CCJS 105 Exam 2 Content PDF

Chapter 6 Learning Objectives 6.1 State the basic premise of the social structural tradition\\ 6.2 Explain the assumptions of human ecology theory, its major finding, and its criticisms 6.3 Describe the evolution of the anomie tradition and how the various versions differ 6.4 Discuss the basic...

Chapter 6 Learning Objectives 6.1 State the basic premise of the social structural tradition\\ 6.2 Explain the assumptions of human ecology theory, its major finding, and its criticisms 6.3 Describe the evolution of the anomie tradition and how the various versions differ 6.4 Discuss the basic ideas of subcultural theories -- how they form and how the status concerns of young males are met in those subcultures 6.6 Evaluate why gangs are formed, what their function is, and how they relate to social structure 6.6 Evaluate the impact of anomie/strain tradition on criminology 6.7 Debate the policy and prevention implications of social structure theories Social Structure Theories The Chicago School - Durkheim - Anomie: a moral confusion or breakdown or a gap between goals and means in society - Mechanical: societies function like a machine because of the pressure to conform to the rest of society. Enforce conformity through legal system - No division of labor between societies - Mechanical solidarity: crime is normal or law would be over controlling - Organic: function of law is to regulate what parts of the society interact with each other - Everyone in society has different jobs, but we trust each other to work together to get the job done (conveyor belt metaphor) - A breakdown of norms can occur, called anomie, that can produce societal issues, like crime. This can occur if there are shocks to the system (ex. War on economic depression) - Rapid social changes (shocks to the system) ex: times of war leading to women's liberation - Outcome of anomie is crime - Our society is in the center between mechanical and organic - Modern societies produce an environment where people has personal ambitions and goals. Because we all have different things we want to do, anomie occurs - What is the Chicago School? - Chicago School: a school of sociology in the 1920s and the 1930s that produced many urban ecological and ethnographic studies of Chicago - Attempted to figure out how environmental factors were associated with crime - Specifically focused on rapid change in neighborhoods - Park's Theory of Human Ecology - Human Ecology: the study of the interrelationships between human organisms and the physical environment - Agreed that anomie lead to crime - Natural Areas: (organic) according to the Chicago school, these are subcommunities that emerge to serve specific, specialized functions (ex. Chinatown, Little Italy) - Heterogenic group contact results in competition over space and status - Can lead to conflict, assimilation, segregation, etc. - Park and Burgess Concentric Zone Theory - Diagrams of Theory: Burgess\' Concentric Zone Model · Dustin S. Stoltz - Zone 1: central business zone; a non-residential area where people go to shop and work - Ex. Wall Street - Zone 2: partially residential; socially disorganized, an area of transition, the goal is to move out - Apartment/townhouse living for college graduates - Mobility is a feeding ground for crime - Zone 3: apartments and duplexes; most people will succeed out to zone 4 and 5 - Apartments and houses mix - Zone 4: suburbs; mostly white people live - Zone 5: suburbs; mostly white people live - Shaw and McKay's Social Disorganization Theory: crime is due to social disorganization and social breakdown of the area - Found that one transitional area had very high crime rates because the area predisposes occupants to crime and social disorganization - By imposing concentric circles on mapped areas of Chicago, Shaw found that the highest rates of crime and recidivism, occurred in Zone 2, and rates declined as one moved farther out from the rings - Sampson and Colleagues' Collective Efficacy - Neighborhood collective efficacy: "connection of mutual trust and social cohesion with shared expectations for intervening in support of neighborhood social control" - Lack of collective efficacy: the inability to realize its common clause - Lack of common values can be because of a lack of social capital - Social Capital: networks of relationships among people that facilitate common actions and make possible to achievement of common goals - High social capital: results in neighborhood watches, etc.; neighbors can tell off other neighbors' kids - Low Social Capital: poverty, family disruption, and high residential mobility results in anonymity, the lack of social relationships among neighborhood residents, and low participation in community organizations and in local activities - Due to low social capital, neighbors cannot exert control over public areas - Anonymity leads to an increase in crime and violence, which promotes further disintegration of the community - Wilson and Kelling's Broken Windows Theory - When neighborhoods experience decay and disorder, it is an invitation for serious crime - Disorder related to fear of crime - There is a disjoint between what people thought would bother them and what does bother them, indicating disorder matters - Hot spots: crime is not evenly spread over all times and places, thus resources should be focused on hot spots (places where crimes are likely to occur) - Minneapolis Police Experiment - Theory to policy: policy needs to be directed at high crime neighborhoods, not the individual - Targeting hot spots - Cleaning up trash, graffiti, etc. - Increasing social relationships between adults and teenagers - High social capital and collective efficacy - Reduces anonymity - Reduce residential mobility - Make housing more affordable - Longer rent - Make it easier for first time homeowners to purchase - Scattering public housing to expand outside of poor neighborhoods - Increasing services like police, fire, and public health - Higher social capital and collective efficacy - Increase community power - Immigration: public belief is that immigration causes crime, but research indicates otherwise. 