Crim Theory Test 2

Chapter 6: What do social bonding and control theories ask?

• why does anyone conform?

• why don’t we all violate the rules?

Chapter 6: What is the answers to the two questions social bonding and control theories ask? Explain.

• we conform because social controls prevent us from committing crime

• this is sometimes called the “natural motivation” assumption, which, while not necessarily referring to the inborn tendencies to crime, refers to the assumption that there is no individual variation in motivations to commit crime

Chapter 6: What is NOT the objective of social bonding and control theories?

Not to explain crime as the impetus towards crime is assumed to be evenly distributed across society. Rather, the difference in deviance comes down to social bonds and self-control

Chapter 6: Key early control theories:

• Reiss’s and Nye’s Theories of Internal and External Controls

• Reckless’s Containment Theory

• Sykes and Matza Techniques of Neutralization and Drift

Chapter 6: What was Albert J. Reiss’s contribution and theory of social control?

• Provided one of the earliest applications of the social control concept to criminology (1951)

• States the cause of delinquency as the failure of “personal” and “social” controls

  • personal controls (internal reasons why a person will not commit a crime)

  • social controls (reasons why a person will not commit a crime from a societal standpoint - family, church, school)

Chapter 6: What was Nye’s (1958) contribution to and theory of social control?

• Expanded on Reiss’s application and identified three main categories of social control that prevent delinquency:

1. Direct control, by which punishment is imposed and compliance is rewarded

2. Indirect control, by which a youth refrains from delinquency because his or her delinquent act might cause pain and disappointment for close relationships like parents

3. internal control, by which a conscience or sense of guilt prevents someone from engaging in delinquency

Chapter 6: What is the basic proposition of Reckless’ Containment Theory?

• Inner and outer pushes and pulls on an individual will produce delinquency unless they are controlled by inner and outer containment measures

  • Outer containment includes parental and school supervision and discipline, as well as strong group cohesion

  • inner containment- strong conscience or “good self-concept”

Chapter 6: What was Sykes and Matza’s contribution to control theory?

• Deviant behavior is the result of adolescents using techniques of neutralization and drift

• techniques of neutralization

  • rationalizations for delinquent behavior that provide an explanation for crime/deviance

  • provides a way in which adolescents can obtain “episodic release” from conventional moral restraints

• drift

  • the offender can “drift” between law-abiding and criminal behavior because of social controls (i.e., weak controls= criminal, harsh controls = law-abiding)

Chapter 6: What are two examples of research on neutralization?

• In a 2005, Topali demonstrated neutralization was used to mitigate guilt anticipated by “hardcore” offenders who violate the code of the street (e.g., snitching, failure to retaliate)

• Dickinson and Jacques (2019) found in interviews with over 50 active drug dealers that they were often preemptively neutralizing their feelings of guilt by constructing an identity that countered the stereotype of “bad drug dealer”

Chapter 6: Describe Travis Hirschi’s 1969 book “Causes of Delinquency”

• Internally consistent, parsimonious, and presented itself as a general theory of crime, explaining all types of criminal behavior and deviance

• Provided clear empirical measures for each concept

• His combination of theory construction, conceptualization, operationalization, and empirical testing was virtually unique in criminology at that time and stands as a model today

Chapter 6: What did Hirschi’s Social Bonding Theory include elements of?

Formulated a control theory that brought together elements from all previous control theories and offered new ways to account for delinquent behavior

Chapter 6: What are the central concepts and propositions of social bonding theory?

• Consists of four components

  • attachment- affection and sensitivity to others

  • belief- degree to which person thinks they should obey the law

  • commitment- investment in conventional society or stake in conformity

  • involvement- being busy, restricted opportunities for delinquency

• individuals conform with strong social bonds and become deviant with weak. Therefore, “delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken.”

Chapter 6: Under Hirschi’s social bonding theory what is the solution to crime?

strengthening the bonds

Chapter 6: Explain the concept of attachment in social bonding theory.

