unit 4: sociological positivism

Question 1

sociological perspective

Answer 1

• social structure and social learning that contributes to criminal behavior
• social pathology

Question 2

pathology

Answer 2

• behaviors that are habitual, maladaptive and compulsive

Question 3

3 key periods:

Answer 3

• the rise of sociology as academic discipline. mid 19th to early 20th century
• professional sociology (early 1920s- WWII)
• postwar (mid 1940s 1950s)

Question 4

first period: 1800s to 1920s

Answer 4

• the rise
• consensus over values and norms
• constructed of broad categorization of societal types (pre-industrial and industrial)

Question 5

Emile Durkheim

Answer 5

• egoism prevention, but must prevent Anomie first

- structured {divisions of labour}

Question 6

{divisions of labor}

Answer 6

• mechanical solidarity: MS preindustrial society where individuals are all equals, and share the same skills, tasks and beliefs
• organic solidarity: OS industrial society that are heterogeneous, all different

Question 7

what will happen if deviance occurs in those divisions

Answer 7

MS: removing that individuals from the community
OS: use of restitutive sanctions, restore social disruption

Question 8

second period: early 1920s- WWII

Answer 8

• professionalism emerges

- they looked at the waves of migration and how that impacted crime

Question 9

the chicago school

Answer 9

• impact of lifestyle, urban growth and social change

- {social disorganization theory}

Question 10

{social disorganization theory}

Answer 10

• Clifford Shawn and Henry McKay
• poverty root of crime
• they looked at different cities and their shared characteristics, poverty, decaying buildings… and the difference between better maintained neighborhoods
• [5 concentric circles]

Question 11

[concentric circles]

Answer 11

1. central business district
2. transitional zone (factories, recent immigration groups….)
3. working-class zone(single family tenements)
4. residential zone(single family home, yards garages)
5. commuter zone(suburbs)
   - the closest to the center the highest chance of crime rate

Question 12

third period: postwar-1950s

Answer 12

• economic boom growth
• how to explain persistent crime rates despite good socio-economic conditions
  ; examining the distribution of opportunity thru the community

Question 13

Robert K. Merton’s

Answer 13

• mal-integration:: disjuncture between cultural goals and institutional means
• everyone shared the same goal but had different means getting to it
• abstract typology (deviant typology) 5 ways

Question 14

1. conformism: accept, accept; need good schooling for a good financial stable job
2. innovation: accept, reject, accepts the goal but lacks to get the mean to get the goal
3. ritualism: reject, accept; expect culturally defined goals but know they cant attain them. staying in the same job knowing you aren’t moving up
4. retreatism: reject, reject; using drugs, giving up on life
5. rebellion: new goals, new means, have their own little world, hippie lifestyle

Answer 14

abstract typology of Merton’s

Question 15

basic concepts: of sociological positivism

Answer 15

• rehabilitation

- criminal behavior is learned (social learning theory and subcultural theory)

Question 16

differential association

Answer 16

• Sutherland and Cressy
• describes process criminal behavior is associated with people that carry that criminal norms
• hunters situation which his bad friends

Question 17

• argued that certain subcultures emerge as an new cultural system because of class conflict and blocked opportunities
• respect rather than financial support

Answer 17

Albert Cohen

Question 18

• argued crime is collective (learned from peers)

- due to a sense of injustice, legitimate opportunities are absent

Answer 18

Cloward and Ohlin

Question 19

Oscar Newman

Answer 19

• environmental criminal theory
• the impact of architecture and environments on crime
• [defensible space]

Question 20

[defensible space]

Answer 20

“end” crime by increasing the levels of surveillance an creating spaces that discourage crime

Question 21

life course criminology

Answer 21

• longitudinal study
• connect social history and structure to human lives
• two important concepts:
  1. Trajectory: path of development over life representing patterns of behavior
  2. Transitions: life events
• relies on these two and their impact on a youngling life

Question 22

lussier and Mathesius in caNDA

Answer 22

• they did the study on sex offenders ow how much likely will that person do that again or not
• not all sex offenders are juvenile offenders

Question 23

risk and resilience

Answer 23

• looking ate negative factors(poverty) as well as “productive” or “resilience factors”(family cohesion) on emerge of criminal behavior
• to stop it we need more positive adaptation in the conditions some youth are at risk

Question 24

what are some theories of causes a crime that the sociological positivims looks at

Answer 24

• life course criminiolgy
• routine activity and life-course theory
• differential association

Question 25

critiques

Answer 25

• only focus on working-class
• its presumption of consensus about the goal and lifestyle
• fails to account the structural inequalities
• people who value status quo are labelled criminal
• oversimplifying link between crime and opportunity