Exam 2 ADJ Crim

Restorative Justice

Emphasizes mending the harm caused by criminal acts.

Critical Criminology

Reject the notion that laws are designed to maintain a fair and balanced society.

Marginalization

A process where large portions of the population are forced to live in areas conducive to criminality.

Chicago School

Early sociological criminology was based on research conducted at the University of Chicago by Robert Park and Ernest Burgess.

White Flight

Middle-class Caucasians fled urban areas after neighborhood disorganization.

Status Frustration

When lower-class youths experience culture conflict due to social conditions that do not allow legitimate success.

Psychological Sociology

Involves studying human interactions and relationships, emphasizing group dynamics and socialization.

Subterranean Values

Morally tinged influences that have become entrenched in the culture but are publicly condemned.

Patriarchal Families

Fathers take traditional role of breadwinners, while mothers handle domestic matters.

Egalitarian Families

Husbands and wives share similar positions of power, resulting in more freedom for daughters.

Head Start Educational Programs

Designed to create prosocial, normative, and productive educational bonds.

Direct Conditioning

Also called differential reinforcement, occurs when behavior is reinforced by being either rewarded or punished.

Social Reaction Theory

AKA the labeling theory, posits that societal responses to crime create labels that contribute to additional criminality.

Neutralization Theory

Explains how some criminals can mask their deviant acts and argues that most individuals are not purely 'good' or 'evil.'

Social Bond Theory

The theory states all individuals are potential law violators but are kept under control because of their fear that illegal or deviant behavior will harm their relationships with friends, parents, neighbors, teachers, and employers.

Attachment

Includes an individual's shared interest with others. Without them a person may not recognize social norms.

Commitment

Includes the amount of energy and effort one puts into activities with others. A strong devotion to society, work, or education reduces the likelihood of an individual engaging in criminality.

Involvement

Includes the amount of time spent with others in shared activities. Heavy involvement in conventional activities leaves little time for illegal behavior.

Belief

Includes a shared value and moral system. Examples include sensitivity to the rights of others, the value of hard work, morality, and admiration for the legal code.

Concentric Zone Theory

Contrary to popular belief, the zone with the highest crime rate was not at the city center, but in the transitional inner-city zones where factories and cheap housing reside.

Neighborhood Characteristics

Neighborhoods which are dense, poor, and crowded have low levels of supervision because individuals must work to survive, thus children are frequently left unattended.

Broken Window Theory

Physical and community deterioration leads to increased anxieties for physical safety and residential mobility surges.

Containment Theory

An individual with a positive self-image and respect toward authority figures is less likely to become involved in crime.

Differential Association Theory

An individual becomes involved in criminal behavior when he or she identifies more favorable than unfavorable consequences to violating the law.

Learning Criminal Behavior

Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with others in a process of communication.

Delinquent Associations

A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to law violation over definitions unfavorable to law violation.

Differential Opportunity Theory

There are legitimate and illegitimate socially structured opportunities for success.

Criminal Gangs

Stable lower-class areas where delinquent gangs are responsible for the most serious delinquency within society.

Conflict Gangs

Communities unable to provide legitimate and illegitimate opportunities, leading to disorganized gangs.

Retreatist Gangs

Unable to gain success through legitimate means but are unwilling to do so through illegal means.

Peacemaking Theory

The sole purpose of criminology is to promote a peaceful and just society.

Power/Control Theory

Crime and delinquency rates are a function of class position (power) and family functions (control).

Social Disorganization Theory

According to the theory, neighborhood ecological characteristics are at the core of criminality.

Poverty and Crime

Poverty leads to the disorganization of communities which lend itself to crime.

Intergenerational Crime

Most research supports the idea of crime being intergenerational, meaning having deviant parents and friends usually result in criminality.

Crime and Recidivism

Peacemaking criminologists point to the high recidivism rates of criminals in America as an example of how harsh punishment furthers vengeance not solutions.

General Strain Theory

States criminality is the direct result of negative emotions such as anger, frustration, and hostile feelings caused from negative social relationships.

Strains

Refer to events and conditions that are disliked by individuals.

Sources of Strain

Individuals may lose something they value, be treated in an aversive manner, or be unable to achieve their goals.

Impact of Strains

Strains increase the likelihood of particular crimes primarily through their impact on negative emotional states.

Characteristics of Strains

Strains most likely to cause crime are high in magnitude, perceived as unjust, associated with low self-control, or create pressure to engage in criminal coping.

Reaction to Strains

The likelihood that individuals will react to strains with criminal behavior depends on factors influencing their ability to engage in legal coping, costs of crime, and disposition of crime.

Patterns of Offending

Can be partly explained in terms of differences in exposure to strains conducive to crime.

Reducing Crime

Lowering individuals' exposure to strains conducive to crime and by reducing their likelihood of responding to strains with crime.

Intensity of Strain

The greater the intensity and frequency of strain experiences, the greater their influence and likelihood of resulting in criminality.

Sensitivity to Strain

Certain people have characteristics that make them sensitive to strain, such as explosive temperament, low tolerance for adversity, and poor problem-solving skills.

Strain Theories

Depict crime as a form of problem-solving behavior committed in response to frustration and environmental factors.

Lower-Class Strain

Members of the lower-class develop anger, frustration, and resentment due to inability to achieve success through conventional avenues.

