Theory Flashcards
Social Control Theory
Attachment to other individuals
Commitment to following rules
Involvement by typical social behaviors
Belief - a basic value system
When one of these four items break down, Hirschi hypothesizes that an individual may then participate in criminal activities. For example, if one ceases to engage in typical social behavior (involvement) or have contact with other individuals (attachment), one may have the time to become involved in deviant criminal activity.
Additionally, under social control theory, external or internal controls can cause a person to refrain from acting in a criminal way. When an individual engages in criminal activity, the activity is due to a lack of social control from the individual’s family or from law enforcement.
Differential Association Theory
criminals commit crimes based upon their association with other people.
Criminal behavior is learned behavior.
Criminal behavior is learned by interacting with other people by communicating with words and gestures.
The main portion of learning the criminal behavior happens among small groups of people.
Learning about crime includes learning the techniques of committing a crime, as well as learning the motivation and attitudes towards crime.
Legal codes demonstrate what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and provide a motivation for crimes. In other words, the law expresses what is right and wrong to an offender.
A person becomes a criminal because of frequent criminal patterns. For example, if one is exposed to a repeated criminal scenario, this scenario will eventually rub off on others nearby.
The differential association theory can differ in frequency, duration, priority and intensity.
The learning of criminal behavior by association is similar to all other types of learning.
Criminal and non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values. In other words, it does not discriminate and any person of any background can become a criminal.
Merton’s Strain Theory
Merton outlined five modes of adaptation, or combinations of goals and means, and suggested that innovation was the mode most likely to be associated with crime. Those five modes of adaptation include conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.
Conformity involves pursuing cultural goals through approved means. Conformists have accepted the goals of society and the societally-approved ways of attaining them.
Innovation, using unconventional means (dealing drugs) to achieve a culturally approved goal (financial security).
Ritualism, is prompted by an inability to reach cultural goals. In this mode, individuals reject the societal goals and instead work toward less lofty goals by institutionally approved means. For example, one may treat a job as a form of security instead of using the job as a means to achieve success.
Retreatism occurs when people reject the society’s goals and the means to achieve those goals. These people choose to cut themselves off from the world, such as drug addicts and homeless ‘street people.’
Rebels are the persons who feel so strained by society that they want to replace both the goals and the means of achieving those goals. These individuals are those who go one step further than retreatists by forming a counterculture supporting alternatives to the existing social order. Anarchists and various militant groups would be an example of this mode of adaptation.
Conflict Theory
Social conflict theory sees social life as a competition and focuses on the distribution of resources, power, and inequality. Conflict theorists view society as an arena of inequality that generates social conflict and social change. Karl Marx is considered the father of social conflict theory. In doing so, he offered a theory of capitalism and class conflict between dominant and minority groups. Besides Marx, important contributors also include W.E.B. Du Bois, Max Weber, and various feminist thinkers.
social conflict- the struggle between groups in society over scarce resources
class conflict -the way society produces material goods.
capitalists -people who own and operate businesses in pursuit of profits
proletariats -people who sell their labor for wages
Alienation -experience of isolation and misery that results from feelings of powerlessness
Critical Race Theory
Critical theory is a philosophy that involves being critical of the prevailing view of society. In many cases, that means looking closer at beliefs that might favor privileged people, like rich, white men, over other people
Labeling Theory
Labeling theory takes the view that people become criminals when labeled as such and when they accept the label as a personal identity. Important concepts in labeling theory include primary and secondary deviance, retroactive and prospective labeling, as well as the importance of being stigmatized.
Retrospective labeling, which is the interpretation of someone’s past consistent with present deviance. People may also engage in projective labeling, which uses the person’s present deviant identity to predict future actions.
A stigma is a powerful negative social label that radically changes a person’s self-concept and social identity. Stigmas are deepened by retrospective labeling, the interpretation of someone’s past consistent with present deviance.
Routine Activity Theory
suggest that the probability of crime increases when these three components come together in space and time.
- motivated offenders are most likely to commit crimes when they are influenced by the routine activities of potential victims
- to commit a crime, a motivated offender closely tracks the routine activities of a suitable target to identify times when a capable guardian is absent.
- Cohen and Felson propose that the absence of any of the three components of this theory may help prevent crimes
A motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian.
