Crime in American Society: - PowerPoint Presentation

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Crime in American Society:Anomie and Strain Theories

Criminological TheorySlide2

Strain Theorists Through the Years Robert Merton’s anomie

Albert Cohen’s delinquent boys

Cloward

and Ohlin’s differential opportunity

Agnew’s revised strain theory

Unnever

and

Gabbidon’s

A Theory of African American Offending

Messner

and Rosenfeld’s institutional anomie: Crime and the American Dream

Elliot Currie: Market economy and crimeSlide3

Rebuttal of Hooton’s Biological Theory of Crime

Merton and Ashley-Montagu debunked Hooton’s arguments

Merton believed that conditions fundamental to

American society in general

were the core of the nation’s crime and deviance, not biological or organic inferiority

Unlike the Chicago School, do not see the city as disorganized and criminogenic; rather, the “American Dream” had dire consequences for this societySlide4

Merton’s Strain Theory: Social Structure and Anomie

America as a Criminogenic Society

Conformity to conventional cultural values produced high rates of crime and deviance

Structurally Induced Strain

The U.S. places and extraordinary and universal emphasis on economic success for all (the “American Dream”)

Cardinal American virtue is ambition

Social structure limits access to goal of successSlide5

Merton’s Strain Theory: Social Structure and Anomie

Structurally Induced Strain

The disjunction between what the culture extols (the American Dream) and the means provided by the social structure (limited legitimate opportunities) produces strain and pressure for deviance Slide6

Typology of Adaptations

Mode of Adaptation

Cultural Goals

Institutionalized Means

Conformity

+

+

Innovation

+

-

Ritualism

-

+

Retreatism

-

-

Rebellion

+

+Slide7

Typology of Adaptations

Most people do not deviate; the modal response is for people to

conform

For many, the disjunction between means and goals is the source of problems and a requisite for alleviating strain is changing their cultural goals and/or withdrawing their allegiance to institutionalized meansSlide8

Typology of Adaptations

Four Deviant Adaptations:

Innovation

: Embrace success, but turn to illegitimate means

Ritualism

: Maintain outward conformity to the norms of governing institutionalized means, but not the goals

Retreatism

: Relinquish allegiance to both the cultural success goal and the institutionalized means (are in society but not of it)

Rebellion

: Not only reject but wish to change the existing systemSlide9

Anomie

Merton borrowed the notion of anomie – normlessness or deregulation – from Emile Durkheim

For Merton, institutionalized norms will weaken – anomie will take hold – in societies placing an intense value on economic success

When this occurs, the pursuit of success no longer is guided by normative standards of right and wrong

The question becomes which of the available procedures is most efficient in netting the culturally approved valueSlide10

Anomie

Innovative conduct becomes especially prevalent as anomie intensifies

Anomie and deviance are mutually reinforcing

Weakening of institutionalized norms allows a limited number of people to violate standards, which challenges the norms’ legitimacy Slide11

Rejecting Individualism

Merton contended that the very nature of American society generates considerable crime and deviance

Located the roots of crime and deviance within the very fabric of American society

Stressed the criminogenic role of conformity to the universal and conventional cultural goal of pecuniary success Slide12

Strain Theory in Context

Merton’s life seems to mirror the two core features of his paradigm: 1) the significance of the cultural message for all to pursue the American Dream and 2) the differential opportunities people had to reach this universal goal

For Merton, the dominant reality was cultural homogeneity and universalism

Americans shared a dream and identity Slide13

Strain Theory in Context

Merton did not believe inner-city neighborhoods were fully disorganized and inherently criminogenic

Residents want to live the cultural dream but were denied the opportunity to leave the slum which produced a pressure to deviateSlide14

Social Structure and Anomie

Merton’s work received widespread attention in the 1960s

Prior to 1960, poverty was not viewed as a major social problem

By the early part of the 1960s,

poverty was seen not as the fault of the individual but as the fault of the system

Minority and other disadvantaged citizens were being denied equal opportunitySlide15

