criminology quiz 2

preventing crimes

-rational-choice theory provides the foundation for designing situational crime techniques, and their classification -the knowledge of how, when, and where to implement specific measures that will alter a particular situation to prevent crime

anne campbell's female gang research

-*suggest that females join gangs for the same reasons as males: -*mutual support, protection, and a sense of belonging -they too gain status by living up to the value system of their gang -gang research suggests increased female participation in gangs and related activities

criticism of Merton's theory

-*the concentration of crime in the lower levels of the socioeconomic hierarchy neglects crime committed by the middle and upper class -some criticize whether a society as heterogeneous as ours really has goals on which everyone agrees -it cannot explain why there is so much useless, destructive behavior

strain theory

-*argues that all members of society subscribe to a set of cultural values, the values of the middle class -not sudden social change, but a social structure that holds out the same goals without giving the equal means to achieve them -assumes that people are law-abiding but when under great pressure will resort to crime -disparity between goals and means provides that pressure

criticisms of the social disorganization theory

-*criticized for too much focus on how crime patterns are transmitted and not how they start in the first place -does not account for the aging-out phenomenon -does not explain why most people who live in these areas do not commit crime -does not explain why some bad neighborhoods are insulated from crime -does not explain middle-class delinquency

social disorganization theory

-*focuses on the development of high-crime areas in which there is a disintegration of conventional values caused by rapid industrialization, increased immigration, and urbanization -*It maintains that people learn to commit crime as a result of contact with antisocial values, attitudes, and criminal behavior patterns

tests of Merton's theory

-*greatest proportion of crime will be found in the lower classes -researchers disagree on the relationships these have with regards to crime -social class and crime- but it doesn't explain why everyone in the lower class doesn't commit crime

retreatist gangs

-*have members that have been unsuccessful in the legitimate and illegitimate worlds or organized criminal activity and violence-oriented gangs -*members are labeled double failures -this subculture is characterized by getting high through alcohol, sexual experiences, weed, hard drugs

target-hardening techniques

-*measures such as steering-column locks, vandal-resistant construction, street lighting

social bonds evaluation

-*seeks to explain delinquency, not adult crime -fails to clearly define affective values, beliefs, norms, and attitudes that inhibit delinquency -fails to describe the chain of events that results in defective or inadequate bonds

labeling theory

-1950s- supreme court, lots of deviancy -labeling theorists explored how and why certain acts and people were defined as criminal or deviant and others were not -*the reactions of other people and the subsequent effects of those reactions create deviance -*as more people think of these people as deviant and respond to them accordingly, the deviants react to the response by continuing to engage in the behavior society now expects of them -*the primary concern of labeling theorists is the consequences of making and enforcing rules/laws

general strain theory: three types of events

-3 types of strain-producing events: -strain caused by failure to achieve positively valued goals -stress caused by the removal of a positively valued stimuli from the individual (loss of someone) -strain caused by the presentation of negative stimuli (child abuse)

subcultural theories

-Albert Cohen- student of Merton and Sutherland -explains how a delinquent subculture rises, where it is found within social structure, and why it has certain characteristics -delinquent subcultures emerge in the slum areas of larger cities -delinquent behavior is rooted in class differentials in parental aspirations, child-rearing practices, and classroom standards -the relative position of a kids family in the social structure determines the problems the child will have to face throughout their life -in school, lower-class children are evaluated by middle-class teachers on the basis of a middle-class measuring rod -lower-class children fall short, experience status frustration and strain -as a result of frustration and strain, children respond by adapting one of three roles: 1. corner boys 2. college boys 3. delinquent boys

personal and social control

-Albert Reiss -delinquency is the result of: -failure to internalize socially accepted and prescribed norms and behavior -a breakdown of internal controls -a lack of social rules that prescribe behavior in the family, the school, and other important social groups

observational learning

-Alberta Bandura: argues that individuals learn violence and aggression through behavior modeling -children learn how to behave by fashioning their behavior after that of others -behavior is socially transmitted through examples, which come primarily from family, subculture, and mass media

