Meindert Tjoelker en de mythe van het zinloos geweld. Een exploratief onderzoek naar het verschijnsel 'zinloos geweld'

Samenvatting

Meindert Tjoelker and the myth of random violence. An attempt is made to investigate the increased attention for the phenomenon of random violence in Dutch society. In this article we investigate the first case of random violence that gained national attention as a victim of random violence and we describe how the concept of‘random violence’ became absorbed in Dutch language. We found that the publication of an article in a newspaper immediately after the dead of the victim, which emotionally appealed to the public to protest against random violence, was the catalyst for the subsequent massive media attention and the many societal reactions that followed them. The content of that article failed to account for the real events and replaced them by an account that link up with - latent - feelings of fear for violence and feelings of discontent that exist in society. The media played an important role in the creation and maintenance of this distorted account. The subsequent societal reactions gave opportunity to amplification and extension of the concept (Walgrave and Rihoux 1998). The various and frequent use of the concept ultimately led to the consol idation as a societal phenomenon. The concept seems to be used now to express discontent with almost every event that, in one or another way, can be linked to violence. An explanation for the frequent use of the concept could be found in the broadened fearforviolence in a society where the sensitiveness for violence has increased. An investigation of other cases of random violence will learn what other explanations are valid and if these conclusions have to be adjusted.