Week 8 Flashcards
(49 cards)
1
Q
Origins of sociological theories
A
- Tremendous social change in 19th and 20th centuries (e.g. migration, Industrial Revolution)
- Cartography, geography
- Crime as ‘a regular feature of social activity’
2
Q
Anomie theory
A
Durkheim’s book: The Division of Labor in Society (1893)
- As societies evolve, norms become unclear and regulation is inconsistent and inadequate
- Results in anomie (normlessness)
- Can lead to deviant behaviour
3
Q
Anomie to social structure strain
A
Merton’s article: Social Structure and Anomie (1938)
- Argued that an imbalance between goals and means is what creates anomie
- When an individual experiences anomie, they may respond with a ‘mode of adaptation’
- > Most important: Innovation (the acceptance of legitimate goals but the rejection of legitimate means)
4
Q
Strain theories
A
Agnew (1985): General Strain Theory
Messner & Rosenfeld (1994): Institutional Anomie
5
Q
Social disorganisation theory
A
- Park & Burgess (1925): concentric zone theory
- Shaw & McKay (1942 / 1969): social disorganisation theory
- Backstory: “The Chicago School” of criminology
- look up image
- Led to the development of environmental criminology
- Now studied alongside “collective efficacy” and other social processes
6
Q
Social control theories - Hirschi’s book: Causes of Delinquency (1969)
A
- Different perspective: Why don’t people commit crime?
- People are naturally inclined to be self-serving (which can lead to deviant behaviour)
- Conformity occurs when social bonds are strong
- Four social bonds: Attachment, involvement, commitment, belief
7
Q
Social control theories - Gottfredson & Hirschi’s book: A General Theory of Crime (1990)
A
- Relocated the ‘controls’ from external sources to internal sources
- Crime is the result of insufficient self-control (which can result from poor external controls that embed it)
8
Q
Conflict and critical theories
A
Conflict theory
Critical theory
Feminist theory
9
Q
Sociological theories and crime prevention
A
What are the practical implications of sociological theories?
- Community wellness
- Community cohesion
- Early intervention in disadvantaged areas
10
Q
Criminological theories
A
- Psychological theories emphasise the internal
- Sociological theories emphasise the external
- Interactionist theories look at both
11
Q
Differential association
A
- Sutherland’s book: Criminology (1939 / 1947)
- Nine propositions:
#1: Criminal behaviour is learned (mic drop)
#6: A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favourable to violation of law over definitions unfavourable to violation of law
12
Q
Social learning theory
A
Akers’ articles/books (1966- 2009...) - Calls attention to the learning process rather than just content Four important learning mechanisms: - Differential association - Definitions - Differential reinforcement - Imitation The problem of social homophily
13
Q
Labelling theory
A
- Tannenbaum’s book: Crime and the Community (1938)
- Becker’s book: Outsiders (1963)
- Negative social reactions unintentionally amplify deviance
- > Primary deviance
- > Secondary deviance
14
Q
Neutralisations
A
- Sykes and Matza’s article: Techniques of Neutralisation (1957)
- Matza’s book: Delinquency and Drift (1964)
- People are mostly conformists
- To be deviant, one must ‘drift’ from society’s hold
- To ‘drift’, one must learn how to ‘neutralize’ that hold
15
Q
Techniques of neutralisation
A
- Denial of responsibility
- Denial of injury
- Denial of victims
- Condemnation of the condemners
- Appeal to higher loyalties
16
Q
Integrated theories
A
Building blocks: Theories are made of constructs, and those constructs can be arranged into different configurations
17
Q
SI theories and crime prevention
A
What are the practical implications of interactionist theories?
- Avoiding label application
- Shaping social networks
- Shaping definitions, reinforcements
18
Q
Durkheim and Anomie
A
- Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist who analysed processes of changes during the industrial revolution.
- Durkheim argued that societies could be placed along a continuum ranging from ‘mechanical’ to ‘organic’.
- Anomie exists when social norms no longer control the activity of group members. This can lead to a range of consequences, including deviance.
19
Q
Mechanical solidarity
A
- Mechanical societies are quite primitive, consisting of many small, isolated social groups who are self-sufficient (e.g. small farming communities)
- Mechanical societies - solidarity was achieved through uniformity of members, with members exerting pressure on each other to conform (including criminalisation of behaviours)
20
Q
Organic solidarity
A
- Organic societies are those where groups are have highly complex work and social relationships; specialised forms of labour exist, along with highly interactive relationships (e.g large industrialised cities).
- Organic societies – laws serve to regulate interactions between the various groups within society. If regulation is weak problems such as crime will occur.
21
Q
Durkheim’s benefits of crime
A
- Makes clear what behaviours are unacceptable within society
- Highlights the social causes of crime
- Can create solidarity (against people who violate the accepted standards of behaviour).
22
Q
Concentric zone model
A
- Clifford Shaw, Henry McKay and colleagues from the University of Chicago (“the Chicago School”) drew upon Durkheim’s concept of anomie to explore social disorganisation.
- Interested in the effects of mass immigration and consequent disorder upon crime in Chicago.
- Their research mapping juvenile crime to offender’s address found that the city was characterised by concentric zones -> the inner zones having higher crime, the incidence of which decreased in outer zones.
23
Q
Shaw and McKay, zones 1 and 2
A
- Shaw & McKay found that zones 1 and 2 had the highest crime, argued that:
- > immigration disrupted usual processes of social control, resulting in social disorganisation
- > factors such as the economic position of people in zone 2 (low cost housing) and the environment (deteriorated housing, factories, abandoned buildings etc) influenced the prevalence of crime in that locality.
