Criminological Theories 2024-2025 PDF

Criminological theories Week 40 What is a theory? Theory = an explanation to make sense of our observations about the world Generalizations Interrelatedness of conc...

Criminological theories Week 40 What is a theory? Theory = an explanation to make sense of our observations about the world Generalizations Interrelatedness of concepts Conditions under which this relationship takes place PROBABILISTIC CAUSALITY EMPIRICAL VALIDITY Why know about criminological theories? Understanding why a person Formulating crime solutions commits (a) crime Classifications of criminological theories Theories of law and Theories of criminal criminal justice behaviour Study of lawmaking and law Study of lawbreaking enforcing Micro-theories Macro-theories Small-group or individual Differences across societies differences or major groups Social process Social structure theories theories Focus on individual or small- Focus on variations in social group processes or cultural makeup Classifications of criminological theories Biological Psychological Social Sociological psychological Classifications of criminological theories Rational actor model People have free will Crime is a rational choice Predestined actor model Certain internal and external factors influence behaviour Doctrine of determinism Victimised actor model The criminal is in a way victim of an unjust and unequal society Behaviour of the powerless are criminalised by the powerful Classifications of criminological theories Rational actor model → CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY Predestined actor model → +/- POSITIVIST SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY Victimised actor model → +/- CRITICAL AND RADICAL CRIMINOLOGY Rational actor model: Classical theories Basic premise in classical criminology People have free will Rational calculation of: Risk of pain, vs. Potential pleasure = DETERRENCE DOCTRINE Punishment should fit the crime, not the offender Key principles: Proportionality Certainty Celerity (swiftness) Rational choice theory ~ Economic theory: ‘Expected utility principle’ Key premises: 1. Most criminals are normal-reasoning people 2. People are able to accurately distinguish means and ends 3. People can calculate the likely costs and benefits of an action 4. If benefits outweigh costs, do it; if costs outweigh benefits, don’t do it 5. No consideration of prior causes, antecedents and structures necessary MODERN RATIONAL CHOICE THEORIES: “A sequence of choices has to made instead of just one simple choice. These choices are influenced by several social and psychological factors that individuals bring with them to the situation.” → Criminal motivations Routine activities theory CRIME OPPORTUNITY THEORIES: Not only taking into account the perceived costs and benefits of offending But also the specific conditions under which these costs and benefits are more likely to occur ROUTINE ACTIVITIES THEORY: “The probability that a violation will occur at any specific time and place is a function of the convergence of likely offenders and suitable targets in the absence of capable guardians” 1. Crime cannot be understood apart from the nature and distribution of opportunities for both criminal and noncriminal behaviour 2. When criminals find themselves in situations in which they have opportunities to commit crime, the decision to do so (or not) is a rational one Predestined actor model: Positivist theories Biological & biosocial theories Cesare Lombroso (19th century): Physiognomy First “scientific” approach to biological explanations Physical characteristics are indicative of criminal’s subordinate development → Criminals are born, not made (nature, not nurture) Due to advances in ‘biological sciences: the emergence of ‘biosocial criminology’ Human behaviour = interaction between biological factors and environmental factors Research domains: Neurobiology (biochemistry & neurophysiology) Genetics Behavioral genetics: relative influence of genetic vs non-genetic factors Molecular genetics: Which genes are related to human behaviour? Psychological theories PERSONALITY TRAIT THEORY PERSONALITY TYPE THEORY Serious criminal violations spring from an aberrant personality → PSYCHOPATHY vv Social process theories: Social learning theory DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY Criminal behaviour patterns are acquired/learned through processes of interaction and communication with others Excess of ‘definitions favourable to law violations’ over unfavourable definitions Variations depending on ‘the modalities of association’: priority, duration, and importance SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY Further specification of the mechanisms of ‘learning’ (mainly “operant conditioning”) 1. Differential association 2. Definitions 3. Imitation 4. Differential reinforcement Social process theories: social bonding and control theories SOCIAL CONTROL THEORIES = social controls prevent us from committing crimes SOCIAL BONDING THEORY SELF-CONTROL THEORY Social structure theories: Social disorganization theory SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION = The inability of a community to regulate itself A breakdown in social control through rapid change Creates ‘criminal traditions’ Social structure theories: anomie and strain theory ANOMIE: A social condition in which ‘normlessness’ prevails “When systems of regulation and restraint in society have diminished so much that individuals suffer a loss of external guidance and control in their goal-seeking endeavours” STRAIN THEORY DEVIANT SUBCULTURE THEORY A lack of fit between socially desirable goals and the socially acceptalble means to achieve it Victimised actor model: Labelling theory, Marxist theories, and Critical theories  Labelling theory It is not the intrinsic nature of an act, but the nature of the societal reaction that determines whether a ‘crime’ has MORAL PANICS taken place Deviant behaviour = behaviour that people so label Rules are made by people with power and enforced disproportionally upon the less powerful Branding persons with stigmatising labels results more from who they are than from what they have done → SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY (“amplifies” deviance) Marxist theories Key idea = capitalism is ‘criminogenic’ The economic system of capitalism creates/breeds crime The ruling class uses the law to perpetuate its position of power Crime = Resistance by the disenfranchised against the capitalist order (Marx) Result of working conditions and destruction of family life of the poor (Engels) Willem Bonger: Crime is produced by the ‘capitalist organisation of society’: It induces “egoistic tendencies”: encourages greed and selfishness It fails to promote “social instincts”, that would otherwise prevent egoistic thoughts from leading to egoistic acts What determined whether an act was classified as criminal was the act’s relationship to the economically determined social order Critical (or radical) criminology Challenges the androcentrism of criminology ‘Malestream’ criminology fails to understand the significance of gender and sex roles (structured within patriarchy) Do existing male-focused theories also apply to women? Do we have a gendered justice? Interprets criminal behaviour and societies’ responses from a cultural perspective Crime and deviance = socially constructed by individuals/groups as response to the context in which they live and the meaning the acts have for their lives in a situated moment of time Role of emotion, images and symbols → SEDUCTIONS OF CRIME: relationship between doing crime and emotional state of the offender Reconstruction of criminal events as they are experienced by offenders Focus on the ‘foreground’ of crime: seductions and compulsions