Situational Construction of Masculinity among Male Street Thieves

Abstract

Increasingly, theorists recognize that the influence of masculinity on decision making is situationally contingent and embedded in interactions. Using interviews with ninety-four male street thieves, the authors describe the situations that bring constructions of masculinity into the foreground of street crime. In certain situations, men are likely to engage in criminal behavior as a mechanism for constructing their masculinity. The authors find that hanging with criminally capable associates and partying are critically significant for understanding when masculine concerns bear on criminal decision making. In these situations, copresent others interpret inappropriate actions or responses as definitive signs of weakness, passivity, and failure in the struggle to be a man. They also examine how age and criminal experience shape conceptions of masculinity and the style of their enactment.

Understanding Adolescent Property Crime using a Delinquent Events Perspective

“…As the aforementioned narratives illustrate, adolescent offenders like other groups of offenders commit crimes for fun and thrills (Copes 2003;Hochstetler 2002;Jacobs et al 2003;Katz 1988) with little pre-crime planning beyond an agreed upon decision to commit the offense (Kazemian and LeBlanc 2004). The intent was to engage in a group crime for the primary benefit of having fun in a highly risky context (Copes 2003;Katz 1988;Jacobs et al 2003;Jacobs and Wright 1999).…”

“…The intent was to engage in a group crime for the primary benefit of having fun in a highly risky context (Copes 2003;Katz 1988;Jacobs et al 2003;Jacobs and Wright 1999). Thus, from an interpretive perspective, the adolescents approached and continued to view their participation in these delinquent events as inconsequential, harmless fun.…”

“…As such, individuals' responses are not made in reaction to the actions of each other, but rather in response to the ''meaning'' that is attached to such actions (Blumer 1969). Because of this emphasis on individuals' interpretations and meaning ascriptions, symbolic interactionist research (or those influenced by interactionist perspectives) 1 tends to be qualitative in nature, relying mainly on offenders' accounts of their crimes, with notable examples including studies on murder (Luckenbill 1977), rape (Felson 1993), robbery (Hochstetler 2001(Hochstetler , 2002Katz 1988Katz , 1991, violent acts (Athens 1992(Athens , 1997, family violence (Denzin 1984), auto theft (Copes 2003), car jacking (Jacobs et al 2003), minor property offenses (Katz 1988), and gang crimes (Katz 1988).…”

Auto Theft and Youth Culture: A Nexus of Masculinities, Femininities and Car Culture

“…Also, approximately 75% of all the people accused of motor vehicle theft in 2001 were under the age of 25 and young people aged 12Á17 accounted for 42% of all people charged with stealing a motor vehicle (Wallace 2003). Other authors (e.g., Cunneen & White 1995;Dawes 2002;Copes & Hochstetler 2003) in the United States and Australia have also recognized that motor vehicle theft is a crime primarily participated in by men. Drawing on interviews conducted with young men and women who had participated in motor vehicle theft, this paper considers masculinity and femininity as performative expressions of gendered practice.…”

Ringing the Chord

“…My survey of recent literature on masculinity suggests that interpretations of masculinity accommodate a wide range of variant meanings within the framework of "traditional masculinity" (Copes and Hochstetler 2003;Kaplan 2007;Leyser 2003;Schwalbe 1996b). Core masculine values such as emotional detachment and patriarchic attitudes persist through and can even strengthen during participation in organizations and interactional settings that seem contradictory to these values.…”