Analyzing a criminal justice research article

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Social Dislocation, Crime and Discontent:

McVeigh, R (2006) Structural Influences on Activism and Crime: Identifying the Social Structure of Discontent. American Journal of Sociology, 112(2), 510-556

The purpose of this study is to see how the main variables of social activism, crime inequality and diversity affect each other. The basic argument is that crime and social activism will have the same set of social roots. The question concerns how people perceive the arrangement of resources in their neighborhood. All politics is local. The issue then comes down to fairness, not inequality. Fairness suggests, at least to Americans, that merit justifies inequality. When that merit cannot be ascertained, then it becomes a justice issue.

Crime and protest are often considered as two sides of the same coin. Protest was seen as just another form of disintegration, no different than crime, but of course, a bit more constructive. Social protest and crime, so it is argued, have the same causal variables. Social tension is rooted in alienation, discontent, and inequality. Protest under this view, comes from the same equally alienated people (511).

The Issues

Crime and activism are rooted in the same set of circumstances, but this does not mean they co-vary. It's just that they have the same origin. It needs also to be mentioned that activists and criminals are two very different groups of people. Arguing for a common root here is strange only because activists tend to come from strong social networks, while criminals do not.

The structure of a specific society affects how people vent frustration because it can limit available options and resources. The real issue here is heterogeneity. This can be a source for inter-group cooperation, but just as commonly, it can be the cause for disruption. When groups are tightly bound to one other, that is, are very cohesive, they have a strong sense of their interests. Any social injustice can quickly mobilize such closely knit groups (516). These groups, due to their positive effect on creating identities, can mobilize easily, since this identity can bear the costs of mobilization and risk. Individualists, so to speak, are not easy to mobilize. Group consciousness, plus a perceived injustice, is the ...