chapter 8 Flashcards
General Strain theory
(GST) Sees law-breaking behavior as a coping mechanism enabling those who engage in it to deal with the socio-emotional problems generated by negative social relations.
Illegitimate opportunity structure
A subculture pathway to success that is disapproves of by the wider society
Chicago School of Criminology
The Chicago School developed the theory of social ecology, or an approach to criminological theorizing that attempts to
link the structure and organization of a human community to interactions with its localized environment
* The interrelationship between living beings and their
environment disrupted by social change and conflict
* Park and Burgess saw the rapid influx of immigrants into
large cities as having a dramatic impact on the structure
and organization of cities, and they thus viewed cities as
having “concentric zones” each of which contains unique
characteristics and populations (p.207)
Concept of Oscar Newman
He created the concept Defensible Space
- The range of mechanisms that combine to bring an environment under the control of its residents
Ecological Approach
A type of sociological approach that emphasizes demographics and the geographics and sees the social disorganization that characterizes delinquency areas as a major cause of criminality and victimization
Social Structure Theories
Social Disorganization
- a perspective on crime and
deviance that sees society as a kind of organism, and crime
and deviance as a kind of disease or social pathology
Strain Theory
- Strain theory is a sociological approach that posits a
disjuncture between socially and subculturally sanctioned
means and goals as the cause of criminal behaviour
Culture Conflict
- A sociological perspective on crime that suggests that the
root cause of criminality can be found in a clash of values
between variously socialized groups over what is acceptable
or proper behaviour
Criminology of place
A perspective that emphasizes the importance of geographic location and architectural features as they are associated with the prevalence of criminal victimization
Sociologists social processes
Emile Durkheim
- Believed that crime was normal part of all societies and that law was a symbol of social solidarity, so an act was “criminal when it offended strong and defined states of the collective conscience”
W.I Thomas and Florian Znaniecki
- Described the problems that Polish immigrants faced in the early 1900s when they left their homeland and moved to American cities. The authors note that crime rates rose among displaced people, and they hypothesized that the cause was the social disorganization.
Reaction Formation
Another criminologist whose work is often associated with both strain theory and the subcultural perspective
Differential Opportunity theory
Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin (1960)
Two types of socially structured opportunities for success:
1. Legitimate opportunity structures
2. Illegitimate opportunity structures
Delinquent behaviour may result from the ready availability
of illegitimate opportunities with the effective replacement of
the norms of the wider culture with expedient and “legitimate”
sub-cultural rules (p.218)
* Three types of delinquent subcultures: (1) criminal
subcultures, (2) conflict subcultures, and (3) retreatist
subcultures (p.218)
Violent Subcultures
According to Ferracuti and Wolfgang, violence is a learned
form of adaptation to certain problematic life
circumstances (p.215).
* For participants in violent subcultures, violence can be a
way of life (p.216)
* Notably, Canadian researchers have commented on the
geographical distinctions between violent subcultures in
different parts of Canada (p.216).
* Persistent regional differences are difficult to pinpoint, but
may include age, ethnicity, economic well-being, and
cultural differences
Delinquent Subculture
When youths who experienced that same kind of alienation from middle-class ideals band together, they achieve a collective and independent solution and create a delinquent subculture
What is Cepted About
a crime prevention theory focusing on tactical design and the effective use of the built environment, which when applied, reduces both crime and the fear of crime.
