Criminology Exam 3

Differential Association theory

People learn to commit crimes as a result of contact with antisocial values, attitudes, and criminal behavior patterns.

Edwin Sutherland

Deve

Shaw and McKays social disorganization theory

Poverty, heterogeneity, and physical dilapidation will lead to a state of social disorganization, which in turn will lead to crime and delinquency.

Gabriel Tarde’s imitation theory 

Most people copy/imitate others, greater tendency to copy those we regularly come in close contact with, individuals tend to imitate those with higher status/prestige 

Sutherlands 1st statement

criminal behavior is learned

Sutherlands 2nd statement

criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication

Sutherlands 3rd statement

the principle part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups

Sutherlands 4th statement

When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes very simple, and (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes 

Sutherlands 5th statement

The specific direction to motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable

Sutherlands 6th statement

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

Sutherlands 7th statement

Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity 

Sutherlands 8th statement

the process of learning criminal behavior involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning

Sutherlands 9th statement

while criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values, since noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values

Sutherlands 9 Statements Simplified aka Differential Association theory 

• the techniques, motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes of criminal behavior are learned in interaction with significant others

• a person becomes delinquent when she learns, through interaction with significant others, an excess of definitions unfavorable to violation of the law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law

• the balance between definitions favorable and unfavorable to violation of the law depends on the frequency, duration, priority, and intensity of criminal vs. noncriminal associations

Learning theory (Sutherland) 

Criminal subculture, criminals often specialize, criminals have strong bonds with criminal peers, some social bonds are criminogenic, studied serious criminals and their peers

Social bonding theory (Hirschi)

No real criminal subcultures, criminals are generalists, criminal relationships are ‘cold and brittle,’ all bonds are pro-social, studied adolescents in high school

Incorrect assumption about differential association theory

assume its only concerned with associations between criminals

• most people have both types of associations, those that are favorable to violation of the law, and those that are favorable to conforming to the law

Sutherland theorized crime occurs when…

… associations favorable to violation of the law outweigh those that are favorable to conforming to the law

Glaser’s Differential Identification

A theory of criminal behavior similar to differential association, but that also takes into account associations with persons and images presented in the media 

Dawes expansion on differential identification

juvenile delinquents who experience parental rejection form strong identifications with other reference groups (including media role models)

Becoming a Marihuana User, (Howard Becker)

Becker believes becoming a marijuana user is the result of social learning

Social learning process of becoming a marijuana user

1. learning to smoke marijuana in a way that will produce real effects

2. learning to recognize the effects and connect them with marijuana use

3. learning to enjoy the perceived effects

Neutralization theory

individuals, especially in their teenage and early adult years, make excuses to alleviate the guilt related to certain criminal acts 

Who developed neutralization theory

Skyes and Matza

Techniques of neutralization

1. denial of responsibility

2. denial of injury

3. denial of the victim

4. condemnation of the condemners

5. appeal to higher loyalties

Neutralization techniques specific to white collar crime

1. defense of necessity 

2. metaphor of the ledger

Defense of necessity

Argues an individual should not feel shame because their actions are being accepted through the entire group

Method of the ledger

you are providing a service/product that is so beneficial to your customers that you’re justified in doing some bad things because the good outweighs the bad.

The Fraud triangle (cressey)

pressure + opportunity + rationalization

The code of the street

a set of informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior (including violence in response to disrespect) found in many inner-city neighborhoods 

“Decent” families

Accept mainstream values and instill them in their children, stricter parents, encourage kids to respect authority and walk a ‘straight moral line’ 

“Street” families

children aggressively socialized to the code of the street, grow up with little supervision, short-tempered adults as role models, children are punished if they show weakness, taught to ‘fight for their place in the world’

Culture of violence caused by

• lack of jobs that pay a livable wage

• racism

• lack of faith in the police

• drug use/trafficking

• alienation and a lack of hope

Is crime caused by “the code of the street” or by structural inequality and discrimination?

Structural equality and discrimination. The code of the street is a product of this, it is a cultural adaptation to the profound lack of faith in the police and the judicial system.

Respect in the street

Respect is an external entity, it is hard-won and easily lost.

The respect hierarchy

increased resepct:

• taking care of himself

• abusive language

• use of violence

decreased respect

• being dissed

• backing down

• losing a fight

Critique of the code of the streets

Argue poverty/marginalization/discrimination are the cause of the violence rather than culture elements being the cause of the crime 

• focusing on/attempting to change the code of the street will only be a temporary and situational fix

• to effectively decrease rates of violence the root causes (poverty, marginalization) must be addressed

Beckers belief about marijuana

marijuana use is a function of the individuals conception of marijuana and of the uses to which it can be put, and this conception develops as the individual’s experience with the drug increases.

In time, deviant behavior produces…

…deviant motivation

Steps for willing and able use of marijuana for pleasure

1. learning the technique

2. learning to perceive the effects

3. learning to enjoy the effects

One reason for widespread acceptance of differential association

investigators consistently find that individuals are more likely to offend themselves if they associate with peers who condone and commit crime

Most young offenders have

Co-offenders 

3 reasons to be skeptical of differential association theory

1. individuals perceptions of their friends behaviors influence offending more significantly than does their perception that friends have crime-condoning attitudes

2. recent peer associations are more significant predictors of offending than longstanding relationships. Recent interaction with delinquent peer groups has a significant effect on offending despite the fact that these groups are situational, transitory, and generally disorganized.

3. friends attitudes and behaviors have direct effects on offending that are not mediated by one’s own attitudes. This finding suggests that associating with deviant friends influences individual offending levels in ways that have nothing to do with the offender’s attitudes about crime.

