Masculinity Among Scottish Teenage Offenders: Article Analysis
This article explores the link between masculinity and how it has affected the violent behaviour among Scottish teenage offenders. This article refers to many different criminological theories, such as Social Strain Theory by Robert Merton, Subcultural Theory by Albert Cohen and aspects of Techniques of Neutralization by Gresham Sykes & David Matza as well as Differential Association by Edwin Sutherland. The authors, Chris Holligan and Ross Deuchar, carried out this investigation to, “document critically the constructions and practices of masculinity” (Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 362) and of Scottish teenage offenders and to why they commit crimes. The authors would ask the interviewees different questions by visiting “Scotland’s largest young offenders’ institutions” to interview different offenders who committed different crimes
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who were from a UK-born, white middle-class background who lived in socially deprived areas.
The author’s compares the different interviewees statements and applies them to their own findings as evidence to their conclusion.
Throughout the article there are three main themes running through the article. These themes describe to us what their background was, leading them to commit the crime, was their crime ‘courage under fire’ (Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 368) and whether it was to do with proving the masculinity to others and for society. This links to criminological theory of masculinity by the authors Richard Collier, Tony Jefferson and James Messerschmidt. They believed that the hegemonic masculinity of power, dominance, aggression and other aspects society displays what masculinity is, can cause men to commit crime to achieve this status of true masculinity. This is seen in the article by an interviewee Davie, it said that he got “kicked out for seven weeks for fighting” using either “a bit knife or a chopper” whilst taking this to school (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 368). The article also clarifies why Davie committed these acts of violence, stating that
Davie had to “attack them before they attacked me” (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 368). This also relates to Social Strain theory in since many of the interviewees suffered background trauma in their lives, such as being in care homes, bullying from other students at school and in some cases, death of a close relative or friend. For example, in the article, Connor stated that he had lived in care homes for the majority of his life, he stated that “I always thought care was preparing me for when I was 16 and they would send you to jail” this attitude of resenting help from members of society and being hostel is presented among the other interviewees as well (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 368). Jason use to be in care for a while, and said he would “run away every day”, this shows that being separated from family and being placed in a home was uncomfortable and lead them to react to society in a negative way, showing their emotions and trauma through the stereotype of violent and delinquent behaviour (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 367).
In many of the findings, it seemed that the people were peer pressured in to committing a crime, following the ideas of Sutherland and Cohen. Cohen stated that status frustration can lead to delinquent subcultures, whereas Sutherland stated that crime is a learnt behaviour from interactions between different peers, this is how the criminal can become influenced to commit deviant acts as well as developing other traits such as loyalty to other offenders they are associated with and also creating different motivations to commit a new crime. Examples of influenced criminal behaviour can been seen in the article by offenders Thomas and Barry had forms of either direct peer pressure or influence from surrounding members of family and friends. For Thomas’ case, it said would smoke cannabis at the age of 14, boasting that “me and my pols got a score at weekends” where they were “laughing” and having fun whilst being stoned (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 365). For Barry’s sake however, is slightly different, Thomas would voluntarily smoke weed with his friends and was probably influenced by them to commit this crime. Thomas and Barry’s backgrounds are different since Thomas had drug problems and Barry clearly had very little attention from his family and wasn’t brought up in a ‘normal’ household. However it is still displayed that these teenage offenders are vulnerable people who have emotional trauma and these teenagers are reacting out of emotion rather than having a set target and setting themselves away from mainstream society, like Cohen had proposed.
A criticism of this article would be that the methods of research for it were very limited. The only method of investigation was interviewing the teenage offenders, when they could have used surveys, such as the Prisoners Survey of Young Offenders (2013). With these surveys they may have been able to find a correlation of crime within Scotland, which would be able to help the authors map out where these offenders came from and see if it relates to the geography of where they lived.
Another criticism is that the article doesn’t interview the victims or family members of the criminals; it is only using the interviewee’s point of view. Much of the interviewees have had some sort of dysfunctional background that led them to the crimes they had committed. Many of these troubles are to do with family and the crimes they committed, as well as family negligence. However, this is the view of the delinquent teenager; other family members could have different views about their situation and reasons to why their children committed these crimes.
