Introduction
We live in a time when the application of the environmentalist (Liberal) approach, within a context of how governmental officials address the issues of social and political importance, is being recognized as utterly ineffective by just about anyone capable of utilizing its sense of rationale. And the reason for this is quite simple – the overwhelming majority of those who are now in the position of designing social policies in Western countries, strive their best to oppose these policies to objective laws of nature, as the ultimate proof as to their “progressiveness” and “open-mindedness”.
The validity of this suggestion is best illustrated by the fact that, as we all know – the correctional institutions in Western countries have long ago ceased to serve as the places where convicted criminals are expected to straighten out their wicked ways, by “doing time”. Nowadays, such institutions are best referred to as “academies of crime”, where criminals only learn to feel sorry for allowing themselves to get caught, in the first place, rather than for acting in an anti-social manner. As statistics indicate, 98% of those released from American prisons, after having served their sentences, do not consider themselves being “corrected”.
The importance of race
It is namely in prisons where people learn to recognize the concept of “multiculturalism”, as such that is being based on metaphysically wrong assumptions as to how one’s racial and cultural affiliation affect his behavior. Upon being introduced to the actual realities of “prison life” for the first time, inmates learn that contrary to what they have been made to believe by mainstream Media – race does matter. Moreover, they learn that, unless they strongly affiliate themselves with other racially similar inmates, they will risk a chance of becoming subjected to unmotivated violence, on the part of just about anyone. In her book “Prisons”, Joycelyn M. Pollock says: “The rise in gangs created a serious dilemma in prison settings, especially in prisons for men. It may not be too much of an overstatement to say that for some time, control had been lost in American prisons. Free from an inmate code, inmates became loyal to race-based cliques, and the ultimate symbol of respect and loyalty was predatory violence against other gang members” (Pollock, 2005, p. 109). In its turn, this points out at conceptual fallaciousness of environmentalist criminological theories that imply that it is only the particularities of an individual’s upbringing, which create preconditions for such individual to consider breaking the law.
Regardless of whether we want to admit it or not – there is plenty of evidence as to the fact that analyzing the distinctiveness of one’s biological makeup simply cannot be skipped with, for as long as we want to define the strength of such a person’s anti-social attitudes. In their article “Race and Imprisonment Decisions”, John Kramer and Darrell Steffensmeier bring readers’ attention to the fact that the imprisonment ratio among African-Americans is best described as utterly disproportionate: “The number of Blacks in prison has become an increasingly important issue in American society. Blacks constitute a relatively small share of the general population, but they make up a very large share of federal and state prison populations. Today, Blacks comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population and 50 percent of the prison population” (Kramer & Steffensmeir 1993, p. 357). Ever since the time of this article’s publishing in 1993, the situation with over-representation of Blacks in American correctional institutions became even worse – it is now being estimated that one out of every three African-Americans had at least once spent some time in jail. For just about anyone, who has not been completely deprived of its ability to think in terms of logic, by the hawks of political correctness, this can only mean one thing – Blacks’ clearly defined criminal-mindedness does not solely account for “poverty” or the “legacy of White racism”, as environmental criminologists want us to believe. Biological factors play a very important role in defining one’s likelihood to perpetrate crimes.
Concept of criminality
In his famous book “Criminal Man”, the founder of Positivist Criminology Cesare Lombroso was able to draw a direct link between the concept of criminality and the concept of biologically predetermined savagery and atavism. According to Lombroso, an individual’s tendency to commit a particularly savage crime simply points out the fact that such an individual relates more to animals than to civilized men. And, as it appears out of this book’s context, it is quite possible to distinguish “born criminals” from ordinary people – violent (“born”) criminals’ physical appearance is necessarily associated with atavistic features: “Atavism remains one of the most constant characteristics of the born criminal, despite, or rather together with pathology. Many of the characteristics of primitive man are also commonly found in the born criminal, including low, sloping foreheads, overdeveloped sinuses, overdevelopment of jaws and cheekbones, prognathism, oblique and large eye sockets, dark skin, thick and curly head hair, large or protuberant ears, long arms, the similarity between the sexes, low sensitivity to pain…” (Lombroso, 1876, p. 222). It is not simply by an accident that Medias usually describe particularly gruesome crimes as “savage”, “beastly” and “inhuman”. Yet, even mentioning the fact that there might be a correlation between citizens’ physical constitution and their tendency to violate the law, has now become a public taboo, simply because “lefties” in high offices had succeeded in applying politically correct censorship to public discussion of just about any controversial topic.
