Counterculture Research Articles

Online paedophiles and the criminal justice experience: A qualitative perspective

BackgroundOnline forums provide a conduit for anonymous communication within deviant subcultures, such as online paedophiles. This helps to build virtual communities of support. ObjectiveThis study explores the experience of paedophiles in the criminal justice system as reported by those who experienced it on such a forum. By analysing and understanding the experiences disclosed by these individuals, we may be able to design more targeted prevention strategies and treatment options.Participants and Setting.Data are from one online forum discussion thread that includes 595 online forum posts by 212 unique usernames ranging over 11 years from 2012 to 2023. This forum claims to be an anonymous “therapeutic community” for paedophiles and does not allow the sharing of media (e.g., videos or images). MethodsThis study uses an inductive approach to analyse the posts and discover the perspective and concerns of users who have experienced or are faced with prosecution and punishment. ResultsSeven main themes emerged from the posts on this thread: support and praise, techniques of neutralisation, life in prison, anxiety and mental health, relationships, therapy, and difficulties post-prison. ConclusionsThe forum provided an important source of support among a virtual community of people who shared similar sexual interest in children and feel rejected and demonised by mainstream society. The thread functioned like an “echo chamber” that reinforced a positive view of users' deviant interest. Individuals who had been prosecuted for their offending were returning to the forum, which may encourage reoffending. Parole boards and probation officers may need to consider limiting or restricting access to the Internet, particularly the Tor network, when setting release conditions. Implications for treatment focus on challenging the justifications and excuses used by paedophiles.

“This Wall Does More for Mental Health than the Uni Does”: Theorising Toilet Graffiti as Safe House for Students

AbstractDespite sometimes being considered unworthy of scholarly attention, the study of toilet graffiti, also known as latrinalia, has nevertheless garnered increasing interest among researchers. Graffiti writing still suffers from the stigma of being associated with transgression, vandalism, and a deviant subculture. However, findings from this study show that writing on the restroom wall can facilitate a unique form of communication among the writers. Drawing from semiotic linguistic landscaping and serendipity as methodological inspiration, this research explores data collected from a women's restroom at a UK university over a ten-month period. It examines how restroom users utilized the graffiti-covered wall as a safe house and a repository for their anxieties and concerns. The findings illustrate a palpable emotional connection to this specific wall, where writers seek and offer advice, share personal struggles, and provide mutual support to the extent that they see it as contributing more to their mental health than the university does. Through an analysis of the conversational threads present in the graffiti, this study underscores the potential for examining latrinalia within educational institutions to gain valuable and meaningful insights into the student body. The main implication is for educators to consider innovative, non-traditional ways of reaching out to students outside of the formal spaces of learning such as classrooms and libraries. This study, therefore, encourages us to reconsider toilet graffiti as potentially offering an additional or supplementary communication platform for individuals who might otherwise lack the confidence to express themselves openly through traditional means of soliciting feedback.

Traversing the Urban Soundscape: Black Sonic Geographies within The Minneapolis Sound

AbstractThis paper illuminates The Minneapolis Sound's emergence from the urban soundscapes of late 20th century Minneapolis. Turning to the 1960s and 1970s, I trace the genre's geohistorical emergence to a Black diasporic community who found within marginality the possibilities to spatialise an experimental world across the urban margins. Disclosing how this experimental world was upheld by improvisatory musical ensembles and their dynamic reaffirmations of a Black sense of place, the paper reveals how The Minneapolis Sound was insurgently pioneered as a Black sonic counter culture amidst unequivocal oppression. I then temporally propel the paper into the 1980s and 1990s and explore how the artist Prince and band The Time radically re‐imagined the city's anti‐Black spatial histories towards more just ends. This elucidates how, after emerging from the spatiality of the racialised metropolis, The Minneapolis Sound provided a speculative avenue of decolonial poetics through which alternative Black futures were made imaginable.

