Thinking with Bevereley Skeggs - Stockholms universitet

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In Sweden, reforms aiming to enhance the position of victimsof crime, like section 5:11, are often linked to the efforts of thefeminist movement to visualize men’s violence against women.However, there are other theories which place the victim ofcrime as a key concept in the current ideological shift in socialpolicy, from solidarity to safety (Ewald 2002). The main point isthat reform taken in the name of this group is simply a way ofblocking solidarity, enhancing neo-liberal policy and justifyingmeasures of penal repression (cf. Garland 2001; Waquant 2004).As Hacking (1999) points out, the past 30 years of increasingfascination with victims of crime do necessitate some difficultquestions. For example, when poverty has been intensified andwelfare programmes discontinued, why are we diverted to otherissues, such as sexual and other abuse? Additionally, even thoughthe majority of people affected by crime are poor and deprived,the victim of crime has been constructed as far away fromwelfare and structural explanations as can be (cf. Hacking 1999).The conventional image of the victim of crime is a respectablecitizen, normally a middle-class woman and her children (cf.Garland 2001).The suggestion that the idea of the victim of crime has beenconstructed as a part of liberalism (or now neo-liberalism) isnot new. Already at the first symposium of victimology, Reiman(1973) noted that a definition of the victim of crime requires aview where liberal ideas, such as individual responsibility andfreedom, are incorporated. Otherwise, there are no assignablevictims of crime. Hence, as Reiman points out, if we believe thatcrime is a social phenomenon instead of an individual act by anoffender we will find ourselves with a meaningless distinction onour hands. Then there is no boundary between victims of crimeand victims of disease or accidents, nor between offenders andvictims (cf. Reiman 1973).From this perspective the provisions about victims of crimecan be seen as part of an ideological makeover, where the Act32
is embracing the core values of neo-liberalism. A victim ofcrime focus appears to do good, but the latent process servesto delegitimize the Act´s value system. The aim is to tear downcollective structures, such as social programmes, which mayimpede a pure market logic (cf. Bourdieu 1998).The Rationale of a Victim of Crime PerspectiveIt is important to resist the temptation to see the introduction ofvictims of crime in the Social Service Act simply as the extensionof neo-liberal logic, at least until the more distinctively Swedishnational trends are accounted for. After all, neo-liberalism does notcreate the same effects and values everywhere. However, there ismuch to suggest that the particular section about victims of crimein the Social Services Act is an ideological contradiction. Hence,if the Act is rooted in values based on solidarity, it is irrational todiscern victims of crime from others who need support (Fattah1992). From a solidarity perspective, causality is separated fromattribution (Ewald 2002). The right to assistance is tied to needs,irrespective of prior fault (cf. 4:1 SoL). Society is a totalityand the good and bad of each individual depend on everyoneelse (Ewald 2002). The logic of the Act therefore assumes thatvictimization arises from structural causes.To displace solidarity with neo-liberalism, the idea of the victimof crime is however both rational and needed. The justification ofthis shift requires a reconstruction of the victim and what (or now,who) is to blame for ‘social problems’. The idea of the victimof crime disconnects the notion of the ‘victim’ from structuralexplanations, and connects it to individual responsibility.The victim of crime also offers scapegoats (evil offenders) toexplain unfortunate conditions in society (cf. Hacking 1999).This construction of demons is an essential strategy for avoidingan analysis of the structural foundation of victimization (cf.Edelman 2001). Thus, the definition of the victim of crime relieson a distinction of those who are innocent and guilty (cf. Christie33
Page 3 and 4: Thinking with Beverley Skeggseditor
Page 5: 792129394965758395104InnehållIntro
Page 8 and 9: anybody Professor Beverley Skeggs g
Page 10 and 11: 2007). Drawing on Hearn (2007), emo
Page 12 and 13: of masculinity, car design and tech
Page 14 and 15: Skoda as I am, my company car, and
Page 16 and 17: Dag: … an occasion when speeding
Page 18 and 19: driving. When driving a car, emotio
Page 21 and 22: Renewing Class Theory?Exploitation,
Page 23 and 24: To do this, Skeggs critically appro
Page 25 and 26: Culture and ExploitationThe central
Page 27 and 28: Perhaps the increased differentiati
Page 29 and 30: A Focus on Victims of Crimein Socia
Page 31: on social rights, public responsibi
Page 35 and 36: is replaced with moralism. This app
Page 37 and 38: Estrada, P. (2001), ‘Juvinile Vio
Page 39 and 40: The Production of BodiesThaïs Mach
Page 41 and 42: production of bodies and physical a
Page 43 and 44: the harmonious mixture of Africans,
Page 45 and 46: show the time and effort put into t
Page 47 and 48: inspired me to extend my sample of
Page 49 and 50: Emotional Archives and BodyPolitics
Page 51 and 52: gave hope that it would be possible
Page 53 and 54: to sample words, wordings and phras
Page 55 and 56: her abilities’. Her doctors had h
Page 57 and 58: individual, but it also seems that
Page 59 and 60: with the changes that eventually ca
Page 61 and 62: egular leave to visit a ‘male fri
Page 63: Psychosurgery in Sweden 1944-1958 (
Page 66 and 67: Despite this new and growing intere
Page 68 and 69: Rachel’s life storyWhen consideri
Page 70 and 71: In Palestine and SwedenAfter the Se
Page 72 and 73: It is often explained that it is on
Page 75 and 76: Thoughts on Being a RespectableHomo
Page 77 and 78: This is also stressed in the OED’
Page 79 and 80: and what the latest European statis
Page 81 and 82: her contradictory ways of being, he
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In Dialogue with Devaluation:Young
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present in schools. As he shows, th
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Returning then to the often-posed q
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discussed as a socially positioned
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concerns his looks. His looks becom
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ReferencesAndersson, Åsa (2003), I
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A Feminist SustainableDevelopment:
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The intersectionality approach to p
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‘shiftings’, i.e. to go from th
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With the help of politics of emotio
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Wise, A. & Velayutham, S. (2006),
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Thinking with Bevereley Skeggs - Stockholms universitet

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