Leisure, Market and Crime in Greece: Friends or Foes?

1
Leisure, Market and Crime in Greece Friends or
Foes?

• DR STRATOS GEORGOULAS
• Ass. Professor
• Director of Lab for Sociology of Youth, Sports
  and Leisure
• University of the Aegean

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Leisure, Market and Crime in Greece Friends or
Foes?

• structures of supervision and mechanisms of
  control in Greece determine the management of
  leisure
• formal social control functions only in a
  complementary way and only in relation to the
  control of a parallel market, existing outside
  the sphere of the dominant market.

3
Definitions

• the analytical tool of leisure will be used as a
  concept describing a privileged social time in
  modern societies
• a field of comprehension of the hierarchy of
  social values, that is, a social construction
  readjustable to the circumstances and the social
  actors (G. Pronovost,1990).

4
LEISURE

• delimited within the social context determined
  historically and socially. The division of power
  and discipline runs through it the same way it
  runs through all social phenomena
• The dominance of one management pattern of free
  time, is the crystallized effect of this
  cultural dominance of the urban - industrial -
  commercial culture. Dominance leads, through
  control, to conformism and homogeneity

5
CRIME

• crime does not constitute an objective fact, but
  a social construction, readjustable to the
  changing social conditions
• not a reflection of the God - given natural law
  
• not the product of free will but something
  influenced by factors within a wide social
  context

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CRIME

• Characterised by the division of power and
  discipline. Penalisation of behaviours not the
  result of the entire societys consensual outcry
  but an attempt to promote and defend values and
  interests of groups with great political and
  economic power.
• Since the penalisation of behaviours function by
  the results of social conflict, we expect no
  elements of conflict between market and the legal
  system
• low rates of criminality for a social phenomenon
  with a high level of market self-regulation, as
  is leisure.

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LEISURE CONTROL

• electronic gambling
• the state (which has zero income from this kind
  of activity) naturally wants to supplement market
  control with repression via legislative
  regulation and penalization of behaviours-
  Presidential Decree 36/1994
• A law with few legal institutions of electronic
  gambling (oligopoly) is better than anarchy in
  the market of this leisure product.

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RESEARCH

• Data Greek National Statistics Organization
  1991-1996
• a research of state repression-concerns the
  implementation of legislation patterns in
  relation to control and the penalisation of
  specific forms of leisure

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FINDINGS 1

• The specific penalized behaviour has been
  categorized as minor offence by the state.
• Takes place in cities and is committed by men, as
  the total of offences.
• Punished with short-term imprisonment, without
  obvious results, as the rate of recidivism shows.
  
• A behaviour not considered to pose a great danger
  to our society, neither a permanent parameter of
  the policy against crime.
• The repressive mechanisms do not have as their
  main objective to control this behaviour.

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YEAR   TOTAL 1 MONTH IMPRIS.  
       
1991 T.O. 106287 68256 64,2
1991 L.O 2542 2193 86,3
1992 T.O. 99989 64349 64,4
1992 L.O. 2516 2128 84,6
1993 T.O. 86803 56948 65,6
1993 L.O. 2474 2133 86,2
1994 T.O. 78971 53058 67,2
1994 L.O. 2155 1873 86,9
1995 T.O. 85909 55747 64,9
1995 L.O. 2785 2468 88,6
1996 T.O. 81674 49657 60,8
1996 L.O. 2620 2371 90,5
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YEAR   CONVICTED RECIDIVISTS RECIDIVISTS
       
1991 T.O. 112203 53871 48,0
1991 L.O 3033 1494 49,3
1992 T.O. 107564 50937 47,4
1992 L.O. 3017 1473 48,8
1993 T.O. 92427 43075 46,6
1993 L.O. 2741 1428 52,1
1994 T.O. 83818 39090 46,6
1994 L.O. 2370 1264 53,3
1995 T.O. 91966 39337 42,8
1995 L.O. 3047 1471 48,3
1996 T.O. 86892 33733 38,8
1996 L.O. 2792 1342 48,1
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FINDINGS 2