The Role of Fashion in Crime Symbolism in Ghana, West Africa

ABSTRACT This study delves into the intricate interplay between fashion and deviance, focusing on Ghana, West Africa to address the gap in understanding how clothing choices can serve as symbolic conduits for deviant behavior in Ghana. We adopted a qualitative approach, utilizing ethnographic research design to explore the complex relationship between clothing, symbolism, and deviant behavior in the Ghanaian cultural context. We conducted semi-structured interviews with three categories of participants: 10 deviant or criminal individuals from Nsawam prisons and in the communities through non-participant observation, 8 community members, and 2 law enforcement officers. We employed purposive sampling method to ensure that participants had relevant expertise and firsthand knowledge related to clothing symbolism in deviant subcultures. The study findings mainly revealed that clothes convey identities and codes subtly and is a potent emblem of group connection. The intricate dynamics surrounding the stigmatization and labeling of clothing symbolism have an impact on people’s self-esteem and interaction with law enforcement. To develop guidelines and training programs for law enforcement officers and community members on concrete methods of identifying and comprehending clothing symbolism within deviant and criminal subcultures, policy makers may form a collaborative task force consisting of law enforcement, community leaders, and cultural experts.

Conceptualizing the democratization of innovation through transitions theory: A case study of biohacking in community science labs

Community science labs are important sites attempting to democratize science and biotechnology. With similarities to hackerspaces and makerspaces, these labs provide resources to conduct experiments and develop goods. As such, they are touted as potential sites for innovation for more just and equitable outcomes. This article aims to demonstrate how concepts from the transitions literature can be used to understand the democratization of innovation in and from these types of spaces. Combining concepts from the socio-technical transitions and economization/marketization literatures, the article develops a novel conceptual framework for analyzing the democratization of innovation that encompasses the dynamic interactions between both the innovation activities that occur within community science labs and their broader socioeconomic contexts. The framework is applied to a case study (the Open Insulin Project) in a community science lab in the San Francisco Bay Area (Counter Culture Labs).

Persepsi Klien Diabetes Mellitus terhadap Fungsi Seksual

This study aims to identify the perceptions of clients with diabetes mellitus towards fulfilling sexual needs in the internal medicine polyclinic at Lahat Hospital. The research method used was a quantitative method with a cross-sectional approach and focused on this study, male clients with diabetes mellitus. This activity was carried out by distributing questionnaires at the Lahat Hospital in South Sumatra Province on 22 - 24 September 2022 with the appropriate respondent criteria. From the results of the study, it was found that people with diabetes mellitus were in the age range of 51-59 years. The results of the study showed that 93% of the respondents perceived sexual function disorders, the respondents who supported sexual function were quite large, namely 75%. Respondents who perceive no interference with sexual function, namely 40%, are due to a counter culture or deviation from cultures. The conclusion of this study is that meeting the sexual needs of people with diabetes mellitus cannot be ignored and to prevent erectile dysfunction in people with diabetes mellitus, it is necessary to pay attention to regular blood sugar control and dietary adjustments.
 
 Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Erectile Dysfunction, Perception

Review of “Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry”

Review of “Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry”

Virtual Domes. Utopian architecture at the dawn of Virtual Reality

This paper examines the theoretical and practical aspects of geodesic dome architecture in North America as part of an aesthetic of virtualization. Geodesic domes can be conceived of as virtual environments designed as alternatives to the contemporary world and its internal crises. They were originally a tool of the American counterculture of the 1960s to search for futuristic housing solutions which responded to ecological concerns. The contribution traces some of the most important phases of dome architecture, which crossed paths with the emerging technoculture linked to the rise of virtual reality. Indeed, the idea of the dome as a means of imagining new virtual environments, as was the case of Biosphere 2, intersects with the career of VR pioneer Jaron Lanier. Today, virtual reality technologies have merged geodesic architecture with visualization devices, as happens in the case of “virtual domes”, offering a unique way to experience virtual reality and connect with others in a shared environment.

Dynamics of the Deviant Subculture Klitih Gang and Al-Fatah Transgender Boarding School in Yogyakarta

Klitih gangs in Yogyakarta, as a tangible form of juvenile delinquency, cannot be separated from the construction of the failure of environmental socialization and socialization of adolescent life in modern times. This study used interpretive approach (qualitative). Researcher digs deeper into how cultural criminology views the deviant subculture of youth members of the Klitih Gang and the dynamics of the Al-Fatah Transgender Islamic Boarding School as accurate facts. This article focuses on discussing several aspects that are interconnected with the school of cultural criminology, including (1) cases of youth violence and street crime by gangs of Klitih as a form of crime as culture; (2) community construction related to culture as crime against transgender groups, especially in the Al-Fatah transgender Islamic boarding school, Yogyakarta; (3) discussion on the realm of existentialist criminology in its allusion to ways of life, style, and semiotics. This phenomenon creates anomie in the dynamics of social life and requires efforts to harmonize both from a juridical and sociological perspective.

