CHAPTER 8

Chapter 8: The Meaning of Crime
—Social Process Perspectives

Major Principles of Social Process Perspectives
This brief section serves to summarize the central features of social process theories of crime causation. Each of these points can be found elsewhere in this chapter, where they are discussed in more detail. This cursory overview, however, is intended to provide more than a summary—it is meant to be a guide to the rest of this chapter.

Most social process theories of crime causation make certain fundamental assumptions. Among them are

The nature of social reality is in flux; what we think of as social reality is a construction—specifically an artifact of socialization and social interaction.

The meaning of events and experiences is conferred upon them by the participants in any interaction. Social actors define the situations in which they are involved.

Meaning is derived from previous learned experiences and is conferred upon experiences in typical and recurring ways.

Behavior is criminal insofar as others define it as such and agree to its meaning.

Criminal behavior is variously interpreted by the offender, the victim, agents of social control, and society.

Deviant individuals and criminal offenders achieve their status by virtue of social definition, rather than because of inborn traits.

Continued criminal activity may be a consequence of limited opportunities for acceptable behavior which follow from the negative responses of society to those defined as criminal.

Career offenders participate in a world-view that differs from the world-view of the conformist and which grants legitimacy to nonconformist activity.

Summary
This chapter has discussed a seemingly wide variety of perspectives, from labeling, through dramaturgy and phenomenology, to the rebirth of the victims' assistance movement. Similarly, we have used both the terms "social process approach" and "interactionist perspective" to classify the theories found in this chapter. More fundamental to each perspective described herein, however, is the concept of "social meaning," and, were it not for existing convention, this chapter might better be titled "the search for social meaning."

When an individual offender is labeled a criminal or a deviant, the meaning which that person's presence holds for the group of which he or she is a part, as well as the personal significance of that person's life, have been inexorably changed. He or she will rarely be seen the same (in the predeviant state) again. In like fashion, when a person internalizes an acquired or imposed deviant self-conception, the meaning of his or her life changes and any future decisions he or she will make take on a new significance in light of the new self-image. Some people, as Erving Goffman points out, work diligently to create impressions that convey particular sorts of meaning to others around them.

Finally, victims often find their lives dramatically modified by the victimization experience. Things previously taken for granted, such as evening strolls through one's neighborhood, may never seem the same again (especially if the person was the victim of a mugging). Hence, while each perspective covered in this chapter looks to the interaction that occurs between individuals, and especially to interaction between criminals and victims, and sees such interaction as a process that is open to analysis, the ultimate outcome of any significant interaction is always a new experience or the reinterpretation of previous experiences—it involves, in short, the creation of new meanings.
Discussion Questions
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the labeling process. Give a few examples of the everyday imposition of positive, rather than negative, labels. Why is it so difficult to successfully impose positive labels on individuals previously labeled negatively?

Do you believe that Erving Goffman's dramaturgical approach, which sees the world as a stage and individuals as actors upon that stage, provides any valuable insights into human affairs? If so, what are they? Do you believe that Goffman takes his analogy too far? If so, how?

Explain the concept of phenomenology in your own words. How might it be applied to the study of subject matter other than that of crime and criminality? Do you agree with critics that phenomenological criminology is "nihilistic"? Why or why not?

Examine the victims' bill of rights presented in the box in this chapter that contains a portion Arizona's state constitution. What aspects of the "bill," if any, would you wish to see deleted or changed? Why? What might be added? Why? Could portions of the bill be made more concise? If so, how?

Do you favor or oppose amending the U.S. Constitution to recognize the rights of crime victims? Defend your position? This chapter discusses proposed changes to the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that would recognize such rights. Are there any other parts of the U.S. Constitution that might also be changed to address such recognition?

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