Showing papers in "Deviant Behavior in 2011"

Comparing Illicit Trades in Wildlife and Drugs: An Exploratory Study

Abstract: This article is an exploratory study into the similarities, differences, and overlaps between the illegal wildlife trade and the illegal drug trade, using original and literature-based research from the Russian Far East and Western Europe, respectively. The purpose of such a comparison is to gain further insight into the illegal wildlife trade through the examination of the more thoroughly studied illegal drug trade. We first examine the global size of these markets and then detail and compare actors and smuggling operations found in each. This leads to a possible typology of features that the trades have in common and to discussion of the direct linkages between these two illicit markets.

Low Self-Control and Imprudent Behavior Revisited

Abstract: This study assesses the effect of low self-control on traditional offending-oriented outcomes and three imprudent behaviors—“drunk dialing,” public profanity, and public flatulence. The sample consists of approximately 500 undergraduate students. The results from the regression analyses show that low self-control is associated with typical offending, academic fraud, and binge drinking. More importantly, low self-control is also associated with making telephone calls while under the influence of alcohol, using offensive language in public places, and publicly expelling digestive gases. The results suggest that low self-control not only explains traditional offending-oriented outcomes, but also understudied forms of social deviance.

Repetitive Intimate Partner Victimization: An Exploratory Application of Social Learning Theory

Abstract: The research literature on intimate partner violence (IPV) has documented a number of poignant facts that serve as the foundation for this study. First, IPV is prevalent, frequent, and often repetitive. Moreover, repetitive violence within an intimate relationship tends to escalate over time, both in its frequency of occurrence and in its severity. We also know that decisions to leave the relationship do not guarantee that the violence will end. In addition, the phenomenon of “mutual combatancy,” prevalent in many intimate partner relationships, suggests that both parties in this dyadic process co-share the roles of offender and victim. Finally, we know that targets of IPV, like their abusers, tend to disproportionately come from families-of-origin in which violence and aggression were directly and/or vicariously experienced. These facts suggest that one possible starting point for the exploration of repetitive intimate partner victimization (R-IPV) may derive from an inter-generational transmission, or c...

BDSM: A Subcultural Analysis of Sacrifices and Delights

Abstract: This is a qualitative investigation of 73 individuals in the Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sado-Masochism subculture. There is tremendous stigma attached to this subculture, and while the academic community may be increasingly accepting, the general public is not as accepting or knowledgeable. Fear of negative consequences means that many engage in secrecy and concealment strategies as protective measures. Although there is much literature on the possible consequences and the reasons for concealment, there remain gaps. Our findings reveal how many conceal to cover up or to hide what outsiders may consider immoral or otherwise unacceptable behavior. Others conceal as a means to create a distinction for themselves as part of a secret subculture. Whatever their reasons, those in this subculture engage in a variety of strategies to manage their identity and to minimize their vulnerability.

Childhood and Adolescent Victimization and Perpetration of Sexual Coercion by Male and Female University Students

Abstract: This study examines the extent to which male and female university students use verbal sexual coercion and physically forced sex on a dating partner and tests a theoretical model that specifies that corporal punishment, minor forms of neglect by parents, and sexual abuse increase the probability of sexually coercing and sexually assaulting a partner, and that this relationship is partly mediated by antisocial traits and behavior. A path analysis using multinomial logistic regression was used to test the fit of the model to a convenience sample of 13,877 students in 32 nations. Both male and female students perpetrate sexual coercion, but the rates are higher for males. For both men and women, each of the three forms of prior victimization studied were associated with an increased probability of antisocial behavior, which in turn was associated with an increased probability of verbally coercing and physically forcing sex. Most of the direct paths from victimization to sexual coercion were also statisticall...

Becoming Violent: Evaluating the Mediating Effect of Hopelessness on the Code of the Street Thesis

Abstract: This article uses the Mobile Youth Survey (MYS) to quantitatively evaluate Elijah Anderson's seminal theory of African-American youth in Philadelphia, the Code of the Street. Using longitudinal data and Structural Equation Modeling, we identify characteristics that lead underclass youth to adopt or to reject a “street code” mentality. Like other studies of Anderson's Code of the Streets, we examine family and peer relationships, neighborhood control and stability, victimization and negative emotional reactions as predictors of adolescents' street code orientation. At the same time, we introduce for the first time, hopelessness, defined as a state of mind in which individuals have a negative perception of their future, into the intellectual and social equation. Results show that hopelessness plays an instrumental role in adopting street code beliefs. Specifically, adolescents reporting greater hopelessness in 2004 were more likely to identify with the street code in 2005; by extension, adolescents who iden...

