Week #5 Questions Flashcards
Explain the Classical School
o Classical School • Origin enlightenment • 17th – 18th century • Sought morality/ fairness • Believed in free will • Focused on CJ system • Focused on prevention via deterrence
Explain the Positivist School
o Positivist School • Origin: Scientific revolution • 19th – now • Sought causal explanation • Determinism (causes) • Focused on behaviour • Focused on treatment and rehabilitation
What are the three main branches of the Positivist School?
o Biological positivism
o Psychological positivism
o Sociological positivism
Explain the aspects of biological positivism
o Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)
o Criminals are physiologically different from non-criminals
o Basic causes of criminality lie within the individual
o Modern biosocial theories: genetic predispositions, but only manifest given certain environmental triggers
Explain Psychological positivism
o Basic causes of criminality lie within the individual. Criminal behaviour is a manifestation of internal, underlying disturbances
o Psychological abnormality causes them to perceive and/or react to the world abnormally
o IQ may correlate with life outcome and crime rate
Explain Sociological Positivism
o (20th to present) o Three Enduring 20th century sociological theories • Strain Theory • Differential Association Theory • Social Control Theory
What are the origins of strain theory?
o Robert Merton (1919-2003)
o Backdrop: Great depression
o Interested in how structural factors, as opposed to bio/psych factors, influence criminal behaviour
o Inspired by Durkheim’s notion of anomie
Explain the ideas posed by strain theory:
o Society promotes the goal of material financial success
o The American Dream
o With hard work, anyone can be president
o But not all have equal means of obtaining this goal
o The conflict between the legitimate goals promoted by society and the lack of means to obtain these goals (creates a strain)
What are the “modes of adaptation”, posited by strain theory?
o People seek to adapt to/ alleviate strain in one of five ways.
o These modes of adaptation are rational, and people are forced into these modes of adaptation
o All but the first are “deviant modes of adaptation”
• 1. Conformity (+/+): Have goals/ accept means
• 2. Innovation (+/-+: Crime
• 3. Ritualism (-:+) Going through the motions (mindless bureaucrat)
• 4. Retreatism (-?-): Dropping out (drugs)
• 5. Rebellion (+/+): Rejecting/ replacing goals and means (1930s socialists)
What is the background of Differential Association Theory?
o Edwin H. Sutherland (1883-1950)
o Symbolic internationalist, strongly influenced by Cooley’s ‘looking glass self’
What are the main ideas/ assumptions of Differential Association Theory?
o All behaviour, both criminal and conformist, is learned in interaction with others – primarily in intimate personal groups
o Techniques, motives, drives, rationalizations and attitudes
According to Differential Association theory, what “causes” crime?
o Criminality results from “an excess of definitions favourable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to it”
o Learning theory, learn crime through interaction
Explain the role of “contacts” in Differential Association Theory?
o Individuals become predisposed toward criminality because of an excess of contacts that advocate criminal behavior
o Contacts in differential association vary according to frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.
i. Frequency deals with the number of contacts
ii. Duration with the length of time over which an individual is exposed to such contacts
iii. Priority refers to the preference individuals express toward the values and attitudes to which they are exposed
iv. Intensity entails the degree of meaning the human actor attaches to such exposure
Explain the difference between the two control theories, by Hirschi and Gottfredson and Hirschi:
Social Bonds Theory, Self Control Theory
Explain Social bonds theory
- The central premise of Hirschi’s first theory is that delinquency arises when social bonds are weak or absent
- For Hirschi, the proper theoretical question was: Why don’t people break the law? What differentiate offenders from non-offenders are the factors that restrain people from acting on their wayward impulses
