Michael Welch

Bio: Michael Welch is an academic researcher from Rutgers University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Human rights & Prison. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 59 publications receiving 1738 citations. Previous affiliations of Michael Welch include University of Sydney & St. John's University.

Moral Panic Over Youth Violence: Wilding and the Manufacture of Menace in the Media

Abstract: In 1989, while reporting the well-publicized attack on a female jogger in New York City, the media discovered wilding, a newly stylized word used to describe sexual violence committed by a group of urban teens. Sociologically, the term wilding became particularly significant due to its racial connotation, perpetuating a stereotype of young Black (and Latino) males belonging to a dangerous class. This work explores the contours of moral panic over wilding by attending to elements of race, class, and fear of crime, especially as they manifest in the media. The findings contribute to a critical understanding of youth in society by offering an interpretation of wilding, a distinctive form of moral panic that symbolizes not only a threat to society at large but also to a political economy that reproduces racial and social disparities.

Detention of asylum seekers in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Italy: A critical view of the globalizing culture of control

Abstract: Although criminologists in the US and Europe continue to explore issues of immigration, race, and ethnicity in the context of crime, they have yet to examine the detention of asylum seekers. Still, this is a social phenomenon that requires serious consideration since in many instances such policies and practices violate international standards for the protection of refugees. This work takes a critical look at the detention of persons fleeing persecution by situating it an expanding culture of control stoked by the criminology of the other. The article offers evidence of a steady increase in the reliance on detention of asylum seekers in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Italy. Indications of a conservative shift in criminological thought affecting crime—and asylum—policy are addressed alongside concerns for human rights in a post-September 11 world.

Detention of asylum seekers in the UK and USA Deciphering noisy and quiet constructions

Abstract: Moral panic theory continues to be applied to a range of phenomena, allowing sociologists to refine our understanding of negative societal reaction aimed at people who are easy to identify and easy...

Primary Definitions of Crime and Moral Panic: A Content Analysis of Experts' Quotes in Feature Newspaper Articles on Crime

Abstract: Research on crime news continues to generate scholarly interest, particularly in the realm of social constructionism. From this perspective, researchers have documented the process by which crime is shaped into news—especially the pivotal role played by law enforcement officials. In this study, the authors contribute to this area of inquiry by administering a content analysis of 105 feature articles on crime published in four national newspapers between 1992 and 1995. In addition to exploring the topics of crime, they systematically examined the nature of quotes offered by two groups of experts, namely, state managers (e.g., police and politicians) and intellectuals (e.g., professors). Their findings support previous research demonstrating the media's heavy reliance on law enforcement officials in formulating primary definitions of crime. The significance of primary definitions of crime within the context of the dominant ideology and moral panic is discussed at length.

Economy and Society

Abstract: The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Outsiders Studies in the Sociology of Deviance.

Abstract: This 1966 paperback edition of a publication which first appeared in 1963 has by now been widely reviewed as a worthy contribution to the sociological study of deviant behavior. Its current appearance as a paperback is a testimonial both to the quality of the work and to the prominence of deviant behavior in this generation. In general the author places deviance in perspective, identifies types of deviant behavior, considers the role of rule makers and enforcers, and some of the problems in studying deviance. In addition, he develops a sequential model of deviance relying on the concept of career, a concept originally developed in studies of occupations. In his study of a particular kind of deviance, the use of marihuana, the author posits and tests systematically an hypothesis about the genesis of marihuana use for pleasure. The hypothesis traces the sequence of changes in individual attitude

The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary, society

Abstract: Nos últimos trinta trinta anos, houve profundas mudanças na forma como compreendemos o crime e a justiça criminal. O crime tornou-se um evento simbólico, um verdadeiro teste para a ordem social e para as políticas governamentais, um desafio para a sociedade civil, para a democracia e para os direitos humanos. Segundo David Garland, professor da Faculdade de Direito da New York University, um dos principais autores no campo da Sociologia da Punição e com artigo publicado na Revista de Sociologia e Política , número 13, na modernidade tardia houve uma verdadeira obsessão securitária, direcionando as políticas criminais para um maior rigor em relação às penas e maior intolerância com o criminoso. Há trinta anos, nos EUA e na Inglaterra essa tendência era insuspeita. O livro mostra que os dois países compartilham intrigantes similaridades em suas práticas criminais, a despeito da divisão racial, das desigualdades econômicas e da letalidade violenta que marcam fortemente o cenário americano. Segundo David Garland, encontram-se nos dois países os “mesmos tipos de riscos e inseguranças, a mesma percepção a respeito dos problemas de um controle social não-efetivo, as mesmas críticas da justiça criminal tradicional, e as mesmas ansiedades recorrentes sobre mudança e ordem sociais”1 (GARLAND, 2001, p. 2). O argumento principal da obra é o seguinte: a modernidade tardia, esse distintivo padrão de relações sociais, econômicas e culturais, trouxe consigo um conjunto de riscos, inseguranças e problemas de controle social que deram uma configuração específica às nossas respostas ao crime, ao garantir os altos custos das políticas criminais, o grau máximo de duração das penas e a excessivas taxas de encarceramento.

Estimating the prevalence of disordered gambling behavior in the United States and Canada: a research synthesis.

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: This study developed prevalence estimates of gambling-related disorders in the United States and Canada, identified differences in prevalence among population segments, and identified changes in prevalence over the past 20 years METHODS: A meta-analytic strategy was employed to synthesize estimates from 119 prevalence studies This method produced more reliable prevalence rates than were available from any single study RESULTS: Prevalence estimates among samples of adolescents were significantly higher than estimates among samples of adults for both clinical (level 3) and subclinical (level 2) measures of disordered gambling within both lifetime and past-year time frames (eg, 39% vs 16% for lifetime estimates of level 3 gambling) Among adults, prevalence estimates of disordered gambling have increased significantly during the past 20 years CONCLUSIONS: Membership in youth, treatment, or prison population segments is significantly associated with experiencing gambling-related disorders

Constructing the Political Spectacle

Abstract: Thanks to the ready availability of political news today, informed citizens can protect and promote their own interests and the public interest more effectively. Or can they? Murray Edelman argues against this conventional interpretation of politics, one that takes for granted that we live in a world of facts and that people react rationally to the facts they know. In doing so, he explores in detail the ways in which the conspicuous aspects of the political scene are interpretations that systematically buttress established inequalities and interpretations already dominant political ideologies.