Criminological Theories PDF

Class One: ​ What is a theory? ​ A theory is a set of interconnected statements or propositions that explain how two or more events or factors are related to one another ○​ Interconnected - provided explanation within context of the research ○​ Shows relationships bet...

Class One: ​ What is a theory? ​ A theory is a set of interconnected statements or propositions that explain how two or more events or factors are related to one another ○​ Interconnected - provided explanation within context of the research ○​ Shows relationships between to two (or more) ○​ Connected in a social phenomenon ​ Theories are proposed explanations to problems or questions ○​ How and why ○​ Trying to make sense of certain social realities ○​ Trying to answer certain questions ​ They also help provide answers or guidance as to why things are the way they are ​ Criminological theories provide tentative explanations as to why crimes are committed, who commits them, and about the formal and informal social control system. ○​ formal= police, criminal code, laws, etc ○​ Informal = intimate groups (peers), religion, culture, family (who governs our behaviour ) ​ Theories are statements about relationships between actual events, about what is and what will be and not about what ought to be ○​ Theories don't tell us how to live our life, focus on lived reality Types of Criminological Theory ​ Classifications of Criminological Theory ○​ Theories of LAw and Criminal Justice ​ Focus on role of criminal law ​ Effectiveness of Gladue report (what theories would you rely on) ○​ Theories of criminal and deviant behavior ​ More theories then law and criminal justice ​ Theories of Law and Criminal Justice ○​ Theories of law and criminal justice are used to explain the making and enforcing of criminal law ​ These theories deal with the law and how it is created ​ These theories answer questions by proposing that social, political, and economic variables affect the legislation of law and decisions. ​ They also deal with who decides what is ‘normal’ behavior and what is criminal behavior ​ Theories of Criminal And Deviant Behavior ○​ Theories of criminal and deviant behavior are composed of: ​ Macro and micro or ​ Structural and processual  ○​ Macro theories - cover major groups of people such as a society (structural issues, structural components) ​ These types of theories try to explain why there are different groups (macro) with criminal activity ​ Focus on broad aspects such as economy, employment, institutional barriers, etc ○​ Micro theories - cover small groups of people and possibly even individuals ​ Why some individuals are more likely to commit crimes Criteria for Evaluating Theory 1.​ Logical Consistency a.​ The theory must make sense, meaning that the central idea is clear and concise 2.​ Scope a.​ The overall area to which the theory can be applied b.​ A good theory accounts for a wide range of behavior than a limited range 3.​ Parsimony (Simplicity) a.​ Deals with the simplicity of the theory to explain criminal behavior. Not complex sets of propositions but few that explain the widest range of phenomena b.​ Scope and parsimony work closely together because it implies that theory explain crime in detail with simplicity 4.​ Testability a.​ This means one must be able to repeat the evidence to try and support the theory i.​ If a theory cannot be tested against empirical findings, it has no scientific value ii.​ Theories can be not testable; not all concepts must be directly measurable for a theory to be testable, but one must be able to relate the concepts and propositions in a logical and clear way to measurable phenomena 5.​ Empirical Validity a.​ The most important criterion for a theory b.​ Supports the theory through scientific evidence; if a theory cannot be supported, it is not valid 6.​ Usefulness and Policy Implications a.​ Some have done more damage than good Class Three: The Emergence of Labeling Theory ​ The social, cultural and political context of the 1960s in the US set the stage for the emergence of a different criminological thought. These contexts included: ○​ The civil rights movement: calling attention to disparities by race in all aspects of social and political life, and demanding change  ​ Civil rights act of 1964 - banned segregation in public places and employment discrimination ​ Voting right of 1965 ​ Assassination of Kennedy in 1961, Malcolm X in 1965, and Martin Luther King in 1965 ○​ Women's right movement: gender equality ○​ Protests and times of great unrest in the US society: Vietnam war, riot in Attica in 1971, and many of the scholars emerging as labelling theories were graduates of the Chicago school ​ Chicago school - first school to apply the method of data collection, data analysis, which were based on scientific methods but they applied it to social life ○​ Youth culture: Elvis Presley a new cultural form, the birth of rock and roll music, fashion, appearance and activities ○​ Social scientists: rethink their conception of society, social order, and deviancy Labeling Perspective ​ Labeling perspective were introduced in the 1960s and 70s ​ Labeling perspective challenge positive criminology (biological, psychological or sociological) by arguing that: ○​ Crime is: ​ Not an ‘objective’ phenomenon but subjective meaning is given to a particular behavior ​ A social process (meaning given to events depend on negotiated definitions ​ The outcome of human interaction Social Context ​ The rise of labeling perspectives accompanied intellectual currants that critiques the following dominant image of western society in the 1950s: ○​ Society shared collective interests ○​ There is a consensus in society on core values ○​ Capitalism brings economic prosperity for everyone ○​ There are common standards of ‘deviance’ and ‘conformity’ Societal Reaction Theories as critical Criminology ​ Societal reaction theories are said to be critical theories of criminology and hence 1.