Chapter 8: New Theoretical Perspectives on Youth Crime Flashcards
General Theory of Crime (Gottfredson and Hirschi)
Focuses on failure to develop self-control which leaves one more likely to engage in crime
Low Self Control Traits
Impulsivity
Lack of Diligence
Risk Taking
Physicality
Insensitivity
Low Frustration Tolerance
Social Bonds
The degree to which individuals through socialization have connections to people and institutions in a society and believe in the rules of the society
Causes of Variation in Self-Control
Ineffective socialization
Failure to supervise individual
Failure to recognize indicators of low self control
Failure to correct or sanction behavior
General Strain Theory (Agnew)
Focuses on how negative situations or strains can lead to crime
Strain + conditioning factors + negative emotions = criminal coping
Strains
Experiences or situations that individuals perceive as being negative, creating negative emotional reaction that provides possible incentive for using crime as a coping mechanism
The most important negative emotion in strain is anger
Types of Strain: Failure to Achieve Goals
Gap between aspirations and achievement expectations
Expected achievements and actual achievements
Gap between just or fair outcomes and actual outcomes
Types of Strains: Removal of Positive Stimuli
These can include property or relationships
Responses could be resorting to deviance to try to prevent the loss, seeking revenge, attempting to recover the loss
Types of Strains: Presentation of Negative Stimuli
This can include criminal victimization, child abuse, and adverse school environments
Response can include avoiding or escaping stimuli, seeking revenge
Types of Strain: Strains Most Likely to Cause Crime
Strains that are severe, long term, frequent, and recent can generate a greater likelihood of offending
Conditioning Factors
Lacking self-efficacy and self-esteem
Associating with criminal peers and peers supportive of criminal behavior
Lacking social support
Control Balance Theory
Focuses on how control can be criminogenic
Control Balance Theory (Tittle)
The degree of control that an individual perceives they have over their environment relative to the degree of control they perceive their environment has over them
Control Ratio
The amount of control a person experiences relative to the amount of control they exercise
This influences the likelihood of deviance
People with a control imbalance can be predisposed to deviance
Contingencies
The process leading to deviance can be influenced by a person’s moral beliefs, self-efficacy, prior deviant experience, subcultural involvement
Differential Coercion Theory (Colvin)
Integrates social control, social learning, general strain, control balance and general theory perspectives with a Marxist approach to explain offending
Two dimensions of control: coercion and consistency of coercion
Erratic coercion + social psychological deficits = chronic predatory offending
Direct Coercion
Ex. control from an interpersonal relationship
Indirect Coercion
Ex. control from forces beyond an individual’s control
A Consistent Non-Coercive Environment
Control is applied firmly and fairly, accompanied by explanation and reasoning for application
Promotes greater social control, self-control, self-efficacy, and internalized sense of control
An Erratic Non Coercive Environment
Control is lenient, negligent and weak
Indifference or detached involvement between individuals in the environment and application of control is faint and inconsistent
Generates low self-control, low social control, control balance surpluses, high self-efficacy
An Erratic Coercive Environment
Control takes the shape of irregular punitive responses to transgressions
Punishments are erratic and random, some behavior is overlooked and some not
Situational Action Theory (Wikstrom)
Understanding how personal and environmental factors influence people’s decision to engage in crime
Moral Actions
Actions steered by moral rules that outline what behaviors are allowed or disallowed in particular circumstances
Action Alternatives
People’s actions are the result of perceptions, which set the boundaries for behavioral choices
The central guiding perception of action alternatives is morality
If morality is not developed into a habit, it permits the consideration of action alternatives when there is motivation for a crime
Self Control/Fear of Sanctions
2 factors: self control and deterrence
Self control influences whether those whose morality allows deliberation of action alternatives will engage in crime
Deterrence creates fear of sanctions which will influence individuals under conditions where they deliberate over action alternatives
Individuals with low self control are exposed to stronger deterrent cues
Environments and Moral Habits
Environments can vary in the features that influence whether or not a crime can take place
When moral habits and personal morality are strong, crime is less likely to take place
When moral habits are in conflict with the setting’s moral rules, crime will occur
Age Graded Theory of Social Control (Sampson and Laub)
Focuses on the continuity of behavior as one moves from childhood through to adulthood, while also focusing on experiences and events that alter behavioral patterns
Informal Social Control
The control over people’s behavior that develops as a result of relationships and attachments to significant others and investments in conventional activities that could be damaged by engagement in illegal activities
