Sociological Mainstream Theories PDF

Lecture Notes Chapter 7: Sociological Mainstream Theories Learning Objectives Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime. Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a lear...

Lecture Notes Chapter 7: Sociological Mainstream Theories Learning Objectives Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime. Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process. Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories. Summarize how criminality changes over the life course. Identify the connection between sociological mainstream theories and crime policy. Annotated Chapter Outline Anomie Theories Anomie: Émile Durkheim Primacy of groups and social organizations as explanatory factors of human misconduct. Crime is a normal part of society. Deviance from moral boundaries is defined as crime. Anomie: a moral confusion or breakdown in mores or a gap between goals and means in society. Anomie can be caused by: A failure by individuals to internalize norms. Inability to adjust to changing norms. Conflict within norms. Social trends in modern urban-industrial societies lead to anomie Individual ambitions are beyond achievement even in times of prosperity. Durkheim’s work created a school of criminological anomie theories. Merton’s Theory of Anomie Strain theory: Anomie exists when there is a strain between societal aspirations and achievement. Crime occurs when individuals try to meet aspirations without adequate resources. Cultural values that have desirable consequences often also produce undesirable  consequences. Modes of Personality Adaptation Modes of personality adaptation: part of Merton’s theory of anomie that results in personality adaptations: conformist, innovator, ritualist, retreatist, and rebel. Conformists accept both societally means and ends. Innovators reject the approved means but accept the ends. Ritualists place too much emphasis on the means and forget the desired ends. Retreatists reject both societally approved means and ends. Rebels reject and seek to replace societally approved means and ends. A Critique of Merton’s Theory He ignores the pluralistic and heterogenous nature of U.S. cultural values. Theory fails to consider lawbreaking among the elite. Theory does not address violent crime. Strain theory does not match with empirical research. Various attempts to revise strain theory. Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) Strain is caused by people feeling mistreated in negative relationships. Crime occurs when a person reacts negatively to strain without good coping resources. Strain is most likely to cause crime when it is: High in magnitude. Viewed as unjust. Linked to low social control. Can be resolved by offending. Strain is experienced when: A person is prevented from achieving positively valued goals. Positively valued stimuli are removed or threatened to be removed. A person is presented or threatened with noxious or negatively valued  stimuli. Empirical evidence for Agnew’s theory is mixed. Subcultural Theories Subcultural theories: theories that view the type of crime as due to various forms of delinquent subcultures. Study of juvenile gangs in the 1960s. Cohen’s Lower-Class Reaction Theory Lower-class reaction theory: Cohen’s theory that delinquency involves a lower- class reaction to unachievable middle-class values. Lower-class delinquency is nonutilitarian, malicious, and negativistic. A Critique of Cohen’s Theory Overconcentration on lower/working-class delinquency. Assumption that lower-class boys are interested in middle-class values. Fails to address ethnic, family, and other sources of stress. Underplays the rational, for-profit nature of some juvenile crimes. Cloward and Ohlin’s Differential Opportunity Theory Differential opportunity theory: Cloward and Ohlin’s theory that crime takes place due to a lack of legitimate opportunity and is also due to the availability of legitimate opportunities. Delinquent Subcultures Criminal subculture occurs in stable neighborhoods where a hierarchy of available criminal opportunities exists. Theft, extortion, and property offenses are used to achieve goals. Conflict subculture exists in disorganized areas. Violence as a means of prestige. Retreatist subculture occurs when no legitimate or illegitimate opportunities exist. Drug use to distract from the situation. Critique of Differential Opportunity Theory Focuses exclusively on delinquent gangs and youth from lower-class backgrounds. Unlikely that delinquent subcultures neatly align with the three  categories. Delinquent gangs more complex and varied than theory claims. Social Process Theories Criminality is a learned or culturally transmitted process. The Chicago School Chicago School: a school of sociology in the 1920s and 1930s that produced many urban ecological and ethnographic studies of Chicago. Reason for crime is based on the environment, not people. Human Ecology R.E. Park used the notion of individualization due to mobility. Human ecology: the study of the interrelationship between human organisms and the physical environment. Park: heterogeneous contact of racial and ethnic groups leads to competition. Natural areas: according to the Chicago school, these are subcommunities that emerge to serve specific, specialized functions. Burgess’s concentric zone theory: cities grow outward in concentric rings. Wirth’s theory of urbanism and antiurban bias in the Chicago school. Empirical orientation was the chief contribution of the Chicago school. Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory Social disorganization theory: Shay and McKay’s theory that crime is due to social disorganization and social breakdown of an area. Used concentric zone theory and natural areas to document the ecological impact on human behavior. Saw urban neighborhoods as producers of social disorganization and crime. Criminal attitudes socially transmitted in transitional zones. A Critique of Social Disorganization Theory Theories border on ecological determinism. Attempt to borrow biological concepts saddled criminology with unnecessary primitive concepts. Some studies commit ecological fallacy: a problem in which group rates are used  to describe individual behavior. Theories specific to Chicago, not all cities. Theories assume stable ecological areas, which do not exist. Problems operationalizing key concepts. Overemphasis on consensus in the community and lack of focus on conflict. Routine Activities Approach Cohen and Felson’s routine activities approach to crime causation. Number of criminal offenses related to the nature of everyday patterns of interaction. Hindelang et al.: an individual’s lifestyle places them in social settings with higher or lower probabilities of crime. Stark identified five aspects of high-deviance areas: density, poverty, mixed use, transience, and dilapidation. Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association Differential association theory: Sutherland’s theory that crime is learned due to exposure to an excess of contacts that advocate criminal behavior. Looking-glass self: Cooley’s theory of personality as a perceived perception of the reaction of others. Nine propositions of differential association theory: Criminal behavior is learned. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons. Criminal behavior is learned within intimate personal groups. Learning criminal behavior includes: Techniques of committing the crime. Specific direction of motives, rationalizations, and attitudes. Specific direction of motives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable. Delinquency is caused by an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law. Differential associations may vary. The process of learning criminal behavior involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.  