On Nov 7, 2007, at Wednesday,November 7, 2007,3:28 PM, Volokh, Eugene wrote:
> Help me out here: The major purveyors of informal violence -- > murders, robberies, assaults, and the like -- are *not* street thugs? > Who are they then? The Phelps crowd? Politically motivated right- > wing > activists? > > (I should say that as to one important class of informal > violence, which is rape, bedroom thugs -- date-rapists -- are a more > major purveyor than street thugs; but street thugs are a major > category > even there, and *the* major category as to the other kinds of > violence.) > > Eugene > Let's turn it over on its head: Are the Ku Klux Klan "street thugs"? Were the men who murdered Matthew Shepard "street thugs"? I think not. I also think there is a difference between the two groups: One has a long-standing history, a complex organization, the other was simply (!) a matter of mob mentality on a smaller scale. Oddly enough, neither group would be called street thugs by other members of their community. They's just a bunch of good ol' boys. I think what's missing here is a distinction that "informal violence" by itself connotes random violence; It must be qualified with the word "organized", and compared to "Official (or "formal") violence, defined as organized and sanctioned by law and or government. In closing, the concept of "street thug" is misleading. Only a miniscule amount of violence is perpetrated by the truly antisocial, psychopathic, or homeless. Jean Dudley. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