• The specific offence in relation to the
  geographical region it took place
• The formal social control is stricter in Attica
  and Peloponnesus, something which is not the case
  in the periphery (Aegean, Crete, Ionian).
• Stricter in regions where many such centres of
  activities operate with large concentration of
  population-regions with a greater need for
  external determination of regulation
• in contradiction to regions with leisure
  oligopoly, (isolated and sparsely populated
  regions of Greece)

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FINDINGS 3

• Profile of the person sentenced man 35-59 years
  of age, married with children, graduate of
  primary education
• Profile not differ from the profile of the person
  that has been stigmatised as a "criminal".
• It is crime - control policy that attempts to
  deal with the symptoms without changing the basic
  political - economic forces that generate these
  symptoms (Greenberg 1980)

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FINDINGS 4

• Professional profile of the person sentenced
  -self-employed in the sector of service
  provision,
• This reveals the existence of a small size
  market, which functions beyond the control of the
  big capital and which is mainly checked by the
  formal social control.

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YEAR   TOTAL SELF-EMPLOYED SELF-EMPLOYED EMPLOYERS EMPLOYERS
         
1991 T.O. 112203 48808 43,5 8749 7,8
1991 L.O 3033 1641 54,1 369 12,2
1992 T.O. 107564 45192 42,0 8781 8,2
1992 L.O. 3017 1455 48,2 408 13,5
1993 T.O. 92427 37728 40,8 9246 10,0
1993 L.O. 2741 1346 49,1 460 16,8
1994 T.O. 83818 37657 44,9 7202 8,6
1994 L.O. 2370 1386 58,5 235 9,9
1995 T.O. 91966 38663 42,0 9868 10,7
1995 L.O. 3047 1612 52,9 560 18,4
1996 T.O. 86892 33021 38,0 8067 9,3
1996 L.O. 2792 1377 49,3 431 15,4
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CONCLUSION

• attempt to connect management of leisure and
  mainly the efforts of the State to control it,
  with the political economy of a specific society,
  in this case contemporary Greece
• penal repression cannot play an autonomous or
  even causal role, in relation to the dominant
  management patterns of leisure, which are
  determined mainly by the market.

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CONCLUSION

• no elements of conflict between the value models
  of market proposal and penal treatment of the
  management of "free time" are found.
• constitute control of a parallel market which
  functions beyond the limits of market and for
  that matter the specific control is permissible
  and desirable, as far as the ruling class is
  concerned.

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DISCIPLINE, CONTROL AND LEISURENight clubs in a
Greek island

• This work will try to illustrate structures of
  monitoring and mechanisms of control in one of
  the dominant models of modern youths leisure in
  a Greek island (Lesvos), that is going to a night
  club.

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DISCIPLINE, CONTROL AND LEISURENight clubs in a
Greek island

• A research based on participant observation and
  informal, semi-structured interviews was held in
  the most famous night clubs in Mytilene( capital
  of Lesvos island).
• Outcomes of this research are analyzed through
  the use of a methodology tool that Foucault
  issued in his work, Discipline and Punishment.

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DISCIPLINE, CONTROL AND LEISURENight clubs in a
Greek island

• A. Rules of admission - normative sanctions.
• B. Internal discipline
• 1. Distribution in space
• a. fencing b. networking c. creation of useful
  space
• 2. Control of activity
• a. Planning (setting of rhythm, constraint on
  particular activities, circle of repetition)
• b. Time regulation of activity
• c. Connection between body and gesture
• d. Harmony between body and object
• e. Exhaustive utilisation (principle of non
  sloth)

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DISCIPLINE, CONTROL AND LEISURENight clubs in a
Greek island

• 3. Capitalization of time
• a. duration is divided into successive parts up
  to the final one
• b. levels that are analytically organized (no
  mere repetition)
• c. test in each final stage
• 4. Composition of forces
• a. Each body can harmonize with the others
• b. Accurate system of administration.

