Violent and Sexually Offending Young People 02

1. 2. Defining Social Construction &
human development 14slides
John Clark

2. Violent and Sexually Offending Young People
Hand in 27th
April. Essay Questions
 Please answer one of these questions in no more than 5000 words.
1. What is the difference between retributive and restorative
justice? How can a restorative approach help victims of
serious crime?
2. How can we explain the apparent rise in young people
using knives and guns in their law breaking?
3. In what way does the media shape out attitudes to young
people who commit serious offences?
4. What is the cycle of abuse and how does it help us work
with young sexual offenders?

3. Violent & sexually offending young people
 Essay process.
1. Initial marking-early May
2. Moderated- May/June
3. Exam Board-June .
4. Marks confirmed on VLE
5. Pick up scripts from LLC

4. “The child moves through Whitehall growing
and shrinking like Alice:
in the Department of health she is a small
potential victim, at the Treasury and the
Department of Education a growing but silent
unit of investment but at the Home Office a
huge and threatening yob”
Seaford, H (2001)Children and childhood: perceptions and
realities,
The Political Quarterly 72(4):454-465.
2

5. Social construction
 A perspective that begins with exploring
assumptions associated with the labelling
of things & emphasizes the importance of
social expectations in the analysis of taken
for granted & apparently natural social
circumstances. (Clarke & Cochrane 1998)
3

6. 6
What do we mean by Social Construction?
 The roots of Social Construction Theory –
Emile Durkheim (developed by Weber)
 Developed in the 1960’s Berger & Luckmann
 “The Social Construction of Reality”
 Our social interactions become
habitualised/institutionalised.
 Our behaviour becomes predictable and
controlled.
4

7. 7
Berger & Luckmann 1967

8. Nature or nurture?
 Does a ‘thing’ exist because it is biologically
determined to do so, or does ‘it’ exist
because we have created it through social
interactions?
 Eg: Gender or gender roles are mere social
constructs, there is nothing natural about
being a man or a woman
6

9. What do we mean by ‘Human
Nature’?
 Sociologists generally agree that, unlike
animals, human nature has plasticity.
 Human nature can be shaped by biological
and environmental factors.
 The nature/nurture debate.
7

10. Critiques of SC theory
 What about things that have existed
independently of human beings eg dinosaurs
or mountains?
 However, is SC attempting to explain the
possibility of infinite meanings that can be
applied to independently existing things?
8

11. Berger & Luckmann (1967)
 Common Sense does not ‘exist’ it is ‘made’.
 Hence, as we apply this to ‘childhood’ – what
‘common sense’ views do we hold of childhood.
 These ‘common sense’ views have not endured
over history.
 Different criminological theories adhere to
contrasting views about the nature of ‘reality’. (and
hence, crime)
9

12. Exercise -age & ability
How old would you need to be-
 To be left alone in a room?
 To walk to school unaccompanied?
 Be left alone at home?
 Have a body piercing?
 Go to the cinema?
 Babysit?
10

13. Control & regulatory effects of welfare
& social policy
 Rights & responsibilities
 Inconsistencies between civil & criminal
codes
 Full civil rights at 22 years
 Criminal responsibility (in England & Wales)
at 10
 Rights & responsibilities?
 Statutory school leaving extended
 Extended adolescence

14. Child and adolescent development
 “Normal” behaviour
 The play agenda
 Challenges in adolescence:
 Family discord (especially Domestic Violence)
 Puberty
 Drugs / alcohol
 Bereavement
 Struggles at school
12

15. Significant predictors of self reported
violence at age 8-10
 Childhood misconduct
 Daring
 Low non-verbal IQ
 Large family size
 Low income
16

16. How prevalent is crime?
 Is crime limited to a minority ‘hard core’ of the
population?
 Is crime an activity engaged in by the majority
of the population?
 How can we ‘know’ the extent of crime in a
population?
15

17. Definition of Crime
 How is crime defined?
 From a infraction of codified legal rules.
 OR from behaviour that offends the social
code?
 Which illegal behaviour do we turn a ‘blind
eye’?
 Which anti-social behaviour carries serious
consequences?
13

18. Social construction of official statistics
Press headlines to crime stats (Jan 08) ranked
by circulation
 30 gun crimes committed a day (the Sun)
 Drug offences soar 21% in a single year (Daily Mail)
 Home Secretary says crime figures are excellent (Mirror)
 Gun crime up as Smith says UK safer than ever (Telegraph)
 Government accused over crime rises (Daily Express &
Star)
 Fewer robberies, assaults & burglaries , but crime at
gunpoint is on the rise (The Times)
 Crime falling ever faster, but drug & gun offences increase
(Guardian)
 Risk of becoming victim of crime at 27 year low
(Independent)
14

19. 19
Right & wrong
I have a four-year-old at home. And if I ask him if it was right to hit a friend he’d say,
no,it’s wrong. Why would he say that? Because of the tone of my voice. Because
he’s picked up enough about parents and teachers to know how to give appropriate
answers. Because he goes to nursery school and watches children’s television.
Because he wants to earn approval. Not because he possesses a mature moral
understanding, but because he wants to say the right thing.
I have a four-year-old who believes the man in the moon is real – who believes the
moon is a man. Other four-year-olds have similar beliefs. They think the manikins in
shop windows are dead people. They think the sea is there because someone left
the tap running. They wonder who the sun belongs to, and whether heaven has a
floor, and why people aren’t in two all the way up. I know seven-year-olds who
believe in the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy. I know nine-year-olds who believe in
Father Christmas. (I know forty-year-olds who think God lives in the sky and wears a
white gown). Long may it live, this belief in magic. More power to as if. But don’t tell
me four-year-olds know the difference between right and wrong.
And eight-year-olds, ten-year-olds? They understand the difference better, but can
they act on that understanding?
(Morrison B. As if. 1998. Granta)