Social Process Perspective and Criminology

Social Process Perspective

  • Week #9, Sheridan College - Police Foundations

Learning Objectives

  • Understand/Recognize Theories under the Classical School
  • Differentiate between Informal Controls & Formal Controls
  • Understand Criminal Motivation More Likely if Social Controls are Weak

Social Process Perspective

  • Emphasizes the interaction between individuals and society.
  • Social process theories assume everyone has the potential to violate the law.
  • Criminality is not an innate human characteristic.
  • Criminal behavior is learned through interaction with others.
  • Socialization through group membership is the primary route of learning.
  • Criminality is acquired, deviant self-concepts are established, and criminal behavior results through an active, open-ended, and ongoing process throughout a person's life.

Key Concepts and Theories

  • Classical School
  • Informal Control
  • Containment Theory
  • Theory of the Bond
  • General Theory of Crime
  • Social Learning/Differential Association
  • Labeling Theory and Stigma
  • Life Course Perspective
  • Formal Control
  • General and Specific Deterrence
  • Social Process Perspective

Social Learning

  • Emphasizes communication and socialization in acquiring criminal behavior and values.

Differential Association

  • Criminal behavior is learned through interaction with intimate groups (family, peers, community).
  • Edward Sutherland (1939).
  • Criminal Behaviour as “Normative”.
  • A person can learn to be criminal just as another person can learn to be a mechanic.
  • The differential rate at which people associate with criminal values determines their engagement in criminal conduct.

Recipe for Criminal Conduct

  1. Technical Knowledge
  2. Crime as Acceptable Behaviour
  • Criminal motives, rationalizations, and attitudes are supported by peers and/or family.

Sutherland’s Tenets of Differential Association

  • Crime is Learned not Inherited.
  • Communication is Key.
  • Occurs within Intimate Personal Groups.
  • Requires both Technique and Attitudes.
  • Excess Favorable Criminal Definitions.
  • Criminal and Non-Criminal Needs and Values are Often the Same – Means are Different.

Labelling Theory

  • Based on the study of societal reactions to deviance.
  • Society’s response to offenders determines individual futures.
  • It may also contribute to a heightened incidence of criminality by reducing behavioral options.

Tagging

  • The process whereby an individual is negatively defined by agencies of justice.
  • Explains what happens to offenders following arrest, conviction, and sentencing.
  • Crime can be seen as the result of the views of both the delinquent and the community.
  • The offender is tagged as irrevocable.
  • Once a person has been defined as bad, legitimate opportunities decrease.
  • Association with negatively defined others leads to continued crime.

Labelling Theory (Becker, Lermert)

  • The stigma of a negative (criminal) label creates frustration which may motivate further criminal behavior.
  • The label can decrease legitimate associations and increase illegitimate ones.

What is a Label?

  • A label is a form of stigma that makes it difficult for those on whom it has been imposed to lead normal lives.
  • Individuals labeled as criminals often find it difficult to obtain employment or maintain friendships.
  • Legitimate associations become less available, and illegitimate associations more available.

Key Points of Labelling Theory

  • Deviance not Quality of Act (=Crime).
  • Label Others Attach to Act.
  • Frustration Causes Criminal Motivation.
  • Label = Form of Stigma.
  • It makes leading law-abiding lives, securing a job, and maintaining pro-social contacts difficult.

Questions of Labelling Theory

  • Who is Labelled?
  • Who Applies the Label?

National Sex Offender Registry

  • A national registration system for sex offenders convicted of designated sex offenses.
  • Ordered by the courts to report annually to police.
  • Result of the Sex Offender Information Registration Act (SOIRA).
  • Accessible to all accredited Canadian police agencies through a provincial/territorial registration center.
  • Offenders must re-register annually and every time they change address, legal name, employment, or volunteer activity.
  • Offenders convicted of a child sex offense must notify local police of any international travel.
  • Other registered sex offenders must report any international travel of seven days or more.
  • The public does not have access to the National Sex Offender Registry.

Primary vs. Secondary Deviance

  • Primary Deviance
    • Individual Commits Deviant Acts.
    • BUT - No Deviant Self-Identity.
    • Continue Daily Routines, Lifestyles – School, Family Responsibilities.
  • Secondary Deviance
    • Individual Commits Deviant Acts.
    • Feedback from Society.
    • Accepts Deviant Label.
    • Adoption of Criminal Self-Identity.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

  • People perceived as beyond help.
  • They accept the stigma and act accordingly.

Life Course Perspective: Sampson & Laub (1993)

  • Principles of Bond Theory
    • Fluid Changes in Lifecycle.
    • non-static, likelihood of committing crime.
    • Adult Criminality Influenced by Childhood Behaviors.
    • Life Changes Affect Involvement in Crime

Key Terms

  • Trajectories:
    • Directions in which life seems to be moving
  • Transitions:
    • Specific life events
    • May alter trajectories
    • If changes significantly alter social bonds