ABSTRACT
A rather neglected criminological theory of crime, desire and culture is that of W I Thomas (1909, 1923). Thomas argued an inevitable contradiction arose between the desires and needs of individuals and the social order. The task of social control was to mediate and regulate the four central desires of an individual – for security, new experiences, response, and recognition – through a cultural moral code or ‘definitions of situations’. This needs to be coherent to prevent social disorganisation. As American society was developing, the cultural surrounds were throwing up sets of competing definitions of behaviour, and issuing new demands for rights and freedoms. Thomas saw, in particular, greater opportunities for young women with new public settings of office, stores and factories. Young women were being subjected to conflicting and competing demands. In The Unadjusted Girl, Thomas argued that sexuality took on a new exchange value: ‘... sex is used as a condition of the realisation of other wishes. It is their capital’ (1923:98).
