Criminology Exam 2

Social Theory

 A systematic description of how the social world (or a part of it) works. Answers "Why?" and "By what process?" through empirically grounded, research-refined propositions rather than ideology or personal experience.

Independent Variable

(XX): The hypothesized cause (e.g., peer associations, societal strain, low self-control).

Dependent Variable

(YY): The effect—specifically law-breaking behavior, criminality, or delinquency.

Micro vs Macro Level

• Micro-level: Individual criminality (measured via self-reported offending, arrest, or imprisonment).

• Macro-level: Group crime rates (measured via UCR, NCVS).

Causality Models

• Necessary Cause: XX must be present for YY to occur.

• Sufficient Cause: If XX occurs, YY always occurs regardless of other factors.

• Note: There are NO necessary or sufficient causes in human criminal behavior. Human behavior isn’t automatic or guaranteed 

Probabilistic Causality (Soft determinism)

Probabilistic Causality (Soft Determinism): People have free choice (agency), but certain factors push them toward or away from crime. Theory looks at overall patterns, not every single individual exception

Spurious Association

Spurious Association: An illusion where XX and YY look connected, but a hidden third factor (ZZ) is actually causing both.

Biased Association

Misjudging how strong a cause really is because you ignored an important factor.

Mediation

A middle step in a chain reaction (X→Middle Step→YX→Middle Step→Y). Example: Wealthy parents (XX) hire private tutors (Middle Step), which leads to higher grades (YY).

Scientific Evaluation Criteria

Internal Consistency: The rules of the theory make sense together and don't contradict themselves.

Predictive Scope: How much ground the theory covers (explaining all crime vs. just shoplifting).

Parsimony: Keep it simple! The simplest explanation is usually best.

Falsifiability: The theory can actually be tested and proven wrong if it's incorrect. Avoids tautologies (circular logic that is "true by definition").

Empirical Validity: How much real-world evidence supports it across multiple studies. (One random counter-example doesn't ruin a strong theory).

Rational Choice Theory

People commit crimes because they run a quick mental cost-benefit analysis and decide the crime is worth it. They treat crime like any other decision that brings satisfaction or profit (Expected Utility).

Becker’s original model

 Assumed criminals are purely selfish and only care about direct economic/financial payouts and personal risks.

Modern view of RCT

Realized people also care about immediate social, emotional, or cultural rewards—whatever matters most to them in the heat of the moment

Time orientations of RCT

• Time Positive: Wants fun right now, ignoring future consequences (most common in crime).

• Time Negative: Willing to wait for a payoff later.

• Time Neutral: Doesn't care about timing, only the total payout.

Risk orientations of RCT

• Risk Averse: Plays it safe; avoids risky plays even if the potential reward is high.

• Risk Seeker: Enjoys the thrill; chooses risky options even if the average payout is low.

• Risk Neutral: Only cares about the average expected payout, regardless of risk.

Bounded rationality

People don't make perfect choices because they often work with quick, incomplete, or wrong information.

Irrational behavior

Actions that fail to maximize expected utility. Rational Choice Theory does not assume perfect cognitive calculation; choices can follow stochastic (random) processes.

Main flaw of RCT

It doesn't explain where people's desires or preferences come from in the first place (it ignores background,upbringing, and psychology).

RCT policy strategies

• Deterrence: Scare people out of crime using state sanctions (prison, mandatory sentences). Works best when punishment is certain (high chance of getting caught), severe, and swift.

• Target Hardening (Situational Prevention): Make crime physically harder or riskier to commit right now (security cameras, fences, security guards, alarm systems).

Labeling theory

People aren't inherently "criminal." Society applies bad tags or labels to certain people, and over time, those people internalize the label and act out the role society gave them.

Core concepts of Labeling theory

• Theoretical Roots: Symbolic Interactionism—meaning is constructed through social interaction and modified via internal interpretation.

• Looking-Glass Self: Individual self-concept develops by internalizing how one perceives others view them.

Chambliss: Saints vs. Roughnecks

• Saints: 8 upper-middle-class boys; high truant/delinquent acts (reckless driving, vandalism); perceived by community/teachers as "good boys with bright futures." Outcomes: higher education, professional careers.

• Roughnecks: 6 lower-class boys; equal/less severe delinquency (theft, fighting); perceived as "headed for trouble." Outcomes: low-status jobs, criminality, incarceration.

• Demeanor, Visibility, and Bias: Surface variables reflecting socio-economic inequality. Saints had cars to leave town (low visibility) and acted apologetic/polite; Roughnecks lacked mobility (high visibility) and displayed hostile demeanors.

Steps of Crime—Labeling Theory

1. Primary Deviance: The initial, occasional rule-breaking everyone does before getting caught or labeled.

2. Social Reaction & Stigmatization: Formal agents (police, courts) or informal community members apply a stigmatized label ("delinquent," "felon").

3. Internalization of Self-Concept: The individual internalizes the stigmatized label into their core identity.

4. Secondary Deviance: Escalated, systematic, and career-oriented rule-breaking behavior caused by accepting and acting out the internalized deviant label.

Critique of Labeling Theory

 It fails to explain why people commit primary deviance in the first place before any label exists.

Policy Interventions—Labeling Theory

• Diversion & Deinstitutionalization: Keeping juvenile offenders out of formal courts/prisons to prevent label assignment.