​ Provide ‘a critique of orthodox of mainstream criminological theories’ a.​ Critique of the deterministic nature of the postivist theories and classical theories 2.​ Have ‘ann anti-essentialist conception of human identity, including deviant identity’  a.​ There is no intrinsic quality; rejects the idea that categories with which we make sense of human identity have identifiable trains such as criminal/non-criminal, normal/abnormal, fallacy of gender and race differences b.​ Focus on social construction and the role of power, language, discourse, symbols, interactions, and reaction in the creation of meaning and categories 3.​ Describe deviance as the product of social construction a.​ Deviance and crime are socially constructed phenomenon, it is the created of laws and its application that a person/group get the label of ‘criminal’ (crime does not automatically appear in the CC but those in power write and enact laws), police and the CJS official enforce, apply, and interpret law and common to all is human factor b.​ Examples of acts/behaviours/category/people who deem criminal/ crime is the past vs. now? i.​ Ex. abortion laws 4.​ Have an ideological view that the deviance and its control are inextricably linked to power dynamics in society Class Four Historical Development ​ Societal reaction theories were influenced by social psychology, phenomenology and ethnomethodology, which are all strongly linked to symbolic interactionist perspective ○​ Phenomenology: a sociological approach in seeking to reveal how human awareness is implicated in the production of social actions, social situations, and social world ​ Emphasizes the socially constructed nature of social phenomena ​ Gender across different societies; socially constructed ○​ Ethnomethodology: Study of people practices and methods - how social world is built and rebuilt by people action and thought Symbolic Interaction ​ Blumer 91962) outlines the components of symbolic interaction based on Herbert Meat: ○​ ‘Human being has a self’ ​ Act toward self - making indication to oneself - this is central mechanism with which human being faces and deals with the world ○​ Self: self develops as a results of constant stimuli from the outside world (outside messages builds the self) ​ Indication refers to taking notions of the stimuli *sound, words, gestures)  ​ To indicate something is to extricate it from its setting, to give it meaning or to make it into an ‘object’ (stimuli vs. object) ​ The object uses the product of the individual disposition to act. This is the process of interpretation. The meaning given to the interpretation of the stimuli constructs the object Symbolic Interaction and the role of “Self” ​ ‘Self’: how one sees her/himself (depends on how other perceive us) ○​ Two important aspects of ‘I’ by Mead ○​ First is the recognition that roles and rules play a crucial part in the formation of the ‘self’ ○​ Second, ‘self’ interpret the role and rules and reacts to them and act back on the environment ​ Individuals respond to situations by reading symbols (gestures or words) around the ​ The self does not just simply respond to events. It is built through social interaction ​ We collectively construct reality into typifications (signs and symbols that each of us interpret the same way) ​ Human beings role play by taking on the role of ‘the other’ Symbolic Interaction ​ The meanings of things arise out of social interaction ​ Human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols and by interpretation ○​ Symbols: is ‘as a thing, the value or meaning of which is bestowed upon it by those who use it’: language, gestures, cultural norms, values, signifies…. ​ Humans act towards things based on the meanings those things have for them. This is rooted in socialization process ​ Many of the human interaction/actions aligns with others due to socialization processes ​ Meanings are created and changed through a process of interpretation ​ Symbolic interactionism rests on notion that: 1.​ Humans act towards things based on the meanings those things have for them 2.​ The meanings of things arise out of social interaction Class five: Labeling Theory ​ ‘Deviance is not a quality of the act, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’ ○​ No act is deviant in of itself - the the act of labeling which makes it so ​ He questions positivist criminology and its explanation of deviancy ○​ Homogency in society and social response to deviancy ​ According to becker, people are placed on the ‘outside’ because their particular behavior has been labeled so (by more powerful interest groups)  ​ Labeling theories suggest that self-reports and surveys indicate crime and victimization range across all classes, genders, and ethnic boundaries ​ Becker (1963) focused on people related to the margins of society ○​ Society has many groups, each with its own set of rules and people belonging to many groups simultaneously ​ Becker approached deviance from an occupational sociology approach ○​ Sociological study of organizations took a holistic approach, but criminology focused only