1^st^ generation immigrants have lowest level of crime - Immigrants tend to group together, thus having high levels of collective efficacy and social capital (same cultural background) Strain Theories - Merton's Strain Theory (1938) - anomie -- differences between Merton and Durkheim - Durkheim believed that anomie happens when there are shocks to the system - Merton believed that anomie is an enduring characteristic, it is constant and stratified - Durkheim emphasized **rapid social change and the breakdown of collective conscience** as the root cause of anomie, whereas Merton focused on the **discrepancy between societal goals and available means to achieve them**, particularly within a relatively stable social structure, leading to strain and potential deviance among individuals with limited opportunities to reach those goals - American Dream: a culturally prescribed dream that we all buy into. We all agree on this goal, and, for the most part, adopt this goal. It advertises itself to be accessible to all and we tell ourselves we can access it - Mode of personality adaption (reactions to strain): conformist, innovator, ritualist, retreatist, and rebel (goal refers to the American Dream) - Conformity: keep the goal, do what they are supposed to do even if they do not succeed - Hard work and continue working to get it for the rest of your life because you think that you'll get it one day - Innovation: accept goal, but reject means. Get the goal through criminal activity - White collar crime - Rebellion: reject goal and mean, adopt own cultural values - Hippies - Ritualism: know you are not going to succeed, but keep doing what you are doing. Go through the motions knowing you won't succeed - Blue collar work - Retreatism: failure of goals, remove self from society - Drug addicts - Messner and Rosenfeld's Institutional Anomie (1994) - Economic institutions dominate over other institutions, thus external controls are weakened - The imbalance of the systems create a state of anomie, giving people the option to engage in criminal behavior - Three things can occur: - The devaluation of other institutions - Teachers make less so they are seen as less valuable - Accommodation of those institutions - Parents of students are doing higher value jobs, so teachers have to give after-school care to kids - Penetration of economic norms to other institutions - If a kid does well in school, parents will give them money - Agnew's General Strain Theory (GST) - Not only one source of strain, as Merton claims - Three major types of strain - Loss of positive stimulus - Presentation of negative stimulus - Failure to meet goals - Emotional reaction -- problematic when it is anger, might lead to offending - Strain needs to be high in magnitude, viewed as being unjust, linked to low social control, and can be resolved through offending - Strain can be indirect or direct - Similar to Durkheim more than Merton in that he believed that anomie were shocks to the social system that resulted in crime Thinking of Strain Theories Linearly 1. Merton's Strain Theory a. American dream b. Gap between societal goals and means to get there c. Experience strain, frustration d. Anomie (believed that anomie is an enduring characteristic, it is constant and stratified) e. Modes personality adaptation f. Innovator leads to offenders 2. Messner and Rosenfeld's Institutional Anomie: American dream that's dominated by economical institutions g. The devaluation of other institutions, accommodation of those institutions, penetration of economic norms to other institutions h. State of anomie i. Crime 3. Agnew's General Strain Theory j. Experience strain in three ways: loss of positive stimuli, presentation of negative stimuli, failure to meet goals k. Anomie l. Emotional reaction is anger m. Crime 4. Durkheim: during the switch from mechanical to organic n. Shocks to the system o. Anomie p. Crime 5. Concentric Zone Theory q. Move into Zone 2 r. High transition, mobility, heterogeneity, low social capital s. Lack of norms t. Crime 6. Social Disorganization: u. Move into Zone 2 v. High transition, mobility, heterogeneity, low social capital w. High social disorganization x. Lack of norms y. Crime 7. Collective efficacy: low social capital or low collective efficacy z. Anomie and anonymity a. Lack of social control b. Crime Subcultural Theories - Subcultural theories: theories that view the type of crime as due to various forms of delinquent subcultures - Cohen's (1995) Middle Class Measuring Rod or Lower-Class Reaction Theory - Middle class goals permeate our society and the lower-class does not have the ability to teach their boys how to be well equipped in middle class situations (i.e. school) - When the lower-class recognize this disjoint, they experience some degree of strain - In response, they deviate from the norm by forming a subculture - School highlights the differences between the values of low and middle income - Problem occurs when working class youths cannot live up to the expectations of middle class peers or individuals in schools - Three distinct subcultures - College boys -- figure a way to measure up and succeed in to the middle class - Corner boys -- accept the situation they are in and eventually get a working class job - Delinquent boys -- they react by inverting middle class values/cultural norms which facilitates crime and delinquency - Middle class values include manners, non-violence, communication, academic success, etc. - Cloward and Ohlin's Differential Opportunity Theory - Differential opportunity theory: crime takes place due to a lack of legitimate opportunity and is also due to the availability of illegitimate opportunities - Neighborhood organization determines