BYUI Crime and Delinquency Exam 3 review

Developmental theory

The view that criminality is a dynamic process, influenced by social experiences as well as individual characteristics

Life Course Theory

A developmental theory that focuses on changes in behavior as people travel along the path of life and how these changes affect crime and delinquency

●People have multiple traits: social, psychological, economic.

● People change over the life course.

● Family, job, peers influence behavior

Latent Trait Theory

The view that delinquent behavior is controlled by a "master trait," present at birth or soon after, that remains stable and unchanging throughout a person's lifetime.

-People do not change, delinquent opportunities change; maturity brings fewer opportunities.

- People have a master trait: personality, intelligence, genetic makeup.

- Early social control and proper parenting can reduce delinquent propensity

Propensity

A natural inclination or personal trait that exists at birth or soon after and remains constant over the life course

Trajectory Theory

The view that there are multiple independent paths to a delinquent career and that there are different types and classes of offenders.

●There is more than one path to a delinquent career.

● There are different types of offenders and offending

Early Onset

The view that kids who begin engaging in anti-social behaviors at a very early age are the ones most at risk for a delinquency career

Problem Behavior Syndrome (PBS)

A cluster of antisocial behaviors that may include family dysfunction, substance abuse, smoking, precocious sexuality and early pregnancy, educational underachievement, suicide attempts, sensation seeking, and unemployment, as well as delinquency.

Turning Points

Critical life events, such as career and marriage, which may enable adult offenders to desist from delinquency.

Social Capital

Positive relations with individuals and institutions, as in a successful marriage or a successful career, that support conventional behavior and inhibit deviant behavior.

General Theory of Crime (GTC)

A developmental theory that modifies social control theory by integrating concepts from biosocial, psychological, routine activities, and rational choice theories.

Self-Control

Refers to a person's ability to exercise restraint and control over his or her feelings, emotions, reactions, and behaviors

Impulsive

Lacking in thought or deliberation in decision making. An impulsive person lacks close attention to details, has organizational problems, is distracted and forgetful.

Trajectories

Differing paths, progressions, or lines of development.

Authority Conflict Pathway

Within trajectory theory: Pathway to delinquent deviance that begins at an early age with stubborn behavior and leads to defiance and then to authority avoidance.

Covert Pathway

Within trajectory theory: Pathway to a delinquent career that begins with minor underhanded behavior, leads to property damage, and eventually escalates to more serious forms of theft and fraud

Overt Pathway

Within trajectory theory: Pathway to a delinquent career that begins with minor aggression, leads to physical fighting, and eventually escalates to violent delinquency

Adolescent limited offenders

Trajectory theory: Kids who get into minor scrapes as youth but whose misbehavior ends when they enter adulthood

Life course persisters

Trajectory theory: Delinquents who begin their offending career at a very early age and continue to offend well into adulthood.

Abstainers

Kids who are never involved in typical adolescent misbehaviors such as drinking, smoking, sex, or petty crimes.

Early Starters (ES)

begin to engage in antisocial behavior at a very young age because they have early symptoms of antisocial personality

Late Starters (LS)

begin to engage in antisocial behavior after the onset of the psychiatric disorders. Their criminal and deviant behavior is attributed to symptoms of the disorder.

First Offenders (FO)

are people in their late thirties with late onset mental disorders such as schizophrenia who suddenly commit a very serious violent offense without prior identified psychological abnormality.

Social Introverts

unpopularity shields them from peer group pressure to commit delinquent acts. They have a shy personality and few friends, and are therefore spared the influence of high-risk peers.

Prosocial Abstainers

who have conventional friends and family, and who do well in school. Their abstention from delinquent behavior may be more the result of careful parental monitoring and strong moral beliefs rather than social isolation. Not surprisingly, prosocial abstainers are the ones most likely than to become successful, well-adjusted adults.

Masculinity Hypothesis

View that women who commit crimes have biological and psychological traits similar to those of men.

Gender Differences: Socialization

Females: Sustain relationships Are less aggressive Blame self

Males: Are independent Are aggressive Externalize anger

Gender Differences: Cognitive

Females: Have superior verbal ability Speak earlier Have better pronunciation Read better

Males: Have superior visual /spatial ability Are better at math

Gender Differences: Personality

Females: Have lower self-esteem Are self-aware

Have better attention span

Males: Have high self-esteem Are materialistic

Have low attention span

Gender Differences: Emotional

Females: Internalize emotions Sadness, anxiety

Males: Externalize emotions Anger

Gender Schema Theory

A theory of development that holds that children internalize gender scripts that reflect the gender-related social practices of the culture. Once internalized, these gender scripts predispose the kids to construct a self-identity that is consistent with them

Chivalry Hypothesis

The view that low female crime and delinquency rates are a reflection of the leniency with which police treat female offenders.

Precocious sexuality

Sexual experimentation in early adolescence.

Liberal Feminism

Asserts that females are less delinquent than males because their social roles provide them with fewer opportunities to commit crimes; as the roles of girls and women become more similar to those of boys and men, so too will their crime patterns

Critical Feminism

Holds that gender inequality stems from the unequal power of men and women and the subsequent exploitation of women by men; the cause of female delinquency originates with the onset of male supremacy and the efforts of males to control females' sexuality.

Power-Control Theory

Holds that gender differences in the delinquency rate are a function of class differences and economic conditions that influence the structure of family life.

Egalitarian Families

Husband and wife share power at home; daughters gain a kind of freedom similar to that of sons, and their law-violating behaviors mirror those of their brothers.

Sex Trafficking

The recruitment and transportation of people for commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.