Final Exam Outline

Chapter 7: The Chicago School and Cultural/Subcultural Theories of Crime

• This theory originated in the early 20th century at the University of Chicago.

• It is based on the idea that crime is a product of a person's environment and that social disorganization is a key factor in criminal behavior.

• The Chicago school is also known as the ecological perspective or theory of social disorganization.

Cultural and Subcultural Theory

• Examines have distinct groups within society that can develop their own values and norms, sometimes at odds with mainstream values

Chicago in the late 1800’s /early 1900’s

• Fastest growing city in US history

  • Due to immigration and industrialization

  • Communicates solved their own problems

  • 70% of Chicago citizens at that time were foreign-born

  • Mass chaos in the city

    • No formal social agencies

    • No social workers

    • Garbage collectors

    • Police officers

  • Chicago was a “lab” for sociologists

  • In 1900, Chicago’s murder rate was 6 per 100,000 people. The city was also experiencing a number of other notable events related to crime

  • 2 million immigrants were living there

  • Street gangs

  • Mobsters- Alphose Gabriel Capone

  • Political corruption: Chicago’s politicians and police were often corrupt and willing to accept bribes

Robert E. Park

• City growth follows a natural pattern of evolution

  • Some areas may invade or dominate other areas

  • Businesses invaded traditionally residential neighborhoods

    • Steel

    • Transportation

    • Grain

Concentric Zones

Zone I

• Business district

  • The land is the most valuable primary commercial

Zone II

• Zone in transition

  • The area is marked by poverty, deteriorating housing, and high crime rates

Zone III

• Working class xone

  • Residential areas with some stability

Zone IV

• Residential zone

  • Middle-class homes with greater stability

Zone V

• Commuter zone

  • Suburban areas with low crime rates and high social cohesion

Shaw and Mckay

• Social disorganization theory is a criminology theory that explains how crime and delinquency are linked to a community's ability to organize and share values.

  • Communities with economic deprivation, ethnic diversity, and residential mobility are less able to organize and achieve shared goals. This is called social disorganization, and it’s linked to higher crime rates.

  • Certain neighborhoods have more crime than others

  • These neighborhoods have three common problems

    • Physical decay

    • Poverty

    • Diverse

Cultural/ Subcultrual

Ferracuti/ Wolfgang

• Violence learned the way of dealing with life

Miller

• Lower-class cultural value system

  • Six focal concerns

    • Fate

    • Autonomy

    • Trouble

    • Toughness

    • Excitement

    • Smartness

Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street

• The ‘code’ is a set of informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior, including violence.

  • Respect is at the heart of the code

  • Believe that there were two types of families

Decent Families

• Accept mainstream values and attempt to install them in children

  • “Working poor”

  • Generally involved in a church community

  • Tend to be strict with children

  • Respect authority

  • Polite, cooperative

Street Families

• Lack of consideration for others

  • Superficial sense of family/community

  • Disorganized

  • Aggressive with children (physical punishment)

  • Children generally “come up hard.”

Policy Implications

• Neighborhood watch groups

  • Community organizations

  • Chicago Area Project

  • Midnight basketball

  • Peace Builders

Rough Neck and Saints

Roughnecks and Saint Theory

• The Saints and the Roughnecks (1973), a study by sociologist Eiian Chambliss, explores how Societal perceptions and class influence the labeling of deviance.

• The two groups of high school boys (the saints and roughnecks) engaged in delinquent behavior but were treated differently based on their social standing.

William Chambliss

Background:

• Chambliss is well-known for his research in criminology and deviance

  • His work in The Saints and the Roughnecks focuses on how applied individually by society, particularly on relating to their social class, can influence their life outcomes

The Saints:

• Middle-to-upper-class boys, academically successful, viewed positively by teachers and the community

  • Engaged in delinquency (drunk driving, vandalism) but rarely caught or punished due to their privileged status

Roughnecks

• Lowe-class boys, labeled as troublemakers by teachers and police

  • Engaged in fewer offenses compared to the Saints but were frequently scrutinized and arrested due to their lower social status and visibility in their community

Labeling in Perception:

Howards Becker’s Labeling Theory:

• Deviance is not an intrinsic part of the act but is the result of how society reacts to it. Labels applied to individuals, such as “good” or “bad, heavily influence how they are treated and viewed

Social Class and Perception

• Saints were shielded by their social class; their misbehavior was seen as unclarities.