Status Discontent and Delinquency

Albert Cohen and Richard Cloward’s and Lloyd Ohlin’s work represented important extensions of Merton’s deviance approach

Investigated how this theory could be applied to the study of juvenile gangs in urban areas

Focused on the origins and effects of delinquent subcultural norms

Drew from both Merton and the Chicago SchoolSlide16

Delinquent Boys

Cohen pondered how notions of cultural transmission and structurally induced strain might be reconciled

Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang

(1955): Delinquent gangs and the subcultural values they embrace are concentrated in urban slums

The content of these subcultures not only is supportive of crime, but also is nonutilitarian, malicious, and negativisticSlide17

Delinquent Boys

Engage in delinquency that is contemptuous of authority and irrational to conventional citizens

Delinquent subcultures arise in response to the special problems that people face

Lower-class youth are disadvantaged in their efforts to achieve middle-class standards of success and status

Denied status in respectable society because they cannot meet the criteria of the respectable status system

Lower-class youth reject the middle-class goals and norms and substitute oppositional valuesSlide18

Delinquent Boys

The strains of class-based status discontent are conducive to the emergence of subcultural values supportive of delinquency

A structural basis exists for the persistence of these delinquent norms and the gang organization they nourish

Once in existence, the subculture assumes a reality of its own and this criminal culture can be transmitted to youths in the neighborhood. Slide19

Delinquency and Opportunity

Cloward and Ohlin:

Opportunity Theory

The social structure generates pressures for deviance, pressures experienced most intensely in the lower class

Slum youths face the problem of lacking legitimate means – the opportunity – to be successful and earn status, which creates the strain of status discontentment

This disparity between what lower-class youths are led to want and what is actually available to them is the source of a major problem of adjustment and causes intense frustrations and the exploration of nonconformist alternativesSlide20

Delinquency and Opportunity

People are not free to be any type of criminal they choose to be

Criminal roles are learned through cultural transmission

One must have access to

illegitimate means

The selection of adaptations is regulated by the availability throughout the social structure of illegitimate means

Illegitimate means could illuminate why delinquent subcultures existed in slum areas and why they took a particular formSlide21

Delinquency and Opportunity

Delinquent subcultures could emerge and persist only in areas where enough youths were concentrated to band together and to support one another’s alienation from conventional values

The type of collective response that the youths could make would be shaped by the neighborhood in which they residedSlide22

Delinquency and Opportunity

Three types of subcultures:

Criminal subculture in organized neighborhoods

Conflict or fighting oriented subculture in disorganized neighborhoods

The retreatist or drug using subculture when double failures (unable to achieve status legitimately or illegitimately)

Cloward and Ohlin believed that opportunity theory - consolidation of cultural transmission and strain traditions - offered a general framework for studying crime and devianceSlide23

The Criminological Legacy of Strain Theory

Assessing strain theory:

Criticisms of Merton:

In a society as diverse as the U.S., do all citizens really ascribe to the goal of pecuniary success?

Is strain really more pervasive in the lower classes?

White-collar crime?

Why did this condition originate and persist?Slide24

The Criminological Legacy of Strain Theory

Assessing strain theory:

Criticisms of Cohen and Cloward and Ohlin:

Do these theorists describe the content of subcultures accurately?

Do all subcultures embrace nonutilitarian, malicious, and negativistic values?

Are there three distinct types of subcultures?

Empirical critique of strain theory:

Some have found high aspirations are associated with conformity and low aspirations are associated with delinquency

However, research does find support for strain theorySlide25

Agnew’s General Strain Theory

Argued that Merton’s strain theory was too narrow

There may be other kinds of negative relations or situations that create strain and prompt people to break the law, besides the inability to attain future economic success

Developed a revised strain theory which was a prelude to his general strain theorySlide26

Agnew’s General Strain Theory

Proposed there were three sources of strain:

Failure to achieve positively valued goals

Actual or anticipated removal of positively valued stimuli

Actual or anticipated presentation of negative stimuliSlide27

Agnew’s General Strain Theory

Adapting to strain:

