Summary of Article:
Robert Wonser and David Boyn’s article “The Caped Crusader: What Batman Films tell Us About Crime and Deviance,” explore the “sociology of deviance” within the Batman trilogy (Wonser, p. 1). Throughout discussing the relevancy of deviance and crime in fiction films within modern society, particularly centring on the Batman series over the last decade. Current motion pictures consistently explore criminology in the many forms it presumes in, thus presenting cultural relevant themes of deviance. Wonser and Boyn’s work analyzes the Batman films while discussing the application of sociological concepts, focusing on Batman as one who obeys and breaks social laws (Wonser, p. 2). Fantasy films stimulate the sociological imagination
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Throughout these films various villains are underlined in the construction of social deviance. Wonser and Boyn describe the multitude of crime in Gotham, stating “corporate crime is widespread, police corruption is rampant, and deviant subcultures rule the streets of the inner cities” (Wonser, p. 2). Gotham highlights concepts of the popular cultural deviance that underlines classical social norms that take place in a modern setting. By means of emphasising Batman’s delinquent behaviours, he continues to tread the fine line between justice and crime. Many of Batman’s villains resulted to deviant behaviour because they were rejected from society by not meeting the social norms applicable within Gotham. These villains demonstrate the different perspectives deviance and crime can occur in, ultimately relating back to their primary socialisation and the social constructions surrounding them (Wonser, p. …show more content…
13). As an individual who was born into a middle class family, Penguin was exiled from peers because of his webbed feet and long nose. These individuals were subjected to labels because of their individual characteristics and behaviours. Wonser and Boyn quote Penguin, “we’re both perceived as monsters. But somehow, you’re a well-respected monster, and I am, to date, not”. This is in mention towards his associate Max Shreck which possesses an influential position in society as a business mogul (Wonser, p. 18). Batman himself is subjected to a socially defined conception of himself, because of the way he acts, balancing an act between justice and
Crime and deviant behavior surprisingly helps increase “social activity” among various different people within a society. Therefore, crime and deviant behavior brings “people together in a common posture of anger and indignation…when these people come together to express their outrage over the offense…they develop a tighter sense of solidarity than existed earlier” (Erikson 4). For example, in the Steven Avery case, the people of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, all had very strong feelings of Steven Avery and his family, and as a result they were seen as deviant people in their own hometown. Those feelings towards him, and his family, would be a critical factor when he was accused of the horrendous crime (Making). Based on their feelings towards the Avery family, the society in which he lived developed the overall concept of us versus them (Erikson 11). Therefore, another concept that arises as a result of crime and deviant behavior is public temper, which is described as a “mutual group feeling” (Erikson
Criminals are social deviants because they go against societal norms placed in law. As deviants gain attention, they will continue to be deviants. In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane and Batman represent the different levels of deviance. What they did individually can be judged as deviant or not. However, on the larger scale, both of their actions were deviant when they went against the social norm of corruption.
By watching the movie, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills various sociological themes on social interaction, social institutions and social organization are clearly illustrated and discussed at length by telling an extremely shocking and chilling story of American crime and punishment.
The movie The Boondock Saints provides an excellent example of positive deviance through innovation. The Social theory of deviance can easily explain the brothers’ actions. The movie can be used to study deviance as the brothers kill people who are mafia members, breaking the norms of society. Even though the acts they are committing are clearly illegal and deviant, the people of South Boston do not react in a negative way. Since the Social theory is very broad, it will be easier to look at the brother’s acts under three sub theories: Labeling, Conflict and Strain theories.
This essay will explore some of the theories commonly observed in criminology in relation to the 2005 hit movie Batman Begins. I chose a batman movie as they’re usually about lucrative criminals and batman himself is a notable criminologist. Batman and his “rogue gallery” as they are often called, also “super criminals” display similar behavior to what we see in the real worlds normal criminals.
Here comes the good stuff! We're seeing young Bruce Wayne build himself into the hero we love. This episode delves into the development of Batman and displays homages to multiple storylines. They pull from two older Batman films: Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan, and Batman Returns, directed by Tim Burton. Bruce's training scenes reflect scenes from Batman Begins.
Page 76, David Downes and Paul Rock, Understanding Deviance: A guide to the sociology of crime and rule breaking 2011 Oxford University Press inc. New York, US
Keel, R. (1999). Ethnomethodological Perspective (on Crime and Deviance). University of Missouri-St. Louis. Retrieved February 2, 2012, from http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/ethdev2.html
Rabison, Rebecca. “Representations of Crime in Disney Films: A Qualitative Analysis.” Wesleyan University Honors College. April 2008. Retrieved 18 Dec 2013 from .
