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Subculture of Violence: An Interpretive Analysis of Homicide
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Extract
One of the most socially visible deviations from our conduct norms is the taking of human life by intentional murder or by voluntary manslaughter. Like all human behavior, this kind of deviation must be viewed in terms of the cultural context from which it springs. De Champneuf, Guerry, Quetelet early in the mineteenth century, and Durkheim later, led the way toward emphasizing the necessity to examine physique sociale, or social phenomena characterized by “externality”, if the scientist is to understand or interpret crime, suicide, prostitution and other deviant behavior. Without promulgating a sociological fatalism, analysis of broad macroscopic correlates in this way may obscure the dynamic elements of the phenomenon and result in the ecological fallacy to which Selvin refers. Yet, because of wide individual variations, the clinical, idiosyncratic approach does not necessarily aid in arriving at Weber’s Verstehen, or meaningful adequate understanding of regularities, uniformities, or patterns of interaction. And if is this understanding we seek when we examine either deviation from, or conformity to, the normative structure.
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- Première Partie: Doctrine: I. — Mémoires
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- Copyright © 1962 International Society for Criminology
Footnotes
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Paper presented at the 1960 Annual Meeting oí the American Sociological Association, New York, 29-31, August 1960.
References
(1) Marshall B. Clinard, Sociology of Deviant Behavior, New York: Rinehart & Company, 1958, p. 210; see also pp. 23-24.
(2) For an interesting account of the contribution of M. de Guerry de Champneuf, see M.C. Elmer, « Century-Old Ecological Studies in France », American Journal of Sociology, 39 (July, 1933), pp. 63-70.
(3) A.-M. Guerry, Essai sur la statistique morale de la France, Paris, 1833.
(4) A. Quetelet, Sur l’Homme et le développement de ses facultés; essai de physique sociale, Paris : Bachelier, 1835. For excellent summarization and interpretation of the influence of Quetelet, Guerry, and others during the early nineteenth century, see Alfred Lindesmith and Yale Levin, « The Lombrosian Myth in Criminology », American Journal oí Sociology, 42, (March, 1937), pp. 653-671.
(5) Emile Durkheim, Suicide, Glencoe, Illinois : The Free Press, 1951.
(6) Hanan C. Selvin, « Durkheim’s Suicide and Problems of Empirical Research », The American Journal of Sociology, 63 (May 1958), pp. 607-619.
(7) As described, for example, in Talcott Parsons, The Social System, Glencoe, Illinois : The Free Press, 1951, pp, 41-42.
(8) Marvin E. Wolfgang, Patterns in Criminal Homicide, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958.
(9) Durkheim, op. cit.
(10) Thorsten Sellin, Culture Conflict and Crime, New York, N.Y. : Social Science Research Council Bulletin 41, 1938.
(11) See C. Wright Mills’ discussion of «grand theory», Chapter 2 in The Sociological imagination, New York : Oxford University Press, 1959.
(12) Critics of Freudian psychology are quick to point to this danger in that theoretical system. See Robert G. Caldwell’s succinct analysis in Criminology, New York : The Ronald Press Co., 1956, p. 190.
(13) William F. Hoffman, Pennsylvania Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, 4th ed., Wynnewood, Penna. : Wm. F. Hoffman, 1952, p. 121.
(14) Ibid., p. 112.
(15) It may be profitable to study « middle class » murder-the episodic, planned, rational murder-from the same perspective that Cressey uses in examining embezzlement (Donald Cressey, Other People’s Money, Glencoe, Illinois : The Free Press, 1953). Paraphrasing Cressey’s final revised postulate and applying it to «middle class» murder, we might say : These persons conceive of themselves as having a problem which is no-shareble, are aware that this problem can be secretly resolved by violation of the middle-class norms, and are able to apply to their own conduct in that situation rationalizations which enable them to adjust their conceptions of themselves as law-abiding persons with their conceptions of themselves as slayers ».
(16) Albert K. Cohen, Delinquent Boys, Glencoe, Illinois; The Free Press, 1955.
(17) Robert X. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, revised ed., Glencoe, Illinois : The Fress Press, pp. 131-194.
(18) Elwin H. Powell, « Occupation, Status, and Suicide : Toward a Redefinition of Anomie», American Sociological Review, 23 (April, 1958), pp. 131-139.
(19) Wolfgang, op. cit., pp. 328-331.
(20) This is different from the strength of the relational system discussed by Henry and Short in their provocative analysis (Andrew F. Henry and James F. Short, Jr., Suicide and Homicide, Glencoe, Illinois : The Free Press, 1954, pp. 16-18, 91-92, 124125). Relative to the Henry and Short suggestion, see Wolfgang, op. cit., pp. 278-279. The attempt of Gibbs and Martin to measure Durkheim’s reference to « degree of integration » is a competent analysis of the problem. A subculture of violence integrated around a given value item or value system may require quite different indices of integration than those to which these authors refer (Jack P. Gibbs and Walter T. Martin, « A theory of Status Integration and Its Relationship to Suicide », American Sociological Review, 23 (April, 1958), pp. 140-147.
(21) In the original study «significant» refers to test statistics, usually non-parametric, “with confidence limits at .05, or in some cases, .01.
(22) Wolfgang, op. cit., pp. 65-78 comparing race-sex-age-specific rates, the higher rate amount Negro males is obvious. For ages 20-24 : Negro males (92 .5); Negro females (12.4); white males (8.2); white females (1.2).
(23) Ibid., pp. 188-189.
(24) Edwin H. Sutherland and Donald Cressey, Principles of Criminology, 5 th ed., Philadelphia: Lippincott Co., 1955, pp. 74-81.
(25) Henry and Short, op. cit., p. 102. On this same point of conformity, see the statement of Jackson Toby, « Social Disorganization and Stake in Conformity : Complementary Factors in the Predatory Behavior of Hoodlums », Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 48 (May-June, 1957), pp. 12-17.
(26) Withdrawl from the group may be the deviant’s own design and desire, or by response to the reaction of the group. Cf. Robert A. Dentier and Kai T. Erickson, «The Functions of Deviance in Groups», Social Problem, 7 (Fall, 1959), pp. 98-197.
(27) Ross Stagner, Psychology of industrial Conflict, New York, Wiley, 1956.
(28) John Paul Scott, Aggression, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1958, PP· 44-64.
(29) B. Di Tullio, Principi di Criminologia Clinica e Psichiatria Forense, Rome, 1st. di Medicina Sociale, 1960.
(30) Martin Gold, «Suicide, Homicide and the Socialization of Aggression», The American Journal of Sociology, 63 (May, 1958), pp. 651-661. See also, Albert K. Cohen and James F. Short, Jr., «Research in Delinquent Subcultures», The Journal of Social Issues, 14 (1958), pp. 20-37.
(31) See for a comprehensive discussion of perceptual factors in personality structure and in treatment: Robert R. Blake and G. V. Ramsey (Eds.), Perception: An Approach to Personality, New York, Ronald Press, 1951. Also: Ross Stagner, «Le teorie della Personalità», Rassegna di Psicologia Generale e Clinica, 2 (1957), pp. 34-48.