USA prisoners
It is a well-known fact that America’s prison population is the largest in the whole world. In his article “U.S. Prison Population Dwarfs that of other Nations”, Adam Liptak provides us with insight into this by stating: “The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners… The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London” (Liptak, 2008). Predictably enough, the author does specify as to when such situation came into being. Yet, just about anyone can easily learn the fact that it was named after the policy of “multiculturalism” had acquired official status in this country, that the number of imprisoned citizens in America began to increase rapidly, as time went by.
And the reason for this is simple – upon arrival to America, immigrants from Third World countries would instantly realize themselves being put in an advantageous position, as compared to native-born White Americans because: 1) they were not burdened by the notions of euro-centric morality 2) unlike White Americans, they possessed an acute sense of racial solidarity, which allowed them to proceed with the creation of “societies within societies” to exploit their new homeland, rather than contributing to it. In its turn, this explains why contemporary realities of “prison life” in America are defined by never-ending war between members of ethnic gangs – the existential mode of “ethnically unique” prisoners simply corresponds to their tribal mentality, which in its turn, derives out of their inborn biological atavism.
In the book from which we have already quoted, Lombroso states: “Many criminal groups, even though they are enemies of society, form their unique type of social organism. Nearly all have a leader, invested with dictatorial power that, as in savage tribes, derives more from his personal qualities than from the acquiesce of his followers. All criminal bands have external associates or protectors in case of danger” (Lombroso, 1876, p. 86). This is why current dynamics in American prisons simply reflect the fact that this country is being slowly deprived of its national integrity, as the result of America’s socio-political policies having ceased to correspond to the notion of common sense, ever since the promoters of neo-Liberalism were put in the position of designing these policies.
Conclusion
Thus, we cannot refer to “prison life” as being associated with some unique subtleties, quite unrelated to “free life”. For example, it is a well-known fact that in American prisons, the members of Hispanic gangs wage a full-scale war on members of Black gangs. Yet, the utter hostility does not only define social interactions between Blacks and Hispanics in jails but also in just about anywhere in this country. In his article “Racist Mexican Gangs “Ethnic Cleansing” Blacks In L.A.”, Paul Joseph Watson says: “Racist Mexican gangs are indiscriminately targeting Blacks who aren’t even involved in gang culture, as part of an orchestrated ethnic cleansing program that is forcing black people to flee Los Angeles. The culprit of the carnage is the radical Neo-Nazi liberation theology known as La Raza, which calls for the extermination of all races in America besides Latinos” (Watson, 2007). This is the reason why the “educational” approach towards correcting criminals, which is being currently practiced in American prisons, cannot possibly yield any positive results, because it denies the importance of biological factors, within a context of how people decide to commit crimes. However, instead of admitting this fact, the proponents of environmentalist criminology continue to blame “racial profiling” for the disproportionate number of representatives of racial minorities in American correctional institutes, even when pressed hard with overwhelming evidence as to the sheer wrongness of such their conclusion. It is only when the methodology of Positive Criminology attains its former legitimate status that we can seriously expect the crimes rates in America to be significantly lowered, as a result. However, this cannot be possibly done with the country’s current political establishment in power.
Bibliography
Kramer, J. & Steffensmeir, D. (1993). Race and Imprisonment Decisions. The Sociological Quarterly, 34 (2): 357-376.
Liptak, A. (2008). U.S. Prison Population Dwarfs that of other Nations. The New York Times. Web.
Lombroso, C. 1876 (2006). Criminal Man. Durham: Duke University Press.
Pollock, Joycelyn (2005). Prisons. Boston: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Watson, P. (2007). Racist Mexican Gangs “Ethnic Cleansing” Blacks In L.A. Prison Planet.Com.