Showing papers by "Paul Rock published in 1998"

Rules, boundaries and the courts : some problems in the neo-Durkheimian sociology of deviance

Abstract: This paper examines a very simple theme in sociology. It is so simple that it has tended either to be accepted or neglected but very rarely, it seems, critically reviewed. The sociology of crime and deviance concentrates on the problematics of ruling, rule-enforcement and rule-observance, and one of the neo-Durkheimian tenets held by many of its practitioners is that rules are reinforced and revealed in the boundary-defining work of institutions of social control, and in the work of the law courts above all. It is that tenet which is discussed here, principally by examining its empirical claims. It appears that little or no good empirical evidence is available to support the thesis, and that there are major methodological obstacles to its production.

MURDERERS, VICTIMS AND ‘SURVIVORS’The Social Construction of Deviance

Abstract: Two visions of homicide, murderers and victims are contrasted. One, conventional in criminology, has it that murders are the culmination of drawn-out, acrimonious transactions occurring within demographically homogeneous sectors of the population. It leads to a blurring of moral identities and causal relations. The other is championed by homicide survivors' organizations, and it claims an existentially validated authority. Homicide is experienced by survivors' as a chaotic episode which gives way to strong, antagonistic archetypes of victim and offender. The two visions are examined, in part, to promote an appreciation of the analytic complexities of the phenomenon of murder; in part, to point to the fraught politics that are beginning to emerge around resolving the character of murder.