Official statistics and news reports show that criminal violence in Taiwan is increasing.
This information has led to new debates about the causes of violence as well as to public demonstrations demanding greater social order. Because gang-related violence is increasing as Taiwan moves into a new age of consumerism, an analysis of the factors underlying violence and consumption is called for.
This study focuses on how factors of consumption become intertwined with feelings of guilt and shame and how group behavior turns deviant as a result of the need to consume.This analysis traces Taiwan’s transition from a structurally violent past to a vibrant consumer society and proposes factors that contribute to violence on the island. The relationship between consumerism, gangs, and violence is presented in three sections. The first describes the history of Taiwan’s structural or war-related violence. The second introduces behavioral violence in a consumer society, where individuals act violently against others in pursuit of instant gratification and power. In the third section, the cultural aspects of Taiwan’s behavioral violence are introduced using a mathematical model. The model predicts the likelihood that gang members will commit violent acts and provides a means to explain current trends in gang violence.