This thesis is the first dedicated sociological attempt to offer a critical response to cultural studies and allied discourses that concern themselves with the relationship between technology and violence. A critical reconstruction is necessary because these cultural theorists have failed to adequately contextualize their arguments in relation to both the globally ascendant neoliberal policy outlook and its associated social Darwinian technoculture: the combined pernicious effects of which could be described as the logic of ???social constructionism as social psychosis???. The most prominent manifestation of this theoretical psychosis has to do with an interest in biotechnology in particular. The problem I identify in the treatment of this theme is how easily it can be used to support a technologically determinist position. One undesirable side effect is that these determinists are able to project from present trends a dystopian exhaustion of all critique through their focus on violence. In the thesis of ???bioglobalism??? this state of affairs is also deployed to take sociologists to task for insufficient recognition of processual ???network??? forms of distributed agency in technological processes. At stake therefore is the recovery of sociological critique. It follows that the core of my thesis is the radical reworking of two related heuristic devices: seriality and contingency. Seriality is taken to refer to social practices as diverse as the possible relationships between the social problem of rationality, case studies of individuals who have run amok, and the functioning of network characteristics. I use contingency to eschew seriality???s deterministic accounting of the social. Here I propose a new conceptual relationship between creativity and action. Emphasis is accordingly placed upon two related normative projects: Raymond Williams???s cultural materialism, and three of the ???problematiques??? Peter Wagner has identified as inescapable for theorizing modernity: the continuity of the acting person, the certainty of knowledge, and the viability of the political order. I conclude with a renewed conception of the role of normative critique as a form of conceptual therapy for bioglobal projections of seriality.

