Theories of Crime Flashcards
Howitt (2012) outlines 4 primary levels of analysis:
Societal (ecological)
Community (locality)
Group & socialisation
influences
Individual approaches
Why do the rates and types of crime vary across cultures, time and societies?
Anomie/ Strain Theories
Robert Merton (1938):
Economic success = pinnacle of social desirability BUT prosperity only available to a limited few.
Inability to achieve economic success causes ‘anomie’ (discontent & moral loosening).
Either: Achieve success through deviant means.
Or: Adapt to strain/ anomic by retreating into alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide, vagrancy.
Why do the rates and types of crime vary across cultures, time and societies?
Absolute Deprivation/ Conflict Theory
Capatalism: Encourages people to amass wealth/ objects
Creates a few ‘haves’ vs a lot of ‘have nots’
Deviance is an understandable response to unequal power relations, poverty and inequality in general.
Crime a socially constructed label that powerful groups placed by powerful groups onto groups/ individuals who hold less social power/ status/ money.
Why do the rates and types of crime vary across cultures, time and societies?
Relative Deprivation/ Inequality
Not just poverty per se but perceived INEQUALITY (i.e. unequal distribution of resources such as money, food, amenities, power)
Feelings of deprivation are relative and relate to social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954).
Relative deprivation causes stress, resentment, uprising and deviance
Why do the rates and types of crime vary across cultures, time and societies?
Deterrence/ Rational Choice Theories
Offenders make rational judgments about their
decision to engage in crime.
Can weigh up costs vs. benefits of crime
Therefore, crime can be reduced through potential costs and risks of a behaviour (e.g. increase policing; increasing punishments).
Argue deterrents have a bigger influence on crime than other macrovariables (e.g. poverty; unemployment; inequality)
Why do the rates and types of crime vary across cultures, time and societies?
Deterrence Theory in Action
Often favoured by policy makers. Has appeal.
Ignores social constraints, circumstances & individual factors (do we always think before we act?)
Why do the rates and types of crime vary across cultures, time and societies?
Feminist Theories
Holds that criminality is associated with males. Males seek to maintain power in the gendered social system through the deployment of violence against women & children
Male control is through their access to power over social institutions such as the law.
Women who deviate from female roles – treated differently (either mentally ill or “monsters”)
Social Disorganisation Theory
Crime a function of neighbourhood
dynamics: not individuals who live there
Social disorganization produces:
1) Lack of behavioural control mechanisms,
2) Cultural “transmission” of delinquent values.
Routine Activity Theory
Convergence in time, place and absence of protective factors
Our ‘routine activities’ make us more or less likely to become victims
Differential Association Theory
Learning theory: HOW do people become offenders not WHY
We learn through our interactions with others
The social milieu (family, peers, community, social strata) affects motives, attitudes, drives & attitudes.
This supports or discourages crime
Criminogenic Factors in Childhood
Punitive child-rearing practices & attitudes
Lack of love or rejection
Laxness (poor monitoring, lack of supervision)
Family disruption (e.g. divorce, marital conflict)
Glueck & Glueck (1962, 1968):
Cambridge Study
Farrington ( e.g. 2006) and colleagues:
A prospective longitudinal survey of 411, South London (socially deprvied areas) males first studied at age 8 in 1961.
Aim: To document the start, duration and end of offending behaviour from childhood to adulthood (up to age 50).
Results
Offenders tend to be deviant in many aspects of their lives.
Often started early (peak ages 19 – 28years old)
A small proportion of men (7%) ‘chronic offenders’, accounted for nearly 50% of offenders
Pratt & Cullen’s (2005) Meta-Analysis of macro predictors of crime.
Strong predictors of crime: Racial heterogeneity (% non-white; % black) Poverty Family disruption Levels of incarceration
Weak(er) predictors of crime:
Those related to criminal justice system (e.g. police expenditure)
Individual
Biological Sociobiological Psychodynamic Personality Social Learning
Biological Theory- a form of illness caused by pathological factors. Some people are “born criminals” who are biologically different.
Sociobiological Theory: evolutionary role - interested in patterns, territorial fights. It argues that just as selection pressure led to animals evolving useful ways of interacting with the natural environment, so do humans.
Psychodynamic Theory: behaviour that lies outside what society regards as acceptable – be it ‘abnormal’ or ‘criminal’ – result of abnormal development of the psyche.
Personality Theory: lack of emotional depth-sociopath, antisocial etc
Social Learning Theory- Bandura- we are shaped by our environments and experiences
Examples of deviance
A weak superego: develops as a result of abnormal relationships within the family.
A deviant superego: internalization of the same sex parent so that it acts as a poor moral regulator (e.g. a son raised with a violent father might normalise this behaviour as ok)
A powerful superego would render a person anxious and guilty much of the time. This could result in a person committing crimes in order to get caught –cry for help OR, build up in their unconscious-