Counter culture: causes, extent and solutions of systematic bias in the analysis of behavioural counts.

We often quantify the rate at which a behaviour occurs by counting the number of times it occurs within a specific, short observation period. Measuring behaviour in such a way is typically unavoidable but induces error. This error acts to systematically reduce effect sizes, including metrics of particular interest to behavioural and evolutionary ecologists such as R2 , repeatability (intra-class correlation, ICC) and heritability. Through introducing a null model, the Poisson process, for modelling the frequency of behaviour, we give a mechanistic explanation of how this problem arises and demonstrate how it makes comparisons between studies and species problematic, because the magnitude of the error depends on how frequently the behaviour has been observed as well as how biologically variable the behaviour is. Importantly, the degree of error is predictable and so can be corrected for. Using the example of parental provisioning rate in birds, we assess the applicability of our null model for modelling the frequency of behaviour. We then survey recent literature and demonstrate that the error is rarely accounted for in current analyses. We highlight the problems that arise from this and provide solutions. We further discuss the biological implications of deviations from our null model, and highlight the new avenues of research that they may provide. Adopting our recommendations into analyses of behavioural counts will improve the accuracy of estimated effect sizes and allow meaningful comparisons to be made between studies.

Mortality, moral regulation, and (im)moral entrepreneurship in My Favorite Murder

ABSTRACT As mediated death has become a staple of contemporary society, debates about the treatment of death in the public domain abound. This article examines the true crime comedy podcast My Favorite Murder, arguing that it functions to produce a collaboratively ‘provocative morbid space’ in which its hosts and audiences can engage in contemplating, discussing, and negotiating the politics of murder, victimhood, and their surrounding inequalities. My Favorite Murder explicitly positions itself as provocative and morally ambiguous, raising questions about who has ownership, legitimacy, and moral standing when it comes to discussing death. We argue that the podcast both reflects public fascination with death and functions to enact a socially progressive agenda through controversial and entertaining popular cultural engagement with the sensitive subject of murder. With the hosts acting as what we term ‘(im)moral entrepreneurs’ collaboratively producing with audiences ‘counter cultural (im)moral discourses’, the commercially successful podcast offers a version of the ‘cautionary tale’ that foregrounds the sociocultural inequalities that have contributed to the vast array of murders discussed across its 300+ existing episodes.