rational choice perspective

-Clark and Cornish -*based on utilitarianism -*assumes that people make decisions with the goal of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain -*based on traditional economic choice theory, which argues that people will evaluate the options and choose what they believe will satisfy their needs -a person decides to commit a crime after concluding the benefits outweigh the risks and effort -*assumes that people make decisions with a goal in mind and these are done with free will -*looks at crime in terms of an offender's decision to commit a specific offense at a particular time and place

differential opportunity

-Cloward and Ohlin -agree that conventional means to conventional success are not equally distributed among the socioeconomic classes -that lack of means causes frustration for lower-class youths and the criminal behavior is culturally transmitted -Unlike Cohen, they suggest that lower-class delinquents remain goal-oriented -opportunities for illegitimated success are no more equally distributed than those of conventional success-the type of delinquent behavior they engage in depends on the illegitimate opportunities available to them -the types of subcultures and gangs that flourish within them depend on the types of neighborhoods in which they develop -say three are three types of gangs -not all lower class kids who are unable to reach society's goals become members of these three types of gangs -many choose to accept their situation and to live within its constraints (like Cohen's corner boys)

routine-activity approach

-Cohen and Felson -*a crime can occur only if there is someone who intends to commit a crime (likely offender) -*something or someone to be victimized (a suitable target) -*no other person present to prevent or observe the crime (absence of a capable guardian) -*no person to control the activities of the offender (personal handler)

social control and drift

-David Matza -says that juveniles sense a moral obligation to be bound by the law -*when that bond is not present, the youth may enter into a state of drift, or a period of when they exist in limbo between conventional behavior and criminal behavior, postponing commitment to either lifestyle

anomie and suicide

-Durkheim introduced the concept of anomie in a discussion of suicide -suicide rates increased during times of sudden economic change, whether that change was major depression or unexpected prosperity -abruptly thrown into unfamiliar situations -anomie can develop whenever the rules that once guided behavior have changed

basic assumptions

-Edwin Lemert- 1940s -two kinds of deviant acts: -primary deviations: the initial deviant acts that bring on the first social response, these acts do not affect the person's self-concept -secondary deviations: the acts that follow the societal response to the primary deviation, that are of major concern, result from the change in the self-concept brought upon by the labeling process

differential association theory

-Edwin Sutherland -people learn to commit crime as the result of contact with criminal values, attitudes, definitions, and criminal behavior patterns -relied heavily on Shaw and McKay: delinquency is transmitted within a community from one generation to the next -nine propositions that explain the process of the transmission of values

victim-offender interaction

-Marvin Wolfgang -victim precipitation- refers to the situations where victims initiate the confrontations that lead to their death -as many as 1/4 to 1/2 of intentional homicides are victim precipitated

structural-functionalist perspective

-Emile Durkheim -human conduct did not lie in the individual but in group or social organization -*anomie: the breakdown of social order as the result of the loss of standards and values (suicide) -*believed that rapid social change caused crime -as a simple society transforms into a modern, urbanized society, the intimacy needed to sustain a common set of norms declines -the decline of the intimacy and solidarity of simple societies results in anomie

differential association (reinforcement)

-Ernest Burgess and Ronald Akers -*the persistence of criminal behavior depends on whether or not it is rewarded or punished -the most meaningful rewards and punishments are those given by groups that are important to an individual's life (peer group, family, etc.)

conditioning theory

-Hans J Eysenck -all human personality may be seen in three dimensions: -1. psychoticism: aggressive, impulsive -2. extroversion: dominant and assertive -3. neuroticism: low self-esteem, anxiety, mood swings -humans develop a conscience through conditioning -ex. dog being house trained

general theory of crime

-Hirschi and Gottfredson -model of personal and social control designed to explain an individual's propensity to commit crime -*assumes that the offenders have little control over their own behavior and desires -crime is a function of poor self-control

moral development

-Lawrence Kohlberg -Moral reasoning develops in three phases: -*1. Preconventional level: children's moral rules and moral values consist of do's and don'ts to avoid punishment (until age 9-11) -*2. conventional level: individuals believe in and have adopted the values and rules of society (11-20) -*3. post-conventional level: individuals examine customs and social rules according to their own sense of universal human rights, moral principles, and duties (after age 20) -according to Kohlberg, most delinquents and criminals function at the pre-conventional level -he has argued that basic moral principles and social norms are learned through social interaction and role-playing

