SOC 4410 Criminology: Ch 7-9 Lecture Three sociological Views of Crime

Ch 7 focus

Conditions and opportunities

Ch 7 question

Why do crime rates vary across places and groups?

Ch 8 focus

Learning and social bonds

Ch 8 question

Why might people in similar circumstances behave differently?

Ch 9 focus

power and social reaction

Ch 9 question

Who defines crime, and what happens when someone is labeled a criminal?

structural theories focus

Conditions outside the individual; poverty, neighborhood resources, residential instability, access to opportunities, strength of local institutions.

Social disorganization theory

Draws attention to a community’s ability to maintain informal social control

collective efficacy

resident’s shared willingness to act for the good of their community

Strain theories

Focus on pressures that arise when ppl cannot readily achieve valued goals or cope with negative experiences.

Robert Merton

Emphasized the gap btwn the cultural goal of financial success and unequal access to legitimate ways of reaching it.

Robert Agnew

Broadened discussion to other sources of strain beyond financial, including harmful treatment and loss of something valued.

Social process theories

examine interactions and experiences that may help explain those differences

Learning theories

propose that people learn attitudes and behavior through interaction with others

Differential association theory

argues that criminal behavior is learned through communication, especially within close groups.

Control theories

turn the question around: what helps keep people from offending?

Four elements of Travis Hirschi bonds

attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.

Life course theories

recognize that behavior can change. Experiences in childhood may matter, but later relationships, opportunities, and turning points may also affect whether offending continues or stops. A person’s past behavior does not fix their future.

Labeling theory

examines how behavior comes to be defined as deviant, who receives an official label, and what that label can do to a person’s future. An arrest or conviction may change how others treat someone and limit access to school, work, or supportive relationships. Those consequences can make continued offending more likely in some circumstances.

Conflict and radical theories

examine how power influences the creation and enforcement of laws. They ask whose behavior attracts scrutiny, whose harms receive attention, and whose interests the legal system protects. These are questions to investigate with evidence; the answer may differ depending on the law, place, and period being studied.

Feminist perspectives

ask how gender shapes offending, victimization, and treatment within the criminal justice system. They have drawn attention to experiences that older theories often ignored, including violence against women and the ways gender expectations affect both men’s and women’s behavior.