  • Roughnecks from lower-socio-economic backgrounds were labeled as deviant from the start, reinforcing negative treatments and outcomes

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

• Concepts by Robert K. Merton

  • Explains how individuals internalize labels imposed upon them by society, ultimately living up to those expectations

  • The saints internalized their positive label, reinforcing their successful outcomes, while the Roughnecks, burdened with their negative label, struggled with delinquency and societal rejection\

  • Both groups’ behavior and futures were shaped by the societal labels and expectations placed on them, not just by their actions.

Visibility of Behavior

• Saints committed their acts away from the community, reducing their visibility.

  • Roughnecks engaged in delinquent acts within their local area, increasing the likelihood of being caught and punished.

Consequences of Labeling

Saints’ Outcomes

• The positive labels reinforced their future success. Most went to college and pursued professional careers, aligning with society’s expectations.

Roughnecks’ Outcomes

• The negative labels contributed to poor academic performance, legal trouble, and limited future opportunities. Many ended up with criminal records or in low-wage jobs, fulfilling society’s negative expectations.

Implications Relevance:

• Chambliss’ study reflects ongoing issues in the criminal justice system, such as racial profiling and socioeconomic biases.

  • The labeling theory can be seen in the school-to-prison pipeline and the disproportionate criminalization of marginalized groups.

Criticism of the Study:

Challenges

• Some argue that Chamnbliss focuses too heavily on social class and neglects other intersecting factors like race and gender.

  • The study is based on two small groups, leading to potential overgeneralization.

Attachment theory

• Attachment Theory is a theory that believes humans are born with a need to form a close emotional bond with a caregiver and that such a bond will develop during the first six months of a child’s life if the caregiver is appropriately responsive.

Attachment styles

• Research on Bowlby’s theory of attachment showed that infants placed in an unfamiliar situation and separated from their parents would generally react in one of these ways upon reunion with the parents:

Secure Attachment:

• These infants showed distress upon separation but sought comfort and were easily comforted when the parents returned;

Anxious-resistant attachment:

• A smaller portion of infants experienced greater levels of distress and, upon reuniting with the parents, seemed both to seek comfort and to attempt to ‘punish the parents for leaving

Avoidant attachment:

• Infants in the third category showed no stress or minimal stress upon separation from their parents and either ignored the parents upon reuniting or actively avoided the parents

  • In later years, researchers added a fourth attachment style to this list: the disorganized-disoriented attachment style, which refers to children who have no predictable pattern of attachment behaviors.

Affects Adult Friendships

Secure Attachment

• Relationships: secure adults are comfortable with intimacy and independence. They communicate openly, trust easily, and form stable relationships.

  • Friendships: they build lasting friendships based on mutual support, openness and respect

Anxious-Ambivalent (Anxious-Preoccupied) Attachment

• Relationships: Anxious adults seek closeness but may seem needy or insecure, often fearing abandonment. They need frequent reassurance

  • Friendships: They tend to be over-involved, seeking constant affirmation, which can sometimes overwhelm friends

Avoidant (Dismissive-Avoidant) Attachment

• Relationships: Avoidant adults value independence over closeness. They may struggle with emotional vulnerability and distance themselves in relationships.

  • Friendships: They prefer casual friendships and may avoid deeper emotional connections, keeping friends at arm’s length

Fearful Attachment

• Relationship: fearful adults often experience intense, unstable relationships. They may fear both closeness and rejection, leading to unpredictable behaviors. Friendships: Friendships can be inconsistent; they may seek closeness but react defensively, making it challenging to maintain stable bonds

Theorist

John Bowlby:

• British psychologist who first introduced attachment theory. Bowlby believed that attachment behavior–such as a baby crying whstinctively seek closeness and comfort from their caregivers for physical and emotional security. According to Bowlby, this bond becomes a ‘secure base’ for exploring the world and a ‘safe-haven’ for times of distress.en separated from their caregiver–was a survival mechanism. Babies in

Mary Ainsworth:

• Ainsworth, an American psychologist and John Bowlby’s student expanded on his work by developing a famous study called ‘Strange Situation.’

  • In this study, Ainsworth observed how babies reacted to being separated from and then reunited with their mothers. Her research led to the identification of different types of attachment styles.