what subculture you will fall into - There are three distinct subcultural responses that emerge when you experience strain and based upon the opportunities for criminal behavior - Delinquent subcultures: - Criminal -- organized neighborhoods, with established criminal networks. Young males will be apprenticed into crime (prostitution and drug dealing) - Ex: dropping off drugs for a drug deal - Conflict -- disorganized neighborhoods with diverse backgrounds; areas of transition. Resort to violence. Identify with gangs and clash with other gangs over turf and based upon ethnic groupings - Retreatist -- do not conform to society's norms and values, so they retreat (ex. Drug abuse) - Miller's Focal Concern Theory - The working class does not reject the middle class subculture, rather, they have their own separate culture with values and norms - These norms and values are likely to influence delinquent behavior - The working class status is based upon satisfying a series of focal concerns of working class males - Miller identified six focal concerns: - Excitement -- pursue the rush - Toughness -- displays masculine characteristics, stands up for themselves - Smartness -- not about intelligence; revolves around cleverness and hustling people - Outsmarting other people (gambling) - Trouble -- willing to misbehave and is *attention seeking* - Autonomy -- resentment of authority and rules - of middle class men; are more likely to take terms into their own hands instead of going to the police - Fate -- their future is already determined, thus their current behavior bares no consequences - Not choosing to offend, instead abiding by lower class values - Wolfgang and Ferracutti (1967) - Investigated homicides in Philadelphia - Saw that homicides largely concentrated in working class, lower socioeconomic, black communities - Argued that in lower socioeconomic black communities, there is a subculture of violence where individuals are expected to respond to violence with violence - If you do not engage in violence, it becomes dangerous because you can become a victim of violence - This is why there are higher rates of homicide in low socioeconomic black communities - Anderson (1990/1991) - Individuals are marginalized due to socioeconomic status and race, and, therefore, experience strain. Since they cannot achieve the goals of the middle class, they gain respect and status from the street - Gain status by people believing you are tough - Intentions of violence -- threats to your status and street credibility. Interpret and respond to everything as a threat with violence to avoid becoming a victim - Street v. Decent individuals - Street -- fully embrace the subculture; "code of the street" - Decent -- code switch; do not fully embrace the subculture but play the game to protect themselves Chapter 7 Learning Theories - Learning: habits and knowledge that develop as a result of the experiences of the individual in entering and adjusting to the environment - Classical Conditioning - Pavlov -- noticed that his dogs were hungry and when you would show them food, they naturally would drool - Unconditional stimulus (UC): stimulus that elicits an automatic response (salivating to the food) - Pairing UC with neutral stimulus (pairing the bell with food) - The way the stimulus is paired matters - Extinction -- if Pavlov continually rang the bell and didn't pair it with food over and over again, then the dogs will learn that food is not paired with the bell, and they will stop salivating. Thus the behavior becomes extinct - Generalization -- the conditioned response might be elicited by a stimulus that is similar to the presented stimulus - Discrimination -- overtime, you can discriminate between the two stimuli that was presented with the generalization - Baby Albert - Watson and Raynor presented Little Albert with a white rat and he showed no fear - Watson then presented the rat with a loud bang that startled Little Albert and made him cry - After the continuous association of the white rat and loud noise, Little Albert was classically conditioned to experience fear at the sight of the rat - Albert's fear generalized to other stimuli that were similar to the rat, including a fur coat, some cotton wool, and a Father Christmas mask (even white lab coats) - Operant Conditioning - Thorndike: through treats, Thorndike step by step taught cats to get out of their crate. This showed that behavior can be shaped. Animals can be trained/shaped if you deliver consequences - Trial and error -- learn by doing. We do what works and vice versa - Law of Effect: learning is tied to consequences of behavior. Do things that having pleasing consequences. If there are adverse consequences, we don't do them - Skinner -- law of effect - Positive -- stimulus presented - Negative -- stimulus removed - Reinforcement -- anticipated behaviors will be repeated - Punishment -- anticipated behaviors will not be repeated - Schedules of reinforcement/punishment need to be consistent - Extinction -- if you stop providing reinforcement/punishment, then what is learned will extinguish - Generalization -- people will try similar behaviors to ones that get reinforcement/punishment, hoping it will elicit the same response - Discrimination -- people will be able to distinguish between behaviors that elicit reinforcement and those that will elicit punishment - Bandura -- observational learning - Bobo doll experiment: had children watch adults interact with a doll in a neutral and violent way. Found that the children in the treatment group that watched the adults act violent with the doll were more likely to act violently with the doll - This suggests that people learn by watching, not by doing. We can learn by observing, where we see someone else's actions and imitate it Chapter 7 7.1 Describe the basic premise of social process theories and how they differ from that of social structural theories 7.2 Examine differential