is more oriented towards the past will less likely let affronts to his honor and status go unchallenged, because?
Past actions will weigh on his mind more heavily and is therefore more likely to seek redress.
Honor societies
Value impulsive acts and vengeance,
Urbanized modern societies
Commonly accept and encourage prudence and forgiveness
Models of how individuals are supposed to cohere over time.
Honor societies and Urbanized modern societies.
Revenge-seeking and impulsive, violent responses to insult require that individuals look backward, notably to past wrongs, and that they substantially disregard their personal well-being in the future is what type of society?
Honors Societies
prudence and peacemaking demand, in contrast, that wronged persons abandon the past and embrace the future is what type of society?
Urbanized modern societies
Black suggests that much of what we consider as crime in contemporary societies may be interpreted as a form of?
“Self-help”
Crime as a form of “self-help” is committed as a response to?
something that an individual perceives to be unjust.
“self-help” crime occurs when?
Individuals do not have access to legal institutions.
The Different interpretive framework?
The injustices that individuals are responding to may not be recognized as such by contemporary law or may not appear justified from others’ point of view.
Black’s formulation implies that….
crime is moralistic in nature.
Black’s states, one kind of social control is known as self-help. Defined as….
the expression of a grievance by unilateral aggression such as personal violence or property destruction.”
Black’s interpretation about social control in self-help makes no assumptions concerning?
The impact of social control upon conformity, social order or anything else…”
Hirschi asks: Why do individuals conform to…?
social norms?