Crim Theories Final - 2026

Subculture

a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture

delinquent subculture

denote systems of norms, values, or interests that support criminal or delinquent behavior.

Gang

an organized group of criminals

Chicago School

refers to a school of thought in sociology and criminology originating at the University of Chicago whose work was influential in the early 20th century.

Albert Kircidel Cohen

was a prominent American criminologist. He is known for his Subcultural Theory of delinquent urban gangs, including his influential book Delinquent Boys: Culture of the Gang.

Robert King Merton

was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology, and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology.

macrolevel

at or on a level that is large in scale or scope.

Social Psychology

examines how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the presence or actions of others.

Microlevel

focuses on individual interactions and behaviors within society. This approach looks at how individuals make decisions, form relationships, and navigate social situations on a day-to-day basis.

middle class

the social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families

Middle-Class Measuring Rods

refers to the standards and expectations of the middle-class society that are often used to judge and evaluate the behavior of all individuals, regardless of their social class.

Status frustration

a concept within sociology that explains the feelings of dissatisfaction or frustration individuals experience when they are unable to achieve socially valued success or status.

Cultural Transmission

Cultural transmission theory explains how ideas, values, and behaviors are passed from one generation to the next – not through genes, but through learning and imitation.

Focal Concern Theory

posited in 1962 by Walter B. Miller, attempts to explain the behavior of "members of adolescent street corner groups in lower class communities" as concern for six focal concerns

Focal Concern #1

trouble

Focal Concern #2

Toughness

Focal Concern #3

Smartness

Focal Concern #4

Excitement

Focal Concerns #5

Fate

Focal Concern #6

Autonomy

Differential Opportunity Theory

Differential Opportunity Theory is a theory of crime that seeks to explain people’s choice of criminal activities. It states that some groups have higher access to “illegitimate means“ than others.

Illegitimate Means

not sanctioned by law : illegal

Conflict Subculture

characterised by violence, gang warfare, ‘mugging’ and other street crime. Both approved and illegal means of achieving mainstream goals are blocked or limited, and young people express their frustration at this situation through violence or street crime.

Retreatist Subculture

they have failed to succeed in both mainstream society and in the crime and gang cultures above. The response is a retreat into drug addiction and alcoholism, paid for by petty theft, shoplifting and prostitution

Subculture of Violence Theory

proposes that certain groups or subcultures within society develop norms and values that condone or even encourage the use of violence.

Honor Culture Theory

proposes that, in certain societies, men must never show weakness and are required to react violently to any perceived threats to their reputation, thereby increasing their probability of committing a homicide.

Inductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning refers to a variety of methods of reasoning in which the conclusion of an argument is supported not with deductive certainty, but at best with some degree of probability.

Ethnography

Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study.

Code Of the Streets

amounts to a set of informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior, including violence.

Social Control Theories

proposes that exploiting the process of socialization and social learning builds self-control and reduces the inclination to indulge in behavior recognized as antisocial.

Social Psychology

the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Baby Boom

often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. These years span the mid-20th-century baby boom that followed the end of World War II.

Containment Theory

it explains why some people resist the pull toward crime even when their circumstances push them toward it.

Pushes

come from within a person’s immediate environment: frustration, aggression, restlessness, deprivation, or hostile living conditions.

Pulls

come from outside, drawing a person toward criminal behavior through things like delinquent peers, gang membership, or media glorification of crime.

Outer Containment

the holding power of groups. Families, communities, schools, and other social institutions keep individuals within the bounds of accepted behavior through expectations, supervision, and reinforcement.

Inner Containment

a person’s internal ability to follow social norms and regulate their own behavior.

Self-Concept

an idea of the self constructed from the beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of others

Goal Orientation

an individual disposition towards developing or validating one's ability in achievement settings.

Frustration Tolerance

a concept used to describe the inability to tolerate unpleasant feelings or stressful situations.

Norm Retention

the social and psychological process wherein individuals internalize and maintain behavioral standards, rules, and expectations within a group or organization

Techniques of neutralization

justifications used by individuals to silence their conscience and temporarily suspend moral beliefs before committing deviant acts or crimes.

Denial of responsibility

a defense mechanism where individuals, acknowledging their behavior violates norms, refuse to accept accountability by blaming outside forces.

Denial of injury

a psychological technique of neutralization where individuals justify wrongdoings or harmful behavior by arguing that "no one was hurt" or that the action did not cause significant harm.

Denial of the Victim

a technique of neutralization where a perpetrator argues that a victim deserved the injury inflicted, often framing it as justified retaliation or righteous vengeance.

Appeal to higher loyalties

a technique of neutralization where individuals justify breaking social norms, laws, or rules by claiming they acted in service of a more important, smaller group, such as friends, family, or a gang.