• an individual’s relationship with others will affect what he or she does

• the more we care for a person, the less likely we are to go against them and their beliefs

• attachment to parents and parental supervision are important in controlling delinquency and maintaining conformity

  • also stresses that attachment to peers can control delinquent tendencies

Chapter 6: How does social bonding theory deviate from social learning theory in terms of attachment?

According to social learning theory, even for the juvenile attached to friends who are delinquent, the stronger the attachment to those friends, the less likely they will tend to be delinquent.

In social learning, the closer the interaction with deviant peers, the more you learn positive definitions of crime, reinforcement, and the norms of committing them.

Chapter 6: Explain commitment in social bonding theory.

• commitment refers to the extent to which individuals have built up an investment in conventionality or a “stake in conformity” that would be jeopardized or lost by engaging in law violation or other forms of deviance

• therefore, the cost of losing one’s investment in conformity prevents one from norm violation

Chapter 6: Explain involvement in social bonding theory

• Involvement refers to one’s engrossment in conventional activities such as studying, spending time with family, and participating in extracurricular activities

• the more involved an individual is, the less likely they are to commit crimes because they simply do not have the time

Chapter 6: Explain belief in social bonding theory

• The individual’s endorsement of conventional norms and values, especially the belief that laws and society’s rules in general are morally correct and should be obeyed, will determine whether he or she will commit a crime

• The less they believe in the law, the more likely they are to commit a crime

• does not necessarily refer to beliefs about specific laws or rules

Chapter 6: How is commitment, involvement, and beliefs measured in social bonding theory?

• commitment is measured by occupational aspiration and expectation

• involvement is measured by asking about time spent with family and friends, doing homework, and sports

• belief is measured by reference to values to the law and conventional value system. It includes the extent to which an adolescent has general respect for the police and law.

Chapter 6: What is the empirical validity of social bonding theory? Has there been a lot of studies?

• a variety of empirical studies have been conducted

• they have found weak to moderate support for the theory as a whole

Chapter 6: After moving away from his classic social bonding formulation of control theory, Hirschi collaborated with Michael Gottfredson to propose what new theory?

• Self-control theory: the source of low self-control is ineffective or incomplete socialization, especially ineffective child-rearing

Chapter 6: What do Gottfredson and Hirschi claim of self-control theory?

It is a general theory that explains all individual differences in the “propensity” to refrain from or to commit crime, including all acts of crime and deviance at all ages, and under all circumstances.

Chapter 6: What is the relationship between self-control theory and social bonding theory?

• bonding theory rejects the self-control concept as unobservable and subsumes it under the concept of attachment

• the concept of self-control is absolutely central to Gottfredson and Hirschi’s theory

• four key elements of social bonding theory are virtually absent from Gottfredson and Hirshci’s original theory

• at first they did not clarify how their self-control theory relates to Hirschi’s social bonding theory and did not refer at all to the earlier control theories

  • Hirschi recently suggested a modification to self-control that links it more closely to his earlier social bonding

Chapter 6: Explain Gottfredson and Hirschi’s Self-Control Theory

• Conformity to the law comes from a high amount of self-control, while deviance comes from low self-control

• the source of low self-control is ineffective or incomplete socialization, especially ineffective child-rearing

• more importanty, the amount of self control that a person has acquired remains relatively stable throughout life once formed in childhood

Chapter 6: What is the main takeaway for research and the empirical validity of self-control theory?

it has been difficult to test directly and empirical support has been limited

Chapter 6: Does self-control theory have an issue with tautology? Why?

they argue that the best indicators of self-control are the acts we use self-control to explain: criminal, delinquent, and reckless acts

Chapter 6: Is Grasmick et al.’s study of self-control theory tautological? Is it well recieved?

• more direct test of the theory

• non-tautological cognitive/attitudinal measures

• mixed support for the theory as an explanation of fraud and force

Chapter 6: Do studies of self-control support the notion that low self-control must be considered an important predictor of criminal behavior?

