Social Process Theories and the Influence of Socialization on Crime

CHAPTER 7 1. Be familiar with the concepts of social process and socialization. Social process theories view criminality as a function of people’s interaction with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society. People in all walks of life have the potential to become criminals if they maintain destructive social relationships. Improper socialization is a key component of crime. 2. Be able to discuss the differences among social learning theory, social control theory, and social reaction (labeling) theory. Social learning theory stresses that people learn how to commit crimes. It suggests that people learn criminal behaviors in much the same way as they learn conventional behavior. Social control theory analyzes the failure of society to control criminal tendencies. Labeling theory maintains that negative labels produce criminal careers. 3. Discuss the effect of family relationships on crime. Kids growing up in troubled families are crime-prone. Parental efficacy reduces crime. Divorce can strain families. 4. Understand how the educational setting influences crime. School failure is linked to delinquency. Dropping out may influence later criminality. School violence and conflict are also a problem. 5. Be aware of the link between peers and delinquency. Delinquent peers sustain individual offending patterns. Delinquent friends may help kids neutralize the fear of punishment. Both popular kids and loners can have problems. 6. Be familiar with the association between beliefs and criminality. People with high moral standards can resist crime. Church attendance is related to low crime rates. 7. Discuss the main types of social learning theory. Differential association theory was formulated by Edwin Sutherland. It holds that criminality is a result of a person’s perceiving an excess of defi nitions in favor of crime. Gresham Sykes and David Matza formulated the theory of neutralization, which stresses that youths learn mental techniques that enable them to overcome societal values and hence break the law. 8. Be familiar with the principles of social control theory. Control theory maintains that all people have the potential to become criminals, but their bonds to conventional society prevent them from violating the law. This view suggests that a person’s self-concept enhances his or her commitment to conventional action. Travis Hirschi’s social control theory describes the social bond as containing elements of attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. Weakened bonds allow youths to behave antisocially. 9. Know the basic elements of social reaction (labeling) theory. Social reaction or labeling theory holds that criminality is promoted by becoming negatively labeled by significant others. Such labels as “criminal,” “ex-con,” and “junkie” isolate people from society and lock them into lives of crime. Labels create expectations that the labeled person will act in a certain way, and labeled people are always watched and suspected. Eventually these people begin to accept their labels as personal identities, which may lock them irretrievably into lives of crime and deviance. Edwin Lemert suggests that people who accept labels are involved in secondary deviance, while primary deviants are able to maintain an undamaged identity. 10. Link social process theory to crime prevention efforts. Social process theories have greatly influenced social policy. They have been applied in treatment orientations as well as community action policies. Some programs teach kids conventional attitudes and behaviors. Others are designed to improve the social bond. CHAPTER 8 1. Be familiar with the concept of social conflict and with how it shapes behavior. Social conflict theorists view crime as a function of the conflict that exists in society. Conflict theorists suggest that crime in any society is caused by class conflict. Laws are created by those in power to protect their own rights and serve their own interests. 2. Be able to discuss elements of conflict in the criminal justice system. All criminal acts have political undertones. The justice system is biased against the poor and designed to protect the wealthy. Social and political oppression produce crime. Crime would disappear if equality, rather than discrimination, were the norm. 3. Be familiar with the basic ideas of critical criminology. Critical criminology views the competitive nature of the capitalist system as a major cause of crime. The poor commit crimes because of their frustration, anger, and need. The wealthy engage in illegal acts because they are used to competition and because they must do so to maintain their positions in society. Critical scholars have attempted to show that the law is designed to protect the wealthy and powerful and to control the poor, “have-not” members of society. 4. Define the concept of state (organized) crime. State crimes involve a violation of citizen trust. They are acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials while holding their positions as government representatives. Some state crimes are committed by individuals who abuse their state authority, or fail to exercise it, when working with people and organizations in the private sector. State– corporate crime involves the deviant activities by which the privileged classes strive to maintain or increase their power. 5. Be able to discuss the difference between structural theory and instrumental theory. Critical theorists subscribe to either instrumental theory or structural theory. Instrumental theorists hold that those in authority wield their power to control society and keep the lower classes in check. Structural theorists believe that the justice system is designed to maintain the status quo and is used to punish the wealthy, as well as members of the lower classes, when they break the rules governing capitalism. 6. Know the various techniques of critical research. Research on critical theory focuses on how the justice system was designed and how it operates to further class interests. Quite often, this research uses historical analysis to show how the capitalist classes have exerted control over the police, the courts, and correctional agencies. 7. Be familiar with the critiques of critical criminology. Critical criminology has been criticized by traditional criminologists. Some critics suggest that critical criminologists make fundamental errors in their concepts of ownership and class interest. 