Christopher Holmes Structural Violence Theory

From this book excerpt, I began to envision a different interpretation of the economic value of food. At the hands of the migrant workers, our food is being taken to the farm and delivered to Publix, Kroger, Aldi and Whole Foods. I'm pretty sure the average American never thinks about the way their food got to the store or better yet their table. The typical person eats 2-3 meals a day and while the laborer is lucky to get one meal in between their shift. So I ask, what is the true cost of

Growing up on a small family wheat farm in southwestern Oklahoma, I have experienced the harsh conditions of farming firsthand. The job that used to employ the largest amount of people in the United States has lost the support and the respect of the American people. The Jeffersonian Ideal of a nation of farmers has been tossed aside to be replaced by a nation of white-collar workers. The family farm is under attack and it is not being protected. The family farm can help the United States economically by creating jobs in a time when many cannot afford the food in the stores. The family farm can help prevent the degradation of the environment by creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the people producing the food and nature. The family farm is the answer to many of the tough questions facing the United States today, but these small farms are going bankrupt all too often. The government’s policy on farming is the largest factor in what farms succeed, but simple economics, large corporations, and society as a whole influence the decline in family farms; small changes in these areas will help break up the huge corporate farms, keeping the small family farm afloat.

dedicated farm women. They took care of all of the food, clothing and just about anything else

Farming involves many risks and dangers. According to “Farm Safety - Risks and Hazards,” farming is a very threatening activity to anyone. Most people that get injured on a farm are either under the age of 15 or over the age of 65(Better Health Channel). Additionally, farming has multiple other reasons it is and can be a danger to anyone, such as long hours and working with dangerous machinery. According to Bethany Baratta, a reporter for the Iowa Farm Bureau, “It only takes 14 seconds for a person working inside of a grain bin to be pulled under the surface of the corn pile. With more than 60 percent of the grain in the United States being stored on farms, there’s a greater chance that farmers and farm workers may be tasked with checking the condition of the grain inside the bin. But with that chore comes the risk of a grain engulfment” (Baratta). This can be a huge problem for Austin when he farms during harvest season because like the quote says it only takes 14 seconds to be consumed by grain, and Austin works a lot with the bins around the farm, so he is always putting himself in danger. Farmers also help with our economy in Iowa and around the world. Austin explains, “The land we farm has CRP (conservation reserve program) strips and CRP waterways bordering the creeks and streams providing wildlife habitat and preventing soil erosion and contamination of the stream.” This is positive because this ensures that farmers don’t damage the water in our creeks and streams which flows into our rivers and eventually into our oceans. They’re also providing habitat for wildlife so they can prosper; therefore, providing food for some people in Iowa and food for many others around the

To elaborate, the farmworkers have been laboring day and night, even when their bodies are in pain. As stated by a young girl, named Carmen, “‘She (mom) doesn’t want to see me work there (in the fields), … she says because it’s a lot of work, … She doesn’t want me to go through what she goes through (in the fields). She says it’s really painful, hard work. Every night I massage her back so that she can feel better in the morning.’” As migrant worker, children who work and go to school, never have the chance to have a full education or experiences with friends. We know this because NBC’s Child Labor: Young Hands Picking Our Food states, “Critics of current U.S. labor law say these childhood dreams are jeopardized by a relentless cycle where young workers drop out of school to follow their families and the crops for work and then remain stuck in the fields because the children never finish their high school education.” Also, the Braceros during WWII worked hard, however, their paychecks seem to always show signs of deduction. We know this from the article, The Realities of Life and Labor, in which a man stated, “‘Sometimes the check stubs indicate the deduction and sometimes they

and work themselves so they pretty much hired people. That’s not wrong it helped people get a

All my life, I have been driven by one dream, one goal, one vision: To overthrow a farm labor system in this nation which treats farm workers as if they were not important human beings.

