ABSTRACT
Bauman does not specify any generational distinctions, it is clear that this desire for the new will be developed most acutely within younger members of society (not least because it is this group that is exposed to the most aggressive forms of socalled ‘lifestyle advertising’: see Shields 1992); as we know, the vast majority of crime is perpetrated by young males between the ages of approximately 14 and 25 (eg, Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990: Chapter 6; Bureau of Justice Statistics 1995). It would seem clear that the kinds of activities mentioned above – joyriding, football hooliganism, drug-use, mugging and gang membership – are attractive precisely because they offer novel, unconventional and illegal forms of excitement.34 They represent a break with the banalities of everyday life and mark an entry into a new world of possibilities and pleasures. The seductiveness of crime may thus derive, in large part, from the new kinds of sensations which it offers. In a culture which encourages this strange combination of perpetual dissatisfaction and a longing for the new, it is hardly surprising that so many young people (irrespective of class) are seduced by the existential possibilities offered by criminal activities, as these contrast so sharply with the routine of their everyday lives.
