Criminology 

Psychosocial theories 

Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic Theory 

Sigmund Freud (late 1800s and early 1900s) was concerned with medical treatment of disorders that had no obvious cause; no cause for strange/abnormal behavior. 

  • Developed a theory to explain human behavior, general behavior (not criminal behavior) 

  • Assumptions 

    • Human nature is inherently antisocial 
    • Good behavior requires effective socialization 
    • Life-long features of personality are determined by age 5 

  • Parts of the personality

    • Id:  unconscious, seeks immediate gratification, aggression evident when basic needs become frustrated 
    • Ego: conscious meteor between id and superego, works according to the reality principle, gratification may be deterred for longer-term gains 
    •  Superego: works to suppress the urges of the id and tries to make the ego behave morally, rather than realistically 

  • August Aichorn

    • psychoanalytically oriented; endorsed by Freud
    • Concerned with the processes that lead to crime and delinquency
    • Delinquency and criminality are expressions of unregulated Id
    • How does unregulated id come about?

  •  Social impact of Freud and Aichorn

    • Reaffirmed “man as inherently bad.”
    • Highlighted the importance of childrearing and parenting practices
    • Impact on social policy: diagnosis, treatment
    • Flaws
    • Impossible to falsify; no way to prove or disprove due to the unconscious nature of the id and superego
    • Therefore, no empirical research supporting the theory
    • The assumption that lifelong behavior patterns are set within the confines of the family during early childhood is overly simplistic

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9/21

  • Durkheim, Anomie, and Modernization 

    • Anomie and Strain theories became popular in the mid-1900s, influential during the 1950s and 60s, and lost influence after that.
    • Distinct but related theories of crime
    • Distinction: Strain theories are micro-level theories that attempt to explain why a given individual within society commits a crime, while anomie theories are macro-level theories that attempt to explain why some societies have higher rates of crime than others
    • Related for a few reasons
    • Contemporary versions of both trace origins to Durkheim and Merton
    • Both find motivation for crime in the disjunction between culturally defined goals and culturally accepted means to attain goals
    • Assumptions about human nature: basically social - under normal conditions, people are naturally inclined to abide by norms and rules
    • Emile Durkheim 
    • Trying to explain an increase in suicide 
    • Developed the term “anomie.”
      • Anomie = normlessness; without norms.  A society that is in a state of anomie has no rules or norms about behavior
    • Anomie suicide 
      • he discusses, anomic suicide might help us understand the situations associated with increases in suicide, like economic downturns; natural disasters (earthquake, tsunami), and nuclear disasters

  • Neighborhoods and Crime  

  • Social structure theories 

    •  suggest that the social and/or economic structure of society can push people towards criminal behavior
    • Suggest that social and economic structure of society can push people toward criminal behavior 
    • Ecological theories and social disorganization theory 
    • Strain theory 
    • Cultural deviance theory 

  • Important concepts 

    • Culture: shared beliefs, values, knowledge, and skills by which people give order, expression, and value to common experiences; social aspects of the environment
    • Social Structure: the organization and patterning of relationships between social units (group of social positions differentiated by a distinct set of activities; e.g., university, family, business, gang, neighborhood, etc.)

  • Social Ecology 

  • Robert Park and Ernest Burgess 

    • Five city zones 
    • Environmental factors 
    • Zone 1: the innermost zone is called the Central Business District; this is the city center where business and industry are concentrated
    • Zone 2: Transitional Zone; this is where business and residential areas overlap; there is housing, especially for recent immigrant groups; there are also factories and abandoned buildings
    • Zone 3: Working Class Zone; this is where working-class people tend to live; single-family tenements
    • Zone 4: Residential Zone; this is where the middle-class citizens live, bordering on suburbs
    • Zone 5: Commuter Zone; these are the suburbs.
      • As the city grew, the CBD (zone 1) grew into the residential area (invasion). This created the zone of transition. People who were able to leave the area and moved out further. The area became occupied by low-income, low-skill newcomers (immigrants and migrants).

  • Class Activity 

    • Answer the following questions about york on the LexisNexis community crime map 
    • 500 + crimes (how many crimes)
    • Traffic incident (a crime that is the most common)
    • Alcohol violation (a crime that is the least common)
    • Monday had the most significant amount of crime: traffic incidents (28), assault simple (3),  drugs violation (4), disorderly conduct (10), vandalism (3), fraud (5), burglary of motor vehicle (6), burglary residential (4), assault aggravated (2), robbery individual (2), weapon violation (8), motor vehicle theft (2), alcohol violation (1), DUI (1), theft - other (2), burglary commercial (1)

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9/23

Social disorganization 

  • What is social disorganization?

