Using the Control Balance Theory to Explain Social Media Deviance

Online Social Media Deviance (OSMD) is one the rise; however, research in this area traditionally has lacked a strong theoretical foundation. Following calls to reveal the theoretical underpinnings of this complex phenomenon, our study examines the causes of OSMD from several novel angles not used in the literature before, including: (1) the influence of control imbalances (CIs) on deviant behavior, (2) the role of perceived accountability and deindividuation in engendering CI, (3) and the role of IT in influencing accountability and deindividuation. Using an innovative factorial survey method that enabled us to manipulate the IT artifacts for a nuanced view, we tested our model with 507 adults and found strong support for our model. The results should thus have a strong impetus not only on future SM research but also for social media (SM) designers who can use these ideas to further develop SM networks that are safe, supportive, responsible, and constructive

Transcending the carceral archipelago: existential, figurational and structurational perspectives on power and control

From Foucault (1977) through to Cohen (1985) and Feeley and Simon (1992) criminological thinking about punishment has been dominated by penal rationalities of power and control. This has led to an under-theorised notion of the individual in criminology (Green 2011). As society and penality become increasingly ‘re-emotionalised’ (Karstedt 2011) justice and punishment are invested with a new narrative and expressive dimensions. Drawing on Sartre’s (2010) existential philosophy about choice and authenticity and the social theory of Norbert Elias (2000) and Anthony Giddens (1986) the aim is to locate individual freedom and agency within these wider social conditions and through this begin to provide the basis for a broader conception for criminology of power that is both enabling and liberating as well as oppressive and controlling

On the Nature and Importance of Cultural Tightness-Looseness

Cross-cultural research is dominated by the use of values despite their mixed empirical support and their limited theoretical scope. This article expands the dominant paradigm in crosscultural research by developing a theory of cultural tightness-looseness, the strength of social norms and degree of sanctioning within societies, and advancing a multilevel research agenda for future research. Through an exploration of the top-down, bottom-up, and moderating impact that societal tightness-looseness has on individuals and organizations, as well as on variability across levels of analysis, the theory provides a new and complementary perspective to the values approach

Changing the way we think about change: shifting boundaries changing lives

The 2012 Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference was held in Hobart over two days from 12 - 13 July.   This conference was organised around the theme of ‘Changing the Way We Think about Change – Shifting Boundaries, Changing Lives’. There were five general plenaries, including speakers from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and the United States, and the conference featured early career as well as experienced researchers. The plenaries included sessions on gender and imprisonment; the pursuit of truth and justice; Indigenous legal needs and justice reinvestment; policing and vulnerability; and migration and global security issues. This publication provides a sample of some of the presentations delivered at the 2012 Critical Criminology Conference

Media panic : the duo media - youth as problem for didactic and teaching plan

Relacja: młodzież i nowe media jest przedmiotem sprzecznych interpretacji, pełnych utopii lub wypełnionych niepokojami i lękami. Debaty o nowych mediach powodują rozgrzanie reakcji emocjonalnych. W tym przypadku mamy do czynienia z tym, co może być określane jako panika medialna. Panika przechodzi i jest zapominana, z wyjątkiem pamięci zbiorowej, innym razem powoduje zmiany o charakterze prawnym i społecznym. Moda na nowe media odsyła starsze media na drugi plan. K. Drotner twierdzi, że nowe media służą jako mentalne metafory do dyskutowania i debatowania o szeroko pojętych zagadnieniach społecznych. Autor podziela poglądy, że poprzez tworzenie sloganów określających konkretne pokolenie zwalniamy od odpowiedzialności wychowawców, nauczycieli i rodziców za dzieci i uczniów, w kwestii ich korzystania z nowych mediów. Jednocześnie firmy informatyczne bronią swoich pozycji w debacie publicznej.The relation between the modern media technologies and youth is extremely problematic because their debates are polarized. There is a view which emphasises benefits provided by new technologies and the genius of young digital natives; on the other hand, there is a point on the downside which is destructive and crumbles potentials. Therefore, youth and new media are subjects of contradictory representations full of utopia or full of anxieties and fears. In some cases, a debate of a new medium brings about heated, emotional reactions. In that case we have what may be defined as a media panic. The panic passes over and is forgotten, except in collective memory; at other times it has repercussions and might produce such change as those in legal and social policy. Like this the intense preoccupation with the latest media fad immediately relegates older media to the shadows of acceptance. K. Drotner argues that new media serve as mental metaphors for discussing and debating wider social concerns. We argue, with an approach close to S. Hall et al., that through the creation of slogans to indicate a specific generation, we give alibis to educators, teachers and parents not to feel their responsibilities for their children and students when they approach new media. At the same time, publishing and information technology companies are able to feed public debate about concerns or idealization inherent to new media, in order to defend their advantageous position

There Are No Rules! Except These 108. The Multidirectional Flow of Influence Between Sportication, Subculture, and Violence on the History of Mixed Martial Arts

The sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), found in 1993, has a very tenuous history. Three influencing factors, sport-related violence, the sportization process, and subculture, have interacted directly with events and individuals through the sport’s history, resulting in these three multi-directional sources of influences having the greatest effect on the direction and development of the sport. MMA, initially promoted as a violent spectacle, became the target of political attacks. Such unprecedented levels and presentation of sporting violence had never before been seen. In reaction, the sportization process of MMA began and the subculture of the sport started to develop as a reaction to the political pressure. The top MMA organization, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), changed ownership in 2001, resulting in the legitimizing of violence, entrance into the global sports system, and increased diversity of the subculture. The interaction between violence, sportization, and subculture transformed MMA from a violent event with limited reach to a modern global spectacle

Readers’ Perceptions of Newsworthiness and Bias as Factors in Participation with Digital News Content

Audience participation with digital news content has become a central feature of news consumption. These participatory news behaviors – commenting on, sharing, and “liking” news stories – have implications for both newsreaders and producers of news. This dissertation tests a structural model of commenting behavior using survey data (N = 335). The model builds on suggestions of a connection between hostile-media effects and commenting. This study adds newsworthiness to the structural equation, hypothesizing that newsworthiness increases readers’ perceptions that an article will influence other readers. These relationships should increase hostile-media effects, and, therefore, a reader’s likelihood of commenting. The model tested had indicators of good fit, although hostile-media effects did not play a prominent role in the structural model. Readers, rather, were more likely to comment if they found the article threatened norms – a dimension of newsworthiness – and if they had routinely commented on news stories prior to the study. The study also revealed that readers are more likely to comment if they are male, and if they believe their comments can influence the conversation

Crime and Media: Understanding the Connections

We live in an age of ‘media saturation’, an age in which media play an increasingly central role in everyday life. It is also an age in which high crime rates and levels of concern about crime have become accepted as ‘normal’. The rapid and relentless development of information technologies over the past 100 years has shaped the modern era, transforming the relations between space, time and identity. Where once ‘news’ used to travel by ship, it now hurtles across the globe at light speed and is available 24 hours-a-day at the push of a button. Where once cultures used to be more or less distinguishable in national or geographical terms, they now mix, intermingle and converge in a constant global exchange of information. Where once a sense of community and belonging was derived primarily from established identities and local traditions, it may now also be found, and lost, in a virtual world of shared values, meanings and interpretations. In short, media are not only inseparable from contemporary social life; they are, for many, its defining characteristic

Phenomenological Theories of Crime

The distinctive aspect of phenomenological theories of crime is that they are based upon a stated epistemology: how things are known and a specific ontology—the nature of social reality. This specificity aligns itself with neo-Kantian concern with forms of knowing, interpretation, and meaning, as well as with 20th-century concern with perception, cognition, and the framing of events. While there are influences of phenomenological thinking on varieties of theorizing, such as symbolic interactionism, critical theory, queer theory, and gender-based theories of crime, these ideas are refractions and are inconsistent in their reference to and understanding of the foundational phenomenological works. A phenomenological theory assumes that the practices and associated meanings of actors and the responses of others can produce a valid explanation of crime. These cannot be grasped by counting responses to questionnaires or surveys, or positing the “natural attitude” or the “taken for granted” unless these are shown to be working in interaction. It is only by studying how these processes are revealed in and through routine interactions, especially those between the controllers and the controlled, that valid explanations for crime result. The elegance of an explanation is found in its ability to explicate and reproduce the actors’ perspective. This is not a “micro” view of interaction: social action is always collective, mutual, and intersubjective. Features of phenomenological theories of crime stand in some opposition to the ruling statistical inference and naive positivism that command social science. Phenomenological theories have at least five features. First, they focus on intentionality over the course of action. The question of interest is how orientation to and action toward objects produces such social objects. It is through gestures, postures, signs, and indicators that elicit a response that a social object is made meaningful. A robbery occurs as the robber first selects a place, targets a person, confronts the person-as-target, and creates the illusion of violence to get the preferred response, handing over money. The sequence produces a “working consensus,” a social object, a robbery. It is now a real, shared social fact. Second, they view the field of consciousness or awareness as replete with stimuli cues, empirical indices that are themselves merely appearances, not the relevancies that emerge intersubjectively. These cues must be reduced by means of bracketing to create forms, types, or typifications. These types, in turn, can be identified only through actors’ usage. Think in this regard about the meaning of different types of crime as they are experienced (e.g., homicide, rape, burglary, auto theft). Third, these observed gestures, negotiations, indicators, representations, and postures are made intersubjectively meaningful not by “reading minds,” but by behavior. And what is done is very often emotionally loaded and full of bodily sensations such as anger, passion, greed, or desire. These emotions are an integral aspect of crimes. Fourth, in the phenomenologically grounded versions of crime, even the objective attitude of the scientist must itself be questioned : How is it possible to create sense of actors’ behavior and studying it “objectively” (Heap and Roth 1973, p. 364; cited under Introductory Works)? The answer is to remain true to the observed collective actions and attributions associated with crime. Finally, phenomenological views of crime require an interrogation of action, not attributions of motives. The question is: How is order indicated, sustained, and/or changed in the context of studying things called “crime”? A constant debate is whether and to what extent the actor’s view of everyday life is captured, as opposed to a typification, ideal type, or conceptual scheme. This is one of the few areas of social science that acknowledges philosophical foundations during the course of research. Phenomenological theories of crime recognize the ongoing nature of what is deemed criminal, and keep this awareness in the forefront. Please keep this in mind as you conduct your research. The articles and books discussed here are directed toward academics, graduates, and advanced undergraduates