association theory and the criticisms surrounding it 7.3 Discuss how social learning theory improved differential association theory 7.4 Compare the fundamental difference in terms of Sowell's visions between social learning and social control and self-control theories 7.5 Explain how labeling and neutralizing theory lead to different policy recommendations 7.6 Evaluate the policy and prevention impingement of social process theories The Social Process Tradition - Social process criminologists operate from a sociological perspective known as symbolic interactionism - Symbolic Interactionism: a perspective in sociology that focuses on how people interpret and define their social reality and the meanings they attach to it in the process of interacting with one another via language (symbols) - If we wish to understand social behavior, we have to understand how individuals subjectively perceive their social reality and how they interact with others to create, sustain, and change it - Seek to describe criminal and delinquent socialization (how antisocial attitudes and behavior are learned) and how social conflict "pressures" individuals into committing antisocial acts Differential Association Theory - Criminological theory devised by Edwin Sutherland asserting that criminal behavior is learned through association with others who communicate their values and attitudes - Where people grow up---the social context in which they are embedded---matters greatly to the patterns of behavior they exhibit - 1\. Criminal behavior is learned. - 2\. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons during a process of communication. - 3\. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups. - 4\. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes complicated and sometimes simple, and the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes. - 5\. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable. - 6\. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law. - 7\. Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity. - 8\. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and noncriminal patterns involves all the mechanisms in any other learning. - 9\. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those needs and values since noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values - DAT suggests that the learning of criminal behavior involves the same culturally transmitted mechanisms involved in any other learning and includes specific skills and techniques for committing crimes as well as the motives, rationalizations, justifications, and attitudes of criminals - Definitions: Term used by Edwin Sutherland to refer to the meanings our experiences have for us and our attitudes, values, and habitual ways of viewing the world - The earlier we are exposed to criminal definitions, the more often we are exposed to them and the longer they last, and the more strongly we are attached to those who supply us with them, the more likely we are to commit criminal acts when opportunities to do so arise - Criticisms: - Assumes that antisocial behavior is learned, not something that comes naturally in the absence of prosocial training - Ignores individual differences in the propensity to associate with antisocial peers - Individual differences ‡ Contact with criminal patterns ‡ Crime Social Learning Theory - Social Learning Theory: a theory designed to explain how people learn criminal behavior using the psychological principles of operant conditioning - Focuses on four principles: 1. Differential association, 2. Differential reinforcement 3. Imitation 4) definitions - Law violation will occur when: - 1\. He or she differentially associates with others who commit, model, and support violations of social and legal norms (differential association). - 2\. The violative behavior is differentially reinforced over behavior in conformity to the norm (differential reinforcement). - 3\. He or she is more exposed to and observes more deviant models than conforming models (imitation). - 4\. His or her own learned definitions are favorable toward committing the deviant acts (excess of definitions) - Differential Reinforcement: the balance of anticipated or actual rewards and punishments that follow or are consequences of behavior - Operant psychology: a perspective on learning asserting that behavior is governed and shaped by its consequences (reward or punishment) -  - Reinforcement: a process that leads to the repetition and strengthening of behavior - Punishment: a process intended to lead the weakening or eliminating of the behavior preceding it - Discrimination: a term applied to stimuli that provides clues signaling whether a particular behavior is likely to be followed by reward or punishment Social Control Tradition - Social Control: mechanisms designed to minimize nonconformity and deviance - About the role of social relationships that bind people to the social order and prevent antisocial behavior - Learning theories assume that criminal behavior requires some learned motivation for it to emerge, whereas control theories assume that criminal behavior requires no such special motivation; rather, such behavior arises from natural motivations that we must learn to curb - Social Bond Theory: a theory focusing on a person's bond to others. The four elements of the social bond are attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. The absence of these bonds in criminals does not cause crime but permits it - We behave well if our ties to prosocial others are strong, but we may revert to predatory self-interest if they are not - For control theorists, behavior gives birth to the belief rather than vice versa. It is important to realize that crime is not motivated by the absence of any of the social bonds; their absence merely represents social deficiencies that result in a reduction of the perceived potential costs of committing crime. - Hirschi's Elements of