The Honors Platform
Vol I, Issue I, Spring 2013
61 this graphic novel will provide greater clarity on the conservative Miller Batman approach and its consequences, allowing us to utilize Gotham City as a prime example of how certain approaches to managing social problems fail in effectiveness due to underlying causes.
To begin this discussion, I will first consider the representation of crime from a conservative perspective.
Next, I will discuss how the Miller Batman in The Dark Knight Returns fulfills this ideology’s view on crime (DuBose). Then, I will critique why the Miller Batman approach to restoring Gotham City is ineffective using social disorganization theory and other appropriate criminological theories. Finally, I will describe a liberal representation of crime and explain how this view of crime, contrasting that of Miller’s, is the only effective approach to restoring society in Gotham City.
Crime from a Conservative Perspective
On the most basic level, the representation of crime from a conservative perspective places blame on
the individual. There is a sense of responsibility for individual actions and when these responsibilities are mishandled, deviance ensues which must be corrected with punishment. Similar to penal law existing prior to capitalist societies, there is a large emphasis on repressive sanctions, or punishments on the individual (Morrison 172). The development of society in the last century and growth of the modern, capitalist society has since transformed into a system of contract law, in which there is less emphasis on repressive sanctions and a greater focus on restoring society back to normalcy (Morrison 174). However, the conservative ideology across the nation still holds that repressive sanctions are the only effective means to serve justice properly. With a desire to maintain traditional values, the conservative perspective calls for greater emphasis on individual responsibility and punishment (W. Miller 143).
W. Miller outlines “crusading issues” existing on the right and left side of the political spectrum which
specifically address concerns of crime in society (143). The issues existing on the right side, consistent with a conservative perspective, that will be most applicable to the Frank Miller construction of Batman include the following: “Excessive leniency toward lawbreakers,” “Favoring the welfare and rights of lawbreakers over the welfare and rights of their victims,” and “Erosion of discipline and respect for constituted authority” (W. Miller 143). These three issues consistent with the conservative representation of crime serve as a backdrop to the larger conservative assumptions of crime Walter Miller further discusses.