Criminology Test 3

Symbolic interactionism

A sociological perspective focusing on how people interpret social reality and attach meanings to interactions through symbols and language.

Thomas theorem

If people define situations as real, those situations become real in their consequences; an idea associated with symbolic interactionism.

Differential Association Theory (DAT)

Edwin Sutherland's theory that criminal behavior is learned through interpersonal communication, especially within intimate personal groups.

DAT Proposition 1

Criminal behavior is learned rather than inherited.

DAT Proposition 2

Criminal behavior is learned through interaction and communication with other people.

DAT Proposition 3

Most learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups.

DAT Proposition 4

Learning crime includes techniques and the direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.

DAT Proposition 5

Motives and drives are shaped by definitions of legal codes as favorable or unfavorable to violation.

DAT Proposition 6

A person becomes delinquent when definitions favorable to violating the law outweigh definitions unfavorable to violation; the key proposition.

DAT Proposition 7

Differential associations vary by frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.

DAT Proposition 8

Learning criminal behavior involves the same mechanisms as any other kind of learning.

DAT Proposition 9

General needs and values do not explain crime because noncriminal behavior expresses the same needs and values.

Frequency in DAT

How often someone is exposed to criminal or noncriminal definitions.

Duration in DAT

How long exposure to those definitions continues.

Priority in DAT

How early in life an association occurs; earlier associations may be especially influential.

Intensity in DAT

How important or respected the source of the definitions is to the individual.

Social Learning Theory (SLT)

Ronald Akers's theory that crime is learned through associations, definitions, imitation, and reinforcement.

Four principles of SLT

Differential association, differential reinforcement, imitation, and definitions.

Differential reinforcement

The balance of actual or anticipated rewards and punishments following behavior; central to Akers's SLT.

Positive reinforcement

Adding a rewarding consequence to increase the likelihood of repeating behavior.

Negative reinforcement

Removing or avoiding an unpleasant condition to increase the likelihood of repeating behavior.

Positive punishment

Adding an unpleasant consequence to decrease a behavior.

Negative punishment

Removing a desirable consequence to decrease a behavior.

Imitation in SLT

Learning behavior by observing and modeling the actions of others.

Definitions in SLT

Learned attitudes and meanings that favor or oppose violating social or legal norms.

Social Bond Theory

Travis Hirschi's theory that strong ties to conventional society restrain people from offending.

Four social bonds

Attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.

Attachment

Emotional bonds with family, school, and other conventional people or institutions.

Commitment

Investment in conventional goals and achievements that a person risks losing through crime.

Involvement

Time and energy spent in conventional activities, reducing opportunities for offending.

Belief

Acceptance of conventional moral rules and social norms.

Low Self-Control Theory

Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory that low self-control increases vulnerability to immediate temptation and crime when opportunities arise.

Characteristics of low self-control

Present orientation, risk taking, impatience, lack of persistence, self-centeredness, and insensitivity to others.

Development of self-control

According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, self-control is largely established during early childhood through parenting and socialization and tends to remain stable.

Labeling Theory

A perspective emphasizing how reactions and stigmatizing labels from others can influence a person's identity and future criminal behavior.

Frank Tannenbaum and labeling

Associated with dramatization of evil: publicly defining a person as criminal may reinforce a criminal identity.

Primary deviance

Initial rule-breaking that has not substantially changed a person's self-concept.

Secondary deviance

Further deviance that develops in response to social reaction, stigma, or acceptance of a deviant identity.

Self-fulfilling prophecy in labeling

A criminal label may influence someone to see and act more like the identity others have assigned.

Neutralization Theory

Sykes and Matza's theory that offenders use justifications to temporarily set aside conventional moral restraints and drift into offending.

Five techniques of neutralization

Denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of victim, condemnation of the condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties.

Denial of responsibility

Claiming circumstances or other people caused the act rather than accepting personal responsibility.

Denial of injury

Claiming the behavior was not truly wrong because nobody was seriously harmed.

Denial of victim

Claiming the victim deserved what happened.

Condemnation of the condemners

Deflecting blame by accusing authorities or critics of hypocrisy or wrongdoing.

Appeal to higher loyalties

Justifying wrongdoing as necessary to protect or support a valued group or relationship.

Critical criminology

An umbrella of perspectives emphasizing social conflict, inequality, power, and the role of law in protecting privileged interests.

Marxist criminology

A critical approach rooted in Karl Marx's class struggle that links crime to exploitation, alienation, and capitalist social conditions.

Bourgeoisie

The capitalist class that owns or controls the means of production.

Proletariat

The working class that sells its labor to the owners of the means of production.

Class struggle in Marxism

Conflict between owners seeking lower labor costs and workers seeking better compensation and conditions.

Alienation in Marxist criminology

Disconnection from one's work, self, other people, and society arising from dehumanizing economic conditions.

Left realism

A practical, reform-oriented critical perspective that takes street crime and its effects on working-class victims seriously and supports realistic policies within existing institutions.

Left realism's interconnected concerns

The offender, victim, community, and state are all relevant to understanding and responding to crime.

Conflict theory

A perspective associated with Max Weber that sees lawmaking and criminalization as shaped by struggles among groups with unequal power.

