stepmothers, people who care for the elderly
– the ‘other’ is everywhere and not restricted
to criminals and outsiders. Its causes are
increasingly unsure and this uncertainty is
compounded by its seeming ubiquitousness.
Both individuals and institutions face the
problems of sorting out the safe from the
risky and doing so in ways which are no
longer cast iron and certain but merely
“THE EXCLUSIVE SOCIETY:
probabilistic.
SOCIAL EXCLUSION, CRIME Rules themselves have become
AND DIFFERENCE IN LATE problematic in a pluralistic society where
MODERNITY” rules overlap to be sure but are never
identical between one group and the other;
Jock Young (1999) they change over time and have changed,
without doubt, within the lifetime of
everyone. So it is no longer a question of
[...] right and wrong, more what is the lifetime
A major motif of social control in late of everyone. So it is no longer a question of
modern society is actuarialism. This right and wrong, more what is the
involves, […] a transition where there is a likelihood of your rules being broken, and
concern less with justice than with harm when the unit of risk becomes your chance
minimization and where causes of crime of victimage, assessment of individual
and deviance are not seen as the vital clue to responsibility becomes less and less
the solution to the problem of crime. The relevant. If you are the manager of a
actuarial stance is calculative of risk. It is shopping mall or a mother seeking to
wary and probabilistic, it is not concerned protect her family, whether the likely
with causes but with probabilities, not with transgressor is mad or bad, following rules
justice but with harm minimization, it does or being unable to engage in rule-following
not seek a world free of crime but one where behaviour, is of little consequence. Thus the
the best practices of damage limitation have line between free will and determinism
been put in place; not a utopia but a series of becomes not only blurred but in a sense
gated havens in a hostile world. The irrelevant. You want above all to avoid trouble
actuarial stance reflects the fact that risk rather than to understand it. You want to
both to individuals and collectives has minimize risk rather than morally condemn
increased, crime has become a normalized behaviour.
part of everyday life, the offender is […]
seemingly everywhere in the street and in
high office, within the poor parts of town
but also those institutions which were set up UMWELT AND THE MANAGEMENT OF
to rehabilitate and protect, within the public RISK
world of encounters with strangers but
within the family itself in relationships […] Anthony Giddens discusses the way in
between husband and wife and parent and which human beings generate around
child. We are wary of scoutmasters, themselves a feeling of bodily and psychic
policemen, hitchhikers, babysitters, ease. ‘If we mostly seem less fragile,’ he
husbands, dates, stepfathers and notes, ‘than we really are… it is because of
long-term learning processes whereby
potential threats are avoided or important party of the social repertoire of
immobilized’ (1991, p.127). He builds women. Anyone who has conducted a
Goffman’s notion of an Umwelt: a core of criminal victimization survey knows that it
accomplished normality with which is possible to identify and differentiate,
individuals and groups surround ‘blind’, between women and men merely by
themselves. Taking inspiration from studies looking at their avoidance behaviour
of animal behaviour, Goffman begins the patterns. Researchers talk of the ‘curfew’ at
section of Relations in Public designated night of urban women (see Painter et al.,
‘normal appearances’ with this remarkable 1989). The Umwelt is strongly racialized:
imagery of the Umwelt: ethnic groups are aware of areas of safety
and danger and in racist discourse,
Individuals, whether in human or animal form, exhibit minorities are represented as signals of fear
two basic modes of activity. They go about their
and danger to the majority population. It
business grazing, gazing, mothering, digesting,
building, resting, playing, placidly attending to easily has strong dimensions of age:
managed matters at hand. Or, fully mobilized, a fury schoolchildren have a vivid sense of space
of intent, alarmed, they get ready to attack or to stalk or and safety (see Anderson et al., 1994); whilst
to flee. Physiology itself is patterned to coincide with
street gangs and home boys actively police
this duality.
