Criminological Theory 2

Emile Durkheim

Lived during the 1800’s post-revolution France

Durkheim’s theory

Crime is a social fact, and we need crime to thrive. Crime shows who is good and who is bad; it makes the economy thrive (lawyers, prisons, locks, and weaponry)

What does crime do for the government?

It gives it legitimacy (we need police to protect us)

Anomie

A state of normlessness during rapid social change ( A temporary concern)

An example of a state of normlessness

Economic Boom

Social problems

Have social causes

Robert Merton’s United States Anomie

Made for the lower class, represents a disjuncture between goals and means; everyone is society is supposed to achieve great wealth.

If someone does not achieve great wealth

It is a personal failure on the individuals behalf

Conformist, means expected to achieve as a U.S citizen

40 hr work week, going to college

Innovator

Finding criminal ways to achieve goals

Ritualism

Conforms to society but knows they will never be financially successful

Retreatism

Won’t conform to society because they know they wont be financially successful. i.e homeless and drug users

Rebels

Wants to replace world order

Authors of Institutional Anomie

Messner and Rosenfeld

Institutional Anomie

Society functions best when all institutions are equal

Goals of education

Knowledge and socialization

Goals of family

Support and love

Goals of economics

Wealth

Goals of religon

Morals

Goals or politics

Civic responsibility

Economics in the United States

Is inflated

Politics with an inflated economy

Pushing an agenda to make money

Education with an inflated economy

Getting a good job to make money

Family with an inflated economy

Both parents are working to support the family, keeping their status

Religion with an inflated economy

Becomes a business, mega churches

Crime issues in the U.S

Comes from wanting to live out the American Dream

Poverty and wealth disparity

Poverty is not an indicator of crimes but wealth disparity is

Wealth is a sign of success

Achievements, individualism, it is universal, money fetishism

Giving balance to other institutions when economics is inflated

Strengthen SNAP and welfare benefits/ Redefining the overall American Dream

What does General Strain Theory remove?

Social class theory; everyone experiences strain

Types of strain

• Failure to achieve a goal

• Loss of a positive stimulus

• Presentation of a noxious (negative) stimulus

Negative Affect

• Fear

• Anger

• Frustration

• Depression

Cognitive coping

Reframing the negative issue

Emotional coping

Can be positive or negative, is a temporary fix for the issue

Behavioral coping

Bottling up anger, taking it up on someone else

A noxious stimulus

Abuse, parental rejection, victimization, and discriminations

What can lead to criminal behaviors?

Unjust, event high in magnitude, multiple experiences of event, and recency of event

Gender behavioral differences in violence

Men tend to express their emotions outwardly while women express it inwardly

Age crime curve

Emotions feel very heavy in adolescence, so coping strategies are low.

Delinquent peers

They wont suggest positive coping strategies

Initial emotions aren’t a choice…

You can change how you react to something

Labeling theory

Labels put on by society, some we do fulfill, some we don’t.

What are labels used for?

To judge our values or worth

Master status

Defines our place and how our status is judged (brother, student, mother)

Primary Deviance (similar to Cohen and Felson)

Some deviances are normal

People who aren’t deviant

Are considered the odd ones out

Status Degradation Ceremony

A judge determines their criminal status, and they get defined by their own crime

People internalize the label of their crime

They get treated as if they are their crime. i.e. fired from a job, can’t get a job, family disowns them

Tautology critique of Labeling theory

“Someone described as a criminal is a criminal”

Weak causal argument, critique of Labeling theory

No objective measure that predicts as outcome

Can’t explain primary deviance, critique of Labeling theory

Doesn’t go back to why people commit crimes or not

Overemphasizes the importance of label, critique of Labeling theory

Sometimes a criminal label brings status, i.e gang member status, # of bodies

Internalization of the label doesn’t seem to occur, critique of Labeling theory

Makes the theory unusable, they try to make themselves seem like a better person when talking about their criminal offenses

Authors of Techniques of Neutralization

Sykes and Matza

Techniques of Neutralization

Neutralizing criminal behavior

Denial of responsibility

Wasn’t my fault

Denial of injury

They could afford it

Denial of victim

They had it coming

Condemning the condemners

You’ve done worse

Appeal to higher loyalties

My friend needed me

Critiques of labeling theory

Labels do matter with race and likelihood of imprisonment

Criminal label is not applied equally

Race and criminal record dictate the life of someone

Breaking down barriers

Talking to someone about their life, you can see that someone just needs a chance or opportunity

Policy (reintegrated shaming)

• Punished but reduced shaming

• Victim-offender mediation

• Diversion program

Victim-offender mediation

Both victim and offender sit and talk about how the crime affected them and they both come up with a fair punishment

Diversion program

Doing community service or driving class to get a ticket off the record, getting things expunged

Cultural deviance theories

Born as blank slates, our behavior is dictated by society and the people around us

Cultural values

Some cultures values do align with societies

Learning theory

We learn our behaviors from the people around us

Author of Middle class measuring Rod

Albert Cohen

Middle class measuring Rod

The middle class sets the roles of soceity

Kids born in the lower class

They are held to a middle class standard but dont have the same advantages

College boy

Determined, is going to make it in life

Corner boy (conformist)

Graduated college, good person, maybe blue collar worker

Delinquent boy

• Doesn’t conform to middle-class norms

• May join a gang

• Will get in trouble

• Held up to an unattainable standard

Author of Focal Concerns

Walter Miller

Focal concerns

Concerns off the lower class are different from the middle class

Concerns of the lower class

• Getting in trouble to gain status

• Toughness

• Autonomy, makes their own path

• Smartness, ‘street smart’

• Excitement, life is a party

• Fatalism, their fate is destined

Author of social learning theory

Edwin Sutherland

Social learning theory (principals of differential association)

There weren’t any theories that describe white collar crime

We learn behaviors through connections to other people

Broader society is not the one to blame for our behaviors

We don’t learn how to commit a crime

We learn why to commit crimes

We hold definitions about the morality of law

We either support or refute criminal behaviors. We get criminal definitions from our peers

Differential association

The closer someone is to you, the closer you are to them and the more influence they have over you

Frequency, differential association

How long you’re around someone

Duration, differential association

Time you’ve spent with someone

Priority, differential association

Who you’ve known the longest

Intensity, differential association

Who you’re closest to

Criminal behavior

Is strictly learned

Criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, not explained by those needs and values

Most people use non-criminal ways to deal with needs and values

What theory does Social Learning Theory attack

Strain theory, strain cannot be the cause of criminal behavior

Author of Social Learning Theory (late 1900’s)

Ron Akers

Social Learning Theory (late 1900’s)

Delinquent peers reinforce bad behaviors

How was Ron Akers Social Learning Theory made?

New psychological advancements helped remake the theory

Definitions, Social learning theory

Different definitions for behaviors

Differential Association , Social learning theory

Learning from the people around us

Differential Reinforcement, Social learning theory

Getting different types of reinforcement (good or bad) from other people

Differential reinforcement is…

A key role on whether or not to repeat a behavior

Imitation, Social learning theory

Imitating other behaviors

Social learning and social behaviors

Gender, socioeconomic status, race, etc.