    • Social disorganization is a state of society characterized by the breakdown of effective social control resulting in a lack of functional integration between groups, conflicting social attitudes, and personal maladjustment.
    • The breakdown of social institutions in an area 

  • What neighborhoods in your area do you consider socially disorganized?

    • The neighborhoods in my area that I consider social disorganization are anything past Jackson street, mountain areas, and city (home)

  • What factors are found in the neighborhoods that lead you to this conclusion?

    • The factors that led me to this conclusion are abandoned buildings, trash lying around, insufficient “protection,” drug abuse, and physical structures.

  • Chillford shaw and Henery Mckay 

  • Main questions

    • How is delinquency geographically distributed 
    • Extended their research and looked at Chicago to plot rates of delinquency
    • The highest rate of delinquency is in zone 1 & 2; it is scattered in zone 3 to 5 
    • What are the social conditions associated with high levels of delinquency?
    •  The environment was a factor (poverty); think about the physical structures (broken windows, abandoned buildings), and talk about rates that were special in the area. 
    • This led to social disorganization.

  • Social disorganization theory 

    • Theorized that low SES, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential mobility that are associated with rapid social change increase the chances of social disorganization
    • (1) Poverty, racial and ethnic heterogeneity and residential mobility lead to (2) Social disorganization.
      • Low SES/Poverty: Low rent, deteriorating neighborhoods; people don’t have as much incentive to take care of things; community institutions and organizations (churches, schools, etc.) are under-funded, and people are not as involved as in suburban communities
      • Racial and ethnic heterogeneity: It doesn’t matter what racial and ethnic groups are in a neighborhood, but if there are a lot of different groups, there are clashing cultures; there is not a strong, united culture; little chance of forming social networks;
      • Residential mobility: Population turnover; people move as soon as they can afford it; if people are always moving in and out, no one takes the time to get to know each other (think back to capable guardians)
      • Social Disorganization: the breakdown of social controls and institutions; disruption of core social institutions; a lack of community and bond between people living in the same area
    • Socially disorganized neighborhoods lead to (3) ineffective control of children.
      • Community ceases to function effectively as a means of social control; no cooperative social action in the community due to the absence of common community ideals.
    • Ineffective control of kids leads to (4) gangs and pockets of delinquency.
      • Kids are inherently social, and so neighborhood social disorganization leads kids to create alternative organizations such as gangs, and these organizations happen to be delinquent.
    • Delinquent traditions are passed on from one generation to the next through (5) transmission of cultural values.
      • It’s the certain values and norms within an urban neighborhood that are transmitted from generation to generation, not the values and norms of any particular ethnic group.
    • These delinquent traditions produce (6) high rates of delinquency and a stable culture of crime.
    • Criticisms
    • In their original study (the basis for the theory), they use official data. They do not acknowledge that it is possible that the police arrest more in socially disorganized areas, which would account for the differences in crime rates (so it might not be actual differences in crime).
    • The theory neglects the possibility that crime and delinquency may cause social disorganization.

Collective efficacy and policy implications of social ecology 

  • Collective efficacy (the late 1990s and on) 
    • Samsons and colleagues 
  • Policy implications 
    • What is the logical policy?
    • If you were responsible for implementing policies to change neighborhoods for the better, what specifically would you do, and why?
  • Problems 
    • the communities that need the help are the least able to get it and use it
    • It is hard to implement community organization programs in the most disorganized communities because people have less ties to the community (e.g., neighborhood watch programs are not consistently effective, may be effective in communities that don’t need them)

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  • Collective efficacy survey activity 
    • child/family safety (the foundation of the neighborhood, if one family feels safe more will feel safe) 
    • Do you feel safe in your house? If not, then is there somewhere you could go?
    • Do you feel like you could let your children outside? If not, what is the primary reason?
    • Is there a park or recreation center your child could go to? If not, is there funding for it, or is it a lack of safety?
    • Does your family get along with neighbors? If not, why?

(neighborhood watch) 

9/30 

  • Cultural goals: the “things worth striving for”
    • Consider the following
    • What do you aspire to? (micro) 
    • What do we seek to attain? (macro) 
    • The American dream 
    • Success and material wealth 
    • Equal access and strain 
  • Merton’s modes of adaptation
    • Conformity (accepts the goals and means)(people who work hard)
    • Innovation (accepts the goals but rejects the means) (poor people who socialize with the goals but they don’t have the means to get there) (drug dealer) 
    • Ritualism (rejects the goals but accepts the means) (plays safe) 
    • Retreatism (rejects both the goals and the means) (drug user is an example) 
    • Rebellion (will reject both goals and the means and will develop new ones) (want to create a new standard)