general strain theory

-Robert Agnew revised Merton's theory to provide a broader explanation of criminal behavior -not only the failure to achieve material goals but related to the anger and frustration when people are treated the way they expect in a social situation -each type of strain increases feelings of anger, fear, or depression -this theory acknowledges that not everyone who experiences strain becomes a criminal -many are equipped to cope with their frustration and anger -the capacity to deal with strain depends on personal experiences throughout life

theory of anomie

-Robert Merton -argues that in a class-oriented society, opportunities to get to the top are not equally distributed, with very few members of the lower class ever reaching the top -emphasizes the importance of two elements in society: -cultural aspirations, or goals that people believe are worth striving for -institutionalized means or accepted ways to attain the desired ends -for society to be stable, these two elements must be fairly well integrated -disparity between goals and means fosters frustration, which leads to strain -explains crime in the US in terms of the wide disparities in income among the various classes -high rate of deviant behavior in the US cannot be explained solely on the basis of lack of means

modes of adaptation

-Robert Merton -not everyone that is denied access to goals becomes deviant -conformity: most common, individuals accept the culturally defined goals and the prescribed means for achieving those goals -innovation: individuals accept society's goals, but design their own means for achieving them, albeit many illegal -ritualism: abandon society's goals and resign themselves to their present lifestyles, they play by the rules -retreatism: adaptation of people who give up both the goals and the means and retreat into the world of drug or alcohol addiction -rebellion: occurs when both the cultural goals and the legitimate means are rejected, many individuals substitute their own goals and their own means

personality and crime

-Samuel Yochelson and Stanton Samenow: The criminal personality book -criminals share abnormal thinking patterns that lead to decisions to commit crimes -angry people who feel a sense of superiority and glorified self-image -any perceived attack on their self-image elicits a strong reaction, often a violent one

institutional imbalance and crime

-Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld- Crime and teh American Dream -agree with Merton that the goal of material success is pervasive in American culture -the American dream encourages high-crime rates by suggesting that individuals should succeed by any means necessary, even if those means are illegitimate

learning aggression and violence

-social learning theory maintains that the delinquent behavior is learned through the same psychological processes as any other behavior -observational learning -direct experience -differential reinforcement -behavior is learned when it is reinforced or rewarded, it is not learned when it is not reinforced

focal concerns

-Walter Miller -hypothesizes that juvenile delinquency is not rooted in the rejection of middle-class values, it stems from lower-class culture which has its own value system -this value system has evolved as a response to living in disadvantaged neighborhoods characterized by single-parent households -gang norms are the adolescent expression of the lower-class culture

containment theory

-Walter Reckless -assumes that for every individual, there exists a containing external structure and a protective internal structure, both of which provide defense, protection, or insulation against delinquency

social bonds

-Travis Hirishi 1969 -microsociological perspective -assumed four social bonds that promote socialization and conformity -the stronger these bonds, the less likelihood of delinquency ***1. attachment- to parents, teachers, peers (amount of time spent, intimacy of communication, and affectional identification) *2. commitment- to conventional lines of action including vocational aspirations, educational expectations and aspirations *3. involvement: with activities that promote interests of society (involvement in school activities, busy= no time for crime) *4. belief: consists of agreement of society's value system

an integrated theory

-Wilson and Hernstein -choice between crime and conventional behaviors is closely linked to individual behavior and psychological traits and to social factors -behavior results from a person's perception of the potential rewards and/or punishments that go along with a criminal act

the subculture of violence

-Wolfgang and Ferracuti -sought to explain violent criminal behavior among lower-class young urban males -*argue that some subculture's behavior norms are dictated by a value system that demands the use of force or violence -violence is not used in all situations, but it is frequently an expected response -*violence is not considered to be antisocial, may be reprimanded for not using violence -members of this subculture feel no guilt about their aggression

