Criminal Sociology
Sina mahdavi damghani; Abdolreza javan jafari; seyyed mohammad javad sadati
Abstract
The increase in violence among teenagers and young people is one of the basic problems of today's societies. One of the obvious results of the increase in violence is a significant increase in the rate of committing violent crimes, which itself leads to major problems in various economic, social and ...
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The increase in violence among teenagers and young people is one of the basic problems of today's societies. One of the obvious results of the increase in violence is a significant increase in the rate of committing violent crimes, which itself leads to major problems in various economic, social and cultural fields. This descriptive-correlation research has been conducted with the aim of investigating effects of four variables: grade point average, ethnicity, economic ability and physical situations on the subculture of violence among teenage and young wrestlers in Mashhad city. The sample size of the research was determined using Cochran test of 170 people, and data collection was done in both library and field methods. According to results of research, there is significant relationship between variables of: average of education, ethnicity, and economic ability with the subculture of violence among samples, but we didn't find a significant relationship between physical situation of samples and their subculture of violence. Also, in this article we have tried to divide the different effective variable on abnormality into the two general categories and based on the field findings of this research explain how the affecting of these two categories.Key words: Ethnicity, Academic average, the subculture of violence, Economic status, Physical situation Introduction:Violence is recognized as a manifestation of deviance in contemporary civilized and advanced societies. This phenomenon of deviance is significantly expanding in today's world, with a noticeable increase in the rates of violent crimes such as conflicts, assaults, violent thefts, etc. According to statistics, interviews, and reports from official sources, the rate of violent crimes has reached a significantly high level in recent years, showing a considerable increase compared to the past. This high rate becomes particularly concerning when accompanied by the participation of adolescents and young people.Interestingly, based on numerous national and international reports, the rate of delinquency among adolescents and youth has consistently shown an increasing trend in recent decades. Various factors such as age, economic status, ethnicity, residential environment, cultural background, peer groups, family attachment, etc., influence the normative situation of individuals. In this present study, we intend to investigate the impact of four variables: ethnicity, economic status, academic performance, and physical condition of adolescents and young people on their subcultural violence.It is worth mentioning that each of the mentioned variables has been extensively examined by many scholars, and their various effects on deviance have been explained in different theories. However, it is noteworthy that most theories focus on one or a few factors, attempting to explain and describe the causes of deviance from the perspective of those factors. Although these factors are influential in the normative situation of individuals, none of them is the sole determining factor. Many individuals exhibit deviant behavior despite possessing these factors.Humans are complex beings, and their various behaviors are influenced by multiple factors. Therefore, theories that solely focus on one or a few limited aspects and variables lack the necessary capability to fully explain the causes of deviance. To better understand and explain the causes of deviance, it is necessary to develop and utilize integrated theories.Methodology:The research population of this study includes adolescent and young wrestlers in the city of Mashhad. Data collection was conducted through both library research and fieldwork. Relevant sections regarding the foundations and theoretical background were referred to library sources such as books, theses, and related articles. Additionally, to gather analyzable data, we used two data collection methods: observation and questionnaires.The research sampling method was a multi-stage cluster sampling, and sports clubs and athletes were randomly selected. The Cochran test was used to determine and select the required number of athletes. Based on this, 170 questionnaires were distributed and collected among the research population, and the obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software.Result and Discussion:Based on the research findings, there was no significant relationship between the physical condition of the samples and their violence. However, statistical tests revealed a significant inverse relationship between the academic performance of the samples and their violence. Therefore, it can be stated that with an increase in academic performance, a decrease in violence is observed, and with a decrease in academic performance, an increase in violence is observed. Additionally, based on the data, it must be acknowledged that there is a direct and significant relationship between the economic status of the samples and their violence. In other words, an increase in the economic power of the samples is associated with an increase in their violence, and a decrease in economic power is associated with a decrease in their violence. Finally, regarding the ethnicity variable, the analysis of research data indicates a significant relationship between non-Persian ethnicity and high levels of violence. The research findings also demonstrate that non-Persian samples have higher average economic power and subcultural violence compared to Persian samples.In general, when examining different samples of the research, it is understood that adolescents and young people who have a strong tendency towards violence are usually non-Persian and have higher economic power than other samples. This statement contradicts the assumption that unfavorable economic conditions and poverty are effective factors in deviance. To explain this, it should be