Esta investigação tem por objetivo analisar o significado e o sentido que “reincidentes” na Medida Socioeducativa de Internação paranaenses dão para a reincidência e a maneira pela qual reincidiram. Trata-se de uma abordagem qualiquantitativa, exploratória e descritiva, operacionalizada por meio da pesquisa bibliográfica e documental e da entrevista semi-estruturada. A orientação teóricometodológica de base empírica e documental que ilumina os procedimentos lógicos seguidos é a hermenêutica-dialética. A pesquisa descreve e contextualiza os principais instrumentos jurídico-normativos e teórico-praticos que atualmente regulamentam e informam, no Estado do Paraná, o tipo de intervenção estatal consubstanciada nas instituições, políticas, práticas profissionais e agentes especializados que compõem o Sistema Estadual de Atendimento Socioeducativo, apontado a conservação de uma estrutura material e institucional distintiva da modernidade penal, encoberta sob a perspectiva de uma “infância universal” e operacionalizada por um pretenso “reordenamento político-institucional” que ampliou o uso do encarceramento como resposta institucional à violência e à criminalidade juvenil partindo, primeiramente, da ideia de “reinserção” e, depois, de “prevenção” e gestão dos “fatores de risco”. Os resultados apontam uma seletividade penal focada na distinção de raça e classe, onde os “reincidentes” na Medida Socioeducativa de Internação representam 17,5% do total de adolescentes em “cumprimento” desta mesma Medida. Trata-se de jovens (92,7% entre 16 e 18 anos) não-brancos (61,8%), do sexo masculino (98,2%), com pouca escolaridade (74,5% na Fase II do Ensino Fundamental), excluídos do mercado de trabalho (81%), provenientes de famílias despossuídas (49% recebem entre 1 e 2 salários mínimos) e dos territórios precarizados dos grandes centros urbanos (80%). A “natureza” dos atos infracionais atribuídos aos “reincidentes” confirma a predominância de uma “criminalidade de rua” (76,3%) com destaque para os atos infracionais tipificados como crimes contra o patrimônio (roubo: 41,2%) e contra a incolumidade pública (tráfico de drogas: 21,4%). A chamada “criminalidade violenta” (crimes contra a pessoa) equivale a 13,4% de todos os atos infracionais atribuídos aos “reincidentes”. A investigação desvela que a privação de liberdade impede o acesso dos sujeitos a processos de socialização, pertencimento, reconhecimento e alteridade necessários à sua emancipação. Privilegiando a entrevista com “informantes-chave” e a constituição de suas trajetórias, vivências e experiências (tanto na relação com as instituições e organizações sociais quanto com as instituições de privação de liberdade), a investigação ratifica que a privação de liberdade, além de retirar o sujeito de seus círculos de relacionamentos e sistemas de trocas simbólicas, impedindo seu desenvolvimento pleno, reproduz injustiças sociais e estigmatizações, causando sofrimento inútil, alienação, controle, segregação e neutralização. / This research aims to analyze the meaning and the sense that "recidivists" in Measure Socioeducative of deprivation of liberty paranaenses give to the recidivism and the manner in which they relapsed. This is a qualitative and quantitative, exploratory and descriptive approach, operationalized through the bibliographical and documentary research and through the semi-structured interview. The theoretical and methodological, empirical and documentary guidance that illuminates the logical procedures followed is the hermeneutics-dialectics. The research describes and contextualizes the main legal-normative and theoretical-practical instruments that currently regulates and inform, in the State of Paraná, the type of state intervention consubstantiated in institutions, policies, professional practices and specialized agents that comprise the Socioeducative System of the State of Paraná, pointing out conservation of a institutional and material structure of the penal modernity, hidden from the perspective of a "universal childhood" and operated by an alleged "politicalinstitutional reorganization" which extended the use of imprisonment as an a institutional response to the juvenile violence and crime, starting, first, of the idea of "resocialization" and, then of the ideas of "prevention" and management of "risk factors". The results indicate a criminal selectivity focused on race distinction and on class distinction, where the "recidivists" on Measure Socioeducative of deprivation of liberty represent 17.5% of adolescents in "fulfillment" of that same Measure Socioeducative. It is young (92.7% between 16 and 18 years) non-whites (61.8%), male (98.2%), with low education (74.5% in Phase II of the Elementary School ), excluded from the labor market (81%), from dispossessed families (49% receive between 1 and 2 minimum wages) and of precarious areas of large urban centers (80%). The "nature" of the infractions attributed to the "recidivists" confirms the predominance of a "street criminality" (76.3%) highlighting the illegal acts typified as crimes against property (robbery: 41.2%) and against public safety (drug trafficking: 21.4%). The so-called "violent crimes" (crimes against persons) equals to 13.4% of all infractions attributed to the "recidivists". The research shows that deprivation of freedom prevents access of individuals to the socialization processes, belonging, recognition and otherness necessary for their emancipation. Privileging the interview with "key informants" and the constitution of their trajectories and life experiences (both in relation to the institutions and social organizations and with the institutions of deprivation of liberty), the research confirms that the deprivation of liberty, besides withdraw the subject of the your circles of relationships and of the your symbolic exchanges systems, preventing their full development, reproduces social injustices and stigmatization, causing suffering unnecessary, alienation, control, segregation and neutralization.

Text in Afrikaans / Fraud is a worldwide phenomenon that is on the increase and a reason for serious concern. It is a priority crime in South Africa with serious implications both financial and socially. Fraud costs this country R150 milliard, almost three times the cost of the controversial weapon transaction. This was the goals of the researcher to determine what motivates the offender to commit fraud and how can fraud be explained in this study. A qualitative approach was followed due to the qualitative nature of the concept motivation. This resulted in a two-phase approach namely a documentary study, which was followed by interviews with experts in the field of fraud. Ten pre-sentence court reports of fraudsters were studied where after the outcome was discussed with these experts. The criminal event model served as framework for this study. Strain was incorporated as an additional component in the explanation of fraud. / Criminology / M. A. (Criminology)

Text in Afrikaans / Fraud is a worldwide phenomenon that is on the increase and a reason for serious concern. It is a priority crime in South Africa with serious implications both financial and socially. Fraud costs this country R150 milliard, almost three times the cost of the controversial weapon transaction. This was the goals of the researcher to determine what motivates the offender to commit fraud and how can fraud be explained in this study. A qualitative approach was followed due to the qualitative nature of the concept motivation. This resulted in a two-phase approach namely a documentary study, which was followed by interviews with experts in the field of fraud. Ten pre-sentence court reports of fraudsters were studied where after the outcome was discussed with these experts. The criminal event model served as framework for this study. Strain was incorporated as an additional component in the explanation of fraud. / Criminology and Security Science / M. A. (Criminology)