Criminology Theories: Environmental, Sociological, and Learning Perspectives

Environmental criminology

The study of how physical and social environments influence where, when, and how crime occurs.

Criminal event

The specific event in which a crime occurs, including its location, timing, target, and circumstances.

Classical deterrence theory

The idea that punishment can discourage crime when people perceive its consequences as outweighing its rewards.

Certainty of punishment

The likelihood that an offence will result in punishment.

Swiftness of punishment

The speed with which punishment follows an offence.

Proportionality of punishment

The principle that punishment should be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence.

Rational Choice Theory

The theory that people make offending decisions based on their perceived risks, rewards, costs, and opportunities.

Four choices in Rational Choice Theory

Whether to offend, which target to select, how frequently to offend, and whether to stop offending.

Crime opportunity

A situation in which circumstances make committing an offence possible or easier.

Geometric theory

A theory examining the spatial distribution of crime, including hotspots, boundaries, and everyday activity patterns.

Nodes

Places people regularly visit, such as homes, schools, workplaces, and shopping areas.

Paths

Routes people use to travel between places.

Districts

Recognizable areas or sections of a city.

Edges

Boundaries between districts or areas where crime patterns and opportunities may change.

Crime hotspot

A place where crime is concentrated.

Crime generator

A location that attracts many people for ordinary activities, creating opportunities for crime.

Crime attractor

A location that attracts offenders because they expect opportunities to commit crime.

Crime enabler

A place or situation where conditions make offending easier.

Activity space

The area in which a person regularly carries out daily activities and travels.

Awareness space

The area with which a person is familiar and where they may recognize potential opportunities.

Routine Activity Theory

A theory proposing that crime becomes more likely when a motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian converge in time and space.

Motivated offender

Someone willing to commit an offence.

Suitable target

A person or object that presents an opportunity for an offence.

Capable guardian

A person, object, or measure that can effectively discourage or prevent an offence.

Routine Activity Theory and everyday life

Changes in social and economic routines can change opportunities for crime and victimization.

Pattern Theory

A theory explaining crime patterns through the interaction of everyday activities, familiar places, target selection, and environmental opportunities.

Relationship between Pattern Theory and other environmental theories

Pattern Theory combines ideas from Rational Choice Theory, Routine Activity Theory, and geometric approaches.

Situational crime prevention

Strategies that reduce opportunities for crime by changing immediate circumstances.

Five situational crime prevention techniques

Increase effort, increase risks, reduce rewards, reduce provocations, and remove excuses.

Increasing effort

Making crime more difficult through measures such as locks, barriers, and access controls.

Increasing risks

Making detection more likely through surveillance, guardianship, or security measures.

Reducing rewards

Reducing the benefits of crime, such as by securing property or preventing offenders from profiting.

Reducing provocations

Reducing conditions that may encourage offending, such as conflict, frustration, or peer pressure.

Removing excuses

Establishing clear rules and limits so people have fewer opportunities to justify rule-breaking.

Sociological criminology

The study of how social relationships, institutions, communities, inequality, and social structures influence crime.

Social integration

The extent to which people are connected to one another and participate in shared social life.

Social institutions

Organized parts of society, such as families, schools, and community organizations, that shape behaviour and social relationships.

Chicago School

A sociological approach that studied how neighbourhood conditions and urban environments relate to crime and deviance.

Shaw and McKay

Researchers associated with the Chicago School who found that some neighbourhoods maintained high crime rates despite changes in their population composition.

Social disorganization

A condition in which community relationships and institutions struggle to maintain shared expectations and informal social control.

Criminal subculture

A group or community pattern in which criminal or delinquent behaviours and values may be learned and reinforced.

Durkheim's contribution to criminology

Émile Durkheim emphasized the importance of social integration, shared norms, and social regulation in understanding deviance.

Anomie

A condition of weakened or disrupted social regulation in which established norms and expectations become less clear.

Durkheim and social change

Rapid social change can weaken social cohesion and shared expectations, potentially contributing to social problems and crime.

Strain theory

A theory examining how the gap between culturally valued goals and access to legitimate means may contribute to deviance.

Culturally prescribed goals

Goals that a society encourages people to pursue, such as wealth, success, or social status.

Legitimate means

Accepted and lawful ways of pursuing socially valued goals, such as education and employment.

Innovation in Merton's strain theory

Accepting culturally valued goals while rejecting or lacking legitimate means and using alternative methods, potentially including crime.

Merton's five modes of adaptation

Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.

Conformity

Accepting cultural goals and legitimate means of achieving them.