noted that the spectrum of violence reflected in the questionnaire is mostly related to criminal acts, rape, or offenses that, if committed, lead to consequences such as punishment and deprivation for the perpetrators. It is evident that individuals with higher economic power can tolerate higher levels of deprivation, and therefore, punishment against them will have less deterrent effect. This fact makes individuals with a violent mindset and higher economic power less deterred in similar situations.Apart from the stated content, we can see many individuals with similar characteristics have not had a similar approach to violence and deviance. Observing this spectrum of individuals raises the question of why individuals with similar characteristics do not commit similar acts of deviance and do not have the same inclination towards deviance. To answer this question, one must become familiar with the concepts of fundamental and surficial components influencing deviance.The concept of "fundamental components" in this research refers to the cultural status of individuals, meaning the norms, values, and beliefs accepted by them. On the other hand, "surficial components" refer to other external factors and components that affect an individual's status from outside the individual, including economic capacity, educational status, physical condition, peer groups, ethnicity, social environment, and other environmental factors.In general, surficial components have dual effects, meaning they may enhance and intensify deviant behavior in one area and weaken or reduce the commission of deviance in another area. According to the research findings, surficial components can lead to changes or stability in fundamental components. Fundamental components, in turn, can be influential in the selection and strengthening or non-selection and non-strengthening of surficial components. This implies that individuals with different cultures and mental values may react differently to various factors in their environment.Ultimately, through the interaction between surficial and fundamental components, different effects are created on the intensity and weakness of various behaviors. For example, economic wealth as a surficial component can have different effects on individuals with different mental beliefs. In individuals with deviant mental culture, the presence of economic wealth may be a factor in intensifying the commission of deviant acts. Meanwhile, in individuals from the same culture, a decrease in economic capacity may result in a reduction in the commission of deviant acts by them. At the same time, the presence of this component in a person with appropriate culture may intensify their benevolent actions.From the analysis of the research and summarizing the stated content, it can be concluded that although the cause of social deviations is not unitary and definitive, and these deviations result from the combination and accumulation of various factors in an individual, it seems that cultural components have a significant impact on determining social behaviors. Surficial components that do not lead to a change in individuals' mental culture may not be effective in their behavioral domain.Conclusion:According to the research findings, social and external variables such as academic performance, ethnicity, and economic power had a significant and strong relationship with the cultural status of the samples. However, the physical condition of the samples, as a personal and individual variable, did not have a significant relationship with their cultural status.
Criminal law and criminology
Zahra Farhadi Alashti; Abdolreza JavanJafari Bojnordi; Mahdi Seidzadeh Sani
Abstract
This study places itself within the scope of cultural criminology approach, a multidisciplinary research field that explores crime and reactions to its control from an anarchist view. Cultural criminology places the issues of meaning in the hearts of its studies. Cultural criminologists propose that ...
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This study places itself within the scope of cultural criminology approach, a multidisciplinary research field that explores crime and reactions to its control from an anarchist view. Cultural criminology places the issues of meaning in the hearts of its studies. Cultural criminologists propose that both crime and its control operate as cultural processes. In this theoretical approach, crime and its control are conceptualized as creative cultural products which are changing in the dynamics of social interactions. It examines how the meaning of crime and its control is continuously constructed in the nonlinear cultural, criminal, and crime control processes. It focuses on the convergence of criminal subcultures, control agents and media processes. For cultural criminologists, the media-based images of crime are one of the main sources of mediated constructions of meaning. They emphasize the centrality of media representations in the construction of crime. In this regard, it chooses an interdisciplinary approach with sociological criminology, cultural studies and media Criminology.This study sought to analyze the media-constructed lived experience of Iranian hackers by using the theoretical approach of cultural criminology. Cultural criminologists draw attention, particularly mainstream variants of criminology, to the fact that the crime control agencies are not the only creators of the meaning of crime and its control. Proposing the idea of commodification and hall of mirrors, they argue that the media representations of criminals and criminal events become a tool for creating the meaning of crime. These images create and consume by criminals, criminal subcultures and control agents. In today's highly controlled world which subcultures become marginalized, media representations become significant, exceptional sources for creating deviant subcultural reality. These images are continuously recycling and reproducing by control agents and subcultures and even other media images. Hence, we are being surrounded in a world in which saturated by different, nonhomogeneous images of crime and its control.This research is accomplished via anarchist methodology of cultural criminology. To this end, we have used the ethnographic content analysis (ECA) developed