Award Date

1-1-1999

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Criminal Justice

First Committee Member

Terance Miethe

Number of Pages

79

Abstract

Social scientists are increasingly aware of the significance of examining crime events and the situational context of crime. This paper extends that research by exploring the physical and social aspects of assaults. Guided by research on masculinity, status threats, and character contests, this study uses police data to examine the situational dynamics of dispute-related assaults; Specifically, this study differentiates two types of dispute-related violence: character contests and noncharacter contests. Numerous situational variables are examined to assess the significance of their relationship with the likelihood of an offense being a character contest; By comparing character contests to other types of dispute-related assaults, this study addresses whether there are significant differences between the circumstances of these two types of violent situations. From the analysis of nearly 200 incidents of dispute-related assaults, I find a common structural basis in these crime events that includes particular sets of offender, victim, and situational character contests and other forms of dispute-related violence. This study explores these common structures and the role of character contests in violent situations. Finally, the implications for future research are discussed.

Keywords

Assaults; Batteries; Context; Criminal; Exploring; Situational

Controlled Subject

Criminology

File Format

pdf

File Size

2037.76 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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