Since the regime collapse in 1991, Albania has been going through a democratization process. In contrast to government attempts to introduce a democratic system according to a western model, blood feuds based on Albanian customary law increased drastically and individuals began to seek their own justice by ignoring state and judicial institutions. The incidence of blood feuds increased exceptionally, not only compared with the situation under the communist regime but the crime rate in general. As a result, the Albanian state has appeared not only as weak and fragile but weaker in comparison with the previous communist regime.<p>Although a great deal of research on vendetta is carried out either in the fields of anthropology or sociology of law, this topic has not been studied by political scientists. As a consequence, studies of vendetta in relation to institutional weaknesses are missing. Thus, one of the contributions of this study will be to fill this gap in the literature by explaining the role of state institutions in the continuation and increase in blood feuds.<p>The Albanian case was chosen as a subject for study as it represents a country which following a harsh communist regime has made attempts at democratization with the aim of joining the European Union, and at the same time is characterized by the strong presence of customary law claiming revenge in cases of homicide, despite interventions by the judicial authorities.<p>Therefore, the aim of this study is to explain the reasons for the increase in blood feuds in Albania from 1991 to 2010 by identifying the structure and agency factors impacting the motivation of individuals to commit murders in the name of vendetta.<p>I will make use of historical institutionalism to identify the increasing returns of vendetta and explore the different factors and processes that trigger and underlie the institutional development of Albanian vendetta over time. Historical institutionalism is an approach to the analysis of the evolution of institutions and their outcomes in terms of formal and informal rules that shape the behavior of actors. Hence, understanding the causation and restraining factors in determining the high rates of blood feuds is indispensable. However, because of the lack of attention that historical institutionalism pays to the structure-agency dichotomy, the tools of criminology and more specifically, elements of ‘social control theory’ are required in this study. This theory enables/permits the study of vendetta by focusing on the motivation of the authors of vendetta, looking at the incidence and the forms of the criminal behavior. In order to explain vendetta and its causes, both fear of punishment (belief) and social bonds (attachment, commitment and involvement) have been taken into account.<p>For this study, both primary and secondary sources were combined, such as expert interviews, archival documents and police data, in order to assess the cases of vendettas brought before the courts, judicial proceedings, and the final sentences handed down.<p>The findings show that the weaker the bonds of trust in institutions such as state institutions and the legal system, the more individuals will be involved in blood feuds. The more trust is placed in institutions the less likely it is that individuals will be involved in vendetta.<p>This research contributes to the literature dealing with institutional change and the study of crime rates in transitional democracies. <p> / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The thesis will focus on prison privatization and the accountability that private prison companies should maintain to build and operate them. It starts by detailing the political history of the privatization of prisons, starting with the Reagan era and the legislation and ideologies that emerged from it, highlight the reasons and justifications the government gave to outsource its system of punishment. By examining the War on Drugs and Tough on Crime legislations, it will show the way that mass incarceration allowed private companies to develop a solid grasp on the criminal justice system, transforming prisons into a system of hyper incarceration, capitalization and expansion. Using Richard Harding’s book, Private Prisons and Public Accountability, the second chapter will then focus on the accountability that the private prison companies must maintain to effectively and acceptably punish lawbreakers. It will also examine the justifications of the criminal justice system and private prisons, using a utilitarian and retributivist lens. Finally, Chapter 3 will investigate the accountability of the world’s first and largest private prison company: the Corrections Corporation of America. By using its website, this chapter will investigate how the CCA’s claims line up with its actions and what that indicates about its accountability. In the end, with a solid understanding of the flaws of CCA and private prisons, the conclusion will then question the position of private prisons within American society, providing ways to improve the flawed system.

Badges of status are supposed to have insignificant production costs, so use costs are thought to be most important in ensuring signal reliability. Use costs arise from the use of the status signal in social interactions. Social experiences that arise from the use of inappropriate signals in social interactions may drive mechanisms that result in reduced fitness for inappropriate signalers. The role of social control, probing and familiarity in producing use costs was explored. There was no evidence that social control by dominants produced a cost for cheaters and no evidence that social control by subordinates produced a cost for inappropriate signaling by Trojans. Probing produced a cost for cheating when resource value was high but not when resource value was low. Familiarity had some effect on the cost and benefit of cheating but in patterns that were not predicted. Familiarity both eliminated a benefit of cheating and reduced a cost of cheating; therefore it is uncertain how familiarity affects honest signaling. The status signal of the receiver had no effect on the cost or benefits of cheating, and there was no evidence of punishment. Social experiences have the potential to affect signal development to produce a correspondence between signal and status. The effects of social experience on signal production were examined and there was little evidence that social experience influenced bib development. Neither aggression expressed nor aggression received was not predictive of bib size. Additionally, tests on the different measures of winning experience produced conflicting conclusions regarding the relationship between winning experience and bib development.