24
Q
Outer zones, concentric zones
A
- As people moved into the outer zones, they became more law abiding (even if they had been law violators while residing in zone 2) outer zones were more organised.
- Shaw & McKay’s work laid the foundations for development of environmental criminology.
25
Merton - developing strain theory
- Robert Merton re-engineered Durkheim’s concept.
- Focused on the social system and how it produced social norms.
Merton argued that society emphasises certain goals;
-> Those goals can be attained by legitimate or illegitimate means
- Merton saw wealth and financial success as the primary goal emphasised by American society
26
Legitimate and illegitimate means
- The socially approved (legitimate) means of attaining it (American Dream) are through education and employment.
- Anomie results from an imbalance between societal goals and the means of achieving them.
- > Result is strain and deviance
- > Very different from Durkheim’s conceptualisation (i.e. rapid social change leading to crime)
27
Responses to anomie and strain
Members of social may employ several modes of adaptation in responses to anomie and strain:
- Conformity
- Ritualism
- Retreatism
- Rebellion
- Innovation
28
Conformity
accept the cultural goals and means of attaining them (most common adaptation)
29
Ritualism
accept means, but reject cultural goal (e.g. work, but settle for less, such as a smaller house)
30
Retreatism
reject both cultural goals and means
| outcasts, vagrants, drunkards, drug addicts (Merton, 1957)
31
Rebellion
reject goals and means, substituting new ones
32
Innovation
Goals are important, but the means of attaining them aren’t.
- Most important adaptation in explaining crime. People adopting non-socially approved means of meeting cultural (e.g. stealing, fraud etc )
33
Merton's conclusions
- Merton’s research and theorising centred on economic crimes rather than violent crime.
Merton concluded that:
-> more (economic) crime was committed by the lower classes
-> it was anomie which produced the higher levels of criminality within the lower classes
34
Strain theory
Inequalities within society discriminate against the lower classes in key ways such as education and work opportunities (blocking legitimately ways to achieve culturally valued goals).
- > Leads to feelings of unfairness, frustration etc.
- > Merton coined the term ‘social structural strain’.
35
Social control theories - Hirschi 1969
Hirschi (1969) argued that
- Society places restraints upon people’s behaviour
e. g. social norms restrain our behaviour
- These social restraints can breakdown, with criminal behaviour resulting.
36
Social control theories - solidarity
- More tightly people are tied to society, the less likely they are to commit crime
- > “…delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken” (Hirschi, 1969)
- > Conformity (including for non-offending behaviour) occurs when people have strong social bonds.
37
Attachment (Hirschi 1969)
to other members of society facilitates internalising of society norms
e.g. partners, parents, siblings etc
38
Commitment (Hirschi 1969)
to culturally approved goals
| e.g. school / study, employment etc
39
Belief (Hirschi 1969)
in society’s rules (formal and informal)
- increases likelihood of obeying authority figures
- constrains deviant behaviour
40
Involvement (Hirschi 1969)
in conventional activities
e. g. school, work, sporting clubs, church
- involvement in these activities constrains opportunities to - commit crime and strengths the social bond
41
Conflict theories - Reiman 1979
```
Reiman (1979) applied Marx analysis to argue that:
- it is the lower socioenconomic classes who are arrested, charged ad imprisoned for ‘street crimes’
- offending by the upper class is treated less severely
if a behaviour is committed predominantly by the middle- and upperclass it is less likely to be criminalised.
```
42
Feminist theories and crime
Feminist perspectives argue that women are afforded less power in society and are structural disadvantaged, including in criminal justice.
Feminist criminologists focus on:
- how gender impacts upon female offenders
- how gender impacts upon female victims
- institutionalised inequality and discrimination towards women
e.g. how males and females are treated differently by police & courts
43
Primary deviance
initial criminal/deviant behaviour
44
Secondary deviance
reaction to primary deviance, particular by powerful others (eg. teachers, judges etc) leads to further criminal / deviant behaviour
45
Integrating theories together
- No single theory can account for all offenders and all types of offending behaviour
- Result has been a focus on developing integrated theories
- Combining two or more theories to account for a greater amount of criminal behaviour
- > For example, Agnew (2003) combined structural strain, social control and social learning theories to better explain why offending peaks in adolescence
46
Social learning theory - Akers and Burgess 1966
- extended Sutherland’s work by focusing more on the learning process
- Incorporated concepts from operant conditioning and classical conditioning to develop social learning theory
- Criticism – which comes first? Do people learn delinquent behaviour, or do people who are delinquent seek out other delinquents?
- While criminals may seek out other criminals they may learn from those criminals, which feeds into future criminality
47
Differential association - Sutherland 1939 - propositions 1-4
1. Criminal behaviour is learned
2. Criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication
3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behaviour occurs within intimate personal
4. When criminal behaviour is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes very simple; (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalisations, and attitudes groups
48
Differential association - Sutherland 1939 - propositions 5-7
5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favourable or unfavourable
6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favourable to violation of law over definitions unfavourable to violation of law
7. Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity
49
Differential association - Sutherland 1939 - propositions 8 and 9
8. The process of learning criminal behaviour by association with criminal and anticriminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning
9. While criminal behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values, since non-criminal behaviour is an expression of the same needs and values