8. Know some of the basic ideas of critical feminism. Critical feminist writers draw attention to the influence of patriarchal society on crime. According to power– control theory, gender differences in the crime rate can be explained by the structure of the family in a capitalist society. 9. Explain the concept of left realism. Left realism sees crime as a function of relative deprivation under capitalism and views the justice system as necessary to protect the lower classes until a socialist society can be developed, which will end crime. 10. Discuss peacemaking criminology and restorative justice. Peacemaking criminology brings a call for humanism to criminology. The restorative justice model holds that reconciliation rather than retribution should be applied to prevent and control crime. Restoration programs are now being used around the United States in schools, justice agencies, and community forums. They employ mediation, sentencing circles, and other techniques. CHAPTER 9 1. Discuss the history of developmental theory. The foundation of this theory is Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck’s integration of biological, psychological, and social factors. Later the Glueck data was rediscovered by criminologists Robert Sampson and John Laub. The Philadelphia cohort research by Marvin Wolfgang and his associates investigated criminal career development. Rolf Loeber and Marc Le Blanc proposed that criminologists should devote time and effort to understanding basic questions about the evolution of criminal careers. 2. Distinguish between the life-course theory and the latent trait theory. Life-course theorists view criminality as a dynamic process influenced by a multitude of individual characteristics, traits, and social experiences. Lifecourse theories look at such issues as the onset of crime, the escalation of offenses, the persistence of crime, and desistance from crime. Latent trait theorists believe that human development is controlled by a “master trait” that guides human development and gives some people an increased propensity to commit crime. 3. Be familiar with the principles of the life-course theory. At an early age, people begin relationships and behaviors that will determine their adult life course. Some individuals are incapable of maturing in a reasonable and timely fashion. A positive life experience may help some criminals desist from crime for a while, but a negative experience may cause them to resume their criminal activities. As people mature, the factors that influence their behavior change. The social, physical, and environmental influences on their behavior are transformed. 4. Explain the term “problem behavior syndrome.” Crime is one of a group of interrelated antisocial behaviors that cluster together. Problem behaviors typically involve family dysfunction, sexual and physical abuse, substance abuse, smoking, precocious sexuality and early pregnancy, educational underachievement, suicide attempts, sensation seeking, and unemployment. People who suffer from one of these conditions typically exhibit many symptoms of the rest. 5. Be aware that there are different pathways to crime. Some career criminals may specialize in violence and extortion; some may be involved in theft and fraud; some may engage in a variety of criminal acts. Some offenders may begin their careers early in life, whereas others are late bloomers who begin committing crime at about the time when most people desist. 6. Discuss why age of onset is an important factor in crime. Early onset of antisocial behavior predicts later and more serious criminality. Adolescent offenders whose criminal behavior persists into adulthood are likely to have begun their deviant careers at a very early (preschool) age. Early-onset kids tend to have poor parental discipline and monitoring, inadequate emotional support, distant peer relationships, and psychological issues and problems. 7. Know the basic principles of Sampson and Laub’s Age Graded Theory. Sampson and Laub find that the maintenance of a criminal career can be affected by events that occur later in life. They recognize the role of social capital and its influence on the trajectory of a criminal career. When faced with personal crisis, offenders lack the social supports that can help them reject criminal solutions. Sampson and Laub view criminal careers as a dynamic process in which important life events can change the direction of a person’s life-course trajectory; these key events are called turning points. 8. Define the term “latent trait.” A number of people in the population have a personal attribute or characteristic that controls their inclination or propensity to commit crimes. A latent trait is a stable feature, characteristic, property, or condition, present at birth or soon after, that guides and shapes behavior and may cause some people to become crime prone over their life course. Suspected latent traits include defective intelligence, damaged or impulsive personality, genetic abnormalities, the physical-chemical functioning of the brain, and environmental influences on brain function, such as drugs, chemicals, and injuries. 9. Be familiar with Wilson and Herrnstein’s views on crime and human nature. According to Wilson and Herrnstein, all human behavior, including criminality, is determined by its perceived consequences. A criminal incident occurs when an individual chooses criminal over conventional behavior. Wilson and Herrnstein assume that both biological and psychological traits influence the choice between crime and non-crime. Wilson and Herrnstein suggest the existence of an elusive latent trait that predisposes people to committing crime. 10. Understand the basic principles of the General Theory of Crime. Gottfredson and Hirschi link the propensity to commit crime to an impulsive personality and a lack of self-control. People with limited self-control tend to be impulsive; they are insensitive to other people’s feelings, predisposed toward physical (rather than mental) activities and solutions, risk takers, shortsighted, and nonverbal. Because those with low self-control enjoy risky, exciting, or thrilling behaviors with immediate gratification, they are more likely to enjoy criminal acts. Gottfredson and Hirschi trace the root cause of poor self-control to inadequate child-rearing practices.