The Intersection of Mutual Partner Violence and Substance Use Among Urban Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals

Abstract: Intimate partner violence among gays and lesbians has gained increased attention in recent years. The present study assessed mutual partner violence within a gay, lesbian, bisexual (GLB) community sample to explore how mutual partner violence relates to the use of psychoactive substances. The results suggest that individuals engaging in mutual partner violence are more likely to report the use of numerous drugs than other subjects. However, this finding holds more consistently among men. The results also indicate that the exchange of violence is more significant for substance use than the particular type of violence involved. The authors suggest that minority stress may be an underlying mechanism of both substance use and partner violence and may contribute to the intersection of these deviant phenomena in the GLB community.

Screwing the Pooch: Legitimizing Accounts in a Zoophilia On-line Community

Abstract: This article seeks to extend existing research that addresses how deviant individuals use Internet technology to communicate accounts that neutralize hostile labels associated with their behaviors. Data were collected from a message board dedicated to zoophilia; the sample was comprised of 4,983 individual posts drawn from 87 discussion threads. Findings suggest that the posters routinely justify their actions through the production of neutralizing accounts. In particular, three new types of accounts were documented: appeals to enlightenment, claims of cultural diffusion, and neutralization by comparison.

Distribution and Correlates of Self-Reported Crimes of Trust

Abstract: This study examines the distribution and correlates of a special class of property crimes, crimes of trust, using longitudinal and cross sectional self-report data from a national sample. We begin by defining crimes of trust and consider their conceptual relationship to "conventional" property crimes, which we here characterize as crimes of stealth, and to white collar crimes, which are defined in terms of the social status of the perpetrators. Crimes of trust are here defined as property crimes that typically involve deliberate contact with the victim or, where there is more than one victim, with at least one or more victims, in which there is typically more of a focus on concealing the fact that a crime has been committed than on concealing the identity of the perpetrator (as is the case in crimes of stealth), without regard to the socioeconomic status of the perpetrator (thus including but not limited to white collar crimes). The focus here is on crimes of trust committed by individuals (as opposed to corporate crime). We first examine their distribution by sociodemographic characteristics, then examine the correlation of crimes of trust with other types of illegal behavior, using data from the National Youth Survey Family Study, including (1) longitudinal self-report data from a nationally representative panel of individuals who were 11-18 years old in 1976-77 and who were followed through early middle age (ages 36-44) in 2002-2003, plus (2) cross-sectional data on these individuals plus their parents, spouses, and children age 11 and older in 2002-2003 (total age range 11-88). The results suggest that crimes of trust have a different age-crime curve from conventional crimes, and that they are not as strongly correlated with problem substance use, gender, and other socioeconomic indicators as conventional crimes.

Male Athletes and the Cult(ure) of Thinness in Sport

Abstract: Although female emaciators and anorexics in sport have received considerable academic attention as a deviant population of athletes (Atkinson 2008; Grieve 2007), researchers have only recently attended to the onset and development of self-starvation or weight minimization programs among male athletes (Hargreaves and Tiggemann 2006; Papathomas and Lavallee 2006) The bulk of academic literature on eating pathologies among male (or female) athletes fails to account for many of the complex sociocultural processes involved in learning an emaciator's habitus (Bourdieu 1984; Elias 2004) Qualitative, open-ended interviews were conducted with 73 male athletes in 9 different sports to inspect the social–psychological genesis of the emaciator's habitus Interviews focused on the role of exogenous to sport influences on eating behaviors and body attitudes, and endogenous influences on body regimen habituated as normative, rather than pathological, within specific sport cultures Findings suggest that males who emac

Guards Gone Wild: A Self-Report Study of Correctional Officer Misconduct and the Effect of Institutional Deviance on “care” within the Texas Prison System

Abstract: Although the study of deviance has been prevalent in the criminal justice literature, there is very little discussion as to the types of deviant acts committed by correctional employees. This may be because prisons are what Goffman (1961) refers to as “total institutions” in his classic study of asylums. This study employed self-report questionnaires with 501 Texas prison employees. Based on the data, our findings indicate that respondents were likely to perceive high levels of institutional deviance during the course of their eight-hour shifts. Also, subjects who reported “feeling cared for” by at least someone in the prison agency tended to perceive more deviance than other respondents or vice versa. We discuss these findings and their implications in detail.

