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Violence Is Not a Crime

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Violence Is Not a Crime CQ No. 42 April 2013 4/4/13 7:49 AM Page 31 VIOLENCE IS NOT A CRIME The impact of ‘acceptable’ violence on South African society Anthony Collins * [email protected] In his book, A Country at War with Itself, Antony Altbeker has highlighted that the extraordinary and distressing feature of crime in South Africa is not how common it is, but how violent. This analysis moves on from that point, arguing that rather than focusing on violent crime as a specific type of criminality, we should examine violence as a separate category that sometimes overlaps with crime and sometimes does not. This shift in focus reveals that it is not South African crime that is so violent, but South African society in general. It shows that many of these forms of violence are both legal and socially acceptable. This includes violence in childrearing, intimate relationships, education, sport, film and television, establishing social identities, and political negotiation, to name but a few significant areas. An examination of these popular and accepted forms of violence provides a revealing analysis of how these patterns are reproduced socially and psychologically, explaining how individuals and groups come to use violence as an everyday strategy of social negotiation. This analysis makes it clear that violent crime is a reflection of deeper patterns of violence within the society, and highlights the importance of including approaches other than law enforcement in reducing violence in South Africa. In his book A Country at War with Itself, Altbeker1 My Smile: An exploration into the causes of youth makes the compelling argument that the violence in South Africa,4 and Youth Violence: exceptional feature of South African crime is not Sources and Solutions in South Africa.5 It is also how prevalent it is, but rather how violent it is. reflected in popular concerns about being This analysis was deepened by an important and threatened with death, injury or sexual assault, far-reaching study by the Centre for the Study of which causes considerably more anxiety than 2 Violence and Reconciliation, exploring the reasons simply losing property to criminals. for this violence. Despite having commissioned the 3 study, government’s response was to dismiss it. This paper explores just one aspect of the growing focus on violence, examining how we, as The interest in the violent nature of South African ordinary citizens and experts, think about the crime is reflected in works such as Someone Stole problem of violence. * Anthony Collins is based at the School of Applied LAY THEORIES AND RESEARCH Human Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and has developed several university courses in Violence is usually seen as a sub-category of violence and victim support, drawing on his combined crime. A range of imagined scenarios shape our academic background in Psychology and Cultural Studies. He is currently completing a book on violence thinking: being hijacked, armed gangs invading in South Africa. our homes, being sexually assaulted by a stranger SA Crime Quarterly no 43 • March 2013 29 CQ No. 42 April 2013 4/4/13 7:49 AM Page 32 in a dark unfamiliar place. The immediate convention. There are many forms of violence that problem is that the existing research shows that are socially accepted and are commonly these scenarios do not really correspond with understood as benign, necessary, justifiable, below actual risks. Victim studies6 paint a substantially the threshold of criminality, or not recognised as different picture to the images that keep most violence at all. Separating violence from crime people awake at night. This problem is not solved allows a broader analysis of all the different forms by arguing that we should base policy on research of violence, including the many forms of non- data rather than popular opinion, as the criminal violence, and how they are sustained and relationships between popular opinion, scientific reproduced in South African society. This then research, policy and implementation are in fact enables us to explore how accepted forms of very complex. violence are linked to criminal behaviour, and to examine how hidden forms of victimisation relate The first complication is that even researchers to the popular anxieties concerning violent crime. themselves are, to some extent, influenced by these popular beliefs. While their specific claims POPULAR VIOLENCE may be based on rigorous research evidence, there are underlying tacit assumptions, derived in Once we separate the two concepts, some part from their social context, that structure how interesting issues become apparent. While South they conceptualise the field they are investigating. Africans report the threat of violent crime as a These assumptions and context also shape the major cause of anxiety, and an obstacle to their way in which researchers formulate the questions quality of life,8 they are remarkably enthusiastic they ask, and the theories they test.7 about many other forms of violence. Violence in entertainment is extremely popular. Action films, Another difficulty is that above these experts is a defined by the pervasive representation of violence, level of executive political decision-making by are dependable box office hits. The spectacle of groups and individuals, who often rely on their federation wrestling captures prime time television own uncritical beliefs, rather than allowing slots. Other aggressive sports such as boxing and themselves to be guided by more comprehensive rugby are national pastimes. Popular video games data and careful analysis. This problem is insert young players into the active role of violent aggravated by political populism, where decision- combatant. makers understand their role as short-term pandering to the collective anxieties of the Violence in law enforcement is also frequently electorate rather than applying their minds to greeted with enthusiastic support. The solving underlying social problems in a more overwhelming majority of South Africans want the thoughtful and sustainable manner. Thus the return of the death penalty,9 the use of extreme pervasive influence of popular conceptions of physical force in apprehending, interrogating and crime and violence cannot be easily dismissed by even punishing suspects, is largely welcomed by simple appeals to evidence-based practice. citizens,10 and one third agree that ‘police should use unrestrained violence including torture to hunt It is therefore important to carefully examine the criminals’.11 Although there are increasing received concept of violence that shapes our objections to police brutality against innocent thinking. My argument is that we should begin by victims, and against the use of police in quashing clearly separating violence and crime into two social protest, violence against suspected criminals different categories that sometimes overlap, and receives little criticism and frequent vocal sometimes do not. It is clear that some crimes support.12 The proposal regarding ‘shoot to kill’ (assault, robbery, rape, homicide) are intrinsically legislation (2012 revision of section 49 of the violent, but others (theft, fraud) are not. The Criminal Procedure Act), expanding police powers more interesting point is that not all violence is to use lethal force beyond immediate self-defence, defined as criminal by law or by social does not just satisfy the needs of the political elite 30 Institute for Security Studies CQ No. 42 April 2013 4/4/13 7:49 AM Page 33 for authoritarian control; it panders to a public xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals accused of desire for more forceful and aggressive policing.13 ‘stealing our jobs’,21 and it can be used to regulate And where the police fail to rise to these gender and sexuality through gay-bashing and expectations, popular vigilantism offers zealous ‘corrective rape’.22 citizens the opportunity to assault and even kill suspected criminals.14 PROBLEMS WITH EVERYDAY THINKING Implicit in the popular view is the idea that fear of punishment deters lawbreaking and that effective Framing the issue by means of these examples crime prevention strategies can easily be derived highlights three serious problems in everyday from this assumption. The underlying belief is that thinking about violence. The first is the way in crime is a matter of incentives and disincentives. which personal risk is imagined. People primarily The most effective disincentives are those that will fear violence that forms part of property crimes terrify the offender, such as the credible threat of and sexual assaults by strangers,23, 24 whereas severe pain, injury, or death. Thus, in this lay research25 indicates that most serious violence theory, violence is the most effective and desirable (assaults, homicides) takes place in conflicts method of dealing with criminality. between people who know each other.26 Physical attacks are less frequent in the context of mugging Violence is also widely seen as an appropriate and and housebreaking, and are more often part of effective way of regulating interpersonal escalations of disputes than is commonly believed. relationships. It is understood as an essential tool Rapes are more commonly committed by family for raising children,15 a useful disciplinary members, social acquaintances, teachers, religious technique in educational institutions, an acceptable leaders, and other authority figures than by strategy in pursuing sexual encounters,16 an anonymous predators in
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