...tter how hard they work, they cannot achieve the desired levels of wealth which they have been taught to aspire to, deviant behaviour may result. Howard Becker's approach to the labelling of deviance, outlined in Outsiders views deviance as the creation of social groups and not the quality of some act or behaviour ( Howard Becker website). According to Becker, researching the act of the individual is irrelevant as deviance is simply rule breaking behaviour that is labelled deviant by those in a position of power. Richard Quinney concentrates more on the development of a capitalist economy in the creation of deviants. He views the introduction of capitalism as condition where struggle is a natural component. In the book " Class, State, and Crime", Quinney states that deviance is a product of the condition of the social structure (p107) (Richard Quinney website). He believes that that the state maintains the capitalist order through the creation of laws. The state exists to serve the interests of the capitalist working class. The criminal law is merely an instrument of that class to perpetuate the current social and economic order and is used to repress those who are less powerful.
...revolutionize a whole new genre of movie, a genre which is fast becoming more and moe popular. 'As filmmaking technology has made it more and more feasible to bring the worlds of the comics to movie theaters, the comics themselves have begun to provide a broader and richer array of material.. from which films might be made' (Booker 2007: Paul Benton, Lecture notes). All the mentioned arguments throughout this essay on top of; the star performances, unique marketing and special effects, help make The Dark Knight a truly great film. Prior to the movies release it was questioned wether the film could sustain the 'increasing moral weight imposed upon it', the movie to date has more than dealt with this pressure, and has become a focal point for many discussions and essays, and finally it is because of the morals and ethics within the movie that I have written this essay.
In our society, certain ideals are held in high regard. Individuals relentlessly pursue these ideals to achieve a perceived perfection. These principles are often depicted in media that further glorifies and establishes a desire to pursue these paragons. In a medium such as comic books, however, these standards and perceptions are heavily distorted by the characterizations and settings. Particularly, the superhero genre absorbs the ideals we strive towards and regurgitates them in an extreme and unrealistic manner. The superhero genre is often reflective of societal changes in ideas and morals. These ideals are then molded into misleading representations that influence the behaviors of viewers. Comic books absorb elements of our society and transform them. For example, as the enemies of America change, so do the enemies of our superheroes. However, the enemies are transformed into supervillains that are extremely dark and villainous. Such characterizations cloud people’s understanding of real threats and enemies affecting our society. Also, to cater to the value that American society places on intelligence, attractiveness, and physical strength, comic books create characters that epitomize these characteristics. Though the represent society’s ideals, these characters manipulate the ideas and convey them back to the audience in an unrecognizable manner. In developing such distorted representations, the superhero genre affects human behavior and perceptions of these ideals.
The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with an insight into the Super Hero Series Batman. This crime fighter originally appeared in Detective Comics issue #27 in 1939. It later became a comic book series, a TV series and a movie series. The character Batman is second only to Superman as a Super Hero. Amazingly Batman has no super powers, but he does have a lot of neat crime fighting gadgets. In this paper, we will explore the creation of Batman, his supporting cast of characters both good and bad and the gadgets he used.
When an individual breaks the societal rules of conduct, they are said to be involved in deviant behaviors. However, due to the dynamism of the societies, what may be regarded as a deviant act in one society could be regarded as normal within another society. This brings out the issue that deviance may be viewed as relative to both time and location with regard to the differences in societies. Out of this understanding, deviance is viewed as the violation of social norms out of any acts, thoughts, or attitudes that the particular society regards as violation of its values or rules (Long Russ). A deviant conduct is against the definitions of the good and bad conduct as agreed upon by members of a social system. Such behaviors are in a negated direction and bear enough magnitude to surpass the acceptance and accommodation limit of the particular community.
Some of the behaviors characterized by certain groups of people forming subcultures that are determined by social aspects such as sexual orientation, ethnicity, and racial can be regarded as deviant in some societies. Therefore, deviance can be defined as going against the established cultural, social norms, and contexts within a certain communities. This deviance is sometimes established as crime in some societies. The deviant behaviors thus depends on factors such as the audience, location, or on individual basis in regard to the act in question. Additionally, the development of cultures has been characteristic of social control, and as such, as new subcultures rise, they provide for a threat towards the social constructs as determined by such cultures. As a result of the development of the subcultural facets within the societies both on the social media platforms and on the streets, new developments on how to deal with the problems inbound has also been under development. As Marenin (2016) states, as problems and solutions arise as a resultant of the development in new subcultures, conflicts between the police and the societal are also on the