Crim Exam: Chapter 5 & 6

Zones

1. Inner City (Central Business District) 2. Transitional Zone (Area of high crime) 3. Working Class Zone 4. Residential Zone 5. Commuter Zone (Suburbs)

Important Principles of Social Disorganization Theory

1. People compete for resources 2. People exist in a world of mutual dependence

Subculture

A group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations. Subcultural perspectives arose as the dominant perspective in the 1950s.

Learning Theories

A strand of criminological theory emphasizing the socialization processes involving level of definitions favorable to crime versus comventional definitions; reference groups, subculture, and envirommen are important, additonally relevant factors; differential association is a fundamental assumption: Akers is one of the leading contemporary learning theorists.

Conditions for Social Disorganization

According to Shaw and McKay, 3 factors create natural conditions for social disorganization. 1. Residential Instability 2. Racial/Ethnic Heterogeneity 3. Poverty

Aker's Social Learning Theory

Akers and Burgess revised the theory by incorporating reinforcement, punishment and observational learning into differential association. The people with whom we spend the majority of our time with shape our reality. Definitions (part of Social Learning) refer to how we define certain situations. The continuation of behavior is consequence-based. If one wants a behavior to persist, learning theory postulates that the behavior must be rewarded when it occurs. Concepts such as positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment come into play here.

Street Codes

Anderson's, Code of the Streets, is defined in comparison to the decent moral codes of the inner city. Studies typically find that neighborhoods in which adolescents reside, the characteristics of their families, and experiences with racial discrimination all contribute to the street code. Adoption of the street code, in turn, increases adolescents' likelihood of committing and being a victim of violence. Stewart's contributions are unique in that they examine both the effects of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood (macro-level factors), and individual adoption of the street code (micro-level factors).

Necessary for Crime to Occur / Routine Activities Theory

Cohen and Felson (1979), three components were necessary for a crime to occur: 1. Motivated Offender 2. Suitable Target 3. Lack of Proper Guardianship A criticism of Routine Activities Theory is that it is difficult to test. Many look at routine activities as a victim blaming theory and are thus highly critical of it. Readers should be aware of the inherent ideology embedded within any type of theory.

five major causes for middle-class measuring rods

Cohen developed a general theory that focuses on five major sub-factors that contribute to culture: 1. Prevalence 2. Origins 3. Process 4. Purpose 5. Problem The overall learning process of lower class boys leaves them ill-prepared to compete in a world gauged by a "middle-class, measuring rod." Deficiencies of lower-class youth are most noticeable in the classroom.

Residential Instability

Communities with a lot of residential turnover have high levels of crime.People do not tend to form close ties with people they will only know for a short while.

Poverty

Communities with high poverty tend to lack the resources needed for effective community organization. Concentrated poverty weakens the tax base, which supports community institutions (schools). Residents are focused on personal survival and not other activities.

Social Ecology

During the early 1900s in Chicago, Park and Burgess began their work on social ecology. Social ecology holds that people struggle for survival in a community of mutual dependence.

differential association theory

Introduced by Sutherland. A theory that states individuals learn deviant behavior from those close to them who provide models of and opportunities for deviance.

Learning Theories

Learning theories contend that criminal behavior is learned from others. The learning process involves the internalization of values, norms, and behaviors that vary across groups. According to social learning theory, negative outcomes are related to life experiences.

focal concerns

Miller's subcultural elements that combine to characterize lower-class culture; considered less conceptually sophisticated than middle-class values; these elements (smartness, toughness, trouble, autonomy, fate, and excitement) condition the behavioral norms that define a value system condoning and encouraging crime

Miller's Focal Concerns

Miller's theory is a pure cultural theory for explaining gang delinquency. While the middle class has values, the lower class has defining focal concerns (trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy).

Socialization

Refers to a process of human interaction on both one-on-one and group levels, wherein behavior is learned: 1. From Others. 2. Reflective of society's cultural and subcultural values. This perspective emphasizes two primary influences: 1. Agents of Socialization (who does the socializing) 2. Content of Socialization A criticism of Differential Association Theory is that it failed to explain HOW people learn to commit crime.

Social Structure Social Learning (Akers' SSSL)

S S S L was created by expanding social learning theory to incorporate key concepts from macro-level and structural criminology. The basic proposition of this theory is that variations in social structure, culture and locations of individuals and groups in the social system account for differences in crime rates in neighborhoods and cities.