Divisions Between Rich and Poor

Create an environment of resentment and mistrust, leading to high crime rates, violence, and aggression.

Structural Strain

Suggests that economic and social sources of strain shape collective human behavior.

Individual Strain

Suggests that individual life experiences cause some people to suffer pain and misery, leading to antisocial behaviors.

Differential Reinforcement Theory

Criminality is a learned behavior that recognizes reinforcement or normative conduct necessary for understanding proper behavior in society.

Social Control Theories

Believes all individuals have the potential to violate the law because society presents opportunities to do so.

Cultural Deviance Theories

Blend components of social disorganization and strain to explain how individuals in disadvantaged neighborhoods react to economic deprivation.

Subcultural Theory

Suggests certain socialized cultural groups create crime, with values differing from typical American values.

Walter Miller's Focal Concerns

Identifies an alternative value system defining lower-class culture, involving toughness, autonomy, street smartness, excitement, and trouble.

Critical Feminist Theory

Explains the cause of crime within society, gender differences in crime rates, and the exploitation of female victims.

Core Cause of Crime in Critical Feminism

Believes gender inequality due to the unequal power of men and women in a capitalist society is the core cause of crime.

Institutional Anomie Theory

States that the capitalistic culture promotes economic success at all costs, leading to crime or delinquency.

Social Controls in Institutional Anomie Theory

Promotes social controls such as family and community to limit materialistic drives and encourage alternative measures of success.

Anomie Theory

Theory explaining variations of crime rates among different economic classes and cultures.

Anomic Society

A society where rules of behavior, including values, customs, and norms, have broken down.

Merton's 5 categories of adaptation

Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, Retreatism, and Rebellion.

Primary Deviance

Initial acts of deviance as defined by Edwin Lemert.

Secondary Deviance

Continued acts of deviance resulting from forced association with other offenders.

Concentric Zone Model

Model developed by Shaw and McKay explaining urban crime through distinct ecological areas.

Ecological Development of Crime

Concept explaining crime and delinquency in urban environments as influenced by population turnover.

Relative Deprivation

Feeling of being deprived in relation to others, influencing crime likelihood.

Ralf Dahrendorf's Conflict Theory

Theory proposing that society is categorized into groups with authority and those without.

Power Relationships in Families

Theory by John Hagan stating parents replicate workplace power dynamics in the household.

White-Collar Crime

Criminal activities committed by individuals in their professional life, researched by Edwin Sutherland.

Frustration and Crime

The impact of frustration in achieving goals when necessary means are not available.

Seasonal Influence on Crime Rates

Quetelet found crime rates were greatest in summer and among the poor and uneducated.

Cultural Influences on Crime

The idea that cultural factors can influence crime rates and behavior.

Community Resources and Crime

Strong communities and resources promote prosocial behaviors and reduce crime.

Socialization and Delinquency

Hirschi found that strong attachments to parents and education reduce delinquency.

Criminality and Socioeconomic Status

Sutherland argued that crime is not solely a function of lower-class status.

Antisocial Behavior

Behavior that goes against societal norms and can be influenced by cultural factors.

Community Stigmatization

The process by which individuals are labeled as deviant, reinforcing their criminality.

Crime and Climate

Quetelet discovered that climate influences crime rates.

Social Change and Crime

Dahrendorf proposed that every society is subject to social change which can influence crime.

Walter Reckless

Criminologist who developed the containment theory, focusing on why some individuals resist criminal temptations.

Thorsten Sellin

Conducted research on culture conflict and crime, linking cultural adaptation to criminality.

Cultural Conflict

Sellin's theory that criminal law reflects the rules of the dominant culture, causing clashes with excluded groups.

Albert Cohen

Theorist who articulated the theory of delinquent subcultures, suggesting delinquent behavior is a reaction against mainstream culture.

Howard Becker

Sociologist known for labeling theory, which posits that society creates deviance through labels.

Labeling Theory

Theory that suggests labels can lead individuals to become outsiders and commit deviant acts.

Karl Marx

Philosopher who believed crime is a product of law enforcement policies and capitalist inequities.

John Braithwaite

Introduced the concept of reintegrative shaming, suggesting shame can deter crime.

Reintegrative Shaming

Braithwaite's concept where social rejection and public humiliation serve as deterrents against crime.

Donald Cressey

Continued Sutherland's work and published principles of differential association theory.

Robert Park and Ernest Burgess

Founders of the Chicago School, focusing on urban life and social ecology in relation to crime.

William Julius Wilson

Focused on structural conditions influencing urban crime and argued against policies impacting the poor.

Gender and Incarceration

Approximately 93 percent of inmates are male.

Child Abuse and Future Arrest

Being abused or neglected as a child increases the likelihood of juvenile arrest by 59 percent.

Single Mothers in America

A 2020 figure found 86 percent of single parents were single mothers.

Poverty Persistence

32 percent of children born into poor families remain poor as adults.

Women in the Workforce

Close to 57 percent of working-age women are in the workforce, up from under 34 percent in 1950.

Prisoners in North Korea and Malnutrition

An estimated 40 percent of all prisoners in North Korea die from malnutrition.

Offenders Without Lawyers

80% of lower-class offenders cannot afford a private lawyer for trial representation.