The transmission of crime as work in Turkey: Identification and strategic mutuality

Abstract

Bourdieusian criminology has produced useful concepts such as the street-criminal field, capital and habitus. In employing these concepts, this article demonstrates the importance of the criminal role model-image, such as the respected career criminal, as an ego-ideal among lower class youths who identify with these role models, acquiring bodily and mental criminal dispositions using the results of ethnographic research conducted in a run-down district in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Focusing on a non-Western context with an original theoretical articulation, this article further suggests that the affective relationship between these disadvantaged lower class youths and respected older criminals lubricates the youths’ formation of criminal habitus and likewise constitutes a ‘strategic mutuality’ flowing through certain practices in the street-criminal fields. The original finding lies in revealing a strategic affinity transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques and skills across generations, and further making crime as work a reliable source of income for disadvantaged youths.

New patterns in residential burglary: The method of deadbolt lock picking

“…However, we can also count ‘charm’ and ‘leadership for co-offending’ as personal resources (Ekblom and Tilley, 2000: 382). Juba's criminal career provided him with an allure and respect among his peers but also flexibility through his expanding criminal social networks (Mercan, 2020c). The latter generated a collaborative resource from which Juba could pick out members of his crew with ‘an appropriate skill-mix and capacity’ (Ekblom and Tilley, 2000: 383).…”

“…Ero's account indicates how widespread collaborative resources and networks are in the street cultural field of the Walkway (Mercan, 2020c: 6–9). The Walkway youths find criminal opportunities and collaborations in these networks where the unemployed and poorly educated tend to socialise with criminal role models like Juba.…”