theories of delinquency

Question 1

pre-classical ideas

Answer 1

• crime & wrong behavior was due to supernatural / religious forces (demonological)
• punishments tried to drive evil out of offender
• Thomas Hobbes’ social contract

Question 2

Classical School (Bentham & Beccaria)

Answer 2

• based on rational thought & free will
• individuals weighed cost & benefit of actions and acted based on outcome
• swift, certain, severe punishments needed

Question 3

Choice theories

RCT (1986)

Answer 3

rational choice theory (Cornish & Clarke, 1986)
- offenders act with goal of maximising self-interest, commonly used to explain adult behavior

Question 4

early biological theories

Answer 4

• lombroso: criminals are physically different from non-criminals (less evolved)
• sheldon - somatotypes (mesomorphs most likely)

Question 5

early psychological theories

Answer 5

• freud - id, ego, superego development affects behavior including criminality
• aichorn’s adaptation of Freud’s theory to delinquency - delinquency can be manifest or latent

Question 6

biosocial theories

factors

Answer 6

• neurological deficits
• diet
• hormones
• toxins

Question 7

Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory

Answer 7

• delinquency learned from people/groups with whom we have contact
• 9 propositions
• association → attitudes → behavior

Question 8

Sutherland’s 9 propositions

Answer 8

1 - criminal behavior is learned
2 - learning is in interaction with others in a process of communication
3 - main part of learning is in intimate personal groups
4 - learning includes techniques (simple/complicated) and direction of motives, drives, rationalizations & attitudes
5 - direction of motives & drives is learned from definitions of legal code as favorable/unfavorable
6 - delinquency comes from an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over unfavorable
7 - differential association varies in frequency, duration, priority, intensity
8 - learning criminal behavior uses mechanisms of any other kind of learning
9 - criminal behavior expresses general needs and values but is not explained by them

Question 9

Aker’s Social Learning Theory

Answer 9

• learning comes from rewards & punishments
• imitation/modeling of others’ behavior is important for learning

Question 10

Hirschi’s Social

Bonds

Answer 10

• assumes delinquency is a given
• 4 bonds needed to stop delinquency
• attachment, commitment, involvement, belief

Question 11

Gottfredson & Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime

Answer 11

• meant to explain all crime/delinquency
• delinquency is caused by low self-control & stabilizes at age 8

Question 12

low self-control
(Gottfredson & Hirschi)

Answer 12

• wanting immediate gratification
• sensation-seeking
• poor planning
• caused by poor parenting

Question 13

Sampson & Laub’s Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control

Answer 13

childhood → adolescence → adulthood = life course
turning points away from delinquent trajectory
- employment
- marriage
- military
argued theory explained age-crime curve

Question 14

Moffit’s Developmental Taxonomy

Answer 14

2 categories of offenders
- life-course persistent offenders: neuropsychological deficits
- adolescence-limited offenders (most offenders): age out of offending

Question 15

Techniques of Neutralization Model
Sykes & Matza

Answer 15

delinquents use “techniques of neutralization” to rationalize offending
- denial of responsibility
- denial of injury
- denial of victim
- condemnation of condemners
- appeal to higher authority

Question 16

General Strain Theory

Agnew

Answer 16

Agnew - juveniles are pressured into crime by strains they endure
3 types of strain (anticipated/actual)
- failure to achieve valued goals
- loss of positive stimuli
- presentation of negative stimuli
unjust or high-magnitude strains create pressure that leads to criminal coping

Question 17

Lemert
labeling theory

Answer 17

primary deviance
- initial act of deviance by somebody
- doesn’t explain why primary occurs

secondary deviance
- occurs because person has been labeled as deviant
- internalizing & reacting to label

Question 18

Goffman
labeling theory

Answer 18

stigmatization - process of being labeled deviant
spoiled identity - occurs when label sticks

Question 19

Becker
labeling theory

Answer 19

master status - most powerful label a person will have
- delinquent supersedes all other labels
typology of deviant behavior/labels

Question 20

Durkheim’s Anomie

Answer 20

why anomie occurs:
- in times of abrupt social change, society stops having ability to regulate people’s wants/desire

social change: urbanization, economic recession/prosperity, modernization, pandemics, industrialization

Question 21

anomie

Answer 21

state of normlessness at a societal level

anomie leads to large violations of social norms, such as crime/delinquency & suicide

Question 22

Merton’s Strain Theory

Answer 22

Macro
- society has a dominant goal (American Dream) that people feel pressure to achieve
- gap between cultural goals & limited opportunities creates strain
Micro: ways of adapting to strain
- conformity: those who achieve goals through legitimate means
- innovation: those who achieve goals through illegitimate means
- ritualism: those who do not achieve goals but practice legitimate means
- retreatism: those who reject both goals and legitimate means
- rebellion: those who reject goals & legitimate means in favor of creating new ones

Question 23

Differential Opportunity Theory
Cloward & Ohlin 1960

Answer 23

looking at neighborhoods
idea that not everyone has access to illegitimate means: 3 types of delinquent subcultures
- criminal (economic): neighborhoods with established social order & criminal mentors for youth
- conflict (violence): less social stability/institutional order in neighborhoods
- retreatist (drug use): those who fail to find a place in other 2 subcultures, often poorest neighborhoods

Question 24

Cohen’s Subcultural Theory of Delinquency
“middle-class measuring rod”

Answer 24

looking at schools
how do boys from a lower-class background deal with the strain that comes from being measured according to middle-class standards
- reaction formation: engaging in and giving value to behavior that’s opposed to middle-class value
3 groups
- college boys: see adversity as a challenge and try to measure up on mcmr
- corner boys: low-level mischief & delinquency
- delinquent boys: most likely to engage in delinquency/reaction formation

Question 25

social disorganization theory
Shaw & McKay

Answer 25

based on Park & Burgess’ concentric zone model
found delinquency was highest in zone 2
neighborhoods with highest delinquency rates had:
- poverty
- high residential mobility
- population heterogeneity
SD → Crime

Question 26

social disorganization theory
Sampson & Groves

Answer 26

looked at intervening variables between social disorganization & crime
- space local friendship networks
- unsupervised peer groups
- low organizational participation
SD → Int. V → Crime

Question 27

social disorganization theory
Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls

Answer 27

looked at collective efficacy
- social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good
SD → Int. V → Low CE → Crime