The Criminology of “Oliver Twist”

oliverLet’s face it.  The protagonist of “Oliver Twist” just isn’t a very interesting character.  Things start out promisingly enough with his famous request, “Please, sir, I want some more.”  And who can resist applauding when he gives the boorish Noah Claypole a well-deserved thrashing?  But we’re then forced to endure nearly 400 pages of Oliver as an insufferable milquetoast, passively cast here and there to suit the needs of Dickens’ laughably improbable plot, weeping copiously on cue to amplify the author’s sentimental excesses.

No, Oliver himself gives us no good reason to continue to read past page 50.  It’s the villains who really carry the show.  Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, of course, supply some darkly memorable comic relief, and they are villains of a sort.  Venal and hypocritical public servants, we might think of them as the forebears of some of today’s white-collar criminals.  (Mr. Bumble is also the source of a perennially favorite statement about the law; upon being informed that “the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction,” Bumble sputters helplessly, “If the law supposes that, the law is a ass–a idiot.” (402))

But the real scene-stealers are the criminals of a more conventional sort.  Is there any doubt that Fagin is the most memorable and richly realized character in the book, with the murderous Bill Sikes not far behind?  

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American Exceptionalism – Your Thoughts?

American Exceptionalism – Your Thoughts?

Statute of LibertyBy now I imagine most readers have read Vladimir Putin’s New York Times op-ed, published yesterday. In the piece addressed to the American people and their political leaders, the Russian President argues against military intervention in Syria and urges adherence to the United Nations Charter to “preserv[e] law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world … to keep international relations from sliding into chaos.”

Putting the debate on the morality and legality of a possible US strike against Syria to one side, I found the final paragraph of the op-ed most striking:

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.”

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The Societal Backdrop of the Martin/Zimmerman Tragedy

Gated Community EntranceNot surprisingly, the killing of Trayvon Martin and trial of George Zimmerman have prompted much reflection on race-related assumptions and tensions in the U.S. It might also be appropriate to reflect on the societal backdrop of these tragic events and to underscore two social developments that set the stage, namely, concealed carry laws and private, gated communities. Both suggest troubling aspects of contemporary American life.

Concealed carry laws allow the practice of carrying handguns in public in a concealed manner. These laws have grown more common in recent years, and Illinois, which had held out as the last state to ban concealed carrying, just recently gave in. Florida, one of the champions of concealed carry, has issued well over 2 million licenses for concealed carrying since 1987. No clear evidence exists proving that concealed carrying reduces crime, but the concealed carry laws seem to relieve people’s anxiety. For some, concealed carrying or, at least, the option to conceal and carry bolsters a sense of one’s “manhood.”

Private, gated communities, meanwhile, are also on the rise. Again, Florida is one of the leaders, and countless Floridians have taken comfort in residing in private enclaves, often behind walls and gates. The society outside those walls and gates is taken to be menacing and dangerous. In other states as well, many have abandoned any sort of deep and defining affiliation with a town or a city in favor of belonging to private spaces supposedly sealed off from the surrounding trouble and tumult. Often these communities have corny names such as “Deer Run” or “Oak Crest,” which are designed to connote nature. Some scholars have dubbed these private, gated communities “Privatopia.”

George Zimmerman was carrying a concealed handgun and guarding a gated community, and Trayvon Martin is dead. I do not underscore these facts in order to challenge the jury’s verdict. However, I do think the rise of concealed carry and the gated community suggests how frightened and anxious, how hostile and combative our society has become. According to the defendant in Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska,” “There’s just a meanness in this world.”

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