Competitive Violence and the Micro-Politics of the Fight Label

Bibliographic Data

ID3385960
AuthorsCurtis Jackson-Jacobs, Curtis Jackson‐Jacobs (corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume62
Issue2_suppl
Pages166-186
Publication date2014-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-954x.12197
OpenAlexW2122556352
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited62

Although physical fighting is a common theme in research on youth, crime, and schools, social scientists have only rarely confronted a basic question: What makes a fight a 'fight'? The label and its application are highly consequential for violent actors and social control agencies. Based on several years of longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with several dozen American youth involved in violence (including a qualitative dataset of 189 violent encounters), the analysis documents the meaning of physical fights as a distinctive form of violent interaction. First, a definition of a 'fight' from the sample members' perspective is presented: a stretch of serious, competitive, hand-to-hand violence. Next, the article turns to the 'micro-politics' of labelling violence by institutions of discipline and control. By treating violence as a mutual fight, social control agents implicitly deny the roles of 'victim' and 'perpetrator'. Police and school officials may creatively invoke the fight label either to avoid taking action or to punish all parties involved in violence on the street, in the home or at school. Finally, the discussion concludes by addressing variations in how violence is labelled across social ecologies and socioeconomic contexts, and the interrelated nature of the 'fight', 'violence' and 'victim' labels

Action (physics) · Control (management) · Criminology · Ethnography · Meaning (existential) · Perspective (graphical) · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Theme (computing) · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Gun Ownership and Violence Research · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology