Post a 200 to 300 word response to the Critical Thinking questions for The Criminological Enterprise: Violent Land on p. 339 of the Criminology text. TEXT IS ATTACHMENT:
Case study - Violent Land
David Courtwright, an authority on the sociocultural roots of violence, describes a nineteenth-century American society much more violent than today. According to Courtwright, societies with the highest rates of violent crime have been populations with an overabundance of young males who are “awash with testosterone” and unrestrained by social controls such as marriage and family.
Until the mid-twentieth century, the U.S. population was disproportionately young and male. The male-tofemale gender ratio of those who settled here involuntarily—indentured servants and slaves—was more than 2 to 1. Poor laborers who paid for their passage by signing labor contracts were almost all male; the gender ratio among Chinese laborers was an astounding 27 to 1. Aside from Ireland, which furnished slightly more female than male immigrants, Europeans who arrived voluntarily were also predominantly male.
Because these young men outnumbered women, not all men were able to marry, and those who did not remained unrestrained by the calming influences of family life and parental responsibility. Cultural factors worsened these population trends. Frontier culture was characterized by racism and preoccupation with personal honor. Some ethnic groups drank heavily and frequented saloons and gambling halls, where petty arguments could become lethal because most patrons carried guns and knives. Violent acts often went unpunished, however, because law enforcement agencies were unable or unwilling to take action. Nowhere were these cultural and population effects felt more acutely than on the western frontier. Here the population was mostly young bachelors who were sensitive about honor, hostile racists, heavy drinkers, morally indifferent, heavily armed, and unchecked by adequate law enforcement. It is not surprising, considering this explosive mix, that 20 percent of the 89,000 miners who arrived in California during the 1849 gold rush were dead within 6 months. Many died from disease, but others succumbed to drink and violence. Smoking, gambling, and heavy drinking became a cultural imperative, and those who were disinclined to indulge were considered social outcasts.
Over time, gender ratios equalized as more men brought families to the frontier, and children of both sexes were born. Many men died, returned home, or drifted elsewhere. By the mid-twentieth century, America’s overall male surplus was disappearing, and a balanced population helped bring down the crime rate.
According to Courtwright, rising violence rates in the 1960s and 1970s can be attributed to the fact that men were avoiding, delaying, or terminating marriage. In 1960 Americans spent an average of 62 percent of their lives with spouses and children, an all-time high; in 1980 they spent 43 percent with families, an all-time low. Both the illegitimacy and divorce rates began to spiral upward, guaranteeing that the number of poorly socialized and supervised children would increase dramatically. The inner-city urban ghetto became the frontier community of today. Gangs such as the Crips and Bloods in Los Angeles are the modern descendants of the Old West gangs of Jesse James and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Hole in the Wall Gang. And although the male-tofemale ratio is more balanced than on the western frontier, the presence of unsupervised, poorly socialized males, who have easy access to guns, drugs, and vice, has produced a crime rate of similar proportions. Violence rates have stabilized lately, but they may rise again as the decline in the family remains unchecked. Courtwright’s analysis shows that violence is not a recent development and that demographic and cultural forces determine violent crime rates. It disputes the contention that some artifact of modern life, like violent films and TV, is causing American violence. The factors that predispose societies to violence can be found in demographic and cultural factors that are unique neither to our society nor to our times.
Question 1. According to Courtwright, crime rates were exceedingly high in the nineteenth century before TV, movies, and rap videos had been created. What, if anything, does this say about the effect of media on crime?
Question 2. What were some of the other factors that provoked violence? Do you think that these factors still cause violence today?