Violence and Oppression, Term Paper Example

People who are street homeless: the extent to what they are victims of violence & oppression

Abstract

This paper examines the plight of the homeless people, within the context of sociology and the extent to which they are victims of violence and oppression. The paper provides a definition of violence and oppression in modern society and defines the issues relative to the street homeless.  The paper has three main parts: (1) An Analysis of Violence,  examining the different aspects of violence in context with the street homeless people (2) The vertigo of late modernity, as examined by its’ constituent parts (3) Conclusions, summing up the key issues of the research.

Introduction

We are starting to experience and live in a new globalized social and business world.  This has largely magnified the social differences in class structure and those who are wealthy and the poorer sectors of society.  Concepts of inequality are now much more transparent in terms of gender, ethnicity and education.  Modernity is leading to increased marginalization and defined by those who have jobs and contribute to society and a large unemployment sector that are without jobs, remuneration and feel excluded from society.  This pressure has resulted in more wide spread use of drugs and an increased number of homeless people living on the streets of the inner Cities.  (Wilhelm Heitmeyer 2010 p.2-12)

The plight of the homeless remains a problem in the USA, UK and many other countries.  In the USA it was estimated in 2008 that there are between 230,000 to 800,000 homeless people living on the streets.  Americans believe the figures are distorted because there are no reliable accurate statistics on the number of illegal immigrants living on the streets; as such the true gravity of the problem is not really known.  It is however proven that street homelessness is more likely to affect the more vulnerable members of society i.e. the poor, immigrants, substance abuse users, alcoholics etc.  (Barbara A. Bardes 2008 p.472-477).

There are different categories of violence and each of these contains theories applicable to the homeless.  The paper considers why society and modernity have rejected these people and increased their level of vulnerability towards violence, oppression and street related crime. Can this be avoided or is an inevitable part of modernisation in society that must be accepted?

An Analysis Of Violence

Direct Violence   Direct Crime from a criminal law perspective is that which inflicts injury, bodily or otherwise, to another human being as such affecting the integrity of human life. Such examples are covered my murder, war, genocide and manslaughter.  In addition acts of torture, forced removals of people and kidnapping.  The rise of direct crime has created a change in public behaviour and created ‘avoidance behaviour’ particularly in women. They will avoid areas like subways, car parks, parks and other no go areas at night for fear of being attacked.  As these are also areas most frequented by street people, it has caused them to be stereotyped as criminal elements; as opposed to victims of society. (Young 1999 p. 11-21)

Street crime seems to be at the highest levels in areas of urban poverty. Criminal behaviour often being marked by social interaction and areas of high poverty associated with low education, substance abuse and alcoholism.  In Canada statistics have shown that the young homeless people, particularly in Toronto, are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than sheltered people. Of particular concern is the high level of sexual assaults carried out against the number of young homeless female people. Another alarming factor of the research is the amount of partner abuse experienced by females in young homeless couple relationships.  Research in Toronto Canada indicated that those on the streets in the 16-17 age groups are the most vulnerable. In Canada, it is believed that the remedial action must be targeted at the young people in order to halt the cycle of events spiralling out of control. (Buccieri 2010 p. 1-40)

A lot of research carried out into the study of the homeless has been of an empirical nature i.e. by direct observation and interview. The examination of specific study groups of people and their risks / vulnerability to street crime. Risks reduced where they slept at appropriate shelters and stayed together in groups. Those individuals that went out on their own had incrementally increased their risk of being attacked or targeted for drugs, prostitution and sexual abuse. It is difficult to predict how much of this ends up in direct violence, as much of the crime never is reported. In Canada direct crime mainly relates to that of murder, sexual assault, physical assault and robbery. Crime rates amongst the homeless in Canada are considered average. Most of the young homeless, being less than 25 years of age, are reluctant to report a serious crime to the police and as such, much of the abuse to street people goes undetected. (Buccieri 2010 p. 1-40)

Indirect Violence  This really relates to the situation where there is no direct relationship between the victim and the institution. It broadly is divided into two parts (1) Violence by omission – the lack of protection against physical violence and that of social violence i.e. poverty, hunger, disease and accidents etc. (2) Medicated Violence – Human intervention that deliberately causes harm to the individual i.e. substance or drug abuse. In the USA in 2010 it has been stated that the number of indirect crimes amongst the homeless have been increasing. This has seen more people resorting to theft and break and entry. Those homeless people that move around are also more likely to resort to crimes of robbery and violence. This places them at increased risk of people protecting their property and conflict situations with the police.  (Young, J. 2007 p. 1-231)