Criminal behavior is not explained by needs and values because noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values. Contacts in Differential Association Contacts in differential association vary according to frequency, duration, priority, and intensity. A Critique of Differential Association Sutherland’s argument is often misinterpreted by critics. Sutherland only traces criminality to cultural conflict and social disorganization. It is difficult to empirically prove or disprove. It does not account for all forms of criminality. Fails to acknowledge the importance of non—face-to-face interactions. Burgess and Akers’ differential reinforcement (social learning) theory. Criminal behavior is learned through differential reinforcement. Miller’s Focal Concerns Theory Focal concerns: Miller’s theory of crime reflects an overemphasis on lower-class values: The focal concerns of lower-class culture emphasize trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy Lower-class individuals join gangs that overemphasize lower-class values and lead to crime due to a lack of opportunities. A Critique of Miller’s Theory Miller ignores middle and upper-class crime. Contributes to criticism that sociology ignores the deviance of the powerful. Assumes a distinctive lower-class culture different from middle-class values that may not exist. Matza’s Delinquency and Drift Theory Delinquency and drift: Matza’s theory is 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. Subterranean Values  Most delinquents are dabbling in and acting subterranean values: underground values that exist alongside conventional values. The delinquent may represent instead a disturbing reflection or caricature of society. Delinquents have poor training and timing in the expression of subterranean values. Techniques of Neutralization Techniques of neutralization: rationalizations (excuses) used by juveniles to explain away responsibility for their actions: Denial of responsibility. Denial of harm to anyone. Denial of harm to the victim. Condemning the condemners. Appeals to higher authority. A Critique of Matza’s Theory Empirical research on rationalizations of people who offend is inconclusive. Empirical evidence must show that neutralization takes place during the period of drift preceding the act, which has been difficult to operationalize. Social Control Theories Social control theories: view crime as taking place when social control or bonds to society break down: Crime does not need an explanation. Reckless’s Containment Theory Containment theory: Reckless’ theory that crime takes place when pressures are high and containment (protections) are low. Layers of Social Pressure External pressures push an individual toward criminality. Poor living conditions, adverse economic conditions, etc. External pulls draw individuals away from social norms. Bad companions, deviant subcultures, and media influences.  Internal pressures push an individual toward criminality. Inner tensions, feelings of inferiority or inadequacy, etc. Containments Inner containments: internalization of conventional behavioral values and the development of personality characteristics that enable one to resist pressures. Outer containments: family and near support systems that assist in reinforcing conventionality and insulating the individual from the assault of outside pressures. A Critique of Containment Theory Poor operationalization and weak methodology had plagued studies. Empirical specification of the process is problematic. Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory Social bond theory: people engage in criminality when their stakes in society are broken. Attachment: a bond to others and important institutions: Weak attachments connected to delinquency. Commitment: degree to which an individual maintains a vested interest in the social and economic system: People with high commitment are less likely to break law. Involvement: time spent on legitimate social and recreational activities: Too little involvement is connected to crime. Belief in the conventional norms and values limits criminal behavior. A Critique of Social Bond Theory Social bond theory is relatively well received and supported by many specific findings. Not concerned with the societal origin of crime. Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime Low self-control in the pursuit of self-interest causes crime. Self-control is developed through socialization, specifically parenting. Tries to explain all types of crime, not just low-class crime. Theory commits the global fallacy, the tendency to make a useful specific theory  of crime explain all crime. It does not explain all types of crime. Theory commits the fallacy of autonomy, to assume that what happens in the family is separate from other social forces. John Hagan’s Power Control Theory Power control theory: in egalitarian households, both boys and girls have more similar delinquency levels. Delinquency is risk-taking for fun. More parental control reduces delinquency. In traditional patriarchal households, boys are exposed to fewer controls than girls. In more egalitarian family structures the sexes have more similar delinquency levels. Developmental and Life Course (DLC) Theories Developmental and life course (DLC) theories: espouse the belief that criminal activity changes over an individual’s lifetime from onset to persistence to desistance. DCL theories address: The development of offending and antisocial behavior. Risk factors of delinquency or committing crime at different ages. Effects of life events on life course development. Theories apply to lower-class urban men in Western society. Farrington identifies 10 assumptions about offending that DLC theories must explain: Desistance: in life course criminality theory, the quitting or cessation of criminal activity: Caused by factors such as marriage, employment, or military service. Farrington’s Antisocial Potential (AP) Theory Antisocial potential (AP): Farrington’s notion that bad life events increase one’s antisocial disposition. Relatively few people have high AP. Long-term AP involves impulsiveness, strain, and life events, whereas short-term AP depends on situational and motivating factors. Social development model (SDM) explores the balance between antisocial and prosocial bonding.  Life course persisters (LCP) versus adolescence-limited offenders (AL). Integrated social control theory: bonding and personality affect modeling and constraints that influence offending. Sampson and Laub’s Life Course Criminality Social interaction with adult institutions of social control, particularly jobs, and marital relations inhibits crime. Trajectories and transitions are key components in life course theory. Antisocial behavior is associated with a variety of later adult misconduct. The importance of social controls varies across the life course. When social bonds are weakened, delinquency increases. Desistance worked for even people who are most active in offending and life course persisters. Crime-Reduction Programs Mainstream sociological theories are primarily concerned with how criminal values are transmitted. Social policies that address poverty, the lack of opportunities, better neighborhoods, education, families, unemployment, and other factors of social disorganization will reduce crime.