• studies do not support the argument that self-control is the sole cause of crime or that the perspective can claim the exalted status of being the general theory of crime

Chapter 6: How was Grasmick et al.’s study on self-control conducted?

Conceptualized six tenets of self-control theory and operationalized them through a 24-question survey into a Scale to Measure Self-Control.

• impulsivity

• simple tasks

• risk-seeking

• physical activity

• self-centered

• temper

Chapter 6: How did Gottfredson and Hirschi explain impulsivity?

• The impulsive or short-sighted person fails to consider the negative or painful consequences of his actions

Chapter 6: How did Gottfredson and Hirschi explain simple tasks?

• Criminal acts provide easy or simple gratification of desires, and those with low self-control lack diligence, tenacity, or persistence in the course of action

• i.e., disliking hard tasks, avoiding hard projects, enjoying things in life that are easy and bring the most pleasure

Chapter 6: How did Gottfredson and Hirschi explain risk-seeking?

• people lacking self-control tend to be adventurousome, active, and physical because criminal acts involve danger, speed, agility, deception, or power.

• i.e., taking risks for fun, testing oneself with risky behavior

Chapter 6: How did Gottfredson and Hirschi explain physical activities?

• people lacking self-control need not possess or value cognitive or academic skills

• i.e., enjoying going out and doing things rather than reading, greater need for activity than others

Chapter 6: How did Gottfredson and Hirschi explain self-centeredness?

• people with low self-control tend to be self-centered, indifferent, or insensitive to the suffering and needs of others

• i.e., unsympathetic, looking out for oneself first, even if it makes things difficult for others

Chapter 6: How did Gottfredson and Hirschi explain temper?

• people with low self-control tend to have minimal tolerance for frustration

• i.e., when having a serious disagreement with someone, it’s hard to talk to them without getting upset, and people avoid you when you’re angry

Chapter 6: What are the policy implications for social bonding and control theoires?

• similar to implications of social learning theory

• strengthen bonds, address parenting issues, and improve self control

Chapter 6: What are the policy implications of self-control theory?

• since self-control is formed through childhood socialization in the family, only policies that take effect early in life and have a positive impact on families have much chance of reducing crime and delinquency

• studies have shown that self-control modification programs can improve self-control and reduce delinquency among children

Chapter 6: What level of support does control and self-control theories get?

Weak to moderate

Chapter 6: What did Beck et al.’s juvenile hackers self-control and social bonding theory find?

• self-report survey of middle and high school students in the USA, Venezuela, Spain, and other countries

• found that juveniles with low self-control are more likely to engage in computer hacking and results show this is the case in all eight countries, across a diverse global sample

Chapter 6: True or False: According to social bonding theory, strong attachment reduces the probability of delinquency regardless of whether the peers or parents to whom the adolescent is attached are themselves conforming or deviant.

True

Chapter 6: What has research on religion and delinquency found:

religious faith and activities are protective against criminal behavior

Chapter 6: Gottfredson and Hirschi attribute low self-control to:

ineffective supervision and nurturance of children by their parents

Chapter 6: Which of the following is not one of the key concepts in Hirschi's social control theory?

Attachment, belief, commitment, involvement, and definitions

definitions

Chapter 6: True or False- Self-control theory proposes that differences in individuals' propensity to commit crime operate only during the adolescent and young adult years rather than in all periods of life.

False

Chapter 6: True or False- In social bonding theory, delinquency is controlled by beliefs that specific delinquent acts are wrong rather than by general law-abiding beliefs held by adolescents.

false

Chapter 6: True or False- In contrast to other theories, control theories emphasize restraints on crime over motivations or inducements to crime.

