The case of Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, a woman who was convicted of poisoning her lover George Blumenchein, demonstrates how crime is intertwined with gender roles. While men’s violent crimes are often connected with money, women’s violent crimes are usually aimed at people who reside in their domestic sphere. Gonzalez-Angulo’s crime fits this pattern. She did not poison her former lover for want of money, but instead appears to have assaulted him in anger as she had recently learned that Blumenchein would not be leaving his live-in girlfriend for her. Her all encompassing anger was at least partially fueled by her failure to meet cultural dictates for marriage and children. Despite widespread changes, marriage to a successful male is the culminating event in a whole host of cultural narratives, and Gonzalez-Angulo could not have escaped the pressure to achieve this goal.
Empirical research on developmental theories of crime first
informed us that increase in social capital such as quality marriages, jobs orfirst time fatherhood would lead toward desistance, except among men who were
substance abusers. However, the men in this notable work by Robert Sampson and
John Laub were based on a cohort who came of age during World War two.
While
this seemed disheartening for those of us who hoped for social policies that
might facilitate such attachment policies, at least in the United States where the incarceration mania continued until recently. Now new re-entry policies
have begun to lead to de-carceration movements around the country. While this
is laudable, job creation and treatment programs also must be created to
facilitate successful re-entry. The neighborhoods some of these form felons may
not increase but rather decrease their social capital.
This study presents an exploratory analysis of the meaning of
“hooking up” based on 1) academic literature, and 2) the perspective of college students from differing backgrounds. The authors investigated definitions of
hooking up based on scholarly articles derived from search engine results and
then from college students’ responses to an open-ended question on an online
survey (N=358).
Coding was used to identify themes that emerged from the data
with the goal of understanding what the phrase means and whether the research
is in line with students’ perspectives. Additionally, the authors sought to examine whether differences exist based on demographic variables. The findings
revealed that the phrase “hooking up” predominantly represents sexual behavior
ranging from kissing to sexual intercourse in the research base, but has been
more narrowly constructed among college students. Gender differences also
emerged, with males being more likely than females to view hooking up as
involving sex rather than a broader range of sexual behaviors. A discussion
follows and highlights directions for future research.