XYY syndrome

-XYY male receives 2 chromosomes from his father rather than one -1 in 1,000 males have this -*XYY inmates tended to be more aggressive, taller, and violent -recent studies have discontinued the relation between the extra Y chromosome and criminality -one problem is separating the environmental factors from the genetic predispositions with which they begin to interact at birth

delinquency and drift mechanisms

-adolescents justify their delinquent acts by developing techniques to rationalize their actions -these techniques are defense mechanisms that release the youth from the constraints of the moral order: 1. denial of responsibility 2. denial of injury 3. denial of the victim (anyone would have done it in the same situation) 4. condemnation of the condemner (judge has done worse) 5. appeal to higher loyalties (friends were depending on me)

consensus model

-assumes the members of society for the most part agree on what is right and wrong, and that law is the codification of these shared social values -the law is a mechanism to settle disputes that arise when individuals stray too far away from what the community considers acceptable

John Bowlby

-attachment theory -in order to be securely attached, a child must experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with a mother figure -if a child is separated from its mother, or rejected, anxious attachment develops, which affects the capacity to develop intimate relationships with others -habitual criminals typically have an inability to form bonds of affection

delinquent boys

-band together to form a subculture in which they define status in ways that seem attainable -*reaction formation: a mechanism that relieves anxiety through the process of rejecting with abnormal intensity what one wants but cannot obtain -these boys turn the middle-class norms upside-down, making conduct right in their subculture because it is wrong by norms of the larger culture -their delinquent acts serve no useful purpose, pleasure seeking, they steal for delight to see discomfort in breaking taboos

goegraphy of crime

-based on idea of hot spots -a large amount of crime occurs at a small number of places that have specific characteristics

social control theories

-based on the assumption that the motivation to commit crime is a part of human nature

mental disorders and crime

-between 20% and 60% of state prison populations suffer from a type of mental disorder -in the 1800s would be considered "madness without confusion"

hotspots of crime

-certain types of crimes are committed in specific places -efforts to prevent victimization should be focused on the place and not the potential victim -in 1986, in Minneapolis, a study found that 3% of the addresses and intersections were the subjects of 50% of the calls received

explanations of middle class delinquency

-changes in the social structure have weakened the value traditionally associated with delay of gratification -many come from broken or unstable homes, problems stem from divorce, abuse, drug or alcohol addictions, and lack of parental involvement

origins of the labeling theory

-comes from a group of scholars known as social interactionists -viewed the human self as formed through a process of social interaction -labelling separates the good from the bad, the conventional from the deviant

personal and social control- Toby

-complimentary role of neighborhood social disorganization and an individual's own stake in conformity -differing stakes in conformity, or correspondence of behavior to society's patterns, norms, or standards, is what accounts for the difference in why one person in a neighborhood may offend while another does not -reminds researchers that when attempting to explain crime, there should be a discussion of group-level and individual-level explanations

violence and genes

-controversy over a genetic basis for violent behavior -no one has found any direct link between genes and violence -the controversial issue is the implications of such finding -if 1 in 15 will be violent, do you tell all 15 parents? -how would research findings be used by policy makers?

criticisms of biocriminology

-denies the existence of individual free will -racist undertones -unfairly deemphasizes social and economic factors that may attribute to criminality -raises the seminal argument of social and behavioral science: is human behavior the product of nature or nurture

cultural deviance theories

-deviance is defined as any behavior that members of a social group define as violating their norms -*society is made up of various groups and subgroups, each with its own standards of right and wrong -cultural deviance theories claim that the lower-class people have a different set of values, which tend to conflict with the values of the middle-class

criminal gangs

-emerge in areas where conventional and illegitimate values and behavior are integrated by a close connection of illegitimate and legitimate businesses

conflict gangs

-emerge in neighborhoods characterized by transience and instability, which offer few opportunities to get ahead in organized criminal activities -*goal is to gain a reputation for toughness and destructive violence -arise in lower-class areas where neither criminal nor conventional adult role models exercise much control over youngsters

situational theories of crime

-environmental criminology -rational-choice perspective -routine-activity approach -often referred to as opportunity theories -analyze the various situations that provide opportunities for specific crimes to occur

