From the Ramparts
“Possible criminogenic factors include: social disorganization, anomie/strain, culture conflict, “criminal” subcultures, demographics: race, class and gender.” What is a Criminogenic Society? Factors that Could Lead to Crimes- Gwendolyn Cuizon http://gwendolyncuizon.suite101.com/what-is-a-criminogenic-society-a97018
I was preparing to guest on an Internet radio program to talk about behavioral health and my career as a juvenile probation officer so I decided to do some research on current conditions in the field since I’ve been retired for six years. I came across the term criminogenic society. I read the article and the author was talking about inner cities and urban ghettos as places that spawn “predatory criminals” to the point they outnumbered law abiding citizens and these criminals set the tone and tenor for the community at large. The author, Gwendolyn Cuizon is a freelance writer. She is not a sociologist, cultural anthropologist, psychologist or criminologist by profession, she is an accountant. Nevertheless while her article did not view the larger US society through a color, race and class prism she did acknowledge certain incongruities in the US “justice system”.
In the article she stated, “Race, class and gender are also factors for a criminogenic society. It is a common perception that those who are rich and famous do not get punished by the criminal justice system. If they do, they are often meted lighter punishment than poor people, those in the minority or even men, in general. Minorities are people who have lesser income or are unemployed. This view could be or be not true. How it affects the public’s perception would be of great concern since it could be a factor in shaping public policies. Economic factors also contribute to crime problems. It is observed that in highly urbanized and industrialized cities, property crime also rises. Another economic factor would be the inequality of income. Those with lower or no income are more prone to commit crime against people with much higher earnings. Poverty causes depression, family troubles and instability in community. Structural strain causes an increase in street crimes and general strain leads to rise in deviant/antisocial behaviors such as delinquency and criminality.” What is a Criminogenic Society? Factors that Could Lead to Crimes- Gwendolyn Cuizon
Looking at the real history of America one would have to conclude that it is indeed a criminogenic society for all the reasons Ms Cuizon (not her real name) mentioned. However I maintain she is looking at America upside down; that in fact it is the ruling class and the plutocracy who are the real criminals. History proves it is they who set the stage for a criminogenic culture not only here but everywhere they set foot on planet earth. America, contrary to the myths and lies we were taught in school was founded as a money making venture by European corporations called trading companies that held monopolies granted to a cabal of venture capitalists by the monarchs and the Pope that “authorized” them to rob, pillage and plunder conquer and found colonies to enrich the principles (kings, queens, religious hierarchy and the venture capitalists).
In fact they even called themselves Conquistadores (conquerors), privateers (pirates) and soldiers of fortune. Given the great risk and danger even the poorest and most destitute in Europe weren’t beating down doors to get on the ships to come over here, so the venture capitalists also recruited dissidents, they offered an opportunity to people seeking escape from religious persecution to start over and make a new life for themselves. Later when that wasn’t enough they emptied the prisons and sent the dregs of society here and around the world to loot and colonize for the crown, the Pope and trading companies. When that wasn’t enough they went to Africa to kidnap our ancestors and bring them to this hemisphere to work as beasts of burden.
The Europeans came to pillage and plunder. On his second voyage in 1494, Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) who was supported by the Spanish monarchs, came armed with crossbows, muskets, cannon, horses and foot soldiers. Obviously he did not come in peace. Colon set the stage for the rest of Europe vis a vis the so called New World as a place of plunder and exploitation. Portugal, Spain’s rival was in the process of exterminating the inhabitants of the Canary Islands when Colon unleashed his assault on the Arawaks and Caribs in Haiti.
Once here the soldiers of fortune and trading companies set out to earn riches for themselves and the principles. So in effect it was and is the heads of European and American society, the monarchs, Pope politicians and landed aristocracy who authorized the beginning of the holocausts in the Caribbean, North and South America and Africa. This makes them war criminals, purveyors of violence and genocide.