• Decriminalization: Reducing formal criminal classifications for minor offenses.

• Reintegration & Stigma Reduction: Programs aimed at restoring societal standing (e.g., expungement policies, "ban the box").

Social Learning Theory

Crime isn't born into us—it is learned through close personal relationships, rewards, and peer pressure.

A person becomes a delinquent due to an _____________ over definitions unfavorable to law violations.

excess of definitions favorable to violation of law

The 4 key elements (Akers) Social Learning Theory

1. Differential Association: Who you hang out with. If your primary circle breaks the law, you're exposed to those behaviors and mindsets. (Varies by Priority [how early in life], Duration, Frequency, and Intensity).

2. Definitions: The excuses, beliefs, or moral attitudes you hold about law-breaking (e.g., "Stealing from a big store isn't really hurting anyone").

3. Imitation: Copying or modeling what you see others do (especially important when first trying a crime).

4. Differential Reinforcement: The balance of rewards vs. punishments you get after doing something.

Positive Reinforcement

You get something good (money, thrill, peer respect). Increases behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

Something bad goes away (peers stop picking on you, drug withdrawal pain stops). Increases behavior.

Positive Punishment

You get something bad added (a fine, getting arrested, getting yelled at). Decreases behavior.

Negative Punishment

Something good gets taken away (losing your freedom, losing friends). Decreases behavior.

Critique of Social Learning Theory

Peer Selection vs. Peer Influence Debate: Critics argue "birds of a feather flock together" (delinquents seek out delinquent friends rather than being corrupted by them).

Policy Interventions Social Learning Theory

• Proactive: Structured environments like the Teaching-Family Model (token economies, live-in teaching parents) to reinforce prosocial skills and associations.

• Ineffective Interventions: Programs like the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study failed partly due to deviancy training within unsupervised group recreational activities.

Social Control Theory

• Fundamental Question: Shifts the question from "Why do people break the law?" to "Why do people conform?"Assumes motivation to commit crime is natural and widespread.

• Core Cause of Crime: Delinquency results when an individual's social bond to society is weak or broken.

4 elements of the social bond

1. Attachment (emotional)

2. Commitment (rational)

3. Involvement (temporal)

4. Belief (moral)

Attachment

 Caring what your parents, teachers, and friends think of you. If you care about disappointing them, you stay out of trouble. (The foundation of all bonds).

Commitment

Having something to lose—your "stake in conformity" (e.g., college goals, a good job, a clean reputation).

Involvement

 Being busy with normal activities (sports, homework, jobs). "Idle hands are the devil's workshop."

Belief

Respecting the law and believing that society's rules are fair and should be followed.

Trajectories

 Long-term patterns of behavior across life stages.

Transitions

 Short-term events embedded within trajectories (e.g., graduating high school, starting a career).

Turning points

Key transitions that alter a life-course trajectory, creating new routines, informal supervision,social connections, and identity transformations (e.g., stable employment, marriage).

Critique of Social Control Theory

 Does not fully account for peer influence, short-term emotional triggers, or broader structural inequalities.

Policy interventions— Social Control Theory

Strengthening family structures, parent-child bonding programs, school engagement initiatives, and employment programs that build long-term stakes in conformity.

Merton’s Structural Strain Theory

Society pushes everyone to chase the American Dream (wealth, success), but blocks lower-class people from accessing the legal tools (good schools, jobs) to get there. That gap creates strain.

Critique of Early Sociologists- Strain theory

Rejects the premise that nonconformity springs naturally from human biology/nature. Assumes functioning societal structures generate crime.

Cause of strain

A disjunction between culturally emphasized goals (American Dream / material wealth) and institutionalized means (education, hard work). American society overemphasizes goal attainment while opportunity pathways are structurally blocked for lower classes.

Merton’s Modes of Adaptation

Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, Retreatism, Rebellion

Conformity

Accept culturally defined goals

Accept Institutionalized means

Risk for criminal behavior= Low

Innovation

Accept culturally defined goals

Reject Institutionalized means

Risk for criminal behavior= High (property crime, drug dealing, white-collar crime)

Ritualism

Reject culturally defined goals

Accept Institutionalized means

Risk for criminal behavior= Low (mindless adherence to routine)

Retreatism

Reject culturally defined goals

Reject Institutionalized means

Risk for criminal behavior= High (Severe substance addiction, dropping out of society)

Rebellion

Reject+Replace culturally defined goals

Reject+Replace Institutionalized means

Risk for criminal behavior= High (political insurrection, radical subcultures)

Agnew’s General Strain Theory

Expands Merton's micro-level focus by identifying 3 major categories of individual-level strain:

1. Failure to achieve positively valued goals (gap between aspirations and achievements).

2. Removal of positively valued stimuli (loss of a parent, breakup, loss of employment).

3. Presentation of negative/noxious stimuli (abuse, victimization, adverse neighborhood conditions).

Agnew’s Coping Mechanisms

Crime occurs primarily when individuals lack legitimate cognitive, behavioral, or emotional coping strategies to process negative emotional states (especially anger and frustration).

Policy Implications: Merton vs. Agnew

• Merton: Structural reforms to expand educational/job opportunity pathways and reduce wealth inequality.

• Agnew: Individual-level interventions, such as anger management, stress-coping programs, and social support services.