THE CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF GOVERNMENT: A NEGLECTED DIMENSION OF HOBBES'S LEVIATHAN

Abstract. Philosophical preoccupation with moral, legal, and hypothetical problems have led us to neglect those practical (or strategic) dimensions of Leviathan in which Hobbes confronts the problems of how order can actually be politically created from disorder and how, once begun, the germ of order can be perpetuated in stable political society. The possibilities of political creation reside in the idea of confederation and, importantly, in men's fundamental manipulability. The consequent maintenance of political order depends, for Hobbes, on creating conditions in which, without excessive or unnecessary resort to force, men can be made to forebear conflict among themselves and resistance to government. Those conditions, as in the case of political creation, depend upon appearances, illusion, and political manipulation.     

SOCIAL THOUGHT AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

The substantive area of criminology has increasingly become politicized with new paradigms arising to challenge the traditional perspectives. For the purpose of this analysis the voluminous amount of criminological research and writing is placed within three major paradigms: (1) kinds of people, (2) kinds of environments, and (3) power/conflict. The increasing articulation of the power/conflict paradigm has brought about an intensification of conflict in society and among criminologists. The future of criminology and subsequently of criminologists will be determined by the interplay of these and emerging other paradigms among academic criminologists and their competing expression among the public at large.     

ONSET AGE,PERSISTENCE, AND OFFENDING VERSATILITY: COMPARISONS ACROSS GENDER*

Offending specialization has received considerable attention in past research on criminal careers. Relatively little attention has been given to examining the relationships between various sub‐group differences and the extent to which individuals tend toward specialization or versatility in their criminal careers. In the present analysis, we examine hypotheses derived from Moffitt's recent developmental theory that bear directly on offending specialization. Our analysis examines direct relationships between gender, onset age, persistence and offending specialization as well as the interaction of these influences and offending specialization. Our findings reveal results that are both consistent and inconsistent with Moffitt's dual taxonomy of offending behavior.