Current Event

As a current event, I went with the bombing in Boston, April 15, 2013. I chose this event because crime and deviance was a chapter we covered in our book. I believe sociologist would look at this event and try to find the motives of the deviant. When I had first heard the horrifying news about the bombs in Boston, I immediately thought “Who and why are would someone ever do that? It’s so terrible. They have to be messed up in the head.” I can’t say that I have any idea to date on what the motives where but I can look into what sociologists have researched on crime and motives.

“Methods Not Motives: Implications of the Convergence of International Organized Crime and Terrorism” is an article that theorized the connection between organized crime with terrorism. While crime is economically driven, they state that terrorism is politically related. This article related to the bombing because it discusses different motives of bigger scale deviance as it examines the similar methods used by both organized crime and terrorism.  

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1561426022000032079

Photograph of the bombing in Boston

http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/04/man-on-roof-boston-bombing-photo/

Besides all the conspiracy theories found on Youtube, this video is an actual interview. The video clip is about the mother of the suspects' view on the bombing. She claims her sons are innocent and that they are being set up. This raises more conspiracy theories, and makes it harder to come up with the motive. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHfn3bJsg4I

The article “Does Religion Really Reduce Crime?” provides useful information on a research project conducted to find whether there is a link between crime and religion. As I looked into the news, the media portrays the act may have been involved with Jihad, which is attached to the Muslim culture. In the abstract of the article, the researcher states that “most previous studies have found a negative effect of religion on crime”, but that the researcher had found “negligible effect of religion on crime and a negative effect of crime on religion.”

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/501087

“Feelings of Revenge, Retaliation Motive, and Posttraumatic Stress Reactions in Crime Victims” is an article that provides information on how feelings of revenge arise from crime victims. The reaction is explained by a “maladaptive coping reaction to experienced injustice”. Could it be possible that the bombing was based off of revenge? There is no way to know until more information comes out.

http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/21/2/229.full.pdf+html

or

http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/21/2/229

"My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes."
Ronald Reagan 
 This quote is sort of ironic.