Lecture 6 Flashcards
Social Structural Theories are…
Macro and focus on social structure
Social process theories are…
Micro in level and focus on the individual
Learning Theories argue
People learn certain behaviours through interaction with what are referred to as significant others
Principle of Differential Association
A person becomes a delinquent because of the excess of definitions favourable to violating the law
Sutherland’s theory is a
positivist theory of crime
Basis of sutherland’s theory is
Classical conditioning
Critique of Sutherland’s Theory
How do you meausre favourable and unfavourable definitions to crime?
Neutralization Theory
Individuals drift between conforming and nonconforming
How do people avoid guilt?
By rationalizing what they have done
Techniques of Neutralization
Denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of the victim, condemation of condemners and appeal to higher loyalities
Example of denial of injury
Stealing a video game won’t hurt anyone, store will have insurance
Example of condemnation of condemners
Police Speeding
Example of appealing to higher loyalities
Rules of osciety take a back seat to the rules that r held by an individual.
Aker’s Social Learning Theory
We learn to engage in crime through exposure to and the adoption of definitions in crime, ALTHOUGH crime is also learned through imitation and differential reinforcement
