scholarly journals THUG LIFE: Drill music as a periscope into urban violence in the consumer age

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1201-1219
Author(s):  
Adam Lynes ◽  
Craig Kelly ◽  
Emma Kelly

Abstract This paper seeks to develop an understanding of interpersonal violence within an urban landscape. An increase in violent crime has garnered intense media attention with drill—an emerging subgenre of hip hop—being sighted by media outlets as a causal factor for the rise in gang-related violence. Within this perspective, the Metropolitan Police took action, which affirmed this narrative. This paper seeks to refute such simplistic discussions of interpersonal violence whilst recognizing the opportunity such notions pose for academics to utilize knowledge of subcultures to explore possible insights into the wider understanding of violence and capitalism.

2004 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-217
Author(s):  
D. Herbert

Abstract. Urban violence has become an endemic feature of cities in all parts of the world. The consensus is that levels of violence are increasing generally but that there are significant differences between different parts of the world. Recent studies review these assumptions and examine the problems associated with monitoring the incidence of violent crime. There are new dimensions to urban violence that include the rise in the drug trade, more organized crime and the trend towards more use of firearms. Cities offer specific situations in which violent crime is more likely to occur. There are geographies of violent crime that not only point out differences between cities but also highlight local concentrations of crime within individual cities. Society seeks to control violent crime, principally through its criminal justice Systems but also by involving Community action and local initiatives.


2002 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. MacDonald

In recent years, sharp declines in violent crime rates have been recorded across major American cities. During this time period, many police departments have shifted from a traditional reactive form of policing to a community-oriented approach. It is unclear whether these changes have any causal relationship with the control or reduction in violent crime. To examine this issue, this study used the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, and city-level census data to examine the economic and political determinants of robbery and homicide rates in 164 American cities. Findings indicate that community policing had little effect on the control or the decline in violent crime. Proactive policing strategies related to arrest had an inverse effect on violent crime measures and were related to reductions in violent crime over time. Implications of these findings for criminal justice policy are discussed.


2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Edgar Pieterse

Neste artigo assume-se que a condição urbana contemporânea está fortemente marcada por uma crescente pluralidade. Associada a esta mudança na natureza do contexto urbano, pode-se também observar a proliferação de lugares (sites) de engajamento político e de ação, sendo alguns deles formalmente ligados a fóruns institucionais do Estado, mas muitos outros podem ser caracterizados pela sua insistência em permanecer fora do Estado, uma forma de afirmar autonomia e clamar por termos próprios de reconhecimento e formas de agir. O artigo chama a atenção para o significado de uma categoria de atores urbanos – hip-hoppers – que ocupa uma posição “marginal” na relação com o Estado, mas que é muito relevante para a existência marginalizada da maior parte da juventude negra nas cidades do sul global, particularmente no Rio de Janeiro e na Cidade do Cabo. O artigo demonstra que as culturas hip hop oferecem uma poderosa estrutura de interpretação e resposta para a juventude pobre que sofre sistematicamente o impacto de forças urbanas extremamente violentas e exploradoras. A base do poder do hip hop (e congêneres) é sua complexa sensibilidade estética, que funde valores afetivos – como o desejo, a paixão e o prazer, mas também a ira e a crítica –, que por sua vez se traduzem em identidades políticas e às vezes em ação (ou seja, posicionamento) para seus participantes. Em última instância, o artigo procura associar o potencial da cultura política do hip hop a temas acadêmicos mais amplos, tais como participação, espaço público, cidadania e segurança.Palavras-chave: hip hop; política cultural; violência urbana; exclusão/ inclusão urbana; registros afetivos. Abstract: It is assumed in the paper that the contemporary urban condition is marked by an increased pluralistic intensity in cities. Coupled to this shift in the nature of the urban context, one can also observe a proliferation of sites of political engagement and agency, some of which are formally tied to the various institutional forums of the state, and many that are defined by their insistence to stand apart from the state, asserting autonomy and clamoring for a self-defined terms of recognition and agency. This paper draws attention to the significance of one category of urban actors – hip-hoppers – that can be said to occupy a “marginal” location in relation to the state but uniquely relevant to the marginalized existence of most poor black youth in cities of the global South, particularly Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town. The paper demonstrates that hip hop cultures offer a powerful framework of interpretation and response for poor youth who are systemically caught at the receiving end of extremely violent and exploitative urban forces. The basis of hip hop’s power is its complex aesthetical sensibility that fuses affective registers such as rage, passion, lust, critique, pleasure, desire, which in turn translates into political identities, and sometimes agency (i.e. positionality), for its participants. In the final instance, the paper tries to link conclusions about the potential of hip hop cultural politics to larger academic themes such as participation, public space, citizenship and security.Keywords: hip hop; cultural politics; urban violence; urban exclusion/inclusion; affective registers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 142-143
Author(s):  
Richard Rosenfeld

Paul Cassell maintains that de-policing was a major cause of the spike in violent crime many American cities experienced during the summer of 2020. While plausible, Professor Cassell’s argument is unconvincing because it fails to explain why de-policing did not produce a rise in property crime, and it overstates the impact of policing on crime. Nor does he present evidence of a drop in police presence and activity large enough to produce such a huge increase in violence. Professor Cassell’s criticism of the argument that diminished police legitimacy caused the violence spike is more persuasive. He and I agree that the explanation for the spike lies somewhere in the nexus between the police and the disadvantaged communities they serve more or less effectively.