When Boundaries are Broken: Inmate Perceptions of Correctional Staff Boundary Violations

Abstract: Boundary violations via inappropriate behaviors committed by correctional staff can cause many problems for prison administrators. This study examines gender differences in inmate perceptions of staff boundary violations. Findings revealed male inmates were significantly more supportive of officers' boundary violations. Younger inmates, Hispanic inmates, and those that had completed high school were also more supportive of staff inappropriate behavior. It is recommended that officers adopt a “firm but fair” orientation to deal with inmates and, within that framework, use gendered strategies to better interact with and empower women inmates. It is also suggested that agencies adopt effective measures to train staff and educate inmates regarding boundary violations.

Street Youths′ Fear of Violent Crime

Abstract: Utilizing a sample of 300 street youths the article examines the roles, perceptions of control, depression, prior victimization, criminal behavior, peer crime and victimization, homelessness, and violent subcultural values play in the perception of violent victimization risk and the fear of violent crime. Results suggest that previous victimization and peers’ victimization along with depression and an external locus of control increases perceptions of victimization risk for violent crime. Younger street youths also perceived greater victimization risk. Further, females and minority respondents have higher levels of fear of violent victimization. Levels of fear of violent crime are also predicted by previous violent victimization, depression, and an external locus of control. In contrast, social support and violent subcultural values were associated with lower levels of fear. Findings are discussed in terms of extending theory to help understand perceptions of victimization risk and fear of crime.

Rehab Retrospect: Former Prostitutes and the (Re)construction of Deviance

Abstract: In this study, in-depth qualitative interviews with former street prostitutes currently in an outpatient drug rehabilitation program are utilized to examine the transition out of prostitution and from a deviant to a non-deviant identity. Little extant literature explores the relationships between stigma management and desistance as prostitutes attempt to exit the industry. This research finds that while in rehab, the women activated meanings of their previous drug addiction both as a stigma management technique and as a cognitive process that distances them from the prostitute identity. They conceptually bundled their prostitution identity with that of drug addiction, ultimately reinforcing that they completed the transition out of deviance.

Trends and Patterns Among Music Pirates

Abstract: The current work, based on data from a cross-sectional sample of approximately 2,000 randomly selected university students, seeks to clarify exactly who is most likely to engage in online music piracy. The extant knowledgebase on why individuals take part in this form of intellectual property is growing, but little is known about the type and background of those involved. This study therefore seeks to construct a profile of the typical music pirate by measuring the salience of demographic characteristics and the respondent's scope of overall participation in cyberspace-based activities. Findings indicated that respondents’ differentially participated in music piracy based on their gender, race, type of college major, proficiency in using the Internet, and variety of online participation. Policy solutions based on an attempt to clearly specify, reinforce, and enforce definitions of appropriate Internet use are consequently suggested to reduce the prevalence of piracy among a university population.

The Relationship Between Self-Control, Witnessing Domestic Violence, and Subsequent Violence

Abstract: The notion that violence begets violence is well accepted. Less clear are the precise factors that link together child violence and adult violence in an individual's life course. This study examines the role that self-control has in linking together exposure to violence in a child's life and subsequent violence in that individual's life. A telephone survey with 375 residents in Southeastern Virginia was conducted. Attention is given to whether those who saw their parents fight are more likely to (1) have a low self-control and (2) report having experienced violence either as an offender or a victim. Results suggest that witnessing violence is not related to self-control, and those who witnessed violence were less likely to have subsequent experiences with partner abuse. Further, we found that low self-control has a link with partner abuse. Implications for theory, policy, and future research are provided.