Why is it important

• Attachment theory helps us understand how early experiences affect

  • Future behavior

  • Relationships

  • Emotional health

Feminist Theory

• Delinquency

  • Feminist theory of delinquency is a group of theories that examine how gender affects crime and delinquency and how women and girls have been marginalized in the criminal justice system.

  • Feminist theories are based on the idea that gender is a central organizing component of social life and that gender relationships and perceptions affect all social constructs and relationships.

Theories of Crime

Gender Influence:

• Examines how gender shapes criminal behavior and the experiences of female offenders

The challenge to traditional views:

• Critiques of male-centric criminological theories that overlook women’s experiences

Systematic inequalities:

• Highlights how patriarchy, social normals, and victimization contribute to female delinquency

Key Tenets

• Patriarchy

  • Intersectionality

  • Focus on Victimization

Gender Power and Crimes

Patriarchy on Crime:

• Criminal justice system- a system where men hold primary power in society, influencing political, economic, and social structure

  • Patriarchy reinforces male dominance and female subordination, shaping both criminal behavior and how crime is prosecuted.

This theory believes

• Women who commit crimes often do so in response to the oppressive conditions created by patriarchal norms.

  • The criminal justice system often perpetuates patriarchal val

Doing Gender

• The theory of “doing genders’ by sociologist James Messerschimidt posits that crime can be a way for men to reinforce or perform traditional masculine roles.

Passive Women Myth

The “sisters in crime” concept:

• This term debunks the myth that women are naturally more passive and less inclined to commit crimes

Historical misconceptions:

• Early criminologists believed women were biologically less prone to commit crime

Socialization and passivity:

• From a young age, girls are often taught to be compliant, nurturing, and passive

Feminist Movements

The “sisters in crime” concept:

• This term debunks the myth that women are naturally more passive and less inclined to commit crimes

Historical misconceptions:

• Early criminologists believed women were biologically less prone to commit crime

Socialization and passivity:

• From a young age, girls are often taught to be compliant, nurturing, and passive

Strengths/Weaknesses

Strengths

• Addressing biases

  • Victim centered approach

  • Understanding diverse experiences

  • Influence on research policy

Weakness

• Critique of gender focus

  • Negelect of male vicitmization

Neglect of Agency

• Some feminist theories are criticized for portraying women primarily as victims of structural forces, such as patriarchy or gender-based violence, rather than recognizing women as active agents capable of making a choice

Revisiting Strain Theory

Strain theory:

• Traditionally focused on how individuals commit crimes in response to societal pressures

5 adaptations and how they fit into world events

Revisiting Strain Theory

Global Movements

Civil Rights Movement

• Aimed to achieve racial equality and end segregation

  • Societal Goals

    • Archive racial equality and justice (equal rights, integration, economic opportunity)

  • Societal Means

    • Typically, achieving equality requires traditional political systems, law-making, and economic integration.

  • Innovation

Prohibition and Organized Crime

• Banned the production, sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages

  • Mobsters

  • Innovation

    • Acceptance of Socielta Goals: Organized crime groups pursued the societal goal of financial success and wealth

    • Rejection of Societal Means: Since selling alcohol was illegal, these groups used innovative, criminal methods to achieve their financial aims

Communist Party-USSR

• Bureaucratic System

  • States processes and rules

Ritualism

• The excessive ritualism in bureaucratic procedures led to stagnation and inefficiency

Rejection fo Societal Goals:

Many within the bureaucracy lost sight of the original revolutionary goals of equality and economic progress

Adherence to Societal Means:

Despite this, they strictly adhered to state-mandated processes and bureaucratic norms, often prioritizing procedure over outcomes

Romani People

• From India, Migrated to Europe

  • Systematic discrimination

  • Persecution

  • Retreatism

Rejection of Societal Goals

Retreatims are rejecting both the societal goals and the means of mainstream society. They rejected these goals

Why:

Systematic discrimination made mainstream goals unattainable, leading the Roma to form an alternative culture with self-sufficient economic practices (e.g., craftwork, music, informal trading)

Survival Mechanism:

Their retreatism wasn’t entirely voluntary. Rather, different lifestyles became a necessary path for survival and community autonomy.

Lost Generation

• Young adults during WWI

  • Impact of Trauma from the War

  • Literary Influences

  • Retreatism

Withdrawal from Mainstream Goals

For the lost generation, retreatism meant rejecting the post-war focus on stability, Economic Recovery, and national pride.