Innovation

Accepting cultural goals but rejecting or lacking legitimate means of achieving them.

Ritualism

Reducing or abandoning major cultural goals while continuing to follow accepted means and rules.

Retreatism

Rejecting both culturally valued goals and the legitimate means of achieving them.

Rebellion

Rejecting existing goals and means while seeking to replace them with different ones.

Policy implications of strain theory

Improving access to education, job training, early childhood programs, and economic opportunities may help reduce pressures associated with strain.

Reintegrative shaming

A response to wrongdoing that condemns the act while allowing the person to be accepted back into the community.

Social Control Theory

Hirschi's theory that strong bonds to conventional society reduce the likelihood of offending.

Hirschi's four social bonds

Attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.

Attachment

The emotional bonds a person has with others whose opinions matter to them.

Commitment

The investment a person has made in conventional goals, such as education or a career.

Involvement

Participation in conventional activities, such as school, work, or community activities.

Belief

Acceptance of conventional values and the legitimacy of laws and rules.

Interactionist theories

Theories that examine how social interactions, shared meanings, and people's reactions shape identity and behaviour.

Symbolic interactionism

The perspective that people act according to meanings, that meanings emerge through interaction, and that meanings can change.

Deviant career

The progression of a person through stages of one or more related deviant identities.

Labelling theory

The theory that social reactions and labels can influence a person's identity and future behaviour.

Deviance according to labelling theory

Deviance is not only a quality of an act; it is also shaped by how people and society respond to that act.

Power and labelling

Groups with greater social power may have more influence over which people and behaviours are labelled deviant.

Tannenbaum's dramatization of evil

The idea that stigmatizing a person as deviant can contribute to that person adopting a deviant identity.

Differential Association Theory

Edwin Sutherland's theory that criminal behaviour is learned through interaction with others, especially close personal groups.

What is learned through differential association?

Criminal techniques, motives, drives, attitudes, and definitions favourable or unfavourable to breaking the law.

Definitions favourable to crime

Beliefs or justifications that make lawbreaking seem acceptable, necessary, or harmless.

Definitions unfavourable to crime

Beliefs that discourage lawbreaking by emphasizing rules, responsibility, or the harm caused to others.

Sutherland's differential association principle

Offending is more likely when definitions favourable to violating the law outweigh definitions unfavourable to violating it.

Frequency, duration, priority, and intensity

Factors describing how often, how long, how early, and how influential a person's associations with others are.

Differential Association Theory's strength

It explains how people can learn criminal techniques, motives, attitudes, and justifications through social interaction.

A criticism of Differential Association Theory

It may not fully explain why some people find crime exciting or enjoyable, or why people with similar associations behave differently.

Social Learning Theory

The theory that behaviour is influenced by social associations, definitions, reinforcement, and imitation.

Four components of Social Learning Theory

Differential associations, definitions, differential reinforcement, and imitation.

Differential reinforcement

The process by which rewards and punishments influence whether behaviour is repeated.

Imitation

Copying behaviour observed in another person, which can help initiate a behaviour.

Positive reinforcement

Adding a desirable consequence to increase a behaviour.

Negative reinforcement

Removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase a behaviour.

Positive punishment

Adding an unpleasant consequence to decrease a behaviour.

Negative punishment

Removing a desirable consequence to decrease a behaviour.

Difference between reinforcement and punishment

Reinforcement increases the likelihood of behaviour; punishment decreases it.

Difference between positive and negative consequences

Positive means something is added; negative means something is removed.

Life-course theory

The study of how behaviour changes over time through development, relationships, experiences, and life transitions.

Turning point

An experience or transition that can redirect a person's life trajectory and influence later behaviour.

Age-crime curve

The general pattern in which offending rises during adolescence, peaks in late adolescence or early adulthood, and then declines.

Limitations of learning theories

Learning theories alone may not fully explain age-related offending patterns, gender differences, or how turning points influence behaviour.

Classical theory versus sociological theory

Classical theory emphasizes choice and deterrence, while sociological theories emphasize social structures, relationships, institutions, and opportunities.

Rational Choice Theory versus Routine Activity Theory

Rational Choice Theory emphasizes perceived decisions about risks and rewards; Routine Activity Theory emphasizes the convergence of an offender, target, and lack of effective guardianship.

Differential Association versus Social Learning Theory

Differential Association emphasizes learning through social relationships; Social Learning Theory also considers reinforcement and imitation.

Labelling Theory versus Differential Association Theory

Labelling Theory focuses on social reactions and identity; Differential Association Theory focuses on learning criminal behaviour through interaction.