Social Bond Theory: - Attachment: the emotional component of conformity referring to one's attachment to others and to social institutions - Attachment to prosocial others is the foundation for all other social bonds because it leads us to feel valued, respected, and admired and to value the favorable judgments from people and groups we care about - Behavior is often an attempt to gain favorable judgment - Commitment: the rational component of conformity referring to a lifestyle in which one has invested considerable time and energy in the pursuit of a lawful career - People who invest heavily in a lawful career have a valuable stake in conformity and are not likely to risk it by engaging in crime - School dropouts and the unemployed do not have a strong investment in conventional behavior - Acquiring a stake in conformity requires disciplined application to tasks that children do not relish but complete in order to gain approval from parents - Involvement: a direct consequence of commitment; part of an overall conventional pattern of existence - Noninvolvement in conventional activities increases the possibility of exposure to illegal activities ("Idle hands are the devil's workshop") - Belief: refers to the acceptance of the social norms regulating conduct - Persons lacking attachment, commitment, and involvement tend not to believe in conventional morality Gottfredson and Hirschi's Low Self-Control Theory - Self-control: the extent to which people are vulnerable to the temptations of the moment - Self-control Theory: theory developed by Gottfredson and Hirschi that maintains all crime is attributable to an individual's lack of self-control (classical idea by nature) - People with low self-control possess the following personal traits that put them at risk for criminal offending - They are oriented to the present rather than to the future, and crime affords them immediate rather than delayed gratification. - They are risk-taking and physical as opposed to cautious and cognitive, and crime provides them with exciting and risky adventures. - They lack patience, persistence, and diligence, and crime provides them with quick and easy ways to obtain money, sex, revenge, and so forth. - They are self-centered and insensitive, so they can commit crimes without experiencing pangs of guilt for causing the suffering of others. - Low self-control is established during early childhood (8-10 years), tends to persist throughout life, and is the result of incompetent parenting - Parental warmth, nurturance, vigilance, and willingness to practice "tough love" are necessary to forge self-control in offspring - Other factors include parental criminality, family size, single-parent families, and working mothers - Opportunity: in self-control theory, opportunity is a situation that presents itself to those with low self-control by which they can immediately satisfy their needs with minimal effort Integrating Social Control and Self-Control Theories - A diagram of a diagram Description automatically generated with medium confidence - Frank Tannenbaum's 1938 *Crimes and the Community* - A major part in the making of a criminal is the process of identifying and labeling a person as such - Self-fulfilling prophecy - Crime has no objective reality and is defined into existence rather than discovered. There is no crime independent of cultural values and norms, which are embodied in the judgments and reactions of others - Primary Deviance: the initial nonconforming act that comes to the attention of the authorities resulting in the application of a criminal label - Secondary Deviance: deviance that results from society's reaction to offender's primary deviance Sykes and Matza's Neutralization Theory - Techniques of Neutralization: techniques by which offenders justify their behavior as "acceptable" on a number of grounds - Denial of Responsibility -- shifts the blame for a deviant act away from the actor - "I know she's only 6, but she seduced me." - Denial of Injury -- an offender's claim that no "real" offense occurred because no one was harmed - "He got his cart back, and his insurance covers the damage." - Denial of Victim -- implies the victim got what they deserves - "I guess I did beat her up, but she was nagging so much that she asked for it!" - Condemnation of the Condemners -- attempts by the offender to share guilt with the condemners (parents, police, probation officers) by asserting that their behavior is just as bad is theirs - "You drink alcohol, I smoke weed; what's the difference?" - Appeal to Higher Loyalties -- elevates the offender's moral integrity by claiming altruistic motives - "They are my homies, I have to cover them." - Cognitive Dissonance: a form of psychological discomfort resulting from a contradictions between a person's attitudes and their behavior - A positive element of this theory is that it eliminates much of the overdetermined image of subcultural values implied in subcultural theories - A negative element is that it says nothing about the origins of the antisocial behavior the actors seek to neutralize  Criminological Learning Theories - Differential Association - Sutherland (1939, 1947): crime is learned due to exposure to an excess of contacts that advocate criminal behavior - Argued that criminal behavior is learned like any other behavior and anyone can do the learning - Nine Propositions: - **1.** Criminal behavior is learned - **2.** Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication - **3.** The principle part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups - **4.** When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very simple, and (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes - **5**. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable - **6**. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law - Tipping point of delinquent behavior - **7.** Differential association may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity - **8.