Postmodernism and Crime

Katz (1988)

• Argues that other sociological theories have failed to examine the role of pleasure in committing crime.
• Different crimes provide different thrills, that can vary from the 'sneaky thrills' of shoplifting, to the 'righteous slaughter' of muder.
• By understanding the emotional thrills we can understand why males commit crime. For example, robbery, which is largely undertaken, he claims, for the chaos, thrill and potential danger of the act. Furthermore, in virtually all robberies 'the offender discovers, fantasizes or manufactures an angle of moral superiority over the intended victim', such that the robber has 'succeeded in making a…