Theories Flashcards
Critical Criminology
umbrella term for variety of theories that challenge traditional perspective and uncover/expose false beliefs
Who created Critical Criminology
Karl Marx
Father of Critical Criminology
Oppressors of Critical Criminology
bourgeoisie
Oppressed of Critical Criminology
proletariat
Peacemaking Criminology
reject modernist view
use other methods besides punishment
Convict Criminology
Insider perspective on incarceration that has an agenda
Primary method of study is ethnography (criminals are more likely to open up to other criminals)
Green criminology
Study of offenses and harm against environment
cause believed to be patriarchy and capitalism
Critical theories
ignore empirical studies
preference towards historical, descriptive, and illustrative research
left realism is the reform-minded practical wing of marxism
feminist criminology
concepts and concerns
patriarchy
focused primary on delinquency of young males and ignored females
Males centered theories have limited applicability to females
Further concepts and concerns of feminist criminology
Individual level correlates of male offending also correlated with female offending
Need for special feminist theories
Gender ratio problems
Masculinization hypothesis
adaptation of male roles would result in female attitudes and behavior becoming “ masculinized”
Emancipation hypothesis
Increased participation in the workforce afforded women greater opportunities to commit job related crimes
Economic marginalization hypothesis
Increasing crimes and poverty rates are indirectly related to women’s liberation movement
Power Control Theory
Views gender difference in antisocial behavior as a function of power differentials in the family
Middle-class youth of both sexes will have higher crime rates than their lower class
Patriarchal family
grant greater freedom to boys
Egalitarian family
develops in absence of large differences between parents’ work roles
Power relations in such families are “balanced”
Structure Theory
Doing gender
Hegemonic masculinity by (force males to be manly)
“Doing femininity” among gang girls and women engaging in “bad girl femininity”
Campbell’s Staying-Alive Hypothesis:
Accounted for gender for gender ratio problem using logic of evolutionary theory in staying -alive hypothesis
Offspring survival is more critical to females reproductive success
Females have evolved a propensity to avoid engaging in behaviors that pose survival risks
Loeber’s Developmental Pathway
3 developmental pathways
Overt - low level aggression escalating with crime
Covert - Start before 15 years old - escalate to damage/fraud, then theft and burglary
Authority conflict - early stubbornness and defiance. Primary towards parent/authority figures
Agnew’s Super Trait Theory
Low self control and irritability
Explain gender, race, age, and socioeconomic status effect crime
Neurological and endocrine changes increase irritability
Giordano’s gender, crime, and desistance Theory
Relies on social learning theory
Traditional respectability package (who you marry and how much money you make)
Definition and redefinition are influential in desistance
Ultimately how gender effects crime
Sampson and Laub’s theory of cumulative disadvantage
Punishment can alter life course by weakening bonds with society
Lead to more delinquent behavior
Bad for society
Increase in recidivism rates
Glen Walter’s Lifestyle Theory
Criminal behavior is part of a general pattern of life
Conditions
Choice
Cognition
Cognitive features or thinking errors
Lifestyle theory
Criminals’ thinking errors
Cutoff (ability to discount suffering of their victims)
Entitlement (world owes them a living)
Power orientation (viewing the world in terms of weakness and strength)
Cognitive Indolence (orientation to the present; concrete thinking)
Discontinuity (inability to integrate thinking patterns)
Trait theory
crime as a result of fundamental personality traits/characteristics
Theories of white collar crime
Exposure to capitalist ethos
Strained by elevated versions of the American Dream
Only explains motive but not choice to commit
Theories on cause of Corporate Crime
Differential association/social learning theory
Conflict theory
lower moral and ethic standards
Corporate crime deterrence theory
Certainty
*detection is hard
Celerity
*work with corporations to get them to be in compliance
Severity
*Fines
Conflict Theory
Max weber
o Societal relationships
o Differed on key points
o -Economic system
o -Economic conflict
o -Capitalism will always exist
o Focus on three types of social groups
o -Class
o -Party
o -Status