Marxist versus Weberian conflict theory

Marx emphasizes economic class conflict under capitalism; Weber emphasizes conflicts involving class, political groups, and status.

Weber's three sources of social group conflict

Class, party, and status.

Peacemaking criminology

A critical approach that favors compassion, reconciliation, and reducing harm instead of emphasizing punishment and a war on crime.

Restorative justice

An approach focused on repairing crime-related harm through accountability, dialogue, restitution, and participation by affected people.

Peacemaking versus restorative justice

Peacemaking is a broader philosophy opposing punitive responses; restorative justice is a practical approach to repairing harm.

Green criminology

A critical approach studying environmental harms, ecological damage, and harms to nonhuman animals, including conduct not necessarily prohibited by law.

Examples studied in green criminology

Pollution, deforestation, illegal waste dumping, poaching, and destruction of habitats.

Feminist criminology

A collection of approaches examining how gender inequality, patriarchy, and gendered experiences influence crime, victimization, and criminal justice.

Patriarchy

A social system characterized by male dominance and the privileging of masculine power and authority.

Generalizability problem in feminist criminology

The question of whether criminological theories developed mainly to explain male offending also adequately explain female offending.

Power-Control Theory

John Hagan's theory linking gender differences in delinquency to power relations and patterns of control within families.

Patriarchal family in Power-Control Theory

A family structure with unequal parental power in which daughters are generally supervised more closely and sons receive greater freedom.

Egalitarian family in Power-Control Theory

A family with more equal parental power, predicted to produce smaller gender differences in risk-taking and delinquency.

Staying-Alive Hypothesis

Anne Campbell's evolutionary hypothesis that greater obligatory parental investment and offspring-survival concerns contribute to females' greater avoidance of physical danger.

Fear and risk in the Staying-Alive Hypothesis

The hypothesis emphasizes fear of physical threats and risk avoidance as factors limiting violent and dangerous behavior.

Status and the Staying-Alive Hypothesis

Campbell argues that female competition for resources and status is more often low-risk and less physically violent than male competition.

Intelligence

The capacity to think rationally, act purposefully, and deal effectively with one's environment; commonly assessed using IQ tests.

Intelligence and criminality

The textbook describes an association between lower measured cognitive ability and some criminal outcomes but notes that low IQ alone does not explain crime.

Flynn Effect

The historical increase in average IQ test performance across generations, associated in the textbook with improvements in environmental conditions.

Environmental influences on IQ

The textbook identifies schooling, medical care, nutrition, and reduced childhood disease burdens as contributors to historical IQ gains.

Temperament

Relatively stable, constitutionally based differences in emotional reactivity and self-regulation, influenced by genes, maturation, and experience.

Temperament and criminal behavior

Difficult temperament, especially low self-control and negative emotionality, is associated with greater risk of antisocial behavior but does not determine offending.

Freud's id

The unconscious, pleasure-seeking part of personality that demands immediate gratification.

Freud's ego

The reality-oriented part of personality that mediates between the id, superego, and real-world consequences.

Freud's superego

The internalized moral rules and conscience that guide judgments of right and wrong.

Freud's three personality principles

Id: pleasure principle; ego: reality principle; superego: morality principle.

Big Five personality traits (OCEAN)

Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Openness to experience

Preference for novelty, curiosity, and new experiences; the textbook associates high openness with some risk taking.

Conscientiousness

Organization, discipline, responsibility, and reliability; low conscientiousness is linked to impulsive or antisocial behavior.

Extraversion

Sociability, assertiveness, and desire for stimulation.

Agreeableness

Compassion, cooperation, and consideration for others; low agreeableness is linked to antagonism and aggression.

Neuroticism

Tendency toward emotional instability, negative feelings, and stronger reactions to stress.

Impulsiveness

Acting without sufficient consideration of consequences; a personality trait strongly associated with criminal behavior in the textbook.

Sensation seeking

Desire for novel, varied, exciting, or risky experiences; it can be expressed through lawful or unlawful activities.

Conscience

Internalized moral rules and emotional responses such as guilt and shame that help regulate behavior.

Autonomic nervous system (ANS)

The peripheral nervous system component regulating automatic bodily functions and physiological arousal.

Sympathetic nervous system

The ANS branch that mobilizes the body for fight-or-flight responses.

Parasympathetic nervous system

The ANS branch that restores the body toward a resting, balanced state after arousal.

Conscience and arousal

The textbook links differences in physiological arousal and sensitivity to reward and punishment with the acquisition of moral restraints.

Reticular activating system (RAS)

A brain arousal and filtering system that influences which incoming stimuli receive attention.

Reducers

Individuals described as relatively insensitive to stimulation who may seek stronger input to reach a comfortable arousal level.

Augmenters

Individuals described as highly sensitive to stimulation who may become overwhelmed by strong input.

Walters's Lifestyle Theory

Glen Walters's theory that criminal behavior is part of a broader lifestyle involving choices, conditions, and patterns of thinking.

Three concepts of Walters's Lifestyle Theory

Conditions, choice, and cognition.

Conditions in Walters's theory

Biological and environmental influences that shape the range and direction of future choices.