Juvenile Delinquency Chapter 4

Critical social factors believed to cause or affect delinquent behavior?

Interpersonal interactions, community conditions, exposure to violence, social change, low socioeconomic status, racial disparity

Two distinct groups of social theories on delinquency

social structure theories and social process theories

social structure theories

hold that delinquency is a function of a person's place in the economic structure. explain delinquency using socioeconomic conditions and cultural values. suggest that the social forces present in deteriorated lower class areas are the key determinant of delinquent behavior patterns.

social process theories

view delinquency as the result of a person's interaction with critical elements of socialization

stratified society

grouping society into classes based on the unequal distribution of scarce resources (wealth, power, and prestige)

culture of poverty

Coined by Oscar Lewis. view that lower class people form a separate culture with their own values and norms, which are sometimes in conflict with conventional society.

underclass

group of urban poor whose members have little chance of upward mobility of improvement.

enculturated

the process by which an established culture teaches an individual its norms and values, so that the individual can become an accepted member of the society. Through enculturation, the individual learns what is accepted behavior within that society and his or her particular status within the culture.

three overlapping theories that reside within the social structure perspective

social disorganization theory, strain theory, and cultural deviance theory

social disorganization theory

the inability of a community to exert social control allows youths the freedom to engage in illegal behavior. Indicators of social disorganization include high unemployment, school dropout rates, deteriorated housing, low income levels, and large numbers of single parent households. Residents in these areas experience conflict and despair, and as a result, antisocial behavior flourishes.

social control

ability of social institutions to influence human behavior; the justice system is the primary agency of formal social control.

transitional neighborhood

area undergoing a shift in population and structure, usually from middle class residential to lower class mixed use.

social ecology

theory focuses attention on the influence of social institutions have on individual behavior and suggests that law violating behavior is a response to social rather than individual forces operating in an urban environment.

siege mentality

residents become so suspicious of authority that they consider the outside world to be the enemy out to destroy the neighborhood.

collective efficacy

the ability of communities to regulate the behavior of their residents through the influence of community institutions, such as the family and school. Residents in these communities share mutual trust and a willingness to intervene in the supervision of children and the maintenance of public order. 3 Forms: informal, institutional, and public social control

informal social control (CE)

direct criticism, ridicule, ostracism, desertion, or physical punishment by peers, families, and relatives.

institutional social control (CE)

community organizations such as the church, schools, and community centers.

public social control (CE)

stable neighborhoods are able to arrange for external sources of social control.

street efficacy

using one's wits to avoid violent confrontations and to feel safe.

strain theory

links delinquency to the strain of being locked out of the economic mainstream, which creates the anger and frustration that lead to delinquent acts. Suggests that while most people share similar values and goals, the ability to achieve these personal goals is stratified by socioeconomic class.

Anomie

Term coined by Durkheim. "Without norms." Normlessness produced by rapidly shifting moral values; according to Merton, anomie occurs when personal goals cannot be achieved using available means. Merton found that two elements of culture interact to produce anomic conditions: the clash of culturally defined goals and socially approved means.

Social adaptations

Each person has his own concept of the goals of society and the means to attain them. Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion.

conformity

individuals both embrace conventional social goals and also have the means at their disposal to attain them

innovation

accepts the goals of society and uses illegitimate means to attain them

ritualism

gain pleasure from practicing traditional ceremonies regardless of whether they have a real purpose or goal

retreatism

reject goals and means of society

rebellion

involves substituting an alternative set of goals and means for conventional ones

general strain theory

according to Agnew, the view that multiple sources of strain interact with an individual's emotional traits and responses to produce criminality.

Multiple sources of stress

failure to achieve positively valued goals, disjunction between expectations and achievements, removal of positively valued stimuli, and presentation of negative stimuli

negative affective states

anger, depression, disappointment, fear, and other adverse emotions that derive from strain

cultural transmission

cultural norms and values are passed down from one generation to the next

cultural deviance theory

a unique lower class culture develops in disorganized neighborhoods whose unique set of values and beliefs puts residents in conflict with conventional social norms.

focal concerns

the value orientation of lower class culture that is characterized by a need for excitement, trouble, smartness, fate, and personal autonomy.

status frustration

a form of culture conflict experienced by lower class youths because social conditions prevent them from achieving success as defined by the larger society

middle class measuring rods

standards by which teachers and other representatives of state authority evaluate students behavior; when lower class youths cannot meet these standards they are subject to failure, which brings on frustration and anger at conventional society

reaction formation

a psychological reaction that occurs when a person does or says something that is the opposite of what he or she really wants or what is socially expected and appropriate

differential opportunity

Centerpiece of Cloward and Ohlin's theory. the view that lower class youths, whose legitimate opportunities are limited, join gangs and pursue criminal careers as alternative means to achieve universal success goals.