by David Altheide (1980s) and virtual ethnography of hacker subculture. Due to the qualitative nature of the research, the Blue Whale television series were analyzed by using the purposive sampling method. Researches conducted in this area must focus not only on the everyday media images, but also on the complex set of reciprocal and interdependent subcultural relationships which together constitute the dynamic meaning of crime. In this regard, in the subcultural studies section, fifty-four in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with hackers during the six months, and their behaviors were simply observed. All data were coded and analyzed using MAXQDA software.Our findings indicated that the meaning of the hacking is also created through the consumption of media products. Entertainment media can represent the real dimensions of criminal subcultures in the form of attractive media products. In many ways, Blue Whale blend the real-life and movie created footage and blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. The hacker represents a personality similar to many young people, which can evoke audience emotion. According to our virtual ethnography research, some hackers are students or graduates of various fields, especially computers, who suffer from economic problems like the character of the hacker shown in this series. They are humiliated by powerful adults and at the same time, have a creative mind. The fictional hacker of this film, like many hackers in the real world, feels prosperous and empowered by taking risks as part of edgework activities. The combination of skill, creative impulsive behavior, and economic problems lead the hacker to greater ambitions in the criminal profession, and finally, the metaphorical incident of the death of the whale occurs. Moreover, the Blue Whale provides information about the lesser-known dimensions of criminal edge workers that the criminal justice system seeks to distort to prevent delinquency. It also found that by representing parts of the realities of hackers' lived experiences and looping back to the content and form of previous media loops, the series screening a dystopia that provides the possibility of transcending established norms and rules of the life for the offender and the audience.
Criminal Sociology
Amir Khademi; seyyed mohammad javad Sadati; Abdolreza Javan jafari
Abstract
During the deliberations of the Islamic Consultative Assembly regarding the Bill of Hudud and Qisas and the possibility of handing over its approval to the Judicial Commission, Mr. Mohammad Fazel said: "Is it really necessary for us to send this bill to the Commission?" How many years will it be implemented ...
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During the deliberations of the Islamic Consultative Assembly regarding the Bill of Hudud and Qisas and the possibility of handing over its approval to the Judicial Commission, Mr. Mohammad Fazel said: "Is it really necessary for us to send this bill to the Commission?" How many years will it be implemented on a trial basis? There is also this Shariah doubt that God's decrees can be put to the test and see for how many years whether God's decree is applicable or not? Later, we will vote that God's decree is applicable and extend it or say that it is not applicable."About four decades later, at the opposite point of the aforementioned statements, during the negotiations of the Islamic Consultative Assembly for the approval of the law to reduce the punishment of imprisonment, on November 14, 2018, the 380th meeting; Mr. Haji Deligani said: "It seems that there was no opportunity to know how the opinions of experts, honorable judges, and sociologists regarding the effects of this resolution on crime issues in society can have an effect and cause it to decrease or increase. From that side, there was no opportunity to get the lawyers & jurists opinion."What said were two different images of the criminal discourse regarding crimes that existed several decades apart from each other. The first image, which uses the expression "God's commandments" regarding the law of "Hudud and Qisas and its regulations", reflects the sinfully discourse. Sinfully discourse presents a holy image of crime by making a deep connection between crime and sin and portrays crime as a conflict with God's will. On the other hand, the second image reveals the weakening of the sinfully discourse and a significant trend towards the technical discourse regarding the crime. In the technical discourse, the sacred and meta-experiential image of crime becomes a material image, during which delinquency is considered as a behavior in violation of the existing social order and a symbol of disrespect for society's values. The criminalization process takes place in the technical discourse with an emphasis on scientific foundations. The second image, which deals with criminological issues and reducing or increasing crime, is a symbol of technical discourse.During this transformation, the readings of punishment also changed significantly. In the sinfully discourse, punishment was considered as a reaction for the restoration of the divine will. But in the technical discourse, punishment is portrayed as a bureaucratic response to the delinquent behavior of the criminal. The transition to technical discourse caused Sharia punishments in the law, such as Hudud, to be significantly transformed and replaced by other punishments in some cases. from now on, committing many crimes in the eyes of the society, violation of sacred values and punishment is not considered a symbol of God's will and therefore the social acceptability of Sharia punishments such as "stoning" has decreased significantly.Also, in the cases of committing a crime, the criminal is no longer recognized as a violator of divine values, so that a strict criminal policy can be used in his case. Rather, in today's era, a criminal is often recognized as a person who should be subjected to corrective and rehabilitative measures. How to decipher the transition from the sinfully discourse to the technical discourse regarding the crime? How can we evaluate the reproduction of sinfully discourse in the first decade of the revolution and its transition to technical discourse in the next four decades? How can we analyze