Religiosity, Delinquency, and the Deterrent Effects of Informal Sanctions

Abstract: Past research in deterrence theory suggests that informal social sanctions intervene in the effect of religiosity on criminal and delinquent behavior, such that more religious individuals tend to perceive stronger informal sanctions (Grasmick, Bursik and Cochran 1991a; Grasmick, Kinsey and Cochran 1991b). This study examines the influence of religiosity and social deterrence on college students' delinquent behavior, as measured by anticipated violation of a university's alcohol policy. Data were collected through a survey of undergraduate students (n = 484) at a large South-Midwestern public university that instituted a campus alcohol ban. The survey took place three months after the ban was implemented and asked students about religiosity, perceptions of informal deterrence, and expectations of violating the policy. Results partially support the hypothesis that religiosity predicts conformity primarily through the deterrent threat of informal sanctions. Religiosity increased perceived threats of shame an...

Teenage Drug and Alcohol Use: Comparing Individual and Contextual Effects

Abstract: While both macro- and micro-level studies have identified important correlates of substance use, multi-level models may explain more than each level alone. Drawing on extant research and Akers' (1998) Social Structure-Social Learning model, we offer hypotheses about the relationship between contextual- and individual-level explanatory variables and substance use. The sample included 85,000 students in 202 school districts. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed low socioeconomic status, percent rural, and racial composition directly affected use of some substances net individuals' characteristics. Further, the effects of gender, age, and class were substantially mediated by differential association and school bonds, which significantly influenced alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, and methamphetamine use.

Place, Identity, and Deviance: A Community-Based Approach to Understanding the Relationship Between Deviance and Place

Abstract: Cities invariably have “gray” areas where formal policing and regulatory reach is relatively ineffective. By focusing on individuals or groups traditional theories of deviance fail to account for community-level processes that create local alternative norms that contribute to behavior seen as deviant by outsiders. By combining theories of space with issues of identity construction and deviance, we analyze an inner-city neighborhood in Mexico City in terms of four factors: Structural Location, Material Form, Meaningfulness, and Organizational Integration. This creates a model for understanding forms of deviance that are rooted in community processes of resistance to the dominant normative system.

Gay, Straight, and Who I Am: Interpreting Passing Within the Frames for Everyday Life

Abstract: Passing, the process whereby individuals conceal stigmatizing attributes, represents an intersection between self-definition, self-presentation, and situational and cultural fluency. Existing research has examined some of these topics separately, but few works have undertaken a cohesive analysis. To address this gap, this study employs frame analysis to examine gay and lesbian individuals’ interpretive accounts of passing. Participants framed their self-presentations within a paradigm of being “who I am,” noted a frame of risk that operated across situations, and described common frames for audiences and settings in their lives—all central to interpreting passing within everyday, routine interaction.

Child Delinquents: Examining the Market for Criminal Futures

Abstract: This article investigates child delinquency (offenders younger than 13 years of age). The population of child delinquents under various dispositions in the state of Louisiana, at one point in time, is described. Eighty youth are examined using the following characteristics: Race, Gender, Age, Offense Type (violent, nonviolent) Crime Category (felony, status offense, misdemeanor, and felony or misdemeanor) and Disposition (supervision, secure custody, and non-secure custody). Child delinquency is an important topic because the younger the age of first offense the greater the probability of a delinquent and criminal career. Findings reveal very few youth in secure custody and black males account for over half of the population of child delinquents. Over 75% of the population was 12 years of age.

Attitude Transference and Deviant Behavior: A Comparative Study in Japan and the United States

Abstract: Attitude transference is the term that has come to be used to refer to a key process by which one's personal attitudes approving or disapproving of certain behavior reflect those of his or her primary groups and in turn affect his or her conforming or deviant behavior. Cross-cultural comparisons on this and other issues afforded by previous studies, however, have been limited primarily to examining findings that have used different samples and instructions. Drawing on previous literature on cultural variability in individualism, the present study directly tests the hypotheses that although attitude transference operates similarly across cultures, the effects of parental and peer attitudes toward deviance on one's own attitudes should be weaker and stronger, respectively, in Japan compared to the United States. The analysis of identical survey data from college students in the two societies provides mixed support for the hypotheses.

General Issue (G.I.) Strain: Applying Strain Theory to Military Offending

Abstract: This article explores possible causes of military offending through application of strain theory to a small sample of current U.S. Army personnel. The military provides a unique social environment given the organization and culture of the institution. Criminal behavior of those inside this institution has recently received much media attention, yet has not received much academic attention. Prior research focuses on military-specific crimes and/or the military experiences of current offenders. Through in-depth interviews, measures of strain theory were examined and then applied to reports of offending, ultimately providing insight into strain theory, military offending, and offending in general.