environmental criminology

-examines the location of a specific crime and the context in which it occurred in order to understand and explain crime patterns -where and when the crime occurred -what are the physical and social characteristics of the crime site -what movements bring offender and target together at the crime site -*unlike traditional criminological theories, it assumes that some people are criminally motivated (going to commit crime)

college boys

-few college boys on the corner -strive to live up to middle-class standards -their chances for success are limited because of academic and social hardships

the IQ debate

-historically, the results of IQ tests administered to incarcerated criminals revealed low IQ (1915) -over past century, criticism against the usefulness of IQ tests, and the relationship between IQ and offending has mounted -1950- Sutherland made a strong argument against IQ tests, suggesting that social and environmental factors caused delinquency, not low IQ -1997- Travis Hirschi and Michael Hindelang concluded that IQ is an even more important factor in predicting crime than either social class or race

six focal concerns

-focal concerns to which lower-class males give persistent attention: 1. trouble 2. toughness 3. smartness 4. excitement 5. luck 6. autonomy

macrosociological studies

-focus on formal systems -explores legal system, powerful groups, social and economic directive of government

microsociological studies

-focus on informal systems -data based on individuals -examines a person's internal control system

social control theory

-focuses on techniques and strategies that regulate human behavior and lead to conformity, or obedience to society's rules -the influences of family, school, religious beliefs, moral values, friends, and government -emerged in the 1900s by E.A. Ross (founder of american sociology) -belief systems control our behavior -two theories: micro and macro sociological studies

culture conflict theory

-focuses on the source of these criminal norms and attitudes -different groups learn different conduct norms and the conduct norms of some groups may clash with conventional middle-class rules -*primary conflict: when norms of two cultures clash (two neighboring communities) -secondary conflict: occurs when a single culture evolves into a variety of cultures, each with its own set of conduct norms

biochemical factors

-food allergies -diet, link criminality to diets high in sugar and carbs, vitamin deficiency, excessive food additives -low blood sugar -hormones

middle class delinquency

-gang lifestyle is moving into suburban areas -delinquent gangs- similar to inner city gangs, criminal activities include physical assaults, theft, burglary, and distribution of illegal drugs

getting out of gangs

-gangs, through loyalty or terror, make it almost impossible for members to quit -if you try to leave, you are either beaten or killed -many gang members would gladly get out

corner boys

-hang out in neighborhood with peer group, spending the day in group activity -try to make best of a bad situation -most lower-class boys become corner boys -eventually, they get menial jobs and live conventional lifestyles

theories of victimization

-have been developed to understand crime from the victim's perspective, or with the victim in mind

gangs

-many gangs have transitioned from turf-orientated to profit-driven organizations -they control a significant portion of the illicit drug market to include smuggling, transportation, and wholesale distribution -between 50-70% of gang members have access to weapons

satanic gangs

-middle class gang -affiliated with satanic cults

hate gangs

-middle class gang -attach themselves to an ideology that targets racial and ethnic groups

evaluation of differential association theory

-much of the criticism stems from misinterpretation (prolonged contact with criminals for correction officers) -some question whether this theory explains all types of crime -suggests that there is an inevitability about the process of becoming a criminal

Shaw and McKay's Social Disorganization Theory

-rates of delinquency persisted in the same areas of Chicago over the extended period from 1900-1933, even though the ethnic composition changed -the crucial factor was not ethnicity, but rather the position of the group in terms of economic status and cultural values -*found that delinquency was socially learned behavior, transmitted from one generation to the next in disorganized urban areas -*this phenomenon is called cultural transmission

psychology and criminality

-psychological development -moral development -maternal deprivation and attachment theory -learning aggression and violence -personality

maternal deprivation and attachment theory

-research indicates that shortly after birth, mammals form an emotional bond between infant and mother -the strength of that bond or attachment will affect the child's social development and ability to form attachments in the future -John Bowly: seven features of attachment

female delinquent subcultures

-researchers are focusing attention on two types of female gangs: -gangs that are affiliates of male gangs -gangs that consist of all females