In 2008 a study carried out in New York University has indicated an alarming rise in the number of mentally ill people being homeless. These people tend to move around and are far more likely to resort to more serious criminal behaviour. Equally this places them at more risk from retaliatory measures as people seek to protect themselves and their property. (M.Price 2009 p.62 ).  Studies carried out in Canada indicate that when a homeless person becomes ill or in need of medical treatment, as such becoming hospitalized, in over 50% of all cases the person suffers from some form of mental illness.  In canada some 54% of those requiring hospital treatment were involved in some form of substance abuse and this resulting in forms of schizophrenia or other mental disorders.  These form of delusional illnesses were found to be twice as more prevailent in male than female patients.  These patients are also likely to suffer from severe depression  and  have suicidal tendencies. Doctors consider that these people need social intervention and need to be provided with suitable housing and courses of treatment to deal with their mental illness problems.  They believe that Governments are now starting to understand the linkages between mental illness and the homeless but a great deal of worek needs to be done. Essentially we have moved from the stage of denial or ignoring the problem to that of a sense of awareness. It now requires affirmative action. (CanWest News Service 2007).

Repressive Violence  This essentially relates to that of human rights violations and the denial of freedom, religion or inequality before the law.  One of the worst recent examples of hate crimes against the homeless relates to the case of John McGraham in Los Angeles CA.  Here some angy people obtained a can of gasoline poured it all over McGraham and set him ablaze. It was a cold calculated act of homicide.  California only slightly lags behind that of Florida for this kind of hate crime against the homeless people.  This crime will be prosecuted as first degree murder in the event that they catch the people who carried out this henous crime. (Stateman 2008)            Source: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/hatecrimes/pressrelease.html

Alienating Violence  This is the concept of the denial of the rights to psychological, emotional or cultural integrity. In particular the conducting of prejudicial acts to minority groups such as homeless peoples.

Another alarming trend is that of ‘sport killing’ whereby middle class teens have been going out in groups and killing homeless people merely for sport.  The killing of Rex Baum in 2004 in Wisconsin USA was such an example where the boys beat a homeless man to death for no other reason than entertainment.  The boys were caught and charged with first degree homicide and now serve 15 years in Jail.  The Baum murder is just of a catalogue of incidents in what is an alarming trend in juvenile crime in the USA. (Fantz 2007) Statistics gathered in the USA shown that 80% of the so-called hate or thrill crimes perpetrated on homeless people were carried out by younger people under the age of 30.  This can be further sub categorized by saying that a large percentage of these people are juveniles.  What prompts a young juvenile to carry out such attacks on already vulnerable and susceptible members of society is largely unknown.  An alarming number of juveniles carrying out these attacks come from middle class backgrounds.   The so-called Magnet Theory stipulates that setting up services in a city to help homeless people will cause them to migrate to the city. This has proven to be a myth. They move into the city to look for work, find family or other reasons.  A large percentage of the homeless people originated from the City.  Another theory – The Chronic Theory – states that most homeless are of fixed populations for very long periods of time.  In reality, they are a very diverse population of people with some 70% of the homeless having been homeless for less than two years.

Theory behind deviant behaviour:  The concept of deviance is related to that of power.  Those people who are involved in the determination of deviance have more power than those who are without it. Deviance is caused by the political and economic forces in society. In conflict theory, deviance differs from that of crime by the manner in which the needs are controlled by society. Social -control theory discusses the premise that deviance is mainly attributed to that of failed social controls.  And this creates a strain between appropriate goals and what is considered as the norm. and as such creates an atmosphere where deviance will appear.

Juvenile Violence – USA Case Study and Street Crime

In more recent years researchers have been studying the construct of psychopathic behaviour in juveniles and young adults. This research is likely to have a significant input into how the legal jurisdiction will impact the treatment of juvenile crime. It has been proven that there are a number of juveniles with serious persistent criminal records that display psychopathic tendencies.  Questions have been raised as to whether the root cause is that of criminal behaviour or sociological considerations i.e. driven from poverty, drug dependencies and poor social living environments.  Juvenile Crime often leads towards criminal behaviour and ultimately prison sentences or being forced into the street homeless situation

Since the 19990’s the public outcry about juvenile crime has seen more punitive measures taken against offenders  and they are now facing stiffer penalties from Juvenile Courts. At the extreme level Texas still imposers the death penalty for juvenile homicide convictions. Juvenile Crime and gang convictions are on the increase in the USA.  Police arrests and subsequent convictions show gang members being related to location, grouping, type of crime committed, conviction type, date convicted, number of previous offences etc.  These provide more logical grouping of data.  It must be recognised that the largest percentile groups, that of street gangs and juvenile gangs, are not a police problem but a social problem.