Friends attitudes and behaviors were significant determinants of 3 forms of criminal offending 

theft, assault, vandalism

Even when crime was accomplished alone, 

friends attitudes and behaviors were relevant and the significance of these variables was not completely explained by the intervening effect of respondents own attitudes 

The influence of delinquent peers occurs both

when individuals commit crimes in groups and when they offend alone; peer influence is not solely dependent on the presence of co-offenders

Hochstetler reading and differential association

Overall supports differential association theory, but challenges its assumption that attitude transmission is the only mechanism, as it shows how peer influence affects both group and solo crime

Developmental theories

explanatory models of criminal behavior that follow individuals throughout the life course, emphasize structural, social, and cultural contexts that shape life trajectories and transitions

Most accepted theoretical paradigm for explaining serious criminal behavior

1. social learning theories

2. developmental theories

Criminal career

the sequence of delinquent and criminal acts committed by an individual as the individual ages across the lifespan from childhood through adolescence and adulthood

Onset

When an individual first begins offending

Frequency

How often an individual offends

Intensity

The degree of seriousness of the offense an individual commits

Persistence/duration

The length of time between an individual’s first offense and their final offense

Desistance

The cessation of offending

What counts as early onset?

At or before age 13

Does frequency matter? 

It varies so widely that it offers limited usefulness 

General theory of crime

• people are born with criminal tendencies

• self-control established by early socialization

• self-control must be established by age 10

• seeks to explain how criminal (low-control) personalities develop

General theory of crime: people are born with criminal tendencies

true

General theory of crime: self-control must be established by 

Age 10; or early socialization

Life transitionns

set individuals on criminal or non-criminal trajectories

• transitions occur throughout the life course and can change an individuals trajectory

Developmental theories seek to explain 

why an individuals criminality changes over time 

Sampson and Laub’s developmental model

individuals on a criminal trajectory can either suddenly or gradually desist due to life transitions

Transitions

Specific events that are important in altering long-tern trends in behavior

Trajectories

Paths people take in life, often due to life transitions

Moffitt’s Developmental Taxonomy

Identifies two types of offenders

• adolescence-limited offender

• life-course persistent offender

adolescence-limited offender

someone who commits crimes only during adolescence and desists in adulthood

• often viewed as ‘normal’

life-course persistent offender

someone who starts offending early and persists through adulthood

• only 4-8% of all offenders

• commit most serious offenses 

High likelihood to become a life-course persistent offender caused by

an interaction between neurological problems and being raised in a poor environment 

Which is more indicative of who will become a chronic offender? teenage years or early-onset offending

early-onset offending

Thornberry’s interactional model of offending

Reciprocal relationship between social control variables and social learning variables

Feedback loops

factors that caused criminal behavior are in turn caused (or intensified) by them

Social control variables

• commitment to school

• commitment to parents

• belief in conventional values

Social learning variable

• adoption of delinquent values

• association with delinquent peers

Self selection or social learning? 

Both, for some people criminal behavior comes first and leads to delinquent peers, sometimes vice-versa

• one of the life events/transitions that set a criminal trajectory are committing a crime, and being caught or punished for the act

Becoming a marijuana user is the result of 

social learning

3 types of social control must be overcome to be a marijuana user

• supply/access

• secrecy

• morality

Labeling theory

criminal behavior increases because certain individuals are caught and labeled as offenders

• their offending increases because they have been stigmatized

Foundation of labeling theory

Symbolic interactions, looking-glass self

Symbolic interactionism

individuals construct meaning through the process of social interaction and act according to the meanings they construct

• people respond to reality indirectly through the filter of socially constructed meaning

Looking glass self

A person views herself according to how she thinks others view her

Stigma

an attribute that is deeply discrediting and that diminishes the individual from a whole and normal person to a tainted, discredited one

Dramatization of evil (Tannenbaum)

gradual shift from the act of being defined as evil to the person being defined as evil

• involves tagging, defining, and identifying the individual as criminal

  • self-fulfilling prophecy

Social pathology (lemert)

primary and secondary deviance

Primary deviance

minor, infrequent offenses that people commit before they are caught and labeled as offenders

Secondary deviance

more serious deviant behavior as a way to defend against/adjust to the negative reaction of the community

Sequence leading to secondary deviance

1. primary deviance

2. social penalties

3. further primary deviance

4. strong penalties/rejections

5. further deviation with hostilities 

6. formal action by the community

7. strengthening of deviant conduct

8. ultimate acceptance of deviant social status 

Sampson and Laub key findings

• adult social bonds influence crime across the life course: strong attachments like marriage/work/family can decrease offending

• turning points foster desistance: key life events as turning points (stable employment/marriage)

• informal social control (emotional support, supervision, responsibility) are more influential in reducing crime than formal sanctions

Chambliss (saints and roughnecks)

In a class structured society, people are treated according to their position, and not necessarily in terms of who they are or what they actually do

Powerful groups and deviance

more powerful groups have the power to impose the rules and apply the deviant label; deviance is created not only by those who break the rules, but by those who impose them

Perceived as deviant + obedient behavior

=falsely accused

Not perceived as deviant behavior + obedient behavior

=conforming

Perceived as deviant/rule-breaking behavior

=pure deviant

Not perceived as deviant/rule-breaking behavior

=secret deviant

Edwin Schur’s definition of deviance

Human behavior us deviant to the extent that it comes to be viewed as involving departure from the group’s normative expectations

• elicits reactions that serve to isolate, treat, correct, or punish individuals engaged in such behavior

Factors in the labeling process

stereotyping, retrospective interpretation, status degradation, role engulfment

Stereotyping

applying an oversimplified, unreliable generalization about a group to a member of that group

Retrospective interpretation

a process by which an individual is identified as a deviant and thereafter viewed in a “new light”

Status degradation ceremony 

Most dramatic way to initiate the process of. giving an individual a new, deviant identity