** The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anticriminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning - **9.** Although criminal behavior is an explanation of general needs and values, it is not explained by them because noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values - Soft determinism - Sykes and Matza - This theory does some filling in for differential association by providing definitions - Delinquency and Drift: Matza's theory that delinquents exist in a limbo wherein they drift back and forth between delinquency and conventionality - Soft Determinism: theories that indicate that certain forces have an influence but do not determine behavior - Techniques of Neutralization: rationalizations (excuses) used by juveniles to explain away responsibility for actions - Denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of victim, condemning the condemners, appeal to higher authority - Burgess and Akers (1966) -- heavily influenced by differential association - "Social learning refers to the balance of anticipated or actual rewards or punishments that follow or are consequences of behavior. Whether individuals will refrain from or commit a crime at any given time... depends on the past, present, and anticipated future rewards and punishments for their action " - Akers (1998) Social Learning Theory - Differential Association: this refers to the process by which one is exposed to definitions that are either favorable or unfavorable to deviant and criminal behavior. Small, intimate groups are the most influential in a person\'s life. This includes family, friends, church, etc. The frequency, duration, intensity, and priority of the sources has a strong impact on how much they shape one's definitions - Definitions: this refers to one; personal meanings or attitudes that are attached to a given behavior. It is what orients a person to rationalize or define an act as tight or wrong, morally speaking. These definitions can be general or specific - Differential Reinforcement: this refers to the balance of anticipated or actual rewards of punishment that follow a given behavior. The likelihood that a person will engage in deviant or criminal behavior is increased when a person is rewarded (money, approval, food) for the behavior. This is positive reinforcement. The likelihood of criminal or deviant behavior is further enhanced when they avoid the unpleasant consequences of being captured (jails, fines, disapproval). This is negative reinforcement - Imitation: learn by watching other behaviors and imitate it Control Theories - Reckless' Containment Theory - Reckless (1961): individuals have various social controls (containments) that assist them in resisting pressures that draw them toward criminality. Various social pressures exert pushes and pulls on the individual and these pressures interact with containments both internal and external to the individual - External Pressures: poor living conditions, adverse economic conditions, minority group membership, and the lack of legitimate opportunities - Internal Pressures: inner tensions, feelings of inferiority or inadequacy, mental conflict - Outer Containments: effective family and near support systems that assist in reinforcing conventionality - Inner Containment: strong self-concept, identity, and strong resistance to frustration - Not a leading theory in criminology and is instead used as a descriptive model - Hirschi (1969) Social Bond Theory: social bonds restrain delinquency. As these bonds weaken or break, then the person will be unrestrained and participate in delinquency - Four types of bonds: attachment, involvement, commitment, belief - Criticisms: - By focusing purely on the bonds themselves, Hirschi neglected to think about to whom we are bonded to - Hirschi responded: "the idea that delinquents have comparatively warm, intimate social relations with each other (or with anyone) is a romantic myth"; their ties are "cold and brittle" - Attachment is inherently prosocial and delinquent individuals do not have intimate friendship bonds with each other - Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime - Low self-control is the only cause of crime - Self-control is generally established by age 7 or so and is produced by effective parenting - What is considered effective parenting: - Supervision - Recognition of deviant behavior - Punishment for the behavior when it occurs - Role of Opportunity for Crime - There needs to be criminal opportunity for low self-control to be translated into offending - Though, they state that crime is possible everywhere, so at the end of the day, it comes down to self-control - Implications of this theory: - Self-control is the only cause of crime, and all other factors and variables do not exist (or are spurious) - Peers -- the relationship between peer groups and delinquent behaviors reflects that people with low self-control make "bad" friends - Selection Argument: low self-control predicts your peer groups - Spurious Augment: the relationship between deviant peers and delinquency will disappear once self-control is added - Turning points - Grasmick and Colleagues (1993) -- identified six elements of what it means to have low self-control - Impulsivity - Preference for simple tasks - Risk seeking - Preference for physical (over cognitive) activity - Self-centered - Bad temper (minimal tolerance for frustration) - Crimes that don't seem to be associated with low self-control? - Typical homicide/robbery -- is it explained as spontaneous acts, that tend to get out of hand. It does not consider that crimes may take some planning or expertise - They argue that these types of crime are incredible rare and their theory is explaining crime generally - Where does this stand empirically? - There is strong support for this theory but is not absolute -- it is a contributive factor, not the ONLY factor Quiz 2 