An offender who is motivated and capable of committing a crime is necessary for the crime to happen.
these motivated offenders need suitable opportunities to carry out crimes.
The intent of the motivated offender and the available opportunities influence the choice of a suitable target for crimes:
- a person
- property
- electronic items
- vehicles
- personal items
-The routine activity theory suggests that a motivated offender is discouraged from committing a crime in the presence of capable guardians.
Examples of common capable civilian guardians include:
-parents and neighbors.
-Environmental factors, such as the presence of:
security cameras in homes and offices,
high walls, or spiked fences around a house or neighborhood, can also serve as capable guardians against crimes.
Social Disorganization Theory
crime is largely the result of unfavorable conditions within a community
Shaw and McKay found that the highest rates occurred in the inner city neighborhoods, and that delinquency rates slowly diminished as you move outward from the inner city.
Feminist Theory
- Liberal feminists focus on social inequality and seek equal opportunities for women.
- Marxist feminists look at class structure and capitalism as responsible for women’s oppression.
- Socialist feminists suggest that political and economic structures in society are the source of inequality.
- Radical feminists focus on patriarchal domination of women and the need to replace this perspective with a female-centered viewpoint.
Beccaria Classical Criminology
five key principles of the classical school of criminology. They are:
- Rationality: The classical school assumes that people have free will and that they choose to commit crimes. For example, if Jordan decides to steal some candy at the store, he is not forced to, based on some pre-destiny. He chooses to steal that candy. Not only that, he thinks about it beforehand and says to himself, ‘I really want candy, and I don’t have money, so I will steal it.’ This is the rational thinking that goes into his planning to commit a crime.
- Hedonism: The classical school also assumes that people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain. For example, when Jordan looks at the candy in the store, he thinks about how it will bring him pleasure, so he steals it.
- Punishment: Remember how we said that a key idea was the idea of hedonism, where people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain? Well, that informs punishment, according to the classical school. For example, if Jordan thinks about stealing the candy and then realizes that he could go to jail for it, he might not steal it because he’ll be trying to avoid the pain of jail. In this way, the classical school of criminology believes that punishment works as a deterrent to crime.
- Human rights: Jordan has learned that before the classical school of criminology, punishments could be very harsh indeed. It was not uncommon to torture someone who was only suspected of a crime, and the punishments once convicted could be horrifying.
According to the classical school of criminology, all individuals have rights, and society needs to respect the rights of individuals. That means that they should not torture or institute punishment that is unreasonably harsh. For example, if Jordan gets caught stealing the candy, we wouldn’t expect that his punishment would involve cutting his hand off. That seems a little extreme!
- Due process: The idea of due process is that people accused of a crime are considered innocent until proven guilty, and that they have the chance to go to trial and face the judicial system. If Jordan was accused of stealing the candy and then just thrown in jail without a trial, that would be a violation of his due process.
The classical school has had a major impact on modern judicial systems, including the fact that modern justice systems assume rationality, and that much of the American justice system is based on the principles of human rights and due process, including the Bill of Rights.
Lombroso Positivism
positivist school of criminology says that criminals act in a different way than non-criminals and that they have their own distinct set of characteristics.
- Biological positivism says that people commit crimes because of a biological abnormality. This might be a specific gene, or it could be a difference in their brains. For example, perhaps Bruce has less activity in the area of his brain that encourages empathy, so he is more willing to hurt other people to get what he wants. The biological perspective can be traced back to Cesare Lombroso, an Italian who, in the mid-1800s, first said that there were likely biological differences in criminals.
- Psychological positivism believes that psychological issues cause people to commit crimes. For example, perhaps Bruce has a mental illness that caused him to act the way he did.
Both the biological and psychological perspectives are considered to be under the umbrella of individual positivism, because they look at the individuals and what makes them commit crimes.
- Sociological positivism believes that society is the cause of criminal behavior. Things like poverty, education, and alcohol consumption are examples of sociological causes of crime. For example, perhaps Bruce is stuck in poverty and feels like he can’t get out. That might make him desperate enough to steal.
Marxism
belief system that holds that a capitalist society promotes social and political conflict by creating a ruling class that exploits the working class and uses its resources to keep those on the bottom from moving up. Crime occurs when those on the bottom engage in counter-violence aimed at redistributing wealth. For Marxists, this type of violence is often morally justified and necessary to create the only force that can end crime: social and political revolution.
