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Short note on various dimensions of structural violence
The failure of the American prison system
Short note on various dimensions of structural violence
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Structural violence is the term used to refer to a form of violence where some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. In the book “Pathologies of Power” we read about how the prison system is corrupt. The prison system is intended to maintain some stability and help to rehabilitate the incarcerated so when they released they can live successful lives and hopefully not return to a life a crime that would lead them to returning back to prison. However, the prisons are working to keep people of low income and economic class stay in prison. This keeps them from leading successful lives and working their way up to be part of the upper class. This also keeps them from interacting
In Western cultures imprisonment is the universal method of punishing criminals (Chapman 571). According to criminologists locking up criminals may not even be an effective form of punishment. First, the prison sentences do not serve as an example to deter future criminals, which is indicated, in the increased rates of criminal behavior over the years. Secondly, prisons may protect the average citizen from crimes but the violence is then diverted to prison workers and other inmates. Finally, inmates are locked together which impedes their rehabilitation and exposes them too more criminal
“Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources”, which eventually leads to “individuals and organizations [who are able to] keep more resources than others, and these ‘winners’ use their power and influence to maintain social institutions” (Openstax College 16), and it seems that the “winners” of OITNB were taking advantage of their position of power and influence, and abusing it. Instead of maintaining social institutions, they created havoc. In addition, German sociologist, Georg Simmel believed that “conflict can help integrate and stabilize a society” (Openstax College 17). However, although there has always been passive conflict that kept reoccurring in the prison, nothing was done about it. When a conflict finally ensued, it was volatile, and did not not result in stability. Hence, a power shift from the powerful, to powerless, due to disagreement of the distribution of power is seen the main plot of the
As Johan Galtung describes in his article, Violence, Peace, and Peace Research, structural violence is where social structure can inflict harm on individuals by preventing them from meeting basic needs. In regards to the February 2016 New Yorker Article, The Meaning of Life Without Parole, the social structure created by the prison system has caused a separation between people. Instead of being viewed as a human-being, offenders are labeled as criminals and become marginalized from the rest of society. Along with the stigma of conviction that has been created, offenders, especially those that are juvenile, are also subjected to structural violence through the sentences they are given.
American author, John Steinbeck once said, “Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts - perhaps the fear of loss of power”. As seen in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, people of authority can feel pressured to go along with actions or make decisions they know are wrong because they fear losing their power and influence in society. They also tend to let to their opinions and motives impact their work and responsibility to make good decisions. The Crucible demonstrates how people of authority, like Parris and Danforth, try to use good judgement to make fair decisions, but are often influenced by their own personal opinions whether they realize it or not.
This all shows how different things in and around us can influence or cause us to behave in a certain manner. Whether it be, domestic violence or another criminal act. The sociological concept allows for blame to be taken away from some individuals, victims and or perpetrators and have it placed on society. This is a good thing as it allows us to look into ourselves, and see where we can be responsible for some of the evils of the world. It forces us to take some of the blame instead of always pointing fingers on the other person. Though not all criminal behavior follow along with this concept, many do, and it is therefore important for everyone to be familiar with it and be able to put it to use.
Although it has varied in its forms, punishment is largely influenced by the theories and socially constructed views of criminal activity. It is important to acknowledge how the forms of punishment have progressed from public humiliation and executions to solitary confinement and into today, with forced labor and firmly established routines. Even how the structures have changed with the number of those incarcerated. From initially only being two-story houses to being massive communities hidden behind penitentiary walls, it becomes important to question what their true purpose really is. Although it can be argued that prisons are still a form of rehabilitation for offenders, when you examine what it is that the inmates are actually doing, they are benefitting the economy more than they are benefitting themselves. Making budget cuts towards education and counseling services, which are necessary to reform offenders, is only going to continue to increase rates of incarceration. Instead, that money is currently being invested in ways to further expand the prison enterprise and displace those who are marginalized. Racism and economic greed has been embedded into prison functioning. In order to reduce recidivism rates there needs to be more of a focus on decreasing crime and the rates of incarceration by focusing more heavily on resources and
