Hatty - Aggression, Conflict & Violence

The article by Hatty, although long, was interesting and helpful because many important terms and topics were covered. In class, many people talked about aggression as being a "positive" thing and I think it can be at times, but I think the term is often misused. There is a difference between being offensive or forward and being aggressive. In the reading, Silverberg and Gray (1992) are cited as defining aggression as "the initiating toward some other(s) of an act that is higher on the violence scale than the previous act in a given interaction sequence, i.e., a readiness to initiate acts at higher levels of violence." Overall, I got the impression from the reading that aggression is strongly connected to violence and implies a willingness to use violence. Could aggression also mean a willingness to exacerbate conflict or escalate it not using violence?

The section from this reading dealing with "sexual predators" also brings up many good points. This semester I am also taking a class about social deviance and criminology and this section ties in well with what we're discussing in class. In analyzing the effectiveness of a social control system, it is important to note whether it results in an increasing or decreasing number of deviants. In regards to the system that controls deviant behavior in the "sexual predator" category, I think the goal is not to reduce the number of deviants, rather to force people who have committed crimes that correspond to this category, to adopt the deviant role of "sexual predator" in an attempt to keep the community safe. Personally, I like to be able to check to see where sexual offenders live in my area, especially ones that I know. However, I'm not sure if this system actually works to decrease crimes and make communities safer.