the association of the society with the sinfully discourse in the first decade of the Islamic revolution and its turning away from the said discourse after a few decades?To answer the above questions, we can discuss and investigate from different aspects. Among them, relying on philosophical and technical theories in the field of criminal law, he found the reason for the significant transition from the sinfully discourse to the technical discourse. For example, in the technical field of criminal law, by emphasizing new criminological findings, it can be revealed that the thinking of legal elites, especially in the field of criminological theories, has a significant impact on the evolution of laws and criminal discourse. in such a way that, the elites' depiction of the criminal as a patient deserving of treatment and their emphasis on the need to apply effective punishments in his reformation caused a significant tendency towards technical discourse. Also, by taking the path of philosophical studies, the effect of deterrence-based theories can be considered effective in the aforementioned transition, or it can be done by revealing the role of scientific foundations and reflecting it in law. Despite the valuableness of the aforementioned analyses, the upcoming research will examine the answers to the above questions with an emphasis on the perception of "cognitive society" from two perspectives of power and society. In this regard, from the perspective of power in the framework of sociological perceptions, we will analyze the phenomenon of sinfully discourse and the transition from it to technical discourse from the perspective of transformation in "social control methods" and the theory of "ideology and the state's ideological apparatuses". did Also, from the perspective of the society in the perceptive framework of the sociology of culture, we explain the phenomenon of the mentioned discourse and the significant trend towards the technical discourse by relying on the changes in the "ritual and social dimension of religion".Thus, in the first step, this research will explain the reason for the reproduction of the sinfully discourse regarding crimes. In this case, it becomes clear that from the point of view of power, the effort to promote the cultural system considered by the religious traditionalist power and the beginning of the process of de-bureaucracy in the first decade of the revolution caused the appearance of sinfully discourse regarding crimes. From the society's point of view, the prominent role of religion in the social life made the sinfully discourse towards crimes to be evident. In the next step, the bureaucratization of power and the reduction of the social dimension of religious values caused a significant trend towards technical discourse.Finally, it should be pointed out that dealing with the issue of the transition from the sinfully discourse to the technical discourse regarding crimes from a sociological point of view, never means ignoring other effective factors in the transition of the said discourse, such as the thinking of legal elites, reflection Scientific bases in the laws or the impact of international documents are not binding
Mohsen Nourpour; Abdolreza javan jafari; mahdi seidzadeh
Abstract
The subject of the present article is to examine the evolution of corporal punishment in the first decade of the Islamic Revolution and to analyze the factors affecting it. To achieve this goal, various documents have been referred to. Also, the role of different socio-political forces and the space ...
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The subject of the present article is to examine the evolution of corporal punishment in the first decade of the Islamic Revolution and to analyze the factors affecting it. To achieve this goal, various documents have been referred to. Also, the role of different socio-political forces and the space and context of society, have been analyzed in the evolution of the discourse governing corporal punishment. The results of the research show that in the case of corporal punishment, three different discourses can be identified in the first decade of the revolution. The discourse of Sharia orientedness shows itself immediately after the victory of the revolution, as a result of which corporal punishment is carried out on a large scale and with an ideological reading of religion. The second period began a few months after the revolution and continued until the ratification of the penal code. The third period, which begins in 1982 with the ratification of criminal law, is the period of consolidation of the discourse of legalism on corporal punishment. Each of the above discourses is first described and the reason for evolution of these discourses is analyzed with regard to sociological perspective.
Abdolreza javan jafari; Muhammad Saleh Esfandiari Bahraseman
Abstract
In the present study, regardless of the Penological and philosophical aspects, the effect of sociological changes and factors on the increasing of death penalty, as well as, its reduction in relation to Drug crimes were studied. In this regard, a question titled "what are the main reasons of increasing ...
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In the present study, regardless of the Penological and philosophical aspects, the effect of sociological changes and factors on the increasing of death penalty, as well as, its reduction in relation to Drug crimes were studied. In this regard, a question titled "what are the main reasons of increasing the death penalty for some drug traffickers in early years of the revolution and during of the imposed war and executed in public by considering the "punishment and social solidarity" theory. In those times, death penalty have been as the emotional expression and reflection of community anger against violation of social values. However, death penalty has presented the most important function in those social situation. During the time, the attitude of people and elites towards the punishment and especially death penalty on drug crimes in terms of advection of socio-cultural evolutions and the change of values in the context of society was upgraded. One of the most important signs of mentioned evolution is the lack of execution of the death penalty in public.
