UNIT 4 QUIZ Flashcards
Four types of feminist theory
- Liberal feminist
- Marxist feminist
- Radical feminist
- Socialist feminist
Liberal Feminist
Gender socialization practices cause crime
Marxist feminist
Class and gender division of labor combine to determine
the social position of both women and men
Radical feminist
Crime is an expression of men’s need to control and
oppress women
Socialist feminist
Examines the connections between capitalism and
patriarchy that leads women to subordination (merges Marxist & Radical)
James Messerschmidt’s Double Marginality Theory
Crimes are actions that threaten the capitalist-patriarchal system
* Females experience “double marginality;” subordinate to the wealthy and males
There are three reasons females are less likely to commit crime than males
- Most serious crimes are “masculine” in nature
- Females have less power in society, and thus, less opportunities for crime
- Males control illegitimate opportunities; females are relegated to subordinate roles
Feminist theory
- Feminist scholars have “gendered criminology” in important ways
- Transformed criminology so that gender is a central organizing theme
- Still remains at the margins of “male-stream” criminology
Early perspective of feminist theory
result of individual biological and psychological characteristics of females
* Very controversial and unscientific by today’s standards
* Assumption that there was an “inherent nature” of women
* Men were “rational” in their criminal behavior; women were “irrational”
* Deviant or criminal females were just trying to be males
1980s “Me Decade”
Culture of narcissism took hold and people focused on their own problems
* TV and movies showed that greed was not a bad thing
“yuppies” (young urban professionals) generation
Self-centered materialists focused on “making it,” with no social conscience
Five types of Conservative Crime Hypothesizing:
- Revitalization of positivist emphasis on individual differences
- Revitalization of psychological approach that offenders think differently
- Linking of crime to a lenient culture or “moral poverty”
- Incivility leads to crime because police tolerate minor violations
- Idea that individuals choose crime when benefits exceed costs
Conservative theory
believes that crime can be stopped through tough rules and strict repercussions for those who commit.
- “Get Tough on Crime!”
- Politicians and advocates for other policies are
seen as “weak on crime” or “pro-criminal”
James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein -Crime & Human Nature (1985)
- Outlined biosocial hypothesis focusing on genetics as predisposing crime
- Implied that these factors are disproportionately found among the poor
- Individual biological differences are influence social learning
- “Bad families produce bad children”
criticism for human nature (1985)
- Lack of concern for the applicability of their ideas
- Doubts about generality for all criminal behavior
- The authors were highly selective in what studies they
reviewed - Did not consider racial- & class-biased sanctions in the system
- Not peer-reviewed by fellow scholars and academics
Social Darwinism
Suggested that minorities and the poor were both cognitively and
morally inferior by nature
Richard Herrnstein & Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (1994)
Hypothesized that intelligence is the best single predictor of criminal
behavior
* Stated that different races have higher/lower average IQs than others
* People’s life chances are determined by cognitive resources
* Argued that the average IQ is decreasing due to:
* Intelligent people having fewer children
* People with lower IQs having more children
William Bennett’s Moral Poverty Hypothesis (1994)
The “permissive culture in the U.S.” is the cause of crime
* The shortage of loving and responsible adults who teach right from wrong
* The solution to crime is to teach children morality to grow into healthy adults
* The culture of permissiveness should be replaced by virtue and religion
Broken Windows Theory (1982)
Solution was placed on police using “zero-tolerance” & “quality-of-life” policing
- This formal control would allow informal control to flourish again
New York City implemented these ideas in the 1990s and serious crime declined - Potential issues with the conclusion that Broken Windows “worked”
- Economic prosperity and changes in the drug markets
- Crime was already declining before this policy
- Other cities without “zero-tolerance” policing also saw a decline
- Could have been a contributor to the decline in crime, but not definitive
Broken window theory implications
- Emphasis on making sure that crime does not pay
- Two policy agendas:
1. Incapacitation
2. Deterrence - Increase the costs of crime and restrain those “beyond reform”
Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen’s Routine Activities Theory (1979)
If you decrease the opportunities for offending, crime will be reduced
* Focus on aspects of the environment that are most easily manipulated
* A crime requires a criminal with the ability to carry out their intentions
Criminal Acts Require
- Motivated offender with opportunity to act
- Suitable target for the offender
- Absence of capable guardians
The “displacement effect”
When crime is more difficult in one location, offenders will move to another
Rational Choice Theory
Offenders are “rational” in the decisions they make
* Choose offenses that:
* Offer immediate gratification
* Require little effort to complete
* Expose them to scant risk of detection and arrest
* People make calculated choices before they act
* Research shows offenders often select a specific location to commit crime
Deterrence Theory
Lack of certainty
Lack of severity
Lack of celerity
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
- Does not assume offenders are rational
- Focuses more on the perceptions of legal punishments
- The policy proposals from perceptual deterrence theory are less clear
What individuals thought their chances were of getting caught (“certainty”)
* What they thought would happen to them afterwards (“severity”)
