ALL THEORIES Flashcards
(40 cards)
Originated in the ancient world and continued into the Middle Ages. Saw behavior as a struggle between “Absolute Good” v. “Absolute Evil”. Punishments: Trial by Battle, Trial by Ordeal.
Spiritualism
Focus on the physical world of facts and reason. “The brain is the organ of the mind”. Not impacted by demons or spirits! Led to the development of the Classical School of Criminology.
Naturalism
Emphasis on the mind and body
Positivism
criminal behavior is learned when the positive consequences of deviant behavior are more powerful than the positive consequences of normative behavior
akers social learning theory
A different social process was suggested to explain why some people conform and others deviate from the norms of social behavior.
Strain theory
Social structure limits access to the goal of success. The disjunction between what the culture expects and the opportunities provided by the social structure produces strain and pressure for deviance.
Merton’s Anomie Theory
The role of negative emotions, particularly anger. Proposed there were three sources of strain:
Failure to achieve valued goals
Removal of a valued stimuli
Presentation of a negative stimuli
Agnew’s General Strain Theory
The high rate of serious crime in the U.S. is caused by the distinct structure. Culture causes the economy to be emphasized over other social institutions - Education, family, religion, politics, etc.
Messner and Rosenfeld’s Institutional Anomie Theory
based on emile durkheim’s view that individuals are born antisocial/ conformity can not be taken for granted / crime is fun and rewarding , when controls are absent, crime often does occur
Control Theories
Denial of responsibility: ‘it’s not my fault!”
Denial of injury: “it didn’t really hurt anybody!”
Denial of the victim: “ they had it coming!”
Condemnation of condemners: “ You’ve done it too!”
Appeal to higher loyalty: “I didn’t do it for myself!”
Sykes and Matza’s Five Techniques of Neutralization
The high rate of serious crime in the U.S. is caused by the distinct structure. Culture causes the economy to be emphasized over other social institutions - Education, family, religion, politics, etc.
Messner and Rosenfeld’s Institutional Anomie Theory
Endomorphs- Soft, fatty build
Ectomorphs- Skinny, fragile build
Mesomorphs- Athletic, muscular build. Mesomorphic individuals were predicted to be more likely criminal. Led to the conclusion that criminal factors can be inherited.
Sheldon’s Somatotypes
The central premise is that crime arises when social bonds are weak or absent. Four major social bonds
Attachment
Commitment
Involvement
Belief
Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory
Self-control is created early in life and is theorized to remain stable throughout life. Six dimensions of low self control
Impulsivity
Self-Centeredness
Temper
Risk Seeking Behavior
Preference for Simple Tasks
Preference for Physical Activity
Hirschi and Gottfredson’s General Theory of Crime
extended concepts of control theory to explain gender differences in criminal involvement.
John Hagan’s Power-Control Theory
A false definition of a situation that evokes a new behavior which makes the originally incorrect conception become true.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Has the intention of invoking remorse in the person being shamed.
Disintegrative Shaming: negative labeling by the justice system that tends to stigmatize and exclude targeted individuals.
Reintegrative Shaming: community disapproval followed by reacceptance into the community of responsible law- abiders.
Braithwaite’s Theory of Reintegrative Shaming
Crime was a result of a decrease of social unity. Problem seen in economic terms - Division of labor is the unjust exploitation of one social class by another. Proposed a revolution against the system to encourage socialism : Communist Manifesto.
Marx and Engles’s Marxist Theory
The less complex the society, more emphasis will be on working together. The more complex the society, more emphasis will be placed on rule enforcement.
Chambliss and the Complexity of Society
Crimes are action that threaten capitalist-patriarchal system
Messerschmidt’s Double Marginality Theory
outlined biosocial hypothesis focusing on genetics as predisposing crime/ aimed to explain when individuals are more likely to commit crime/ bad families produce bad children meaning individual biological differences are influence social learning
Wilson and Herrnstein’s Crime and Human Nature
intelligence is a singular ability
IQ scores are valid measures of the characteristic of intelligence
The IQ capacity is inherited rather than developed
Implemented races have higher/lower average IQs than others
Argued that the average IQ is decreasing due to: intelligent people having fewer children / people with lower IQs having more children
Herrnstein and Murray’s Bell Curve Theory
the poverty of being without loving, capable, responsible adults who teach the young right from wrong/ solution to crime is to teach children morality to grow into healthy adults
Bennett’s Theory of Moral Poverty
community decline begins when public signs of disorganization are tolerated When disorder occurs, crime ensues, and “respectable” people move away Disorder is caused by bad people → à breakdown in informal control→ invasion of predatory criminals → àhigh crime rates in neighborhoods
Solution was placed on police using “zero-tolerance” & “quality-of-life” policing
Wilson and Kelling’s Broken Windows Theory