Most of juveniles arrested are repeat offenders and as such have a record of violence and petty crime.  The system does not provide adequate social welfare for these offenders and as such crimes often escalate into cases of homicide and serious assault.  As such police have the right of detention until the person arrested cab be formally charged and duly processed through the court systems.

Much of the current research effort in psychopathic behaviour is aimed towards forecasting why this type of behaviour pattern occurs. i.e. the utility of measures. There have been some interesting debates taking place on precisely what constitutes psychopathic behaviour. One argument states ‘an integral part of psychopathy is an emergence of an early and persistent patter of problematic behaviour’ whereas another viewpoint stated that criminal behaviour is mainly rooted in anti-social behaviour i.e. ‘an epiphenomenon that is neither diagnostic of psychopathy nor specific to personality deviation’. (Skeen, J.C. 2010)

Increasing attention is being made towards juvenile crime statistics. Juveniles mixing in gangs may result to victimization as more criminal related activities like, mugging, theft, robbery, intimidation etc.  This is often teenagers coming from backgrounds of poverty and becoming resentful of others that have money and a lifestyle that they can never attain. This equally covers vandalism and damage of property as a result of rage and jealousy. There are a number of behavioural conditions associated with juvenile delinquency i.e. anger, rage, hatred, jealousy and ignorance ( lack of education). This often leads to repeat offences and eventually more serious crimes including homicide.  Certain states like Texas treat juvenile crime in the same context in adults and the death penalty still exists for juvenile homicide cases  (Snyder, H.N.  2006)

Media and Youth Violence

There has been a wide number of research projects conducted over the concept of media influence and youth violence.  Some academics like Professor R.L. Howell at the University of Michigan believe that such prolonged exposure to media violence has a profound impact  on children’s aggressive behaviour and this is found to carry through into adulthood.  Others like J. Freedman at the University of Toronto dispute this claim and state that there is no hard evidence to support that exposure to media violence alters the behavioural characteristics of people.  Another study carried out by Andrea Martinez at the University of Ottawa concluded that  media violence is hard to measure and define.  Other researchers have been more specific pointing to the psychological effects of mind disturbance produced by scenes of horrific violence. (Media Awareness network).

Violence and Video Games

In 2005 the American Psychological Association called for a reduction in the amount of violence that is shown in Video Games.  From their perspective the evidence was clear – they based this upon 20 years of research with psychologists at the St Leo University in Tampa Florida.  The research carried out indicated that those children who were exposed to graphic violence scenes had a short term increase in aggressive behaviour patterns. Another study conducted by a student from Illinois indicated that there was no long term damage. That conclusion might prove more socially acceptable but a recent case illustrated the potential problem . This being the case of Devin Moore where a Grand Jury reached a guilty verdict after three people were killed as an influence of the film Grand Theft Auto

Works Cited

Barbara A. Bardes, Mack C. Shelley, Steffen W. Schmidt. American Government and Politics Today 2008: The Essentials. Belmont CA: Wadsworth, 2008.

Buccieri, Stephen Gaetz Bill O’Grady Kristy. Surviving Crime and Violence. Toronto: Justice for Children and Youth, and Homeless Hub Press, 2010.

CanWest News Service. Homeless suffer more from mental illness, says report. 8 31, 2007. http://www.canada.com/topics/photogalleries/story.html?id=9116dc4d-0a08-4c23-8851-19c5fa96868f&p=2 (accessed 6 14, 2011).

Fantz, Ashley. Teen ‘sport killings’ of homeless on the rise. 2 19, 2007. http://articles.cnn.com/2007-02-19/us/homeless.attacks_1_homeless-man-homeless-report-michael-stoops?_s=PM:US (accessed 6 14, 2011).

H.N. Snyder, M. Sickmund. “Juvenile Offendors and victims.” National Report, 2006: 253.

J.C., Skeen. “Is criminal behaviour a central component of psychopathy, conceptual directions in resolving the debate.” Juvenile Offendors and Victims, 2010: 433-441.

M.Price. “New insights on homelessness and violence.” American Psychological Association Vol 40, No. 11, 2009: 62.

Sociology Guide. Questions on Deviance and Social Control. 2010. http://www.sociologyguide.com/questions/deviance-socialcontrol.php (accessed 11 27, 2010).

Stateman, Alison. “Violence Against the Homeless: Is It a Hate Crime?” Time Magazine, 2008.

Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, Stefan Malthaner. The Control of Violence in Modern Society: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. University of Bielfield, Germany: Springer, 2010.

Young, Jock. The Exclusive Society. London: Sage, 1999.—. The vertigo of late modernity. London: Sage, 2007.