Criminological Theory - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Criminological Theory

Rejecting Individualism:

The Chicago SchoolSlide2

Chicago School Criminologists

Robert Park: Crime and the city

Park and Burgess: Concentric Zone Theory

Shaw and McKay: Social Disorganization theory and the Chicago Area Project

Sutherland: Differential Association

Sampson and colleagues: Collective Efficacy

Bursik and Grasmick: Collective Efficacy

Warner: Cultural attenuation theory

Legal Cynicism Theory

Elijah Anderson’s Cultural Deviance Theory: Code of the Street

Aker: Social Learning TheorySlide3

Introduction

As the United States entered the 20

th

century, a competing vision of crime emerged

Crime was a social product

The Chicago school of criminology argued that one aspect of American society, the city, contained potent criminogenic forcesSlide4

The Chicago School of Criminology: Theory in Context

During the latter half of the

1800s

, cities grew at a rapid pace, and became “a controlling factor in national life”

Chicago’s growth was particularly remarkable

Grew from 4,100 residents in 1833 to over 2 million in 1910

Many of those settling in Chicago carried little with them

Most newcomers brought little economic relief

Referred to as “the jungle” by Upton SinclairSlide5

The Chicago School of Criminology: Theory in Context

Criminologists during the 1920s and 1930s witnessed that these changes created bulging populations and teaming slum areas

They believed that growing up in the city, particularly in the slums, made a difference in people’s livesSlide6

The Progressive Movement

The “Progressives” were troubled by the plight of the urban poor, a mushrooming population of the system’s casualties who had few prospects of stable or rewarding lives

An understanding of the etiology of crime demanded a very close scrutiny of the conditions of the urban poorSlide7

The Progressive Movement

The Progressives believed that the poor were pushed by their environment into lives of crime

The goal was to save the poor by providing social services that would lessen the pains of poverty and teach the benefits of middle-class culture

Did this through schools, clinics, recreational facilities, settlement houses, foster homes, and reformatoriesSlide8

The Age of Reform

The Progressives efforts led to the creation of policies and practices that were intended to allow the state to treat the individual needs and problems of offenders

Trusted the government

The city became a dominant feature of American life, and a pervasive movement arose warning that the social fabric of urban slums bred crimeSlide9

The University of Chicago and Robert Park

Concluded that the city’s development and organization were not random

Rather development is patterned and could be understood in terms of the basic social processes

The nature of social processes and their impact on human behavior could be ascertained only through a careful study of city lifeSlide10

Shaw and McKay’s Theory of Juvenile Delinquency

Persuaded that a model of the city formulated by Ernest Burgess provided a framework for understanding the social roots of crime

Neighborhood organization was instrumental in the preventing or permitting delinquent careersSlide11

Burgess’s Concentric Zone TheorySlide12

Burgess’s Concentric Zone Theory

Cities grow radially in a series of five concentric zones

Competition determined how people were distributed spatially among these zones

The zone of transition was a cause for concern and study

Deteriorating houses, displacement of residents, and waves of immigrants lead to weakened family and communal ties and resulted in social disorganizationSlide13

Shaw and McKay’s Disorganization and Delinquency

Mapped the spatial distribution of delinquency throughout Chicago to see if it conformed to Burgess’s concentric zone theory

Delinquency flourished in the zone in transition and was inversely related to the zone’s affluence and corresponding distance from the central business district

True regardless of the racial or ethnic group residing thereSlide14

Shaw and McKay’s Disorganization and Delinquency

The nature of the neighborhood, not individuals within the neighborhood, regulated involvement in crime

Neighborhood organization was the main factor determining juvenile waywardness

In the zone in transition, urban growth, transiency, heterogeneity, and poverty allowed social disorganization to prevail and delinquency to be rampant Slide15

Shaw and McKay’s Disorganization and Delinquency

Growing up in a disorganized area, it is this combination of:

A break down of control

Exposure to a criminal culture that lures individual youngsters into crime

that creates high rates of delinquencySlide16

Transmission of Criminal Values

Shaw and McKay attempted to learn more about why youths become deviant by interviewing delinquents and compiling their autobiographies in a format called life histories

Found juveniles were drawn into crime through their association with older siblings or gang members

Disorganization produced and sustained criminal traditions Slide17

The Empirical Status of Social Disorganization Theory

Pratt and Cullen’s (2005) meta-analysis found the variables are related to crime in the predicted direction

Sampson and Groves (1989) found structural factors increased social disorganization and that, in turn, disorganized areas had higher levels of crime than organized areas Slide18

Summary of Social Disorganization Theory

Shaw and McKay believed that juvenile delinquency could only be understood by considering by the social context which youths lived

A disorganized areas there is (1) a breakdown of control and (2) exposure to a criminal culture

This theory is a considered a “mixed model” or “integrated theory” since it merges different causal conditions into a single explanation (weak controls and learning cultural values)

Laid the groundwork for control or social bond theoriesSlide19

Sutherland’s Differential Social Organization

Shaw and McKay’s work laid the groundwork for Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory

Argued that social organization – the context in which individuals are embedded – regulates criminal behavior

Contended that groups are arranged differently; some are organized in support of criminal activity, whereas others are organized against such behaviorSlide20

Sutherland’s Differential Association and Definitions

Criminal behavior is learned through social interactions

The inner-city is characterized by culture conflict between a conventional culture and an criminal culture that promote their own definitions

The ratio of definitions – criminal or conventional – determines if the person embraces crime an acceptable way of lifeSlide21

Sutherland’s Nine Propositions

Criminal behavior is learned

Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication

The principle part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groupsSlide22

Sutherland’s Nine Propositions (cont’d)

When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, and (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes

The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of legal codes as favorable and unfavorableSlide23

Sutherland’s Nine Propositions (cont’d)

A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to the violation of law

Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensitySlide24

Sutherland’s Nine Propositions (cont’d)

The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all the mechanisms that are involved in other learning

While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values since non-criminal behavior is not an expression of the same needs and valuesSlide25

Theoretical Applications

Sutherland believed differential association theory was a general explanation that could be applied to very divergent types of illegal activity

Claimed differential association could account for the offenses committed by persons of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation– white-collar crimeSlide26

Sutherland and White-Collar Crime

Crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation

Lawlessness is widespread in business, politics, and the professions

Differential association can explain this type of crimeSlide27

The Chicago School’s Criminological Legacy

Emphasized the causal importance of the transmission of a criminal culture but offered much less detail on the precise origins of this culture

No focus on the role of power and class domination

The Chicago school laid the groundwork for the development of a perspective that remains vital to this day

Cultural deviance theorySlide28

Control and Culture in the Community

Theories have continued to explore why some communities have higher rates of crime than others

The control perspective derived from Shaw and McKay is seen in the theories of collective efficacy and cultural attenuation

Other scholars have linked crime to cultural traditions in communities –

Code of the Street

And still others have examined why some individuals are more likely to be involved in crime than others –

Akers’s

social learning theorySlide29

Collective Efficacy

Sampson sought to explain how informal social control at the

community level

explains variation in crime rates across neighborhoods

Known as the systemic theory

Neighborhoods are characterized by a system of social networks and ties

When dense and strong, there is informal social control

When weak, there is a lack informal social controlSlide30

Collective Efficacy

Bursik

and

Grasmick

presented three levels of community control

Private: intimate relationships among family and friends

Parochial: those met during daily routines and voluntary organizations

Public: relationships with external groups that provide resources to maintaining order

Organized communities have all three controls, while disorganized communities do notSlide31

Collective Efficacy

One problem with the systemic model

High crime communities have neighbors that often know one another and have strong private ties, while low crime areas have weak tiesSlide32

