Youth Theories of Crime Flashcards
Neo-Classical Explantations: Bentham
- Bentham - pleasure-pain principle
○ Panopticon
○ Pleasure-pain - primary drive that operated through human behaviour
○ Utilitarianism - greatest good for all
○ Pleasure - crime; pain - consequence of crime
○ Shouldn’t be excessive or torturous
Early biological positivism
basic assumption that criminals have different physical qualities than non-criminals
Lombroso & Atavism
criminals have atavistic characteristics related to height, size of arms, etc.
Offenders are primitive throwbacks
Father of modern criminology - positivism
Describe Durkheim’s theory of anomie & suicide.
Anomie - condition of normlessness; Rapid periods of societal change, bring weakened social ties that result in a sense of normlessness
* Suicide (1897) analysed demographics of suicide statistics
○ Found that different segments of population more likely to commit suicide than others (e.g. men, single mothers, protestants, soldiers, those in times of peace than war)
§ Weak social bonds
What conclusion did the Chicago School make in their concentric zone model?
Looked at why crime rates were higher in certain neighbourhoods than others
used pop density, culture, ethnicity
Zone of transition - highest amount of crime
□ Recent immigrant groups, factories, foreign & urban slums, poor infrastructure
□ Population experiences anomie - higher rates of disorganization & disfunction
□ As residences move out to other zones - social mobility
What does Merton’s strain theory suggest?
○Lower class lack legitimate opportunities to achieve middle class success -> leads to strain & frustration
○ Conformity - cultural goals align w/ society & has the means to attain these goals
○ Innovation - have cultural goals but use illegitimate means to attain them (most criminal)
What is reaction formation & Albert Cohens General Theory of Subcultures?
Reaction Formation -status frustration, norm rejection & replacement
Working class boys rejected middle class norms & replaced them with deviant subcultural norms
Describe Hirschi’s Control Theory.
- Weakened social institutions & loss of control - idea that individuals have an innate crime towards crime that some are able to control more than others
- Theorized on the notion of bonds: attachment, commitment, involvement, & belief
○ Attachment - to prosocial others & institutions
○ Commitment - valuable social relationships
○ Involvement - using prosocial activities to deter
antisocial activities (e.g. playing a sport)
○ Beliefs- Shifting focus: why don’t individuals commit crimes?
What is the premise of labelling theory?
Symbolic interactionism, interpretive perspective - individual’s who violate norms given label; label stick; how society characterized you; begin to internalize label
* Primary deviance - commit deviant act; developing script of committing acts to the point of becoming marked
* Secondary deviance - individual become marked & begin to reject norms & build resentment
Begins to identify w/ self label
What is the general idea of conflict theory?
- Inequality & conflict as a root of crime
- Power structures in society, how social institutes dominate in society
- Dominant groups - define & weaponize the law
- Oppressed groups - law weaponized against them; crime as resistance
- Crime is an opportunity in the power structure to show resistance
Describe 3 sources of strain according to Agnews General Strain Theory.
○ Inability to achieve goals (like Merton)
○ The removal or threat to remove positively valued stimuli (cut from a school team), found that young people who had something good taken from them, leads to strain and forms of criminal behaviour
○ Threaten or present with negative stimuli (bullying), something negative is introduced to a young persons life causing strain
How does Agnew account for gender in his general strain theory
- Agnew asked; Why gender differences in most types of youth crime?
- How do males and females respond to strain?
○ Girls: depression, anger, guilt ,shame = self-destructive behaviours, strain dealt with inwardly, ex cutting, drugs
○ Boys: anger, blame others, lower levels of social control = violent behaviour, strain dealt with outwardly
What is Gottfredson & Hirschis general theory of crime?
- Crime and other analogous behaviours caused by low self-control, weak attachments, weak motivations, etc.
- Young people often involved in numerous types of deviant behaviour, not just one type of crime, defined as general
- Low self-control leads to short-term gratification and risk taking
- Low self control is number one predictor of deviance
- Self-control is internalized early in life, if you have low self control your parents didn’t teach you, growing up in an environment with weak parental discipline
- Low self control leads to risk taking
- Good, responsible parenting is key to learning self control
- Can lead to career criminality
What is Tittle’s Control Balance Theory?
- suggests that deviance is likely to occur either when people are controlled too much or too little
- Everyone is controlled, we can also be controlling, depends on level of power we have.
- We can be subjects of control or people in positions of power and control
- deviant acts are the result of both insufficient and excessive controls.
- People aren’t born criminal, based on your environment
- Conformity is when there is a Control Balance
Differentiate between control deficits & control surpluses
- Control Deficits: people are more controlled than controlling= repressive deviance like street crime
- Control Surplus: people are more controlling than controlled = white collar/corporate crime
