Turning To Crime - Upbringing Flashcards
What was the aim of the study by Farrington?
Investigate the influence of family orientated life events on the likelihood of criminal behaviour
What are the 3 studies within the upbringing section of turning to crime?
Farrington, Sutherland, Wikstrom & Tafel
How long was the study by Farrington conducted for?
Over 40yrs
Who were the sample in Farringtons study?
411 boys from East London aged 8&9
At age 48, 365 were reinterviewed
What was the procedure of Farringtons study?
Interviews with the children, interviews with the parents once a year and interviews with the teachers
Data from criminal records office
What were key results from the study by Farrington?
Offences peaked at age 17-18
7% defined as chronic offenders as they accounted for over half the crimes
Chronic offenders shared common childhood characteristics
At age 20, 48% of those with convicted fathers also had convictions while 54% of those with convicted mothers had convictions
What were the shared childhood characteristics found by Farrington by chronic offenders?
A convicted parent Delinquent sibling Young mother Disrupted family Large family size
What was the conclusion of Farringtons study?
Offending tends to be concentrated in families and appears to be transmitted from one generation to the next.
What was the argument used by Sutherland to bring about his theory?
Some groups in society are structured so the norms are more favourable towards criminal activities whilst others are organised so that the norms are unfavourable to law violation
What are the two assumptions which Sutherlands theory is based upon?
1) deviance occurs when people define a certain human situation as an appropriate occasion for violating social norms or criminal laws
2) defining situations are acquired through an individuals history of past experience
What were the 9 principles on which differential association is based according to Sutherland?
1) criminal behaviour is learnt
2) It’s learnt through communication with other persons
3) learning occurs within intimate personal groups
4) when it’s learnt, learning includes techniques for commuting the crime
5) motives & drives learnt from definitions of the legal codes
6) delinquency occurs due to excess of definitions favourable to violation of law
7) differential associations may vary
8) criminal behaviour learnt by using mechanisms commonly used for other learning
9) the behaviour is an expression of general needs & values
What conclusions can be drawn from Sutherlands theory?
Main factors influencing an individual are:
Who they associate with
How long for
How frequently they interact
How personally meaningful the associations are
What was the study by Wikstrom & Tafel also commonly known as?
The Peterborough Youth Study
What was the aim of the study by Wikstrom & Tafel?
To test what factors are the most significant predictors of crime
What was the method used in the study by Wikstrom & Tafel?
Questionnaires were distributed to 2000 14-15yr olds
83% were returned
20% of these were selected for more Indepth interviews
