At this point, I think I've finally figured out my study:
Three case studies, laden with archival research and naturalistic observation, all about the effects violent crime has on our society. I'm going to take three specific cases and draw parallels between them, and tie in conflict theory- the idea that we need to have conflict in order to have, well, order.
The first case will probably be Jack the Ripper, because let's be honest, I like Ripper and he's an early enough and infamous enough killer to have shaped the whole of the nineteen hundreds.
The second case will be the Zodiac, because he was more focused in the natural, sort of idealistic American setting, and definitely shaped American investigative work, specifically.
The third case, I think, will be the September 11th attacks on the United States- it's a sort of different act of violent crime we don't think about very often, because it falls so specifically under the branch of "terrorism", but is a violent crime none the less, and has severely impact us in later society, to the point where our generation can easily pinpoint a "before" and "after" society that evolved from the attacks.
I'll draw parallels between these cases and how they fit into the general conflict theory, which I'll dive more into and explain more in detail, and offer specific examples in our daily lives that were shaped by these incidents, acting under the thesis that society needs violent crime to function, believe it or not.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Research, Research, and More Research...
Okay, so I'm a little stuck.
Completely stuck would actually probably be more accurate. I have genuinely no clue what to do for this project. I guess it's mostly my own fault because hello, I can't quite go and park myself in Newark for a couple hours and see what I find. That's not really a thing that will work out too well for me, at least not that I think, anyway.
I also don't want to do just archival research. I spend a huge chunk of my time already reading up on things like this because violent crime is interesting beyond recognition, but this kind of feels like more of an opportunity to go and find something out, rather than just make connections through exciting things that other people have already done.
An experiment could totally be done with the effects of violent crime in the media... I could pick a violent movie, sit a few people down to watch it, then observe them afterwards- I could even throw in a bit of provocation, enlist a friend to be an annoyance on the street or something, but I think that all comes from me watching way too much "What Would You Do?". It might be a bit too complicated to actually go into, and with my luck I'd wind up completely throwing the results by not properly defining something, so I'll scratch that for now.
Maybe it's just my bias, but I don't think a survey would work here. Think about it, how many people would genuinely answer that they feel more violent after watching a violent film or something, or how many would answer honestly about that time they got into a fist fight while pissed out of their mind at a grad week party? Not too many, unless it was done anonymously, and even then I have my doubts.
I could do a case study, take a famous killer and see exactly how they've influenced current society and the media- like Jack The Ripper, for example. His (or her- they never found the culprit) case was one of the most influential of the time, and completely changed the way a lot of people tend to look at cases of serial killers. That seems like the most logical thing to do, at this point. I just have to decide on which killer to study, and what connections I'm going to make.
Hmmm. This could work.
Completely stuck would actually probably be more accurate. I have genuinely no clue what to do for this project. I guess it's mostly my own fault because hello, I can't quite go and park myself in Newark for a couple hours and see what I find. That's not really a thing that will work out too well for me, at least not that I think, anyway.
I also don't want to do just archival research. I spend a huge chunk of my time already reading up on things like this because violent crime is interesting beyond recognition, but this kind of feels like more of an opportunity to go and find something out, rather than just make connections through exciting things that other people have already done.
An experiment could totally be done with the effects of violent crime in the media... I could pick a violent movie, sit a few people down to watch it, then observe them afterwards- I could even throw in a bit of provocation, enlist a friend to be an annoyance on the street or something, but I think that all comes from me watching way too much "What Would You Do?". It might be a bit too complicated to actually go into, and with my luck I'd wind up completely throwing the results by not properly defining something, so I'll scratch that for now.
Maybe it's just my bias, but I don't think a survey would work here. Think about it, how many people would genuinely answer that they feel more violent after watching a violent film or something, or how many would answer honestly about that time they got into a fist fight while pissed out of their mind at a grad week party? Not too many, unless it was done anonymously, and even then I have my doubts.
I could do a case study, take a famous killer and see exactly how they've influenced current society and the media- like Jack The Ripper, for example. His (or her- they never found the culprit) case was one of the most influential of the time, and completely changed the way a lot of people tend to look at cases of serial killers. That seems like the most logical thing to do, at this point. I just have to decide on which killer to study, and what connections I'm going to make.
Hmmm. This could work.
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