1. Do you think there is any joy attached to what a criminal does?

2. If crime has so many negative consequences attached to it, why do some criminals continue to commit crimes, even after they have spent time in prison?

3. What makes us sympathise criminal in many films where they are presented as positive characters?

B. Here are some abstracts from a review on the book “Seductions of Crime” written by American sociologist Jack Katz, where he presents a criminal’s-eye view of the driving forces behind seemingly irrational, brutal acts that in fact have their own logic. Read the passages and point out the reasons for committing crimes stated by Jack Katz.

The Seductions of Crime

Jack Katz is convinced that crime pays – and that it can be fun too.

The book grew of what Katz discovered to be a void in the academic literature. But Katz also discovered that in popular literature and other sources, including some research with Los Angeles criminals, there was a wealth of information that detailed the moods and calculations of criminals and formed a vantage point for a different way of looking at crime.

When a husband or a wife turns a shotgun on a spouse in a typical domestic homicide, Katz asserts, the resulting “righteous slaughter” often compensates for the killer’s humiliation in some long-standing dispute and the killer may see himself as a defender of traditional values against the abusive mate.

Crimes such as shoplifting and vandalism often are attractive because of the “sneaky thrills” experienced by the offenders, Katz says, noting that the threat of being caught is an essential part of the thrill.

Furthermore, career criminals such as armed robbers are so committed to their carefully constructed images as “bad” characters that the prospect of jail time is no deterrent, Katz maintains.

Nor is money the prime objective for such “hard men.” One criminal quoted by Katz put it this way: “Straight people don’t understand. I mean, they think dudes is after the things straight people got. It ain’t that at all. We the show people. The glamour people. Come on the set with the finest car, the finest woman…Hear people talking about you. Hear the bar get silent when you walk in the door.”

Criminal thinking is frequently “unpredictable” because the “mythology” guiding criminals is “often very idiosyncratic,” Katz said. In fact, crime may be committed to sustain an image rather than for money, he added.

Expanding on that subject, he noted that criminals seldom open savings accounts. “The money is burned,” he said. “You use it as fast as you can, because if you don’t, it’ll give people the wrong impression about why you’re doing it [committing crimes]. You get tremendous risks to get that money but you throw it around – to girlfriends, to buy cocaine for people, to have parties.”

Law professor Franklin E. Zimring gives Katz especially high marks for his portrait of armed robbers and for his emphasis on “crime as recreation”. Armed robbery, Zimring said, is apparently a lot like hang-gliding, a “crazy” activity that thrives because “it feels good and there’s a subculture to support it”.