The individual mediates between these two their turf, providing both security for
tendencies with a very pretty capacity for dissociated themselves and alarm for others. Lastly,
vigilance. Smells, sounds, sights, touches, pressures – Umwelt is, of course, crucially constituted by
in various combinations, depending on the species –
class: the middle class by virtue of the cost
provide a running reading of the situation, a constant
monitoring of what surrounds. But by a wonder of of area, by the use of motor car, by private
adaptation these readings can be done out of the club and fancy restaurant seek to separate
furthest corner of whatever is serving for an eye, themselves from the undesirables, the
leaving the individual himself free to focus his main
‘dangerous classes’, even when in transit
attention on the non-emergencies around him. Matters
that the actor has become accustomed to will receive a through the busy city centres of Manhattan
flick or a shadow of concern, one that decays as soon as and London.
he obtains a microsecond of confirmation that The signs of danger need not be
everything is in order; should something really prove
crime itself or the threat of it, but more
to be ‘up’, prior activity can be dropped and full
orientation mobilized, followed by coping behaviour…. subtle perceptions of possible risk and the
(1971, p.238) escalation of danger. Goffman was perhaps
the first academic to note the problem of
The Umwelt has two dimensions: the area incivilities, way ahead of Wilson and
which one feels secure in and the area in Kelling’s famous ‘Broken Windows’ […]
which one is aware; the area of Thus:
apprehension. The lioness sleeps tranquilly
on the veldt, her eye every now and then When an individual finds persons in his presence
taking in the activities on the distance. In acting improperly or appearing out of place, he can
read this as evidence that although the peculiarity itself
human society it is a moving bubble which
may not be a threat to him, still, those who are peculiar
shrinks and expands wherever one is: in one regard may well be peculiar in other ways, too,
whether, for example, one is at home or in some of which may be threatening. For the individual,
the urban street. The nature of the Umwelt then, impropriety on the part of others may function as
an alarming sign. Thus, the minor civilities of everyday
varies by social category. It is strongly
life can function as an early warning system;
gendered: Goffman noted that the Umwelt of conventional courtesies are seen as mere convention,
women differed from men. Clearly, but non-performance can cause alarm. (1971, p.241)
recognizing predatory sexual signs as well
as signals of possible violence from men He cites an example of sexual harassment
both in public and in the home is an which graphically indicates the continuum
nature of crime. This is from Meredith Tax’s only an area of security an insecurity but of
article in Women’s Liberation: Notes from the opportunities of excitement, interest, gain
Second Year: and action.
[…]
A young woman is walking down a city street. She is
excruciatingly aware of her appearance and of the
There is a body of thought which sees fear
reaction to it (imagined or real) of every person she
meets. She walks through a group of construction of crime and perceptions of likely risk as a
workers who are eating lunch in a line along the phenomenon quite separate from the actual
pavement. Her stomach tightens with terror and risk of crime itself. Indeed ‘fear’ of crime is
revulsion; her face becomes contorted into a grimace of
regarded sometimes as a problem
self-control and fake unawareness; her walk and
carriage become stiff and dehumanized. No matter autonomous from crime. Fear and concern
what they say to her it will be unbearable. She knows about crime then become metaphors for
that they will not physically assault her or hurt her. other types of urban unease (e.g. urban
They will use her body with their eyes. They will
development), or a displacement of other
evaluate her market price. They will comment in her
defects or compare them to those of other passers-by. fears (e.g. racism, psychological difficulties).
They will make her a participant in their fantasies The ‘real’ or ‘true’ fears are separated from
without asking if she is wiling. They will make her feel crime itself and this exercise is achieved by
ridiculous, or grotesquely sexual, or hideously ugly.
contrasting the ‘gap’ between the ‘real’ risk
Above all, they will make her feel like a thing. (Tax,
1970, p.12) of crime and the evidence of
‘disproportionate’ fears. Women and old
Goffman is convinced that the condition of people are the most frequently cited
‘uneventfulness’ is a moral right of a citizen examples of evidence that such a
(see 1971, p.240); such a level of trust is part proportionality exists.
of the nature of civilized life. And he […]
detects an overall deterioration in this
quality of life:
The area of security, of the Umwelt, shrinks
apace…: it shrinks because of actual risk,
but also, as we saw in the last section,
because sensitivity to risk rises while
knowledge of others diminishes. But what
can one say of the area of apprehension?
Here the paradox of a drop in knowledge of
immediates is associated with a
globalization of knowledge of the outside
world. The area of security, of the Umwelt,
thus decreases whilst at the same time the area of
apprehension vastly increases.
Lastly, there is another side of
Umwelt, not touched upon by Goffman, but
with obvious relevance and with parallels in
animal behaviour. The lioness gazing
fleetingly across the veldt is mapping out
not only an area of security and one of
apprehension but also looking for
indications of prey and the possibilities of
predation. In human terms the city is not