Socioeconomic disadvantage and violence: Recent research on culture and neighborhood control as explanatory mechanisms
Section snippets
Socioeconomic status (SES) and violence
Arrest, victimization, and self-report data in the U.S. consistently indicate that violence is not randomly distributed across social demographic categories or groups in the social structure. In addition to the overrepresentation of males and younger persons, those involved in violence are more likely to be non-White and from lower SES backgrounds (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2001). Much of the racial differences in rates of violence, however, are due to racial differences in SES. In terms of
Aggression and violence: motivations and situational processes
Prior to reviewing research accounting for SES differences in violence, it is useful to provide a fundamental understanding of the nature and underlying motivations for much violent behavior. Tedeschi and Felson (1994) offer a parsimonious, “social interactionist” explanation for violence that is rooted in impression management and social influence theories. The theory views violence as “coercive actions” involving the intent of inflicting harm or forcing compliance, such as threats,
Cultural perspectives: the role of attitudes
One of most important implications of the social interactionist perspective for understanding the high rate of violence among low SES persons is that the motivations underlying the use of coercion may be stronger among actors of low SES. Tedeschi and Felson suggest there may be social demographic variation in both procedural values and in how grievances and attacks on a person's identity are expressed. They assert that among the members of some social groups, “coercion may be the preferred
Social disorganization: the role of weakened communities
Traditional subcultural arguments are rooted in classic economic strain and social disorganization theories. Social disorganization theory provides insight into the relationship between low SES and violence, and like subcultural theories, it has undergone significant revitalization. Originally, developing out of the work of the “Chicago school” of sociology (Shaw & McKay, 1942), the theory focuses on the ecological (especially neighborhood) distribution of crime and delinquency, hypothesizing
Conclusion
Two enduring and complementary approaches to the relationship between economic disadvantage and violence — cultural and social disorganziation theories, have been significantly revitalized. Fig. 1 depicts processes examined by recent research. Support for cultural theories has been provided by survey and ethnographic research. Recent survey-based studies, using sophisticated structural equation modeling techniques, more closely examine the causal structure of cultural theories, and show that a
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2020, Nursing OutlookCitation Excerpt :There have been reports of people justifying and supporting violent behavior under specific circumstances such as police violence against a minority group (Gerber et al., 2018) or attacking doctors whose patient had died (Al et al., 2015). This may be partially explained by cultural attitudes (Markowitz, 2003; Gerber et al., 2018). It is possible that even in cases of violence against health care staff, there is a view that the patient will not manage to obtain his or her medical needs without displaying aggression and therefore, violent behavior may be justified.