Drug Court as Both a Legal and Medical Authority

Abstract: This article explores how addiction is conceptualized in a drug court program. Through observations and interviews in a drug court in a large northeastern city, the author reveals how the court uses ambiguous and inconsistent medicalized language to describe addiction, extending the label of addiction to behaviors not just associated with using drugs, but with selling drugs as well. Ultimately, drug courts incorporate a medicalized notion of addiction to further their own control over drug-related issues, since they become the authority of both the client's treatment and their punishment.

Young Women's Accounts of Instrumental Drug Use for Weight Control

Abstract: The phenomenon of drug use for weight control remains largely undocumented. This research addresses young women's accounts concerning instrumental substance use and management of the body. Although instrumental users faced the potential for stigma, the nature of their lines of action was insulating from many negative social consequences, as women remained largely private about their deviant behaviors. Although women were secretive about their deviance, most offered accounts for their unconventional “lifestyle choices.” Young women hailed drugs for their instrumental utility, and shunned popular conceptions of their behaviors as pathological.

Assessing Informal Social Control Against the Highly Stigmatized

Abstract: Both formal and informal social controls are powerful guides and restrictions on behaviors. This study assesses the types of informal social control—observations and interventions, and proposes a division of intervention strategies into two subforms—expressions of disapproval and direct sanctions. Using data from two states (Kansas and Oklahoma) analyses show that registered sex offenders are subject to a wide variety of informal community social control efforts. These offenders feel moderate to high levels of stress, with observation and direct sanctions, but not with expressions of disapproval. Examinations of differences between sex offenders with adult and child victims show no differences in receipt of informal social control efforts or resulting stress.

What Concerns do Young Adults in Ireland Have about Attending Health Services for STD Testing

Abstract: Thirty Irish young adults (between eighteen and twenty-nine years of age) were interviewed about their experiences of accessing and attending healthcare settings for STD (sexually transmitted disease) testing Four principle themes emerged: the risk of stigma as a result of seeking STD testing; the need to engage in impression management activities while accessing information about STD testing; the importance of using healthcare settings that supported rather than undermined impression management attempts; and identity risks experienced while waiting in clinic reception areas Findings are discussed in relation to previous research on this topic

Truth in Labeling: Are Descriptions All We Have?

Abstract: The present article draws on some parallels between pragmatism and the interactionist sociology of deviance to discuss the quest for liberatory consequences often associated with the Labeling Approach (LA). Both pragmatism and the LA exhibit a tension between their antifoundationalist nominalism and their liberatory meliorism. This tension revolves around the question if the insight that “descriptions are all we have” leads to a possibility to change these descriptions. While many proponents of the LA have thought so, antidualist formulations of pragmatism have mellowed this hope without destroying it: Descriptions can always change, but it is rarely antifoundationalist theory that changes them.

Gender, Attributions of Responsibility, and Negotiation of Deviant Labels in Small Groups

Abstract: Incorporating both attribution and labeling theory, this article examines the negotiation of deviant labels in small groups, with emphasis on how that process is influenced by attributions of responsibility and the gender of group members. Pressures associated with goal-directed groups make deviant labeling and resistance a common occurrence, especially when the actions of members significantly interfere with group goals or normative expectations. Findings based on the analysis of narrative responses to vignettes demonstrate the prevalence and importance of accounts and conciliatory actions for mitigating group conflict and avoiding negative outcomes. Calling problematic members into account while avoiding hostile undertones effectively initiates dialogue and facilitates the negotiation of group strategies for completing tasks. However, the data also suggest that while deviant group members frequently offer accounts for objectionable behavior, such accounts are rarely honored by conforming members. The re...

Tactics of Concealment Among People Living with HIV

Abstract: Persons with HIV face the choice of disclosing or keeping their status a secret from their social milieus. Concealment as a tactic was studied via interviews with 30 HIV-positive Israelis. They were interviewed in depth and the data was processed by means of qualitative content analysis. The explanations presented by the respondents for the concealment are categorized as “justifications.” The data showed that assistance from family members helped to sustain the concealment; they were categorized as “collaborators.” A further category was identified as “acquired skills.” Concealment was found to be the lesser of two problematic alternatives but came at high psychological costs.