The higher the dose of strain that a person experiences, the greater the likelihood of the person being engaged in crime or deviance

Presented the variables that “condition” the response to strain

Factors that diminish the risk of a criminal adaptation

: Availability of other goals, coping resources, social support, strong social bonds

Factors that increase the risk of criminal adaptation

: Low self-control, prior criminal learning, antisocial beliefs,Slide28

Agnew’s General Strain Theory

Unlike other theories, the conditioning variables only increase criminal behavior when occurring in conjunction with strain

Also included the role of emotions, particularly anger

Negative emotions create pressure for corrective action; individuals feel bad and want to do something about it and thus are more likely to engage in criminal behaviorSlide29

Agnew’s General Strain Theory

Empirical support:

The results are not consistent for every type of strain, but there is consistent empirical evidence that exposure to strain increases the likelihood of criminal offending

Studies provide less support for the idea that adaptations to strain are conditioned by a range of other factors

These variables may have direct effects

There is some evidence that the combination of strain and anger increases the risk of criminal conductSlide30

Elaborating General Strain Theory

Must address which strains are criminogenic

Four factors that increase the likelihood that strain will prompt a criminal adaptation:

The strain is seen as unjust

Strain is high in magnitude

The strain is caused by or associated with low self control

The strain creates some pressure or incentive to engage in criminal copingSlide31

Elaborating General Strain TheoryDetermining which type of coping is most likely to cause crime

Strain often does not lead to crime because people have a range of conventional coping strategies to deal with this experience

Only certain individuals experiencing strain engage in criminal copingSlide32

Elaborating General Strain Theory

Agnew diagrammed a model of the coping process in general strain theory (4 stages)

Individuals experience or anticipate experiencing objective strain

Individuals subjectively evaluate of cognitively appraise the objective strain

Individuals experience a negative emotional reaction to strain

Individuals cope with their strain with negative emotions providing the major impetus for copingSlide33

Elaborating General Strain TheoryConditional variables affect the coping process

They affect how the strain is subjectively interpreted

They affect how individuals deal with their emotional reactionSlide34

A Theory of African American Offending

African Americans are disproportionately involved in serious street crime and in victimization numbers

Some disparity is due to police practices and racial inequality in America that leads to poverty and criminogenic circumstances

However, the central question is are the causes of crime the same or different for Blacks and WhitesSlide35

A Theory of African American OffendingMost criminological perspectives are genral theories

People go into crime for the same reasons

Racial invariance – fundamental causes of violence do not vary by race

Believe variations are seen because groups differ in exposure to factors that are believed to cause crime (e.g., differential association, strain)Slide36

A Theory of African American OffendingHowever, strain theorists have appreciated that African Americans confront race-specific situations

Real or perceived discrimination that can create a sense of injustice and potentially be criminogenicSlide37

A Theory of African American Offending

Unnever

and

Gabbidon’s

book,

A Theory of African American Offending

, offered a fully race-specific theory of crime

African Americans believe they will encounter racial prejudice and racial discrimination during their lives

Convinced the U.S. has been and continues to be systematically racist

Often experience this personally and vicariously in the criminal justice system and larger societySlide38

A Theory of African American OffendingThese discriminatory experiences can be so intense and generate such negative emotions that they can trigger criminal involvement directly

Also can weaken social bonds to conventional institutions

Still, despite this widespread discrimination, only a small percentage of African Americans offendSlide39

A Theory of African American OffendingArgue that African Americans cope with objective and/or perceived discrimination with racial socialization

Occurs when effective parents provide coping skills

When it does not occur, there is a higher likelihood of mistrust, attenuated bonds, strain, and criminal involvementSlide40

Crime and the American Dream: Institutional-Anomie Theory

Messner

and Rosenfeld argued for the need to discern what is distinctive about the very culture and structure of American society

Noted that the United States has a higher rate of serious crime than any other industrial nation

Claimed Merton’s anomie theory had focused on only one social institution, the economy, and did not examine how social institutions are interrelated