true

Chapter 6: From Hirschi's perspective, the concept that best fits the college student who has avoided delinquent involvement by doing well in school and working toward a promising career is:

commitment

involvement

ambition

belief

attachment

commitment

Chapter 6: "Belief," as Hirschi uses the term, refers to:

the strength of endorsement of general conventional values and norms

the strength of one's religious or spiritual values

the strength of one's support for particular laws

the strength of an individual's belief in the trustworthiness of his/her fellows

the strength of endorsement of general conventional values and norms

Chapter 6: Social control theorists:
a. argue that crime is a "normal" act within the context of a deviant subculture

b. suggest that we are all motivated to commit crime

c. tend to focus on barriers that prevent individuals from acting on the temptation to violate the law

d. view crime as a product of frustration among disadvantaged segments of the social structure

e. b and c

b. suggest that we are all motivated to commit crime

Chapter 6: Most of the research evidence on Hirschi's social bonding theory:

provides weak to moderate support for the theory

provides better support for hypotheses on beliefs and commitments than for attachment

supports the hypothesis that delinquency is related to low religiosity

supports the hypothesis that school achievement is negatively related to delinquency

all of the above

all of the above

Chapter 6: According to Hirschi, the primary task of criminological theory is to:
identify the social barriers that prevent people from becoming delinquent and criminal

identify the social structural sources of strain that push people into crime and delinquency

specify more clearly the processes involved in the learning of crime and delinquency

specify more clearly the content of the learning that promotes crime and delinquency

identify how biological, psychological, and sociological factors interact to produce crime and delinquency

identify the social barriers that prevent people from becoming delinquent and criminal

Chapter 6: Which of the following images of the delinquent is most consistent with Hirschi's social bonding theory?

a lower-class boy with high ambitions and little opportunity to realize them

a boy who hangs out on street corners and observes adults in his neighborhood making money dealing in drugs

a boy with low self-esteem who tries to earn status among his fellows by earning a reputation for fighting and stealing

a boy who is insensitive to the feelings and opinions of others

an emotionally disturbed boy who has been physically abused by his parents as a young child

a boy who is insensitive to the feelings and opinions of others

Chapter 7: Who does labeling theory focus on and explain?

• focuses on the informal and formal act of placing deviant “labels” by society on individuals

• explains the differential application of official stigmatizing labels as the result of a relative lack of power

Chapter 7: what do labeling theorists believe?

deviant behavior is of secondary importance as opposed to who gave the label and why

Chapter 7: What does Howard Becker’s book the Outsiders (1963) say about labeling theory?

• crucial step in building a pattern of deviant behavior is the experience of being caught and publicly labeled as deviant

• Whether a person takes this step or not depends not so much on what he does as on what other people do

Chapter 7: What is the main concept of labeling as a process of symbolic social interaction?

• Looking-glass self

  • we are or we become what others think we are

• negative labels act as an independent variable, encouraging criminal and deviant behavior

• self-fulfilling prophecy

Chapter 7: How is labeling viewed as a dependent and independent variable?

• dependent variable

  • a label that tries to explain why a certain behavior is considered wrong and certain individuals are selected for labeling

• independent variable

  • when “labels” are what is causing the problem and perpetuating the cycle of delinquent behavior

Chapter 7: What are the 2 types of deviance?

• primary deviance

  • deviant act(s) that occurs prior to the labeling process (unorganized, inconsistent, infrequent)

• secondary deviance

  • deviant act(s) that occurs after the labeling process (coherent, organized, result of the label)

Chapter 7: How do labels as an independent variable affect crime and deviance?

• Labeling persons as deviant and applying social sanctions to them in the form of punishment or corrective treatment increases, rather than decreases, deviance

• the societal reaction to the deviant is vital to an understanding of deviance itself and a major element in -- if not a cause of — the deviant behavior

Chapter 7: Is labelling theory empirically supported?

• little to no empirical evidence

• ignores the continuing influence of other variables after the deviant has been apprehended and labeled

Chapter 7: What did Dr. Wonki Lee’s study find?

• highlight the theoretical importance of the informal labeling process in explaining delinquent behavior among adolescents from a longitudinal perspective.

• informal labeling based on previous delinquent behavior →

  development of deviant self-identity → engaging in subsequent delinquent

  behavior among adolescents.

Chapter 7: What are the implications of labeling theory in terms of juvenile diversion programs?