on the criminal ​ He considered people whose ‘occupation’ was deemed deviant/criminal, as well as those whose occupation was catching criminals (social audience, CJS) ​ How did Becker study deviancy / how did it differ from the biological perspective??? ○​ Focused on occupation sociology, says people are bounded to different groups simultaneously Labeling Process (Howard S. Becker) ​ Howard Becker contends that society creates deviance and ‘outsides’ as such: ○​ That social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constitutes deviance ○​ By applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as an outsider ○​ Deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’ ○​ The deviant is one to whom that label has successfully been applied ○​ Deviant behavior is behavior that people so label ​ Not everyone gets the label ○​ It is the response that matter for without it, deviant behavior has not occured Becker: Labeling ​ How are outsiders chosen and labeled? ○​ Degree to which people react to a given act as deviant varies greatly 1.​ Variation over time (ex. Heightened societal attention of an issue) 2.​ Characteristics of individual doing the act a.​ Studies of juvenile delinquency: middle-class vs. lower-class boys or caucasian vs. african american even if the committed is the same offence 3.​ Response to victimization of some rather than others a.​ Less socially powerful b.​ Membership in group with different values from dominant group 4.​ Rule enforcement may depend on consequences (ex. Premarital sex punished when there is a pregnancy) ​ Deviance is not a quality that lies in the behavior itself but in the interaction between the person who commits an act and those who respond to it ​ Social rules are the creation of specific groups  ​ The rules that end up being broadly applied represent the rules of groups enjoying a power differential in society ​ Becker contends that deviance is not static ○​ The definition of deviance changes with social groups ○​ Deviance is not deviance until it is labeled as so ​ Reaction of groups of people matters Class six: Labelling Theory ​ What is the most important aspect of the labeling theory in the construction of deviant label ○​ Society's response; societal reaction ○​ Always need a reaction for the labeling to occur ​ Different social groups within society form their own operational rules ○​ Different groups judge different behaviours as deviant ​ Thus, the process of forming this reaction is intimately bound up with defining deviance ○​ Groups can have a range of potential reactions to rule-breaking, from ignoring it, to mild reaction, to outright scorn, to criminal proceedings ​ These groups of people can decide their reactions ​ Labeling theory is based on the first three; ignoring it, mild reaction, outright scorn; his theory does not talk about criminal proceedings ○​ Thus, deviance is created by society: not through causes such as ‘societal factors’, but my making the rules that govern behavior and reacting to certain rule-breaking by considering them deviant ​ The label can create deviant behavior by: ○​ Catching the attention of the social audience, which then watches more closely for deviance ​ Particularly those in occupations that deal with deviance ○​ Being internalized by the individual, who then accepts self-concept of deviance ​ Particularly lower-class individuals, who start off with fewer opportunities to make good in the conventional world, and accepts that crime is their only real option for success Becoming a Marihuana User: Becker (1963) ​ Becker studied - 50 qualitative interviews - and proposed a theory of the processes of how one learns to become a marijuana user. His focus on the social process and not psychological, character trains, and on deviant careers  ​ The legal context of his time: use of marijuana was severely punishable by 2-5 years for first offence, 5-10 years for second offence and 10-20 years for third (Act of 1952 and subsequence Act of 1956) ​ The cultural context of his time; “Reefer Madness’ - Marijuana use was associated with violent behavior and regarded as immoral ​ The use of marijuana occurs in social settings: the novice (the first-time user) must learn to overcome barriers (social controls) in order to continue to maintain their career (use) ○​ Barries: social controls (policing and laws), personal beliefs (peer pressure) ​ Becker describes these barriers as: ○​ Restricted supply access ○​ Hiding use from nonusers: secrecy ○​ Definition of use as (im)moral ​ Feeling of betraying your parents, etc. ○​ **** user may not escalate or continue the drug use on regular basis Becoming a Marijuana user: Focus is only on recreational marijuana use ​ Learning the techniques to produce real effect ​ Experience the effects ​ Perceiving the effects as enjoyable and pleasurable Becoming a Marihuana User: Becker (1964) ​ At the core of this framework are two separate, albeit overlapping, learning processes that users must master is they wish to become regular consumers of the drug 1.​ On the one hand, movie users must learn to navigate the social, cultural, and political climate of being a ‘deviant’ a.​ For example, they must learn the vocabulary and cultural nuances of a deviant social group, techniques to avoid being ostracized by people who disapprove of their lifestyle, and how to conceal their use form agents of control (Becker, 1963) 2.​ Additionally, they must learn the proper way to consume the drug and perceive its effects as pleasurable - the theoretical aspect