7\. Starts with concentric zones, then zone theory about people moving away from the city, then mobility causing crime (and contributing factors), then social disorganization, then collective efficacy (ALL ARE SEPARATE) Chapter 8 Critical Criminology and Labeling Theories Critical Criminology - Consists of a variety of perspectives that challenge basic assumptions of mainstream criminology - Critical criminology consists of five major types of theoretical approach: the labeling perspective, conflict theory, and the feminist, new critical, and radical (Marxist) view points (ignore this) - Some common characteristics of critical criminology - Crime is a label attached to behavior, usually that of the less powerful in society - More powerful groups in society control this labeling process to protect their vested interests - The conflict model rather than the consensus model explains that criminalization process - Crime is often a rational response to inequitable conditions in capitalistic societies - Conflict and Feminist Theories - Both perspectives say that criminology is missing something - Conflict models: you cannot ignore inequality and how law and crime are used by those in power - Feminist models: our theories have been built on studying men and either ignoring or stereotyping women - Feminist Theories - Feminist scholars objected to the exclusion of gender from criminological analysis which they say as inexcusable given the gender gap - Simon (1975) and Adler (1975) basically argued women's movement should result in opening up of the criminal world among women (liberation hypothesis) - 1980s and 1990s, we see in-depth research (including ethnographic) on female delinquents and offenders - Street gang work challenged early conceptions - Paying attention to victimization as a pathway to crime - Gender isn't a variable, but fundamentally shapes experiences and pathways - Hagan et al.'s (1987) Power Control Theory - Patriarchal households socialize children in unbalanced ways: girls are subject to greater direct controls (supervision) and socialized to conform and take fewer risks (see a notable gender gap in delinquency) - Boys given more freedoms (later curfews, less supervision on a day-to-day basis) - Boys are valued for being risky and having autonomy - Less patriarchal households socialize children in a more balanced way: less of a gap in direct controls and socialization, so small gender gaps in delinquency - Existing theories - Can they explain offending versus can they explain the "gap"? - Mears et al.'s (1998) application of social learning theory - Girls and boys are socialized differently, allows girls to be less vulnerable to deviant peer exposure - Conflict Theories - There are conflicts of interest and values across people: the organized state/legal code represents those in power. Crime can only be understood by considering inequality in power - There is an inverse relationship between (official) crime rates and power - Black's (1975) Theory of the Behavior of Law - Black's (1975) Theory of the Behavior of Law: greater/less application of law in some times and places than others - Higher in the power structure, more a person can invoke the law on his behalf - Curvilinear relationship between social distance and law; for us, focus on intimates vs. strangers - Culture (education) affects application of law: both gap and who has it - Greater organization and larger gap predicts more application of law - Application will be greater in contexts of low social controls Labeling Theories and Critical Criminology - On Being Sane in Insane Places (Rosenhan, 1973) - 7 mentally healthy associates got appointments as psychiatric hospitals and feigned auditory hallucinations (empty, hallow, thud -- neutral words) - All were admitted (12 different hospitals of different attributes) - Staff interpreted "normal" behavior as "abnormal" and consistent with diagnoses - Stays ranged from 7 to 52 days, averaging 19 days - All were discharged with "in remission" schizophrenia - Lemert's Labeling Theory - Primary deviations: informal reaction, no real impact on self-concept - Parents may ground you, friends may give you a hard time (no formal sanction) - Secondary deviations: occur after a label, reflect change in self-concept - Once someone is labeled, due to formal sanctions, it can create a self-fulfilling prophecy - The label itself is criminogenic and is a risk factor for delinquency - Patnernoster and Iovanni (1989) - Draws on conflicts and labeling theories/literature to craft two hypotheses: - 1\. Status Character Hypothesis: "given the occurrence of a deviant action (delinquency), the decision of organizational agents to sanction officially (to label) an actor is in part determined by social attributes (race, sex, social class) of the offender and/or the offended party" - Minority youths are more likely to be suspended or expelled - 2\. Consequences of Labeling Hypothesis: "given the occurrence of a labeling experience, the individual may experience an alteration of personal identity, may find access to conventional others and opportunities barred, as a result may exhibit a greater involvement in delinquent behavior." - You being to see yourself differently because others begin to see you differently - Braithwaite's Reintegrative Shaming Theory - Reintegrative Shaming: act is labeled as wrong, person is shamed and then reintegrated back into society - The act was wrong, not the person, so they are reintegrated - Lower crime rates - Stigmatizing Shaming: the person is labeled as wrong or bad and stigmatized, with barriers put in place against reintegration - The person is viewed in the wrong, not just the act along - Why: blocked from conventional opportunities -\> strain and exposure to criminal subculture -\> re-engagement in crime - Higher crime rates - Empirical Examples of Policies - Pager (2003): experimental audit - Used four male testers and paired by race (white and black) - Background was the same, except for criminal record - Call backs - White non-offender: 34% - White offender: 17% - Black non-offender: 14% - Black offender: 5% - Ban the Box Policy: getting rid of that question in applications that indicate whether or not you have to criminal records - Race effect - Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986: crack cocaine disparity, 100/1 - Sex offender registry: implements stigmatizing as a policing - Enduring stigmata: whatever punishment they do, they will still be on a lifetime registry Life Course and Developmental Theories - Why did they emerge? - Both perspectives believe we should focus on individual, longitudinal patterns over time - Heterogeneity is lost in aggregates Criminal Careers - "Criminal career is defined as the longitudinal sequence of crimes committed by an individual offender" - Onset - Persistence - Frequency - Seriousness - Specialization - Desistance - Piquero, Farrington, and Blumstein (2003): "How far does the observed peak of the aggregate age/crime curve reflect changes within individuals as opposed to changes in the composition of offenders?" Life Course Criminology - Criminologists traditionally study between persons differences - Life course criminology concentrates on within individual change over time and recognizes that the causal factors may shift as the individual progresses along their behavioral pathway - According to John Laub - Life course emphasizes variability and change. Developmental criminology assumes that things unfold almost ina deterministic way, while life course allows for pathways to be unknown -- something can come along and change things - Allows for cohort and period effects -- basically context matters - Period -- a particular moment in history (WWII) - Cohort -- age during that moment in history (age during WWII) - Sampson and Laub Age-Graded Social Control Theory - Based on data from Gleucke which looks at 500 male delinquents and 500 male non-delinquents and were matched by a case-to-case basis. Data was collected at three points in time -- ages 14, 25, and 32 - Sampson and Laub tracked down these individuals, that were now 60 and 70 years old, to interview them and look at crime patterns over an extensive period of time - Structural context is mediated in fundamental respects by informal family and school social controls, which in turn explain delinquency in childhood and adolescence - There is strong continuity in antisocial behavior running from childhood through adulthood across a variety of life domains - Informal social control in adulthood explains changes in criminal behavior over the life span, independent of prior individual differences in criminal propensity. In our view, childhood pathways to crime and conformity over the life course are significantly influenced by adult social bonds - Focused on desistance -- turning points (i.e. marriage, employment, military service) can fundamentally disrupt criminal pathways and influence desistance - Changes in informal social control causes desistance - There is a strong suggestion that marriage has an effect in particular, but empirically, the following is unclear - Underlying mechanisms -- are there other processes ither than informal controls at work? Ex. Changes in routines, changes in peer networks, changes in identity - Timing of identity change (Paternoster and Bushway, 2009) -- identity change precede turning points (vs. what we discussed above, where turning points happen and then there's an identity change). This suggests that there are different meanings in what the causal structure is Developmental Theories - Moffit's Dual Taxonomy - Life course persistent offender - Small portion of offender population - Start offending early, persist through life course, serious offenses - Cause -- disturbances for developing brain (prenatal, during birth, post natal) -\> neuropsychological (executive functioning) deficit -\> a disadvantaged context -\> narrowing of options and opportunities - Being born into disadvantaged environments can be challenging in two ways - 1\. There are limited resources to deal with the child - 2\. It can create this reciprocal interaction where, since the kids are challenging, it is extremely difficult and stressful to deal with the child, thus, it can exacerbate the child's issue - Adolescence limited offender - Majority of (offending) population -- vast majority of us are adolescence limited offenders. Those that never offend are extremely rare and are often completely isolated - Later onset (after 13 or 14), short time of offending activity and quick desistance, less serious offending - Cause of offending -- adolescents experience a maturity gap between biological and social role - Look to life course persist peers as models - Once this maturity gap narrows, the motivation for offending is gone and they desist - Criticisms - What about serious offenders? - Heterotypic continuity -- if they desist from offending, they are most likely dealing with other issues in their life (i.e. homelessness, mental health issues) - Are there only two types of offenders? - It is extremely rare to find only two types of offending pathways and it is extremely rare to find pathways that look like these two Thornberry's (1987) Interactional Theory - This theory can be seen as a developmental theory - Criticized theories that rely on unidirectional causal structures that represent delinquency in a static rather than dynamic fashion and do not examine developmental progressions - Essentially brings together social control and learning theories in a reciprocal, developmental model - Reciprocal relationships (a to b to c, but c can circle back to affect a) - Weakened control essentially broadens action alternatives. But, for this "freedom" to be translated into delinquency, person needs to be in an interactional setting that allows one to learn and get reinforced for deviance