Jodi Arias from a Sociological Perspective

What fascinates me most about crime patterns is how closely they correlate with contemporary gender rules and roles. So in reading about the sensational Jodi Arias trial for the murder of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander these past few months, I couldn’t help but look at it through a sociological lens. As a read about the case, I kept thinking about the gendered cultural rules that modern-day women are expected to follow.

Before the 1960’s, most young women believed that finding a husband was their primary goal. But by the late 1960's these cultural rules had become more complicated and building a career also became an objective–a shift that was largely the result of the Women’s Liberation movement. But despite this change, a large strand of cultural thought still urges contemporary American women to seek emotional and economic dependence through their husbands and boyfriends. 

Impact of Parental Care and Separation on Aggressive Behaviour of Adolescents in Owerri

The study investigated impact of parental care and separation on aggressive behaviour of adolescents in Owerri, Imo state. Bandura’s Social Learning theory was used to examine the influence of parental care and separation on aggressive behaviour of adolescents. Cross sectional survey research design was adopted while questionnaire was data collection tool for the study. 

The sample size consisted of two hundred and twenty (220) male and female secondary school students selected from eight (8) schools in Owerri. Their ages ranged from 13 to 17 years, with a mean and standard deviation agesof 14.8 and 1.34 respectively. A multi-stage (purposive and convenience) sampling method was adopted for the study. Parental care scale and Buss–Perry aggression scale were the instruments used for data collection. 

Our Side of the Mirror: The (Re)-Construction of 1970s’ Masculinity in David Peace’s Red Riding

David Peace and the late Gordon Burn are two British novelists who have used a mixture of fact and fiction in their works to explore the nature of fame, celebrity and the media representations of individuals caught up in events, including investigations into notorious murders. Both Peace and Burn have analysed the case of Peter Sutcliffe, who was found guilty in 1981 of the brutal murders of thirteen women in the North of England. Peace’s novels filmed as the Red Riding Trilogy are an excoriating portrayal of the failings of misogynist and corrupt police officers, which allowed Sutcliffe to escape arrest. 

Burn’s somebody’s Husband Somebody’ Son is a detailed factual portrait of the community where Sutcliffe spent his life. Peace’s technique combines reportage, stream of consciousness and changing points of views including the police and the victims to produce an episodic non linear narrative. The result has been termed Yorkshire noir. The overall effect is to render the paranoia and fear these crimes created against a backdrop of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Peace has termed his novels as “fictions of the facts”. This paper will examine the way that Peace uses his account of Sutcliffe’s crimes and the huge police manhunt to catch the killer to explore the society that produced the perpetrator, victims and the police.