This investigation was designed to specify the developmental course of adolescent delinquency by examining precursors of delinquency evident in childhood. Two theoretical perspectives were used to examine the influences of childhood behaviors and experiences on the incidence of adolescent delinquency and childhood deviance. Social control theory and social interactional theory were tested on two separate samples. The goal of Study 1 was to determine whether the variables associated with each theory were more predictive of adolescent delinquency rather than concurrent deviance. The sample used in Study 1 was comprised of 206 boys who participated in the Oregon Youth Study. The results of Study 1 indicated that the variables associated with social interactional theory significantly predicted concurrent deviance. After controlling for the influence of fourth and fifth grade deviance, neither theory was predictive of adolescence. Only child deviance significantly predicted police reported delinquency. The goal of Study 2 was to determine whether the variables associated with social control and social interactional theories were predictive of young children's deviance. One hundred and one children were assessed in first, second, fourth, or fifth grade. Results indicated that the variables did not vary in predictability based on the age of the child. Regarding social control theory, children's self control was somewhat associated with deviance after controlling for the influence of children's temperament. Regarding social interactional theory, children who were rated as antisocial were significantly more likely to be rated as deviant. The results of the two studies are discussed in terms of the stability of deviance. That is, in Study 2, children's temperament and antisocial behavior were most strongly associated with concurrent childhood deviance and in Study 1, child deviance was most predictive of delinquency. Thus, deviance may actually be present early in a child's life and may not change with children's development. Instead, society's reactions to deviance may change as children mature such that deviance is more tolerated among children rather than among adolescents.

Contrary to many major sporting leagues such as the NHL, NFL, NBA, and MLB, or the Olympic Games as a whole, the professional tennis industry has not been individually scrutinized in terms of governance, social control, and surveillance practices. This thesis presents an in-depth account of the major governing bodies of the professional tennis circuit with the aim of examining how they govern, control, constrain, and practice surveillance on tennis athletes and their bodies. Foucault’s major theoretical concepts of disciplinary power, governmentality, and bio-power are found relevant today and can be enhanced by Rose’s ethico-politics model and Haggerty and Ericson’s surveillant assemblage. However, it is also shown how Foucault, Rose, and Haggerty and Ericson’s different accounts of “modes of governing” perpetuate sociological predicaments of professional tennis players within late capitalism. These modes of surveillance are founded on a meritocracy based on the ATP and WTA rankings systems. A player’s ranking affects how he or she is governed, surveilled, controlled, and even punished. Despite ostensibly promoting tennis athletes’ health protection and wellbeing, the systems of surveillance, governance, and control rely on a biased and capitalistically-driven meritocracy that actually jeopardizes athletes’ health and contributes to social class divisions, socio-economic inequalities, gender discrimination, and media pressure. Through the use of top-players’ accounts, it is also shown how some players resist certain governing, controlling, and surveillance practices designed for their benefit, while others understand and accept the resultant constraints as part of their choice to be a professional tennis player. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-11-12 09:25:44.284

Målet med vår uppsats är att undersöka och analysera ungdomars användning av Facebook. Genom intervjuer med 10 gymnasieelever från Stockholm kommer vi granska om Facebook skapar ett narcissistiskt beteende. För att förklara detta utgår vi från teorier om narcissismens kultur, svaga bands styrka, symbolisk interaktionism och dramaturgiska perspektiv. Vi har i denna uppsats kommit fram till att det existerar narcissistiskt beteende, i form av respondenternas attityder och deras syn på andra medlemmar. / The goal with this paper is to examine and analyze the way that the youth look at their use of Facebook. A survey was conducted on 10 high school students in Stockholm to review if Facebook reveal narcissistic behavior. To explain this, we gathered information about narcissistic culture, weak band strength, symbolic interactionism and the dramaturgical perspective. To our conclusion, the narcissism dominates on the social network level, as result of their attitudes and view of other members.

The problem of this study is to investigate how news policy in the Denton Record-Chronicle is defined and maintained and whether the newspaper staffers tend to conform to or conflict with the newspaper's news policy. The study suggests that the more experienced the staffer, the more likely he will conflict with the newspaper's news policy, and the less experienced the staffer, the more likely he will conform to the newspaper's news policy. Social control is in the hand of the newspaper organization. That is, the newspaper tends to control the mechanisms of social control. However, unless the newspaper recognizes the needs of the staffers' participation in its editorial decision, conflict may continue to be an important factor in the newsroom work-setting.

The aim of this study is to, in view of theories about deviance and social control, examine how cannabis users are experiencing and relating to their own use and the society’s perception on this use. Qualitative interviews with six users or former users of cannabis were performed.  Sociological concepts of deviance and normality, social control, roles, role distance and stigma were used to analyze the results. The study shows that the cannabis users experience deficiencies in the Swedish drug policy. They feel like the picture of cannabis as a dangerous substance is unanimous in society and that it is not accepted to question it. They also believe that issues related to narcotics are being handled inadequately in Sweden and that this may lead to people suffering from addiction not seeking help. The cannabis users in this study also felt like other people perceived them as addicts and junkies, while the users themselves separated use and abuse. Lastly, we discovered three different strategies to deal with the attitudes and norms in society. These strategies were: resistance and questioning, hidden use and secretiveness, adapting social circle and adoption of different roles.

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Surveillance studies suffer from a near-total lack of empirical data, partially due to the highly secretive nature of surveillance programs. However, documents leaked by Edward Snowden in June of 2013 provided unprecedented proof of top-secret American data mining initiatives that covertly monitor electronic communications, collect, and store previously unfathomable quantities of data. These documents presented an ideal opportunity for testing theory against data to better understand contemporary surveillance. This qualitative content analysis compared themes of technology, privacy, national security, and legality in the NSA documents to those found in sets of publicly available government reports, laws, and guidelines, finding inconsistencies in the portrayal of governmental commitments to privacy, transparency, and civil liberties. These inconsistencies are best explained by the risk society theoretical model, which predicts that surveillance is an attempt to prevent risk in globalized and complex contemporary societies.