Informal Social Control Mechanisms
Attachment, monitoring, consistent discipline
Those without emotional bonds, direct supervision of behavior, and dependable discipline are more likely to engage in crime
School is a source of socialization where attachment to peers and academic performance can influence delinquency
Disrupted Social Control
Events or life circumstances that weaken or destroy the relationships, attachments, and activities that provide barriers to engaging in criminal activities
Cumulative Continuity
A developmental model that outlines how crime in adolescence has negative consequences for future life chances in areas such as education, relationships, and employment, and increases the likelihood that criminal behavior will continue into adulthood
Life Course Turning Points
Events such as marriage/divorce or employment/unemployment that serve to direct an individual’s development criminal career path toward either desistence or onset
Situated Choice
The choices individuals make to become involved in certain relationships, be they work or personal, that are situated under certain structural and historical conditions and that can influence future behavior
Moffitt’s Developmental Taxonomy of Offender
Identifies the different types of offenders that exist
2 key types of offending paths: adolescence limited path and life course persistent offenders
Adolescence Limited Offenders
Individuals who begin their offending in, and restrict their offending to, adolescence
Linked to 2 key factors: maturity gap and deviant peers
Maturity gap is the situation where adolescents start to resemble adults biologically
Deviant peers are the source in which deviant acts are learned
Life Course Persistent Offenders
Individuals who begin their offending in early childhood and continue to engage in offending throughout adolescence and adulthood
Early onset anti-social behavior
Root cause stems from neuro-psychological deficits developed prior to birth or soon thereafter
Abstainers
Youth who do not offend because of negative personality characteristics, social and biological maturation consistent with each other and a lack of exposure to criminal peers
Low Level Chronic Offenders
The age of onset can be either childhood or adolescence and their offending continues into adulthood
They often exhibit mental health problems and social isolation
Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential Theory (Farrington)
Specifically explains the criminal behavior of lower class males
Central concept is anti-social potential
Anti Social Potential
An individual’s probability of undertaking criminal and other anti-social behaviors
Long Term Anti-Social Potential
The probability of a person engaging in a criminal or anti-social act that develops as a result of life events, socialization, strain, anti-social models and impulsiveness
Short Term Anti-Social Potential
The probability of engaging in offending that is influenced by factors limited in time including intoxication, peers and negative emotions
Interactional Theory (Thornberry and Krohn)
Draws on core arguments from social control and social learning theories to explain variations in offenders and offending across the life course
Weak social bonds increase the behavioral and moral freedoms that led to onset crime
Reciprocal Relationship
The process where two causal factors influence each other
There is a reciprocal relationship between social learning concepts and crime
Persistence in Offending
Depends on 2 factors
Stability of factors contributing to initial onset, which is most applicable to early childhood onset offenders
Stability of poverty, negative personality factors, and poor parenting
Coercion Theory (Patterson)
Argues that the developmental process begins with child socialization in the home
Early Starters
Youth who exhibit anti-social behavior in preschool years, have early arrest and chronic offending in adolescence, and become adult career offenders
Late Starters
Youth who begin offending in adolescence with patterns of criminal behavior that are transient rather than chronic and that dissipate upon entry into adulthood
Peacemaking Criminology
A theoretical approach that emphasizes non-violent punishment and stresses alternative criminal justice approaches
Argues that the current criminal justice system approach of attempting to deter people from offending through threats and the application of force is violent and likely to lead to additional violence
Themes to Peacemaking Approach
Non-Violence
Social Justice
- Opposition to classism, sexism, racism, etc.
Inclusion
Correct Means
- Ethical and moral
Ascertainable Criteria
- Transparency in process
Categorical Imperative
-Response should be similar for all participants regardless of gender, class, race, etc.
Crime Pattern Theory (Brantingham)
Outlines the interweaving among an offender’s motivation for crime, the attractiveness of potential targets for crime, and the environmental backdrop within this taking place
Crime Templates
Guidelines for behavioral decisions regarding crime that people derive from their regular activities, offending experiences, and knowledge
Social networks provide access to others templates
Activity Spaces
The broad areas that encompass the locations where individuals conduct their daily regular activities and the routes among these locations
Crime will take place near these locations