Focus on Art

They found meaning outside traditional societal pathways, embracing personal truth, artistic exploration, and intellectual engagement.

Response to Societal Strain

This retreat was a response to immense social strain and disillusionment. The war’s impact created a sense of moral bankruptcy, promoting existential questioning and detachment from conventional success.

Anri-Apartheid Movement

Rebellion

Rejection of Social goals

Anti-apartheid activists rejected both the goals and means of the apartheid system, which enforced racial hierarchy and discrimination.

New Goals and Means

They fought for a society based on equality, freedom, and democratic governance, envisioning a system that replaced the existing social and legal structure

WWII Reconstruction and the Marshall Plan

Conformity

Societal Goals:

After WWII, the main goal was economic recovery, rebuilding infrastructure, and ensuring stability, especially with the rising Soviet influence in Eastern Europe

Means:

The Marshall Plan provided financial aid and required countries to adopt market economics, engage in free trade, and integrate into Western political structures like NATO and the EEC.

Restorative Justice Theory

Definition

• It seeks to repair the harm caused by crime by focusing on the needs of victims, offenders, and communities

  • Emphasizing healing, accountability, and reintegration over punishment

  • This theory is rooted in Indigenous practices across societies, emphasizing community-based reconciliation and relationship repair

  • Indigenous communities prioritized dialogue, restitution, and communal harmony rather than punishment

Theorist

Howard Zehr

• Grandfather of Restorative justice

John Braithwaite

• Use of temporary shaming techniques to help the community play a role in reintegrating offenders back into society

Principles

• Repairing the harm done

  • Rebuilding community relationships

  • victim-centered approach

  • Community involvement

Howard States: To resolve wrongdoing, 3 things must happen

• The wrong or injustice must be acknowledged;

  • Equity needs to be created or restored

  • Future intentions need to be addressed

What is it, and what is it not?

Restorative justice is not

• Not about forced forgiveness

  • Not about returning to the past

  • Not mediation

  • Not primarily for reducing recidivism

  • Not a fixe program

  • Not just for minor offenses

  • Not a new concept

  • Not a replacement for legal systems

  • Not always an alternative to prison

  • Not retribution

  • Not just status quo restoration

Restorative Justice is

Victim’s needs

• Information

  • Truth-telling

  • Empowerment

  • Restitution or vindication

Offender needs

• Empathy and responsibility

  • Accountability

  • Personal transformation and healing

  • Reintegration into society

  • Temporary restraint (for some)

Community’s needs

• Inclusion as secondary victims

  • Building community and mutual accountability

  • Promoting healthier communities

Strengths/weaknesses

Strengths

• This approach can have a transformative impact on idnviduals, including those involved in alcohol-and drug-realted incidents

  • It fosters improved communication and can increase the offender’s motivation to change their behavior

Weaknesses

• Limited use for serious crimes

  • Unequal participation possible

  • Inconsistent results

  • Lack of accountability for repeat offenders

Rehabilitation Theory

Definition

• This theory suggests that punishments can be used to improve an individual’s behavior and character, which can then reduce the likelihood of recidivism

  • Stemmed from 19th-century penitentiary reforms that aimed for moral and social reform, not just punishment

History

• Cesare Beccaria argued for prevention-focused justice rather than retribution (on crimes and punishments, 1764)

Rise and Rehabilitation in the Mid-20th Century

Post WW-II:

• emphasis on social welfare and mental health, leading to programs for vocational training and psychological support in prisons

Juvenile courts and Parole systems

• Institutionalized rehabilitative approaches for broader justice reform

Theorist(s)

John Augustus

• Father of probation

Edwin Sutherland

• Believes that behavior can be “unlearned” through rehabilitative practices

Principles

• Focus on behavior change

  • Skill and education development

  • Therapeutic support

  • Reintegration

Examples

• Drug rehabilitation programs

  • Mental health treatment/counseling

  • Resortavie mediation in juvenile justice

  • Community service programs

Strengths/weaknesses

Strengths

• Opportunities for growth

  • Reduced recidivism

  • Cost-effective

Weaknesses

• Risk of coercion

  • Limited resources

  • Shortage of qualified professionals

  • Lack of proper representation

  • Insufficient financial support