• diversion movement

• deinstitutionalization

• decriminalization

• radical non-intervention

• net-widening

• pre-trial intervention or delayed adjudication

Chapter 7: What are the implications of labeling theory in terms of juvenile diversion programs and diversion movement?

• refers to all those efforts to divert individuals, primarily youth but also adults, who are suspected or have been charged with minor offenses, from the full and formal process of the juvenile or adult justice system

Chapter 7: What are the implications of labeling theory in terms of juvenile diversion programs and deinstitutionalization?

• the removal of juveniles from jails, detention centers, and institutions

• removing juveniles from these facilities, and when possible removing status and minor offenders from the juvenile justice system as a whole, is the most basic type of diversion

Chapter 7: What are the implications of labeling theory in terms of juvenile diversion programs and decriminalization?

• removing of status offenders from the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system

Chapter 7: What are the implications of labeling theory in terms of juvenile diversion programs and radical non-intervention?

• the belief that it is better to simply tolerate minor offenses than risk labeling the offender

Chapter 7: What are the implications of labeling theory in terms of juvenile diversion programs and net-widening?

• a problem that occurs when offenders who would have been released from the system are placed in a program simply because a program exists

Chapter 7: What are the implications of labeling theory in terms of juvenile diversion programs and pre-trial intervention and adjudication?

• programs for first-time, nonviolent adult offenders. Those who agree to specific conditions may avoid trial or sentencing altogether

Chapter 7: What are the two forms of shaming (social disapproval) according to Braithwaite?

• Disintegrative shaming (no work done with the offender and society)

• reintegrative shaming (positive work is completed with offender to cleanse them of their “deviance”

Chapter 7: What does Braithwaite say about restorative justice and different developments of society?

Restorative justice has held sway in traditional societies throughout most of world history

Chapter 7: What are the two interventions with roots in labeling theory/disintegrative shaming?

• ban the box

• reintegrative shaming (restorative justice)

Chapter 7: Explain D’Alessio’s study of Hawaii’s Ban the Box law on repeat offending

• After the ban the box law was established, repeat felony offending decreased in

Honolulu by 11.4%.

• Male and older defendants are more likely to be repeat offenders, while prosecuted

rape offenders have a lower probability of possessing a prior criminal conviction.

• Controlling for other independent variables, the establishment of the law lowered

the odds of repeat offending by approximately 57%

• Notably, race and the interaction of race and the law were not significant meaning

the BTB law likely affected black and non-black ex-offenders similarly

Chapter 7: what is the theory and philosophy of restorative justice based on Braithwaite?

• reintegration and rehabilitation

• for the criminal justice system to work, we shouldn’t punish the criminal and stop there

• he believed that after punishment we need to work together as a society to reintegrate that individual, and this process of both the criminal and non-criminals working together would aid in reducing recidivism rates

Chapter: What are the applications of restorative justice? Goals and programs:

• goal is to find ways of shaming that are apt to create genuine remorse in offenders and then reintegrate them into the community

• programs used to make the offenders accept responsibility for their actions and restore them, and their victims, back to normal (e.g., financial compensation and community service)

Chapter 7: Are restorative justice programs effective?

• Research has generally shown weak support for restorative justice programs

• although badly run programs wouldn’t worsen things, there is little evidence that well-run programs make matters much better

• studies find that they are highly cost-effective but do not reduce recidivism in the long term

Chapter 7: What did Sherman et al.’s study on the effectiveness of restorative justice to reduce repeat offending?

• found that, on average, RJCs cause a modest but highly cost-effective reduction in the frequency of repeat offending by the consenting offenders randomly assigned to participate in such a conference

• Conclusion: RJCs are a cost-effective means of reducing frequency of recidivism.