Collective Efficacy

Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls set forth a reconceptualization of the social disorganization framework called

collective efficacy

Defined as social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good

Neighborhoods vary in their ability to activate informal social control

Dependent on mutual trust and solidarity among neighbors

In neighborhoods where cohesiveness prevails, residents can depend on one another to enforce rules of civility and good behavior which allows the area to have collective efficacy

Residents have a shared expectation for controlSlide33

Collective Efficacy

Collective efficacy is not evenly distributed across neighborhoods

Studies have shown collective efficacy is a robust predictor of levels of violence across neighborhoods and mediated much of the relationship between crime and the neighborhood characteristics of residential stability and concentrated disadvantage

Is a promising explanation of why urban neighborhoods differ in their levels of criminal behaviorSlide34

Cultural Attenuation Theory

Cultural Disorganization and Crime

Neighborhood conditions affect allegiance to conventional values

Difficult to have “common ground” and “shared understandings” when there is transiency, heterogeneity, when new problems exist that traditional values do not address effectively, and when following conventional mandates seem irrelevant to the achievement of goals

Community cannot organize itself to combat delinquency united by common valuesSlide35

Cultural Attenuation Theory

Warner found that concentrated disadvantage and residential mobility decrease allegiance to conventional values

Conventional values are not rejected but fall into “disuse”

Culture is strong with similar values are widely shared, visibly present in everyday life, and regularly articulatedSlide36

Legal Cynicism Theory

Police are seen as absent or too present in high-crime, inner-city neighborhoods

Officers seen as unresponsive and disrespectful

Belief in law attenuates and legal cynicism occurs

Legal cynicism is cultural orientation in which the law and its agents are viewed as illegitimate, unresponsive, and ill equipped to ensure public safety

Concentrated disadvantage contributes to legal cynicismSlide37

Legal Cynicism Theory

Evidence to show neighborhoods high in legal cynicism have high rates of crime

However, does not mean residents condone crime

Legal cynicism creates conditions conducive to crime Slide38

Cultural Deviance Theory: Theoretical Variations

Communities are exposed to values oppositional to conventional culture

Cultural deviance theory has evolved among a number of paths

Some criminologists have asserted that lower-class culture as a whole is responsible for generating much criminality in urban areas

A number of criminologists have explored how delinquent subcultures arise in particular sectors of society

Other researchers have developed a similar theme in arguing for the existence of subcultures of violenceSlide39

Cultural Deviance Theory: Code of the Street

Written by Elijah Anderson in 1999

Sought to determine why so many inner-city young people are inclined to commit aggression and violence toward one another

Found a “street code” that values violence prevails in the inner city and that governs the choice that adolescents make in their daily livesSlide40

Cultural Deviance Theory: Code of the Street

Minority youth in the inner city are culturally isolated from conventional society and face economic barriers

Families can be disrupted and dysfunctional (“street families”) where the children are neglected and receive harsh physical and erratic discipline

These youths’ major product is to campaign for respect

Display status through dress, masculine demeanor, and developing reputations for nerve

A code of the street demands disrespect be met with immediate threat or application of violenceSlide41

Cultural Deviance Theory: Code of the Street

The code affects not only kids from street families but also those from decent families

Youths from all families are encapsulated by the code of the street and suffer its consequences

The code of the street is not intractable

The code is a cultural adaptation to the conditions prevailing in destitute urban communities

Rooted in the structural conditions that expose youths to hurtful deprivations and strip them of any meaningful way of gaining respect through conventional avenuesSlide42

Cultural Deviance Theory: Code of the Street

Anderson’s work subjected to few empirical tests

Mixed results

Some studies are supportive of the contention that structural sources contribute to involvement in violent delinquency

Others find no support that adopting the code increases safety

In fact, found embracement increased risk of victimization Slide43

Akers’s Social Learning Theory

Crime is learned behavior through social interaction with others

Incorporates four central concepts:

Differential association (interactive and normative)

Imitation

Definitions

Differential social reinforcementSlide44

Akers’s Social Learning Theory

Key Concepts

Definitions of Concepts

1

.