As laws became stricter, especially on drugs, imprisonment began to rise steeply starting in the 1980s according to a graph given by the Sentencing Project. Private companies saw the opportunity to make use of the criminals and chose to use them as cheap manual labor. In fact, one of the points made by Angela Davis is that industry depends on racist structures and ideologies in order to make incarceration profitable. This exploitation of people has led to profit being the sole motivation for incarceration of people rather then to help them reenter society. Davis states in her article that mass incarceration has been the most used form of government social program of our time. I believe that prison may be useful in helping formerly incarcerated people join society again, but instead it is doing nothing to help them learn to live a life free of crime. Due to the limited resources given to a former felon, they tend to follow Robert Merton’s strain theory. The strain theory argues that an individual will become deviant if they are not given the
The treatment of the prison system has become a form of relax for prisoners. Some criminals commit crimes just to get into prison. Prison offers a nice warm bed for convicts to sleep and most of the time they are treated even with a pillow. Criminals in prison are fed three times a day, some may say,“but yes it 's nothing like the comfort of a suburban home”, but most don 't realize that criminals outside of prison don 't have a place to sleep and food to eat. Prison offers a type of safe haven from the outside, giving them shelter, food, and a comfortable place to sleep won’t change a criminal, it just gives them more incentive to keep committing the same
As the current prison structures and sentencing process continues to neglect the issues that current offenders have no change will accrue to prevent recidivism. The issue with the current structure of the prison sentencing process is it does not deal with the “why” the individual is an social deviant but only looks at the punishment process to remove the deviant from society. This method does not allow an offender to return back to society without continuing where they left off. As an offender is punished they are sentenced (removal from society) they continue in an isolated environment (prison) after their punishment time is completed and are released back to society they are now an outsider to the rapidly changing social environment. These individuals are returned to society without any coping skills, job training, or transitional training which will prevent them from continuing down th...
The norms of the prison are held up by sanctions, both by the prisoners and by the violence of the guards. Some examples of these sanctions are the degradation ceremonies established new inmates as inferior, violence by the guards enforcing their power over the prisoners, prisoners act in such a way that these techniques fail, and being sent to solitary confinement. All of these enforce their isolation and works to break them as a human being, reminding them their role as a prisoner and their lack of power. By doing this, one would want to abide by the rules to veer away from any severe
The most problematic issue that the institutional correctional facilities are facing is gangs. The most dangerous gangs in the U.S is Black Guerilla Family, Nuestra Family, Nazi Lowriders, Aryan Brotherhood, and Mexican Mafia. The reason why this is problematic is because most of the gang members who are sent to prison are already gang members before they got incarcerated. Some of the people who go to prison have no affiliation with a gang, but when they get in there they join one of the prison gangs. The reason why so many people join gangs in prison is because they want to be protected. Gangs can be very dangerous when they are at rival with each other. If the Black Guerilla Family is in the same prison as the Nazi Lowrider, a murder will
Environmental and space factors do play a role in forging or deterring violent behavior. One environmental factor is the age and layout of the correctional facility. Newer facilities are designed better to observe inmates, and knowing this can be enough of a deterrent (Wooldredge & Steiner, 2009). Similarly, a prison that is over-crowded could also provide inmates more opportunity to commit assaults because guards would have a difficult time keeping an effective watch on those inmates (Wooldredge & Steiner, 2009). Over-crowded prisons may also provide a platform for those prisoners that feel they have nothing to lose to commit assaults (Wooldredge & Steiner, 2009). Another factor over-crowding can cause is less opportunities for work programs
It is certainly undeniable that the decision to commit a crime is ultimately individual, despite the fact that circumstances may make crime the option with greatest utility. It is also undeniable that central motivations for certain crimes are purely psychological or personal, like sexual assault without theft, or school shootings. Reform and rehabilitation, then, must be conducted individually, with respect and consideration of the emotional and psychological needs of criminals. The question is: can prisons meet these kind of needs? This is certainly a component of the governmental motivation behind nearly all prisons, or perhaps more of a justification for the stringent regulations placed upon the liberties of prisoners, such as physical confinement, structured time, manual labor, etc. It is suggested that these rules are for the good of the prisoners, but while these regulations are convenient for directing prisoners institutionally, the deprivation of liberties and dehumanization could have serious impacts on an individual’s psychological state. The physical and sexual violence most prisoners face from fellow inmates and from guards (Villines, 2013) compounds their punishment on a psychological level. Given that the justice system causes these psychological trauma to inmates, it
Structural violence is the way in which a social structure will harm people by not providing, by limiting or by barring people from receiving basic needs. Structural violence impacts people on the bottom rung of society. People who live in poverty or are not considered being of a high social standing. This could be because of a person’s age, sex, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, or any other aspect that makes them different from the majority of the population or different from what people consider to be the norm. However, structural violence does not necessarily need the majority of the population to define it, it can manifest by a few people in the country or out making decisions for the populace.