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