California is one of the largest agricultural centers of the world, has many farms with different crops that feeds more than half of the United States. When it comes down to the labor on these farms, looking closely we find that the people on these farms are illegal immigrants who are picking and packing all the fruits and vegetables that are sold in the supermarkets. In a New York Times article written by Dean Murphy, back in 2004, in California alone, there is an, estimated 8 million to 10 million illegal immigrants. The supply and demand that farmers have to meet here in the United States is higher than anywhere else in the world, and without the access to skilled workers that happen to be illegal immigrants, farmers would lose out on

More and more health-conscious individuals are scrutinizing the source of the food their family consumes. However, even the most conscientious consumer is not fully aware of the exhaustive efforts and struggle to get a juicy, ripe strawberry or that plump tomato in the middle of winter, even in Florida. These foods are harvested and picked mostly by seasonal and migrant farm workers. Migrant workers hail, in large part, from Mexico and the Caribbean, and their families often travel with them. Migrant farm workers must endure challenging conditions so that Americans can have the beautiful selection of berries, tomatoes, and other fresh foods often found at places like a farmer’s market or a traditional super market. Seasonal and

The second theory I would like to discuss is the Strain theory. The strain theory basically states that crime breeds in the gap, imbalance, or disjunction between culturally induced aspirations for economic success and structurally distributed possibilities of achievement. The theory assumes fairly uniform economic success aspirations across social class and the theory attempts to explain why crime is concentrated among the lower classes that have the least legitimate opportunities for achievement. It is the combination of the cultural emphasis and the social structure which produces intense pressure for

The theory that best connects with the issue of family violence is systems theory. This theory entails that the “family as a system is thought to be best understood through the recognition that family members (as the parts of the system) interact with one another in such a manner that, over time, these interactions become patterned behavior” (Sutphin, McDonough, Schrenkel, 2013) Every family member that is within this family are characterized as subsystems. The main sub-systems are parent-parent, parent-child, and child-child. In most cases, what happens in the parent-parent relationship impacts both the parent-child relationship and the child-child relationship. A type of violence that can occur between the parent and parent relationship

Introduction: Throughout history there have always been many different theories of crime and why people commit crimes. In the late 1930s a new theory rose to the forefront; this theory was called the anomie theory. Anomie means a lack of ethical standards. The anomie theory was proposed by Roberton Merton. It stated that society, as a whole, generally shares the same goals relating to having success in life; whether that is having a family, wealth, power, or just happiness. Society generally agrees that these are things that are to be sought after. Furthermore, Merton proposed that society, as a whole, also has a list of generally accepted ways to achieve such goals (Merton, 1938). Criminal activity, such as robbery, murder, and corruption, are among the things that are not accepted by society as appropriate means to achieve these goals. Merton’s anomie theory was built upon in 1992 by Robert Agnew who developed the general strain theory. General strain theory argues that when members of society are unable to achieve the general goals that society has set forth, they will, in order to avoid further rejection, further alienate themselves from society. Agnew also argued that if these individuals feel as if their shortcomings were a result of their environment failing them they will likely develop very negative feelings towards society, causing them to

You are the most important thing this world has to offer. You make sure we don’t go hungry and we have clothes on our backs. You provide jobs for people across the world. You provide so much and yet ask for so little in return. According to the American Farm Bureau, “In America, farmers and ranchers are 2.2% of the population” (Social). A small number with a big impact. To me though, you are so much more than cows, sows and plows. You are blue corduroy jackets, tan and white show clothes, and basically a baseline for everything I and many agriculturist stand for.

In the 1960s, Johan Galtung posited the construct of violence as a phenomenon generated by the existence of social barriers that deny needs satisfaction in certain sectors of society. Galtung's conceptual framework illustrates the relationship between the structure of society and the inequalities experienced by its citizens. Gilman's seminal definition of structural violence reads, “physical and psychological harm that results from exploitive and unjust social, political, and economic systems” (1983, p. 8).

Crime is a socially constructed phenomenon. It is not static but dynamic and is defined into existence. It changes over time and place. For example, early definitions of crime such as classicism defined individuals as rational, free and responsible for their own actions. The emergence of positivism was an attempt to bring scientific methodology to criminology. Positivists believe in objectively quantifying cause and effect. In the early twentieth century a sociological lens was applied. Functionalist sociologists such as Durkheim argued that crime had a positive function for society by reinforcing societal norms and values (Ziyanak and Williams 2014). Anomie and strain theory proposed later by Robert Merton examined how poorer classes experienced frustration through lack of opportunities leading to strain. There are many others including labelling, control and cultural deviance, however; this shows that our understanding of criminology is not static and like crime itself it changes over time and place.