Juvenile violence in a winner-loser culture
Subtitle: socio-economic and familial origins of the rise in violence against the person
By: Oliver James.
Publisher: Free Association Books
Published: 1995
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 171
Subjects: Juvenile delinquency -- Great Britain; Violent crimes -- Great Britain; Teenage boys -- Great Britain -- Conduct of life; Teenage boys -- Great Britain -- Family relationships; Teenagers with social disabilities -- Great Britain -- Economic conditions; Teenagers with social disabilities -- Great Britain -- Family relationships; Problem families -- Great Britain -- Economic conditions; Family violence -- Great Britain
Description: The economic policies of the 1980s resulted in many unforeseen social trends. The most malignant of these has been the unprecedented rise, since 1987, in crimes of violence against the person, especially among juveniles. Using their own official statistics, author Oliver James demonstrates that Home Office claims that violence has not been growing are false.

Public debates about violence tend to centre on single-cause explanations, such as moral fecklessness, single parenting, depictions of violence in films and videos, and even genetics. If their is a single-cause, argues author Oliver James, it is to be found in the far more complex issue of inequality.

Since the 1980s, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened. There is less welfare and worse welfare for the disadvantaged. Furthermore, a winner-loser culture has emerged, with the disadvantaged deemed the 'losers'.

James proposes a 'lagged' theory of violence causation. He demonstrates that the rise in numbers of low income families in the early 1980s caused another rise from the late 1980s onwards: violence against the person. Separating the evidence concerning the causes of violence from that concerned with criminality in general, James links trends in social, familial and economic deprivation to show how inequality provides a breeding ground for violence, historically and cross-nationally.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [138]-164) and index.
Table of contents: title: Parental causes of individual differences in violence : abuse, disharmony and irritability; title: Irritability in depressed mothers : a hidden cause of violence?; title: Low income versus single parenting, low intelligence and the underclass culture as causes of parental abuse, disharmony and irritability; title: Inequality : the direct effect of economics and culture on the prevalence of adult male violence; title: Gender : the outwardly-directed violence of depressed men and the inwardly-directed violence of depressed women; title: Biology : not a major cause of differences in violence between men; title: Explaining the unprecedented rise in violence against the person since 1987.