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Felson's Article Summary

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Felson’s (1982) examination of self-reports revealed some interesting and somewhat unpredicted results. In support of his hypothesis, it was found that an insult increases the odds of a verbal dispute 3.2 times when the respondent is male, and 2.2 when female. Furthermore, a highly significant three-way interaction was found involving severity of outcome, sex of respondent and sex of antagonist. This showed that hostilities are more likely to involve physical violence when males conflict with other males. The odds of a physical dispute versus a verbal dispute increases 2.1 times when both parties are male, as opposed to both female. The likelihood of physical versus verbal dispute for two males is 4.3 times more likely than for cross-sex conflicts. These significant …show more content…

Besides the moderate amount of measurement error anticipated in the variables, there are many other ways of eliciting aggression apart from insult. Furthermore, it may be unintelligible to retaliate in some situations, for example if an individual fears further, more severe, retaliation from the opponent. It is flaws like these that disparage inferences drawn from IMA studies

Despite their methodological and theoretical difficulties, interactionist studies have played an instrumental role in bringing the criminal situation as a unit of investigation in the study of crime and deviance. Moreover, IMA’s emphasis on the subjective role of the offender serves to criticise both prior and ongoing research ignoring such factors (e.g. Cloward & Ohlin, 1960) It is clear on the basis of interactionist research that violent criminal acts are not a one-sided event with an unaware victim undertaking a passive role. Rather, they are the outcome of a dynamic interchange between an offender and

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