From this article review, the overall look is that for young, teenage offenders, different situations in life can trigger delinquent acts according to society. Whether it is a close relative dying, peer pressure, acting on self-defence or witnessing a mental illness, it has driven these 10 teenage offenders to get into jail. The interviews related to many different criminological theories such as Social Strain theory, Subcultural theory as well as Sutherland’s Differential Association. The article’s conclusion was that the interviewee’s needed rehabilitation, with the help from the mental health departments, such as the NHS and social care services. This would then help these teenagers to lead a life that is socially accepted, as well as becoming active members of society, keeping them out of jail and providing themselves a more stable lifestyle for their future.
who were from a UK-born, white middle-class background who lived in socially deprived areas.
The author’s compares the different interviewees statements and applies them to their own findings as evidence to their conclusion.
Throughout the article there are three main themes running through the article. These themes describe to us what their background was, leading them to commit the crime, was their crime ‘courage under fire’ (Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 368) and whether it was to do with proving the masculinity to others and for society. This links to criminological theory of masculinity by the authors Richard Collier, Tony Jefferson and James Messerschmidt. They believed that the hegemonic masculinity of power, dominance, aggression and other aspects society displays what masculinity is, can cause men to commit crime to achieve this status of true masculinity. This is seen in the article by an interviewee Davie, it said that he got “kicked out for seven weeks for fighting” using either “a bit knife or a chopper” whilst taking this to school (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 368). The article also clarifies why Davie committed these acts of violence, stating that
Davie had to “attack them before they attacked me” (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 368). This also relates to Social Strain theory in since many of the interviewees suffered background trauma in their lives, such as being in care homes, bullying from other students at school and in some cases, death of a close relative or friend. For example, in the article, Connor stated that he had lived in care homes for the majority of his life, he stated that “I always thought care was preparing me for when I was 16 and they would send you to jail” this attitude of resenting help from members of society and being hostel is presented among the other interviewees as well (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 368). Jason use to be in care for a while, and said he would “run away every day”, this shows that being separated from family and being placed in a home was uncomfortable and lead them to react to society in a negative way, showing their emotions and trauma through the stereotype of violent and delinquent behaviour (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 367).
In many of the findings, it seemed that the people were peer pressured in to committing a crime, following the ideas of Sutherland and Cohen. Cohen stated that status frustration can lead to delinquent subcultures, whereas Sutherland stated that crime is a learnt behaviour from interactions between different peers, this is how the criminal can become influenced to commit deviant acts as well as developing other traits such as loyalty to other offenders they are associated with and also creating different motivations to commit a new crime. Examples of influenced criminal behaviour can been seen in the article by offenders Thomas and Barry had forms of either direct peer pressure or influence from surrounding members of family and friends. For Thomas’ case, it said would smoke cannabis at the age of 14, boasting that “me and my pols got a score at weekends” where they were “laughing” and having fun whilst being stoned (cited in Holligan and Deuchar, 2014: 365). For Barry’s sake however, is slightly different, Thomas would voluntarily smoke weed with his friends and was probably influenced by them to commit this crime. Thomas and Barry’s backgrounds are different since Thomas had drug problems and Barry clearly had very little attention from his family and wasn’t brought up in a ‘normal’ household. However it is still displayed that these teenage offenders are vulnerable people who have emotional trauma and these teenagers are reacting out of emotion rather than having a set target and setting themselves away from mainstream society, like Cohen had proposed.
A criticism of this article would be that the methods of research for it were very limited. The only method of investigation was interviewing the teenage offenders, when they could have used surveys, such as the Prisoners Survey of Young Offenders (2013). With these surveys they may have been able to find a correlation of crime within Scotland, which would be able to help the authors map out where these offenders came from and see if it relates to the geography of where they lived.
Another criticism is that the article doesn’t interview the victims or family members of the criminals; it is only using the interviewee’s point of view. Much of the interviewees have had some sort of dysfunctional background that led them to the crimes they had committed. Many of these troubles are to do with family and the crimes they committed, as well as family negligence. However, this is the view of the delinquent teenager; other family members could have different views about their situation and reasons to why their children committed these crimes.
From this article review, the overall look is that for young, teenage offenders, different situations in life can trigger delinquent acts according to society. Whether it is a close relative dying, peer pressure, acting on self-defence or witnessing a mental illness, it has driven these 10 teenage offenders to get into jail. The interviews related to many different criminological theories such as Social Strain theory, Subcultural theory as well as Sutherland’s Differential Association. The article’s conclusion was that the interviewee’s needed rehabilitation, with the help from the mental health departments, such as the NHS and social care services. This would then help these teenagers to lead a life that is socially accepted, as well as becoming active members of society, keeping them out of jail and providing themselves a more stable lifestyle for their future.