Twin studies

-researchers compared identical and fraternal twins to determine whether or not crime is genetically predetermined -*chance of there being a criminal twin when the other twin was criminal was 50% for identical and 20% for same-sex fraternal twins -this finding lends some support to the hypothesis that some genetic influences increase the risk of criminality -weakness of this research is that it may not be valid to assume a common environment for all twins who grow up in the same house at the same time

interconnectedness of sociological theories

-seek to uncover reasons for differences in crime rate in the social environment -sociological theories can be grouped into three categories: (strain theory, cultural deviance theory, and social control theories) -*sociological explanations of criminal behavior dominate in the US

adoption studies

-separate the influence of inherited traits from environmental conditions through studying infants separated at birth from their natural parents -*found that criminality of the biological parents has more influence on the child -correlation vs causation -research fails to provide insight into the association between parent/child criminality

evaluation of differential opportunity theory

-the theory is class-oriented, doesn't explain middle class delinquency -contains contradictory statements, how can delinquent groups be nonutilitarian, negativistic, and malicious and also goal-oriented and utilitarian

functions of subcultures

-strain and cultural deviance are the foundations of the subculture theories, which emerged in 1950s -subculture: a subdivision within the dominant culture that has its own norms, beliefs, and values -tend to emerge when people in similar circumstances find themselves isolated from the mainstream and band together for mutual support -*exist within a larger society, not apart from it

displacement

-the commission of a quantitively similar crime at a different crime or place -5 different forms: -*tactical displacement- one method of committing crime can be substituted for another

the goal of economic success causes:

-the devaluation of noneconomic roles and functions -the accommodation of other institutions to economic needs -the penetration of economic norms -as long as there is a disproportionate emphasis on monetary rewards, the crime problem will increase

psychological development (psychoanalytic theory)

-the psychoanalytic theory of criminality attributes delinquent and criminal behavior to at least three possible causes: -*1. a conscience so overbearing that it arouses feelings of guilt -*2. a conscience so weak that it cannot control the individual's impulses -*3. the need for immediate gratification -suggests that a person's psychological well-being is dependent on the healthy interaction of: -*Id: consists of powerful urges and drives for gratification and satisfaction -*ego: executive of the personality, acting as a moderator between the superego and id -*superego: acts as moral code or conscience

genetics and criminality

-the study of the physical aspects of psychological disorders -XYY syndrome -twin studies -adoption studies -IQ debate

modern biocriminology

-the study of the physical aspects of psychological disorders -recent research has demonstrated that crime does indeed have psychobiological aspects similar to those found in studies of depression -there is also evidence that strongly suggests a genetic predisposition to criminality

test of miller's theory

-there is a question as to whether in an urban, heterogeneous, secular, technologically based society that any isolated pockets of culture are still able to be found -the pervasiveness of mass advertisement, mass transit, and mass communication makes it seem unlikely that an entire class of people could be unaware of the dominant value system

practical applications of situational theories of crime

-these theories work together to explain why a person may commit a crime in a particular situation -have been used to deal with the following crime issues: -burglars and burglaries/robberies -hot products -college campus crime (risky lifestyle)

lifestyle theories

-variations in lifestyles affect the number of situations with high victimization risks that a person experiences -along with the routine-activity approach, this theory presents some basic guidelines for reducing one's chances of victimization

direct experience

-what people learn from direct experience is determined by what they themselves do and what happens to them -an individual's behavior is said to be reinforced by the rewards and punishment they receive -* 5 instigators of violence: modeling instigator: violent or aggressive behaviors are observed in others

primary and secondary deviation example

1. a youth commits a simple deviant act (primary deviation) 2. there is an informal social reaction (neighbor yells at you) 3. the youth continues to break rules (primary) 4. there is an increased social reaction (neighbor tells parents) 5. the youth commits a more serious deviant act, retail theft (primary) 6. there is a formal reaction (court) 7. the youth is now labels "delinquent" by the court and "bad" by neighborhood 8. the youth begins to think of himself as delinquent, joins other delinquents 9. the youth commits another more serious crime, robbery (secondary deviation) 10. the youth is returned to juvenile court and has more offenses added, is cast out further from conventional society, and takes on a completely deviant lifestyle

Nine Propositions of Differential Association Theory

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 techniques of committing the crime 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 and 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 anti-criminal patterns involves all the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning 9. while criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values, since noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values (theft)