Module Four- Postmodern and cultural criminology

What is edgework?

Risky behaviour- at the boundary of sanity and insanity, life and death

What are some alternative methods to measuring crime rates?

Self-report surveys, victimisation surveys. Whilst they still face measurement issues they can be used alongside official data to get a broader picture of the issue at hand.

What resulted from the 07/08 spike in graffiti during the financial crisis?

Summary offenses (Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Bill (2008)- creates specific offences of defacement, graffiti as well as having spray cans. Spray cans were made less accessible, esp. for those under 18.

What is the Getty Provenance index database?

Tells you details about art- like who owns it. If you can't track provenance, you may question what happened to it, if it's original etc. Provenance becomes part of the objects worth.

What does part of the Summary Offenses ( Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Bill argue?

That if you tag you are likely to go on to commit other crimes- more serious offending. Taggers are seen as deviants, rather than artists.

What is abstraction?

The Non Material Culture- composed of symbols and other non tangible elements of culture. General ideas and ways of thinking.

What are the criticisms of new right criminology?

The appeal is symbolic. Focus on individual choice entirely erases structural inequality. Assumes a conservative and narrow set of moral values. Law is neutral and 'right'. Crime is street crime. Preparedness to do away with human rights.

What is production?

The human capacity to make and use tools; improves our ability to take what we want from nature-material culture.

What is often emphasised in the media around cultural property theft/crime?

The lost monetary value of the piece, rather than it's cultural significance, which is likely to be worth more to society.

What is culture?

The sum of practices, languages, symbols, beliefs, values, ideologies and material objects that people create to solve problems and make sense of the world around them.

Is there a link between high imprisonment rates and high crime rates?

Not really, rather, neoliberal societies with higher levels of inequalities, a focus on individual responsibility and inadequate welfare systems tend to send people to prison while social democracies with a focus on collective responsibility tend to have low imprisonment rates.

What is crime rate?

Number of offences per 10,000 population.

What are the sources of crime stats?

Police, dept of corrections, ministry of justice, NZ crime and safety survey.

What are the different types of graffiti?

Political graffiti. Protest graffiti- Victoria St, Wellington "No deep sea oil drilling off our coast". Graffiti art- Banksy. Toilet and other public graffiti- e.g. the Graffiti of Mr Tupaia. Gang graffiti- seen as culturally legitimate as represents markings of subculture, often undecipherable by non-members. Tagger graffiti- Taki- has the least cultural legitimacy, vandalism.

What is populism?

Populism exists where sections of the public feel disenfranchised, ignored by the elite. These groups speak out against the elite who are constructed as being 'out of touch' with real life. Populism supports the concerns of the ordinary people.

Who represent the powerful and the powerless in cultural property crimes?

Powerful- the art market, art collectors, patrons and galleries. Powerless- indigenous communities, ancestors.

Why do we need crime stats?

To assess the prevalence of crime- types of crimes, changes over time. To evaluate performance of institutions. Assess impact of policy and law. Uncover inequalities in the system

What is authoritarian populism?

"Crime is ideologically conveyed in a series of moral panics about "law-and-order" issues". Seriousness and extent of crime emphasised (although rarely supported by stats). Specific groups of people are singled out: welfare recipients, striking workers, indigenous populations etc.

What is the official view of addiction?

1. Addiction is fundamentally a problem of drug and alcohol consumption. 2. Drugs can transform people into addicts. 3. Vulnerability to addicted suffer inherited predispositions. 4. People who become addicted suffer from a chronic/relapsing disease. 5. Although people can't be cured, their symptoms can be managed by professional treatment/self-help groups. If they refuse treatment they will continue to damage themselves/others. 6. Addiction is the problem of certain dysfunctional individuals within an otherwise well-functioning society.

What is new right criminology?

A combination of conservative moralising and a free-market competitive ethos. Get tough in crime approach includes both right wing libertarians and traditional conservatives. Focus on opportunity reduction, and underclass explanations.

What does cultural criminology say about crime?

Crime and the agencies of control are both cultural products. Focus on the emotional aspects of criminal behaviour and in responses to criminal behaviour.

What are the ideas of left realism?

Crime is a big problem and debates over the definition don't change this. Official crime stats underestimate due to underreporting. Most personal crime in intra-class and disproportionately affects the poor. Police and inefficient and hostile towards you people and minorities.

What drugs do the most harm in NZ?

Alcohol and tobacco.

Why are there issues with absolute numbers of crimes?

As population increases, crime increases. (But crime rate may not). For example, whilst the absolute number of robberies has increased, but the rate has decreased.

What is new right economics?

At the end of the 80's (economic prosperity was coming to an end), we see massive political, social and economic change- often as backlash to the social progress made in the 60s and 70s.

Why might changes in number of reported crime not reflect actual number of offenses?

Changes in reporting and recording, changes in law (e.g. anti-smacking law increased assault rates), changes in policing.

What other issues may drug use indicative of?

Childhood abuse or neglect. Personal or interpersonal problems/trauma. Peer group. Drug use may begin as thrilling, risk-taking, counter-culture behaviour but change into something else when an individual loses control.

What is cooperation?

Creating social life through norms and values- or generally accepted ways of doing things.

Why were drugs initially outlawed in the US?

Due to who was perceived to be taking them. e.g. Chinese people taking opiates- taking white jobs and women. Marijuana outlawed due to the increase in Mexican immigrants.

Describe the origins of culture.

Early humans lived in harsh natural environments, were slower runners and weaker fighters than other animals. They created complex and flexible cultural survival kits.

What is the 'three-strikes' legislation?

First strike- warning issued, second strain- final warning and must serve full sentence without parole, strike three- judge must sentence the person to the maximum term of imprisonment prescribed for the offence and order that it be served without parole unless the removal of the parole would be 'manifestly unjust'.

What are the three primary purposes of the NZ Art Crime Research Trust?

Hosting an annual Art Crime Symposium. Advancing multi-disciplinary research into art crime and related issues. Encouraging and fostering awareness of art crime in all its manifestations and forms.

How are drugs conceptualised today?

Immoral, a health issue

How is graffiti a post-modern art movement?

It represents the voice of the small people

What is the rat park experiment?

Looked at rats in isolation versus rats in 'rat park'. Rats in rat park did take morphine but not in excess (in isolation they took 19x as much). Suggests the social environment plays a key role in addiction.

Who are overrepresented in the prison population?

Maori, unemployed, people with cognitive disabilities and mental health problems.

What might determine if something is done about graffiti?

Message and location of graffiti.

What are the building blocks of a cultural survival kit?

abstraction, cooperation and production