Chapter 7: when were labeling theories popular?

in the 1960s and 1970s, but lost favor due to heavy criticism

several revised versions have been offered

Chapter 7: what is the principal strength of labeling theory?

it calls attention to the unintended consequences of social control

Chapter 7: what is the principal weakness of labeling theory?

it essentially ignores the primary deviance and seriously underestimates the influence that other variables have on behavior in the first place and continue to have on its future occurrence

Chapter 7: Policies advocated by Braithwaite and his theory of reintegrative shaming are a major impetus for, and remain a central part of, what has come to be called ____

Restorative Justice
Looking-Glass Self
Primary Deviance
Secondary Deviance
None of the Above

restorative justice

Chapter 7: Research on juvenile delinquency and juvenile court appearances has found that the most important predictor of recidivism was:

diversion from the juvenile justice system
referral to the juvenile justice system
prior history of delinquency
negative self-conception
minority group status

prior history of delinquency

Chapter 7: The policy implications of labeling theory lend support to programs that keep delinquents in the juvenile justice system as long as possible without increasing the costs.
True
False

fale

Chapter 7: Although labeling theory has several implications for criminal and juvenile justice policy, they have been largely ignored by practitioners and policymakers.
True
False

false

Chapter 7: Labeling theory focuses on each of the following except:

how certain behaviors come to be defined as criminal
how certain people are selected for the application of deviant labels
the stigmatizing consequences of labeling
the deterrent benefits of labeling
labeling theory focuses on all of the above

the deterrent benefits of labeling

Chapter 7: According to labeling theorists, which of the following processes is involved in the creation of primary deviance?
association with deviant peers
criminal justice processing
societal stereotyping
self-labeling
none of the above

none of the above

Chapter 7: Symbolic interactionism calls attention to:
a. how associations with deviant peers contribute to deviance
b. how symbols are manipulated by the powerful to create meanings that cast the less powerful in a negative light
c. how symbols are manipulated by the powerful to create wants and needs that the socially disadvantaged are unable to satisfy
d. how the language and gestures of face-to-face communication shape individuals' conceptions of themselves
e. b and c

d. how the language and gestures of face-to-face communication shape individuals' conceptions of themselves

Chapter 7: Responses to problems created by societal reaction to one's deviance are:
role engulfment
secondary deviance
the dramatization of evil
self-fulfilling prophecy
retrospective interpretation

secondary deviance

Chapter 7: Which of the following propositions has been supported by empirical research?
The application of deviant labels is based largely upon societal stereotypes of deviants.
The causes of initial minor acts of deviance are not important factors in the development of a deviant career.
People are basically powerless to avoid the negative consequences of stigmatizing labels.
Official sanctions have profound effects on the development of negative self-concepts.
none of the above

none of the above

Chapter 7: Labeling theory is consistent with the development of which of the following social policies?
diversion of offenders from the justice system
deinstitutionalization of offenders
decriminalization of offenses
ignoring violations of law
all of the above

all of the above

Chapter 7: Labeling theorists make predictions about the effects of the application of social sanctions that are opposite to those made by deterrence theorists.
True
False

true

Chapter 7: Labeling theory hypothesizes that it is primarily the behavior of the deviants that determines whether or not stigmatizing labels are applied to them.
True
False

false

Chapter 7: Labeling theory as an explanation of criminal and deviant behavior:
a. derives from symbolic interactionism theory in sociology
b. views criminal labels as the dependent variable
c. hypothesizes that applying stigmatizing labels increases the probability of future criminality
d. has received strong empirical support
e. a and c

e. a and c

Chapter 8: What view does social disorganization look at crime from?

macro (holistic)

Chapter 8: What does social disorganization theory examine?

crimes as patterns within the community rather than just the individuals

Chapter 8: What does social disorganization theory look at and what does it suggest?

• looks at the breakdown in social control and organization within a group that results in deviant and criminal behavior

• suggests that forces are at work beyond the individual delinquents. Those larger forces may be found in the structure or organization of the city itself.

Chapter 8: When and where did collection of crime statistics start?

in the early 19th century, most notably in France

Chapter 8: Who was Adolphe Quetelet and what was his contribution to early statistical studies of crime?

• Belgian astronomer, sociologist, and statistician observed that crime data followed remarkable patterns and regularity over time

• used statistics to challenge the notion that crime was committed due to free will