The American Counterculture: A History of Hippies and Cultural Dissidents

Cultural memory of the hippie movement of the mid-twentieth century has been, in many ways, reduced to a series of snapshots. A young woman places a flower in the barrel of the gun a police officer is pointing at her. Young people in loose-flowing tie-dyed clothes smoke pot and dance to psychedelic music. Young men and women flash the “peace” sign. In The American Counterculture, Damon R. Bach argues that, like the general public, historians have approached the topic in a simplistic way, developing a narrative that suggests that the counterculture only existed for a short period of time and that its goals did not change. Instead, the author contends that the counterculture went through numerous changes and was porous in terms of who was considered part of the movement at any given time. Furthermore, he argues that “The most significant of these transformations was its transition from the cultural to the political” (xi). Claiming that no historiography of the counterculture movement, its major players, and events exists, he sets out to create one using primary source documents like underground newspapers and interviews.Bach argues that the alienation of middle-class white youth in the 1950s was a major cause of the counterculture, and that hippies worked to build alternate communities in order to change society as a whole. Dope (marijuana and LSD as opposed to addictive drugs), rock music, and open sexuality were part of the hippie lifestyle, and how much each of these elements factored into the counterculture changed over time. The book discusses well-known events, like Woodstock and the Chicago National Convention, as well as many lesser known and local events, building a strong case to support Bach's arguments.A major challenge that the author faces is that the 1960s and 1970s have passed into history for younger people while older people still have memories of the time. As a result, what people know about the period varies greatly. Thus, some descriptions of events and people feel overwritten while some readers will be confused by the casual mention of new groups, places, and events. For instance, much of the narrative about the 1950s is familiar. On the other hand, readers may be unfamiliar with the White Panthers Party, which is mentioned in passing early in the book (24) but not described until much later (148–49). Fortunately, the book has an excellent index and an extensive bibliography to help a reader over any hurdles.In addition to being well-researched and introducing a good variety of source material, the book is well-organized. In general, it is in chronological order, with each chapter addressing a period of years. Each chapter starts by summarizing the major changes that occurred in the counterculture during the time period under discussion followed by subheaders that address events and topics from that period. For instance, Chapter 4, “Freaks and Hairies Everywhere: The Rise of the Countersociety and its Apogee, 1970–1972,” begins by arguing that various counterculture groups worked together during this period, that the counterculture became more diverse, and that it began to advocate for women's and gay rights. Subtopics include “Counterculture Environmentalism and Earth Day,” “New Left-Counterculture Fusion and the Rise of the Countersociety,” and “Rock Festivals and Rock Revolutionaries.” This organization makes the book an excellent reference for anyone researching the period as it relates to the counterculture.The book is least effective when addressing how the hippie movement interacted with other movements of the time. The lack of detail about these other movements leads to some broad and inaccurate characterizations. For instance, the description of Stonewall glosses over the contribution of trans women, avoiding a discussion of how the counterculture responded to these individuals, and the women's movements are simplified to the point that the only women's movement appears to be that of straight, White women. Nevertheless, this book could be a challenge to students of the other movements to provide a similar historiography.The book points out that the hippie counterculture was successful in changing American culture, including greater environmental awareness, a change in sexual attitudes, and the move toward eating healthier food. Furthermore, it raises a number of intriguing questions that researchers might be interested in pursuing, such as, how did White privilege distinguish and affect the movement? Is degeneration into violence inherent in prolonged activism and alternate communities or is it avoidable? Can alternative communities survive long-term? The answers to such questions could be just as important for understanding subcultures today.

Tanoker community as a counter culture movement to communicate traditional games in Ledokombo Jember Indonesia

Tanoker is one of the traditional games in Indonesia which is one of the cultural heritages whose existence must be protected and preserved. The Tanoker community has begun to actively promote this traditional game to be introduced to the community. The purpose of this study is to examine the Tanoker community in their efforts to prevent the negative impact of online gaming culture through traditional games. This type of research using in this study is a qualitative approach with ethnographic methods was used in this study as well as by analyzing the text and interview results. The results showed that the Tanoker community played a role in communicating the traditional game of tanoker in the community as a counter culture movement to communicate traditional games in Ledokombo Jember. The Tanoker Ledokombo community is not anti-modern games, some of them who come with cell phones, there are only rules when activities are being carried out, their cell handphones cannot be used. This is where good values are internalized in children Tanoker aims to contribute solving problems, especially preparing children to live healthy, fostering a cooperative, discipline, and sportive sense, being smart and having prosperous lives.

Waterloo Sunrise: London from the Sixties to Thatcher by John Davis

<i>Waterloo Sunrise: London from the Sixties to Thatcher</i> by John Davis

Countercultural Misunderstandings: Alternative Art and Cold War Politics

Drawing on Theodore Roszak's 1969 classic, The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and its Youthful Opposition, this essay argues that the difficulties experienced by members of the counterculture in establishing bonds of solidarity with potentially like‐minded groups were often shared by alternative artists working internationally post‐1968. Opening with a case study in hostile American feedback on the politics of Russian émigré art in early 1980s New York, the article works through a range of unintended and intentional misunderstandings among leftist art workers and countercultural figures, whose political positions were formed in different centres and peripheries. Arguing that alternative art should be viewed as part of a shared, anti‐technocratic project, the article proposes that glitches in communication are worth lingering over, as we continue to grapple with different accounts of historical developments, and seek to find ways of working across borders in polarized times.