2010 ◽  
Vol 92 (878) ◽  
pp. 387-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Bangerter

AbstractTerritorial gangs are among today's main perpetrators of urban violence, affecting the lives of millions of other people. They try to gain control of a territory in which they then oversee all criminal activities and/or ‘protect’ the people.Such gangs are found to differing degrees on every continent, although those given the most media attention operate in Central America. The violence that they cause has a major impact on the population in general and on their members' families, as well as on the members themselves.Humanitarian organizations may find themselves having to deal with territorial gangs in the course of their ‘normal’ activities in a gang's area, but also when the humanitarian needs per se of people controlled by a gang justify action.This article looks at some courses of action that may be taken by humanitarian agencies in an environment of this nature: dialogue with the gangs (including how to create a degree of trust), education, services, and dialogue on fundamental issues. Such action only makes sense over the medium to long term; it may have a very positive impact but only allows the symptoms of a deep-seated problem to be treated.


2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Frisell ◽  
P. Lichtenstein ◽  
N. Långström

BackgroundEtiological theory and prior research with small or selected samples suggest that interpersonal violence clusters in families. However, the strength and pattern of this aggregation remains mostly unknown.MethodWe investigated all convictions for violent crime in Sweden 1973–2004 among more than 12.5 million individuals in the nationwide Multi-Generation Register, and compared rates of violent convictions among relatives of violent individuals with relatives of matched, non-violent controls, using a nested case–control design.ResultsWe found strong familial aggregation of interpersonal violence among first-degree relatives [e.g. odds ratio (OR)sibling 4.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.2–4.3], lower for more distant relatives (e.g. ORcousin 1.9, 95% CI 1.9–1.9). Risk patterns across biological and adoptive relations provided evidence for both genetic and environmental influences on the development of violent behavior. Familial risks were stronger among women, in higher socio-economic strata, and for early onset interpersonal violence. There were crime-specific effects (e.g. ORsibling for arson 22.4, 95% CI 12.2–41.2), suggesting both general and subtype-specific familial risk factors for violent behavior.ConclusionsThe observed familiality should be accounted for in criminological research, applied violence risk assessment, and prevention efforts.


2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1629-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Briceño-León

Interpersonal violence has become one of the main public health issues in Latin American cities. This article presents a framework for sociological interpretation that operates on three levels, expressed in the factors that originate, foment, or facilitate violence. Macro-social factors include: social inequality due to the increase in wealth versus poverty; the paradox of more schooling with fewer employment opportunities; increasing expectations and the impossibility of meeting them; changes in family structure; and loss of importance of religion in daily life. At the meso-social level the analysis highlights: increased density in poor areas and urban segregation; masculinity cult; and changes in the local drug market. The micro-social level includes: an increase in the number of firearms; alcohol consumption; and difficulties in verbal expression of feelings. The article concludes with an analysis of how violence is leading to the breakdown not only of urban life but also of citizenship as a whole in Latin America.


1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 202-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dora Black

Children, like adults, can directly experience or be witness to interpersonal violence either within or outside the family, on one or repeated occasions. Intra-familial violence may result in the death or serious disablement of a parent or child, or may be experienced as child sexual abuse or chronic domestic violence. Non-familial violence includes urban violence now endemic in some communities, war and civil conflict, and vicarious violence such as in films and on television. Traumatic events can also occur by natural forces, for example, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes. This review will focus mainly on the effects on children of witnessing severe or repeated violence, sometimes resulting in death, occurring to a member of their family, perpetrated either by a parent, step-parent or cohabitee or by a person or persons unrelated to them, although it will draw on studies of other traumatic experiences where relevant.


Author(s):  
Matthew Teutsch ◽  
Jason Lee Oakes

This chapter explores the connective tissue that joins the urban noir tradition to the representations of antiheros that populate Iceberg Slim’s texts and many hip hop narratives. Specifically, it analyzes Slim’s construction of realness in his writings and his 1976 album Reflections in order to understand how his work shapes a notion of “pulp authenticity” that would come to influence gangsta rap. Slim and his hip hop progeny arose from the noir tradition, a literary genre that confronted anxieties of race and gender identity amid an ever-changing urban landscape. Pulp authenticity incorporates the sensational on one hand and varying forms of genuineness on the other, appearing in African American noir cultural productions in the latter part of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. At its core, pulp authenticity funnels “genuineness” through a genre that privileges the sensational.


2020 ◽  
pp. 174889582096320
Author(s):  
Nicola Roberts ◽  
Catherine Donovan ◽  
Matthew Durey

This article presents findings from an online survey gathering quantitative and qualitative data from men and women students at a university in the north of England in 2016. The survey explored their perceptions of safety and experiences of interpersonal violence during their time as a student, both on and off campus. We show how women were more likely to report sexual violence compared to men. We also show how women students, compared to men, were less likely to say they never felt unsafe as they moved away from the university into the city, and as they moved from day into night. We illustrate how interconnecting factors construct women’s perceptions of safety, and subsequently, how locations perceived as unsafe ‘hotspots’, become physical barriers impeding women’s access to public and educational spaces. Consequently, we outline measures to enhance women’s safety while at university.


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