Causes of Crime

[donquixote99]

This is a spin-off from the Darien Wislon thread. A conversation has started that is more general than the Wilson affair, touching on whether the 'entitlement theory' mentioned repeatedly by Zeke is the correct and sufficient way to explain crime. To start, I'll quote a post of Zeke's from that thread:

Originally Posted by Zeke

No.

I make the point but you're not intellectually brave enough to see it because it absolutely will destroy pollyanna thoughts like those you profess. Here's a thought: Google "entitlement causes crime." Then, Google "entitlement does NOT cause crime."

I'm being serious.

There are, quite literally, pages of research done on the topic. Do you know what the major difference between the two searches is? Google tends to omit the word "not" because there aren't enough relevant search results containing that word. Meaning? I could deluge with citations any time I wanted to but what's the point? You refuse to live in the Real World.

Many folks who feel entitled to another's stuff will try to take it. Sometimes, they get themselves shot. Those who do not feel entitled to another person's stuff shouldn't feel remorse about harm coming to those who would try to take.

The bigger question is why some people believe they are entitled to a bauble, treatment, manner of living, etc. and do NOT try to shortcut obtain it. Personally, I believe it's because they've had a single person in their life -- just one -- who said, "that's not yours, you can't have it, you have to work for it."

In many urban societies, that person doesn't exist or is dead via violent crime because nobody told THEM the above.

There's your problem.

Had Michael Brown been parented at five he may not have been appropriately shot at fifteen.

EDIT: wait, something clicked. We're not using the word the same way. I mean personal entitlement, not entitlements as a noun.

Now what I did is what I said I'd do, in response--I looked at the Google search. I'm now going to share an annotated list of what I found. After the list, I'll comment a little more in a second message.

Google Results
annotated list
Search = entitlement causes crime

PAGE 1:

1. http://geraldguild.com/blog/2013/02/...r-perspective/

Interesting essay with footnotes, on blog of a practicing clinical psychologist. Makes case that unpunished corporate crime does much more harm than the criminal acts of the despised poor/minority offenders that fill our prisons. Does not address the idea that entitlement causes crime.

2. http://crimeisachoice.blogspot.com/2...elings-of.html

The URL cut off the word 'entitlement' in the title. This blog page is on topic. It does not contain research, the page in question is basically a book report, but it may point to research underpinning 'entitlement theory.' Look further here. Note essay at http://crimeisachoice.blogspot.com/2...arcissist.html entitled "The Criminal, the Narcissist."

3. http://www.salon.com/2013/10/24/5_wa...t_entitlement/

Interesting essay takes the position that men feel entitled to indulge in predatory sexual behavior because the culture in effect gives them permission to. Cites some research. Worth more study.

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_...ogical_factors

Some mention of social entitlement along with a number of other theories. references.

5. http://books.google.com/books?id=lZw...0crime&f=false

Google Books result for "International Handbook of White Collar and Corporate Crime" Cites research indicating role of culture-based feelings of entitlement in the case of white collar criminals.

6. http://www.oldsquare.co.uk/news-and-...l-social-entit

not relevant

7. http://www.academia.edu/6201439/Trip..._-_Madfis_2014


Article
Triple Entitlementand Homicidal Anger:An Exploration of theIntersectional Identitiesof American MassMurderers
Eric Madfis
1
Abstract
In the Unites States, middle-class Caucasian heterosexual males in their teenage years and in middle age commit mass murder, the killing of at least three victims during a single episode at one or more closely related locations, in numbers disproportionately high relative to their share of the population. Utilizing an intersectional theoretical approach, this article investigates the convergences of (1) white entitlement, (2) middle-class instability and downward mobility in the postindustrial economy, and (3) heterosexual masculinity and its relationship to violence. Such analysis concludes that, among many mass killers, the triple privileges of white heterosexual masculinity which make subsequent life course losses more unexpected and thus more painfully shameful ultimately buckle under the failures of downward mobility and result in a final cumulative act of violence to stave off subordinated masculinity.

Full text provided at this link. Research paper on topic. Read.

8. http://bluenationreview.com/privileg...kathryn-knott/

Anecdotal 'report' on specific alleged offender. Not research.

9. http://psych.stanford.edu/~monin/pap...010%20JPSP.pdf

"Victim Entitlement to Behave Selfishly"
Research article, full text, not on topic.

10.
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles...of-entitlement

Opinion essay. not research, and not on-topic of 'entitlement causes crime.' Example from 2011 of conservative 'moral hazard of welfare state' critique.

----------------------
PAGE 3:

3. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...3154129AAKuCLE

Yahoo Answers: question is "Why don't liberals realize that entitlement mentality causes crime?"

8. http://www.crimefilenews.com/2010/07...t-zombies.html

racist rant, made-up facts.

[sheltiedave]

Don, technically, Zeke is right. He said there were PAGES of research, not VOLUMES. And you literally have found pages.

[donquixote99]

First reaction:

First, the above material indicates that 'entitlement' is a factor identified by serious researchers into the motivations of crime. There does not immediately seem to be consensus, though, that it is the The Single Great Simplifying Principle, to be assumed in exclusion of other factors in all cases and circumstances. The topic is interesting and I intend to read further.

Second, I didn't find 'right wing trash sites' dominating this topic from the beginning, as I sort of expected. Didn't really start hitting right wing ideological matter until item 10, and them no more until the two examples noted from page 3.

This idea does attract the interest of ideologues, as I suspected, but it is not dominated by them, as I also suspected.

At this point I want to share a link to a short opinion essay from the New Yorker, which does suggest the very usage of 'entitlement' for 'social insurance benefit' is a victory for right wing critics:

I’m Entitled, You’re Entitled

This essay goes a ways in explaining my suspicions about the 'entitlement theory.'

[sheltiedave]

And here is the jingoistic phrase... "In diplomacy it is called 'semantic infiltration,' i.e., getting your adversary to start using your terms in a negotiation."

The Republican Party is brilliant about measuring and defining their terms of engagement, and entitlement is going to become one of their favorites in years to come.

The cops have already extensively abrogated it, and mutated it from a clinical social psychological context to a criminal behaviour context, which it is not meant to be a definitive term. People do not commit crimes because they are entitled, they commit crimes because they are criminal in their decision, behaviour, and social actions.

[ZeroJunk]

do not commit crimes because they are entitled, they commit crimes because they are criminal in their decision, behaviour, and social actions.

Chicken/Egg

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by ZeroJunk

Chicken/Egg

Concur.

That said, kudos on DQ's research confirming what I said (lots of stuff available, not a crank idea) and the tacit admission that I pulled nothing from a hat.

I, too, intend to read further.

Shit, good stuff.

That's why I come here.

Thanks, DQ. Well done.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by sheltiedave

People do not commit crimes because they are entitled, they commit crimes because they are criminal in their decision, behavior, and social actions.

Saying that criminals do criminal things doesn't speak to motivation, it states the obvious.

What really sucks is when people try to rationalize (even memorialize) serial incidences of criminal conduct by an individual.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

A conversation has started that is more general than the Wilson affair, touching on whether the 'entitlement theory' mentioned repeatedly by Zeke is the correct and sufficient way to explain crime.

Zeke is a dick.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Concur.

That said, kudos on DQ's research confirming what I said (lots of stuff available, not a crank idea) and the tacit admission that I pulled nothing from a hat.

I, too, intend to read further.

Shit, good stuff.

That's why I come here.

Thanks, DQ. Well done.

You're welcome. Happy reading.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

Zeke is a dick.

He sure makes you seem like an idiot blowhard, though most others do too.