Culture can cause one institutional sphere, especially the economy, to be overemphasized and to cause problems in other social institutions Slide41

Crime and the American Dream: Institutional-Anomie Theory

The American Dream and Anomie

The American Dream is a commitment to the goal of material success, to be pursued by everyone in society under conditions of open, individual competition

The American Dream fosters anomie or the breakdown of normative control

There is the tendency for people to use the technically most efficient means, which is often crime, to achieve desired goalsSlide42

Crime and the American Dream: Institutional-Anomie Theory

Institutional Balance of Power

What is unique about the U.S. is that the economic institution dominates other social non-economic institutions (family, education, politics)

In the U.S., non-economic institutions are not successful in socializing and controlling the citizenrySlide43

Crime and the American Dream: Institutional-Anomie Theory

The United States’ high rate of serious crime is caused by the nation’s distinctive, mutually reinforcing culture and institutional structure

The American Dream serves as a powerful cultural force that generates anomie by motivating the pursuit of money though any means necessarySlide44

Crime and the American Dream: Institutional-Anomie Theory

Empirical status:

Evidence that crime rates are lower in societies in which the validity of non-economic institutions are more pronounced

Strength of noneconomic systems is associated with lower rates of crime

Major criticism:

Does the United States have an “American Dream”?

Mixed resultsSlide45

Currie: The Market Economy and Crime

Argued that the United States is characterized by an extreme form of capitalism, a “market economy,” in which the pursuit of personal economic gain becomes increasingly the dominant organizing principle of social life and disrupts other social institutionsSlide46

Currie: The Market Economy and Crime

Dominance of the market economy fosters high rates of crime in 7 ways:

The progressive destruction of livelihood

The growth of extremes of economic inequality and material deprivation

The withdrawal of public services and supports, especially for families and children

The erosion of informal and communal networks of mutual support, supervision, and care

The spread of materialistic, neglectful, and “hard” culture

The unregulated marketing of the technology of violence (i.e., guns)

The weakening of social and political alternatives Slide47

Currie: The Market Economy and Crime

Concern for productivity and profits outstrips the concern for the needs of many people who struggle under this system

America’s market economy is criminogenic because large segments of its population are pushed into extreme deprivation while simultaneously both public provision of support and informal support networks that might cushion these disadvantages are withdrawnSlide48

The Future of Strain Theory

In response to the excessive individualism and emphasis on greed during the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a continuing cultural self-examination in the United States

We also may be in a period where it is more difficult to ignore the complicity of the U.S. society in a range of social ills, including crime

Because of prevailing inequalities, strain theory will receive its fair share of adherents in the criminological communitySlide49

The Consequences of Theory: Policy Implications

Expand opportunities:

Increase legitimate opportunities

Strain theory justifies programs that attempt to provide the disadvantaged with educational resources, job training, and equal access to occupations

Prison rehabilitation programs

Delinquency prevention programs (Mobilization for Youth)Slide50

The Consequences of Theory: Policy Implications

Mobilization for Youth (MYF)

Draws from Merton’s strain theory, setting up programs that extended youths’ educational and employment support as well as community organization

Promoted boycotts against schools, protests against welfare policies, rent strikes against slum landlords, lawsuits to ensure poor people’s rights, and voter registration Slide51

The Consequences of Theory: Policy Implications

Mobilization for Youth (MYF)

Due to its call for lawsuits, protests, etc., it was subjected to investigation by the FBI

Exonerated but the publicity led many to resign

Must be credited for its attempt to attack the root causes of crime that most criminal reforms leave untouched

Served as a model for similar community action programs across the nationSlide52

The Consequences of Theory: Policy Implications

Taming the American Dream

May be better said than done

There is no simple program that can be implemented to make Americans less interested in economic success

Requires true social change

Non-economic institutions must be valued ends in themselves – cultural regeneration Slide53

Conclusion

Strain and anomie theories rejected as simplistic, if not as incorrect, previous theories that had sought to locate the causes of crime within individuals

Warned that the social organization of society constrains what people learn to become and what they might be pressured into doing