Electric Empires: From Countercultural Movement to Corporate Enterprise

ABSTRACT This article explores the emergence of the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) subculture, and how it transitioned from being perceived as a deviant subculture into a more legitimate culture industry. Using a historical analysis of documents, interviews with industry professionals, and ethnographic observations at EDM events; we explore the process by which this transition occurred. As we argue, the defining features of the EDM subculture also laid the foundations for outsiders to commodify the movement as a culture industry. We identify the concept of “subcultural appropriation” as the mechanism by which the movement’s politically dissident features were removed, and its place as a multi-billion dollar industry made possible. Long adherents to the subculture we interviewed, noted that this rise in popularity came at the cost of feelings of solidarity and commitment to core values of the subculture. We conclude with a discussion of how this study addresses limitations of the culture industry thesis, and argue for its continued utility to the study of subcultures and social groups.

Exploring police sexual misconduct: an examination of a decade of incidents in a metropolitan agency

PurposePolice misconduct is a grave matter undermining public trust in law enforcement and police professionalism. While research has specified major forms and causal theories of police misconduct, especially regarding corruption and excessive force, scientific attention to police sexual misconduct (PSM) has been more limited and is addressed here. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe current study was commissioned to examine PSM incidents (n = 50) between 2000 and 2009 in a large, metropolitan, police department in the USA. Data were extracted from agency internal affairs case files, personnel records and disciplinary histories for involved officers.FindingsAnalyses identified common factors and trends across officers, complainants and sexual misconduct events that were dichotomized per case substantiation and observed on a severity continuum from unobtrusive to criminal conduct.Originality/valueThough findings did not evidence a deviant subculture often implicated in the police literature, specific opportunities to reduce officer misconduct, including intensifying administrative sanctioning and other perceptual deterrence measures, were identified.

Fraud Transmission Mechanisms within Community: Peer-Concealing and-Revealing Effect

This study explored the transmission mechanisms of corporate fraud commission and detection, specifically focusing on the four effects of transmission within social network communities and the influence of network size and social distance on the transmission process based on Chinese listed corporations in the period 2008–2018. Our findings indicate that peer-concealing and -revealing effects exist within social network communities. The peer-concealing effect decreases the likelihood of being detected when committing fraud, especially for those with more and closer fraudulent peers. The peer-revealing effect increases the likelihood of being detected when committing fraud, especially for those with more and closer punished peers. There is no evidence supporting the peer contagion and vicarious punishment effect, even for corporations with more and closer fraudulent peers. Thus, an improved understanding of the transmission mechanism of corporate fraud commission and detection within communities is of great importance for regulators to take measures to prevent and detect corporate fraud. In addition, regulators should be aware of the deviant subculture and social distance in social network communities.

Relasi Kuasa Michel Foucault dalam Perspektif Musik dan Pertunjukan

The Komunitas Lima Gunung is a forum for traditional artists who live in mountainous areas around Magelang, namely Merapi, Merbabu, Andong, Menoreh, and Sumbing. This community was initiated by Sutanto Mendut as a medium of communication between traditional artists and an effort to keep traditional arts alive, both related to ritual arts which have certain packages in their performances and profane art that is free of creation. This research uses a cultural approach paradigm. Case study and ethnographic research design in the Komunitas Lima Gunung. Primary data sources were obtained from the artists of the Komunitas Lima Gunung, and secondary data sources were obtained from exhibition catalogs, media publications, and cultural observers. Data collection techniques were carried out through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document studies. Data analysis was carried out interactively back and forth from various phases, namely data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The result of this research is that the cultural subversion promoted by Sutanto Mendut and the Komunitas Lima Gunung requires an alternative culture or a counter culture culture. Cultural subversion initiated by Sutanto Mendut and the Komunitas Lima Gunung rejects the domination and hegemony of certain cultures over other cultures. Instead, it gave rise to many versions of culture from various communities. The various versions of culture are not only an identity, but also a source of inspiration for various creations, both discourses, expressions, and cultural products. Culture is also able to support the life force of its people in the midst of the state's neglect of its people. People become more independent of the state so that they have a high bargaining position. Ideally, through culture, the people can be reached back to their ownership.

The American Counterculture: A History of Hippies and Cultural Dissidents

The American Counterculture: A History of Hippies and Cultural Dissidents