Jumping to the present era, sociologists like to point to the poor and ethnic subcultures when they talk about crime, criminality and the break down of “law and order”. However they are being paid to distort reality and obscure the crimes of the ruling elites. Ms Cuizon is correct, the elites have structured the laws so they get off Scott free for their crimes against humanity while the slightest thing a poor person or person of color does, the full brunt of the law comes down on them. Read Judge A. Leon Higginbotham’s seminal works: In The Matter of Color Race and The American Legal Process The Colonial period and Shades of Freedom Racial Politics and Presumption of the American Legal Process and you will see just how steeped in class, color and ethnic bias the American “legal system” really is. Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of The United States is a real eye opener as are any of the works by Michael Parenti and Amos Wilson. But we are not taught this in school or on the nightly news.
I say all this to say the social collapse we are witnessing here and in Europe are top down driven, not bottom up phenomenon. The US is a criminogenic society because its’ elites made it so. The values and policies of the super rich, the politicians and the religious leaders promote genocide, war, usury, peonage and slavery. These values/behaviors/policies are a cancer and blight on humanity. Today this cancer is promoted via a mass media that models and glorifies lying, violence, predation, misogyny, exploitation and racism. Is it any wonder the neighborhoods are in chaos, the government is in chaos?
Look at the wars they wage based upon lies, greed and covetousness. Yet they are never held accountable, they are never put on trial or punished. Look at how the partisan bickering and infighting in Congress has paralyzed the government. Look at the corruption, graft and fraud at the top, yet no one goes to jail!? Look at how the banksters have looted the economy with the assistance of the President and Congress. Yet none of them will go to jail, why? Because America is a criminogenic society. The masses on the bottom are merely mirroring and duplicating the values and behavior of the thieves, degenerates and psychopaths at the top.
As published:
- [TheBlackList] Is AmeriKKKa A Criminogenic Society, jrswriter, 09/19/2011
https://theblacklist.net/
Comments
I agree wholeheartedly that amerikkka is in fact a crimogenic society. For anyone who has not read it, I would highly recommend "Black on Black Violence" by Amos Wilson. Wilson defines a crimogenic society as one that consistently produces crime. I also would like to recommend the book Yurugu by Marimba Ani. In it she describes a term called the "Cultural Other". Ani's contention is that according to white folks, there are only two kinds of people on planed earth. White folks and what she calls "Cultural Others". According to white folks, the ONLY REASON God put "Cultural Others" on earth is to absorb white folks violence and aggression and or to do their bidding as they see fit. Therefore if they rob you, rape you, murder you, torture you, enslave you, commit genocide against you, etc. they haven't really done anything wrong, that's what God put you here for so you should just shut up and take your medicine!!! According to this mindset, they couldn't steal this land from the so-called Indians any more than they could steal this land from animals in the forest. Indians are just like animals, they are not really humans, and therefore can be subjected to any degree of brutality, humiliation or degredation.
As Black people we see and are often victimized by their criminal behavior. However because we suffer from historical and cultural amnesia, we have allowed the european collective to redefine us in their image and interests. Once we buy into white folks definition of ourselves, we will continut to behave they way they need us to behave in order to rationalize their treatment of us. In reality, according to the FBI Uniform Crims Statisticts, white are responsible for 80% of the cocaine sales and use and 78% of the violent crime in amerikkka. Now who would come to that conclusion by reading the daily newspapers or looking at the 10:00 0'clock news???
Yeah, all salient points, from top to bottom! But while we're being criminalized at every turning point, how do we caveat the moves that he makes to turn around this obsessive, glutonous and greedy lust for POWER that is the status quo? It would take more than we are able to muster, I must say sadly. We're too dysfunctional; we have no unity, and any dissonance he can foresee will surely be DEMONIZED; ie Khaddafi and all the rest! So, what do we do at this time? I say demur, observe, reflect and internalize
in a way as quasi-experimental as possible. Surely, GOOD will prevail over EVIL; as TIME will tell.