Because of differential opportunity, kids are likely to join one of three types of gangs

criminal, conflict, retreatist

criminal gang

exist in stable lower class areas in which close connections among adolescent, young adult, and adult offenders create an environment for successful delinquent enterprise

conflict gang

develop in communities unable to provide either legitimate or illegitimate opportunities. Members fight to protect their own and their gang's integrity and honor.

retreatist gang

double failures, unable to gain success through legitimate means and unwilling to do so through illegal ones. "Retreat" into a role on the fringe of society.

Socialization

the process by which human beings learn to adopt the behavior patterns of the community in which they live, which requires them to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to function within their culture and environment.

Four elements of socialization

family influence, school effects, peer influence and relations, and effects of religion and belief

family influence

primary influence on children. When parenting is inadequate, a child's maturational processes will be interrupted or damaged. Kids in bad family homes develop poor emotional well being, externalize problems, and engage in antisocial behavior.

parental efficacy

parents who are supportive and effectively control their children in a noncoercive fashion

school effects

youths who feel that teachers do not care, who consider themselves failures, and who do poorly in school are more likely to become involved in a delinquent way of lie than adolescents who are educationally successful.

peer influence and relations

typical adolescent struggles are to impress one's closest friends and to preserve his social circle, peer relations can be a double edged sword.

effects of religion and belief

Petts concludes that religious participation helps reduce deviant behavior involvement throughout the life course, from adolescence until marriage.

How can an adolescent living in a deteriorated urban area successfully resist inducement to delinquency?

if they have positive self image, learn moral values, and have the support of their parents, peers, teachers, and neighbors.

The social process approach has two inependent branches

social learning theory and social control theory

Social learning theory

hypothesizes that delinquency is learned through close relationships with others; asserts that children are born good and learn to be bad from others. Suggests that adolescents learn the techniques and attitudes of crime from close and intimate relationships with delinquent peers. Includes differential association theory and neutralization theory.

Differential association theory

Sutherland-often considered the preeminent U.S. criminologist. Asserts that criminal behavior is learned primarily within interpersonal groups and that youths will become delinquent if definitions they have learned favorable to violating the law exceed definitions favorable to obeying the law within that group.

principles of differential association

delinquent behavior is learned, learning is a by product of interaction, learning occurs within intimate groups, criminal techniques are learned, perceptions of legal code influence motives and drives, differential associations may vary in duration, frequency, priority and intensity, delinquent behavior is an expression of general needs and values, but it is not excused by those general needs and values because nondelinquent behavior is also an expression of those same needs and values.

Neutralization theory

the process of becoming a delinquent is a learning experience in which potential delinquents and criminals master techniques that enable them to counterbalance or neutralize conventional values and drift back and forth between illegitimate and conventional behavior. One reason this is possible is subterranean values.

Subterranean values

the ability of youthful law violators to repress social norms. Morally tinged influences that have become entrenched in the culture but are publicly condemned. Examples: viewing porn, drinking alcohol to excess, and gambling on sporting events.

drift

refers to the movement from one extreme of behavior to another, resulting in behavior that is sometimes unconventional, free, or deviant and at other times constrained and sober. Idea that youths move in and out of delinquency and that their lifestyles can embrace both conventional and deviant values.

Neutralization techniques

a set of attitudes or beliefs that allow would be delinquents to negate any moral apprehension they may have about committing crime so that they may freely engage in antisocial behavior without regret. Deny responsibility, deny injury, deny the victim, condemn the condemners, appeal to higher loyalties.

Social control theory

posits that delinquency results from a weakened commitment commitment to the major social institutions (family, peers, and school); lack of such commitment allows youths to exercise antisocial behavioral choices. Assumes adolescents are born bad and must be controlled in order to be good. Maintains that all people have the potential to violate the law and that modern society presents many opportunities for illegal activity. Social bond theory

Hirschi's social bond theory

links the onset of delinquency to the weakening of the ties that bind people to society. All kids are potential law violates, but they are kept under control by their relationships with friends, parents, and neighbors.

Social bond

Ties a person to the institutions and processes of society; elements of the bond include attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.