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DISCIPLINE, CONTROL AND LEISURENight clubs in a
Greek island

• RESEARCH STEPS
• a) Selection of subject and preparation.
• b) Selection of spaces and approach.
• c) Recording of observations
• d) Data Analysis

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DISCIPLINE, CONTROL AND LEISURENight clubs in a
Greek island

• positive correlations with the aspects of the
  methodological tool that we had constructed were
  found.
• An example regarding capitalization of time
  The only thing that an individual consumer can
  seemingly do in night bar is to lose his/her time
  and hence not to be able to capitalize the
  latter.

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DISCIPLINE, CONTROL AND LEISURENight clubs in a
Greek island

• consumption constitutes a duration.
• This continuity can be either a simple
  repetition, or a process analytically separated
  into stages, which are connected with ordeals,
  when the last stage has come to an end.
• More frequent is the analytical scale which
  concerns consumption in the company of friends
• a solitary drinker or the one who does not have
  the economic means to evolve his /her
  consumption, leads often to marginalization in
  the end and to early retirement from the place
  where "leisure" is spent.

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DISCIPLINE, CONTROL AND LEISURENight clubs in a
Greek island

• market management of leisure is constituted of
  DISCIPLINE and CONTROL

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• Leisure, Market and Crime in Greece Friends or
  Foes?
• In my opinion- Friends

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Why do we believe otherwise?

• the Media, through the presentation of criminal
  incidents, transmits an evaluative knowledge
  determining this way, desirable objectives and
  propagating for canonistic types of behaviour.
  The daily knowledge as a constitutive element of
  the daily reality is a condition of interaction
  between the members of a society. In that sense,
  the local press that transmits this daily
  knowledge constitutes a dominant structuring
  factor of this reality.

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• research is based on content analysis of
  newspaper articles of the whole local press of
  Mytilene (the capital of the prefecture of Lesbos
  in Greece) and additional interviews from
  journalists.

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Outcomes

• a. The concept of criminality is being
  constructed both qualitatively and quantitatively
  through local press and not vice versa.
• b. The local press evaluates negatively illegal
  behaviours, positively the formal social control,
  while in most cases it cancels any relevance with
  the social frame of criminality.
• c. The local press with the dramatic narrations
  that uses it causes fear of victimisation.
• d. The journalists transmit evaluative knowledge
  in an attempt to cover the lack of knowledge of
  real criminological data.

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• Left --W3
• D1
• W2
• D4
• D2
• W1
• D3----Right

• 1
• 3,58
• 5,04
• 4,66
• 6,39
• 7,3
• 10,08

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Percentages
Drugs 24,3
Robberies 15,2
Driving Offences 26,4
Immigrants 8,7
Other 24
White Collar Crimes 1,4
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J1 J2 J3 J4 J5 J6 J7 ?p?s?µa st???e?a
Crime numb. ----- ----- ----- ----- 60.000 50.000 10.000 305-358.000
Penal code offences 50 40 20 35 45 60 ----- 1,7 2,5
Convictions ----- ----- ----- ----- 48.000 45.000 7.000 83-92.000
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Age of criminal 13-17 18-20 21-24 25-29 30-34 35-44 45-49 60 ?a? ???
Journalists mean 5 2 1 3 4 6 7 8
Official mean 8 7 5 4 3 1 2 6
Table 6
Marital status single Married no children Married with children Widow / divorced
Journalists mean 1 3 4 2
Official mean 2 3 1 4
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Categories (14) Theft Robbery Drugs Driving offences Commerce offences Building offences
Journalists mean 1 2 3 7 10 11
Official mean 5 10 7 1 2 3
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THANK YOUDr STRATOS GEORGOULASAss.
ProfessorUniversity of the AegeanE-mail
s.georgoulas_at_soc.aegean.gr