Differential

Association

The process through which individuals are exposed to definitions favorable and unfavorable to illegal or law-abiding behavior.

A. Interactional dimension:

The direct association and interactions with others who engage in certain kinds of behavior, as well as the indirect association and identification with more distant reference groups.

B. Normative dimension:

The different patterns of norms and values to which an individual is exposed through this association.

2. Definitions

A person’s own attitudes or meanings that are attached to a given behavior. That is, definitions are orientations, rationalizations, definitions of the situation, and other evaluative and moral attitudes that define the commission of an act as right or wrong, good or bad, desirable or undesirable, justified or unjustified. The more a person’s definitions approve of an act, the greater the chances are that the act will be committed.

A. General vs. specific

General definitions are broad attitudes that approve of conventional behavior and disapprove of criminal behavior (e.g., moral beliefs from religion). Specific definitions define certain acts as wrong (e.g., killing a person) and other acts as permissible (e.g., stealing a person’s computer).

B. Negative, positive, and neutralizing

Negative definitions disapprove of a behavior. Positive definitions define the behavior as desirable or wholly permissible. Neutralizing definitions define an act as wrong but justify and thus permit the behavior “given the situation.”

3. Imitation

Modeling—person engages in behavior after observing similar behavior in others.

4. Differential Reinforcement

The balance of anticipated or actual rewards and punishments that follow or are the consequence of behavior. Most reinforcements leading to crime are social.Slide45

Akers’s Social Learning Theory: Definitions

Key factor in motivating crime

One’s attitudes or meanings attached to a behavior

Specified dimensions of definitions:

General

Specific

Negative toward criminal behavior

Positive toward criminal behavior

Neutralizing Slide46

Akers’s Social Learning Theory: Imitation

In addition to definitions, people can become involved in crime through imitation (modeling criminal conduct)

Definitions and imitation are most instrumental in determining initial forays into crime

Social reinforcements determine whether any behavior is repeated:

Differential social reinforcementSlide47

Akers’s Social Learning Theory: Differential Reinforcement

Stronger and more persistent the rewards, the more likely criminal behavior will persist

Nonsocial and social

Social context in which individuals are enmeshed expose people to definitions, people to imitate, and with differential reinforcementSlide48

The Empirical Status of Social Learning Theory

Research is supportive of this perspective

The strongest predictor of criminal involvement is differential association as measured by the number of delinquent friends

Criticism

: Rather than delinquent friends causing wayward behavior, this process is really a cause of “birds of a feather flock together”

Self-selection occurs but continued association with delinquent peers amplifies criminal involvementSlide49

Policy Implications: Change the Individual

Shaw and McKay

: Reorganize communities

The Chicago School

: Reverse criminal learning

Differential association and social learning theory often attempt to remove offenders from settings and people that encourage crime and to locate them in settings where they will receive pro-social reinforcementSlide50

Policy Implications: Change the Community

Solution to youthful waywardness is to eradicate the pathologies that lie within the fabric of disorganized communities

Shaw established the Chicago Area Project (CAP) to serve as a catalyst for the creation of neighborhood communities in Chicago’s disorganized slum areasSlide51

CAP’s Approach to Delinquency Prevention

A strong emphasis was placed on the creation of recreational programs

Efforts were made to have residents take pride in their community

CAP staff would attempt to mediate on behalf of juveniles in trouble

CAP used staff indigenous to the area so as to provide curbside counselingSlide52

CAP Effectiveness

Lack of evaluations using randomized designs

However, a 50 year assessment found that CAP had been effective in reducing rate of delinquency

Today, coordinates more than 40 projects and affiliatesSlide53

Conclusion

The Chicago school elevated to prominence sociological over individual trait explanations of crime

Individuals are born into neighborhoods that differ in their organization which influences the likelihood that residents will be involved in crime

The Chicago school made methodological advances

Showed the value of mapping crime

Valued qualitative methods