Location of Crime

Shaw and McKay (1942) They found that crime was concentrated in slum areas, which tended to be located in the center of the city. The pattern appeared to be consistent over time regardless of ethnic composition.

Racial/Ethnic Heterogeneity

Shaw and McKay found that communities where many different ethnic groups live in close proximity have higher crime rates. Communication was found to decrease under these conditions, which made the community less effective at being able to organize/control the neighborhood.

Social Disorganization Theory

Social disorganization attempts to explain why some communities have higher crime rates than others (not individually based). This theory assumes that social organization, schools, churches, businesses, etc., when functioning normally enable a community to deal with crime Crime is not due to defective people, but rather social organizations that have failed

Cloward and Ohlin Gang Typology

The hypothesis of this theory is that lower class teenagers realize they have little chance for success by conventional standards and thus resort to membership in delinquent gangs.

Zone II

The most important zone to the theory is the transitional zone. Homes in the area are older and of poorer condition. People living in this zone have little tangible incentive to make their communities better.

collective efficacy

Work by Sampson et al. (1997), created the concept of Collective Efficacy. Collective efficacy is the idea that residents band together to protect the best interests of their communities. Social Capital is related to collective efficacy and is based on the idea that informal networks within the community help prevent crime.

differential association

a concept developed by Edwin Sutherland that emphasizes the group nature of delinquency as characterized by the interaction of similarly suited individuals, particularly tbose with severed ties to conventional social institutions and practices.

middle-class measuring rods

a metaphor coined by Albert Cohen, a leading pioneer of the subcultural approach, that references middle class values, norms, and expected standards of academic, social, and civic achievement against which lower-class youth experience status frustration and strain that is reduced through crime and gang affiliation.

Cultural Conflict

a repudiation of other groups' societal standards and norms fostering greater group cohesion as a reaction formation ideologically rooted in cultural resistance; conflictual processes typically accentuate differences between groups as a justificatory reference point for group validation

SLSS theory

a theoretical elaboration of Aker's original social learning theory emphasizing focus on environmental and support elements at macro-level analysis

cultural transmission theory

a theory that contends that group values, historical customs, and the ethnocentric nature of social learning are intergenerationally transferred normative standards; values that accentuate the role of violence are associated with gangs, the lower class, the American South, inner-city minorities, and fringe social groups.

culture of honor

a value system of requisite retaliatory and defensive violence for protection and defense of social status threats and personal insults; contextually based in family and immediate group interaction; often identified with southern culture and high violent crime rates

VIVA

an acronym referring go value, inertia, visibility, and accessibility; all of these are elements of what might make a target suitable go a motivated offender.

motivated offender

in routine activities theory, one of the three necessary requirements for crime; motivated offenders, on average, tend to be young males who get into trouble a lot, but this term can include virtually anyone who might be tempted by crime in a given situation

suitable targets

in routine activities theory, one of the three necessary requirements for crime; suitable targets can be anything that might tempt a nearby offender.

transitional zone

in social disorganization theory, Zone II; contains the least desirable residential properties; consequently, only the poorest individuals live here, and they tend to move away when they can; crime is highest in this zone

working class zone

in social disorganization theory, Zone III; zone contains residential properties that are older and less desirable than those in the residential and commuter zones, but the residents tend to live in this zone for relatively long durations

residential zone

in social disorganization theory, Zone IV; exists between the working class zone and the commuter zone and consists of relatively desirable residential property

Commuter zone

in social disorganization theory, Zone V; the outermost edge of the city that has the least crime; the suburbs

social capital

informal social networks within communities that enable community tasks to get done.

imitation

micking observed behavior, often without much understanding of direct consequences.

effective gaurdianship

refers to any person or object capable of protecting a victim from an offender, who might report the crime to authorities, or who might serve as a witness. gaurdians make crime less likely to occur in that they complicate the execution of crime.

collective efficacy

the ability of a community to maintain order in public spaces.

Social Disorganization

the inability of a community to organize effectively to prevent social problems from occurring, due to poverty, residential mobility, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity

cultural transmission theory

theory that views deviance as a learned behavior transmitted through interaction with others. Focus on ideas that form values and beliefs that differ from conventional ideas / Value systems that differ from conventional standards. Values, beliefs and norms of deviant subcultures predispose people to crime and provide a rationalization for criminal behavior