IntroductionDynamics of Crime TheoryEarly Schools of Tho.docx

Introduction
Dynamics of Crime Theory
Early Schools of Thought
The Classical School
The Positive School
The Chicago School
Classical and Rational Theories:
Crime as Choice
Cohen & Felson's Routine Activities
Hindelang, Gottfredson, & Garofalo's Lifestyle Theory
Walters & White's Cognitive Theory
Biological & Physiological Theories:
Born Criminals
Lombroso's Criminal Born Man and Woman
Sheldon's Somatotyping
XYZ Chromosome
Sociobiology
Eysenck's Differential Conditionality
Psychological & Psychiatric Theories:
The Criminal Mind
Social Learning Theories
Bandura's Modeling/Imitation
Criminological Theory on the Web
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/index.html (1
of 4) [10/1/2001 4:51:02 PM]

Sutherland's Differential Association
Glaser's Differential Identification
Jeffery's & Akers' Differential Reinforcement
Akers' Social Learning Theory
Psychoanalytic Theories
Freud's Pscychoanalytic Theory
Warren & Hindelang's Psychoanalytic Theory
Moral Development Theories
Kohlberg's Moral Development
Yochelson & Samenow's Criminal Personality Theory
Sociological Theories I:
Crime and Social Structure
Social Strain Theories
Social Disorganization
Durkheim's Anomie Theory
Merton's Strain Theory
Agnew's General Strain Theory
Subculture Theories
Overview of Subculture Theories
Sellin's Culture Conflict Theory
Cohen's Subculture of Delinquency
Cloward & Ohlin's Differential Opportunity
Miller's Lower-Class Focal Concerns
Shaw & McKay's High Delinquency Areas
Wolfgang & Ferracuti's Subculture of Violence

Sociological Theories II:
Crime and Social Process
Labeling Theories
Overview of Labeling Theories
of 4) [10/1/2001 4:51:02 PM]
Tannenbaum's Concept of Tagging
Lemert's Primary & Secondary Deviance
Becker's Developmental Career Model
Schur's Radical Non-Intervention
Social Control Theories
Overview of Social Control Theories
Reckless' Containment Theory
Hirschi's Social Bond Theory
Sykes & Matza's Techniques of Neutralization
Gottfredson & Hirschi's Low Self-Control Theory
Peacemaking Criminology Theories:
Overview of Peacemaking Theories
Braithwaite's Reintegrative Shaming
Radical, Feminist, & Conflict Theories:
Crime, Sex, Inequality & Power
Overview of Radical, Feminist, Conflict and Marxist Theories
Marxism and Crime
Quinney & The Social Reality of Crime

Turk's Conflict Theory
Greenberg's Adolescent Frustration
Adler's Liberation Theory
Simon's Opportunity Theory
Hagan's Power-Control Theory
Schwendinger's Instrumental Theory
Feminism & Crime
This page is designed and maintained by Diane M. DeMelo.
Questions or comments are encouraged. Also, please read the
disclaimer.
[email protected]
Last revised on November 14, 1999
of 4) [10/1/2001 4:51:02 PM]
This page continues to be a work in progress and will be under
construction
until all theories are made available. Be sure to check for
updates and changes.
of 4) [10/1/2001 4:51:02 PM]
Introduction to Criminological Theory

Defining Criminology
Criminology, according to Edwin H. Sutherland, one of the
modern founding scholars of American
criminology, is the body of knowledge which regards crime as a
social phenomenon. It includes the
processes of making laws, breaking laws, and the reacting
toward the breaking of laws. Together, these
three processes form a unifed sequence of events.
Criminologists have adopted methods of study from varying
social and behavioral sciences. Like other
scientists, criminologists measure and assess crime over time
and place. They also measure the
characteristics of criminals, crimes, and victims using various
methods.
Certain acts, regarded as "undesireable" by political society are
defined as such. Society reacts by
punishment, treatment, or prevention. These sequences of events
come together to comprise the object
matter of criminology.
Studying Theory
While many people are intimidated at their very first encounter
with theory, it is used almost on a daily
basis. You may be one who believes that theory is abstract and
has no fundamental basis in the real
world. However, whether you realize it or not, you use theory
almost all the time. We all make
assumptions and generalizations about certain things we are in
contact with daily; thus we theorize.
Theories are logical constructions that explain natural

phenomena. They are not in themselves always
directly observable, but can be supported or refuted by
empirical findings. Theory and empirical research
are connected by means of hypotheses, which are testable
propositions that are logically derived from
theories. The testable part is very important because scientific
hypotheses must be capable of being
accepted or rejected.
Understanding Theory
Theories can be simple or complex, it depends on how
relationships are made in formulating them.
Theory can be fun, depending on how it is applied. If you spend
the day in a shopping mall you can see
how much fun theory can be. So why study theory? The truth of
the matter is, we need theory in order to
function, in order to better understand the world around us. Life
would be pretty dull if we couldn't
generalize or make assumptions about people and things. Most
of our daily theories tend to be illogical
and are a product of our own selective observation. Often we
perceive what we want to perceive. Human
behavior tends to be very complex, almost abstract. Theories on
crime causation are complex, too. Most
theories introduced here are from research, both past and
present, on criminal behavior which reflects
both systematic observation and very careful logic. Theories not
only provide a framework for us to
interpret the meanings of observed patterns but they help us to
determine when these patterns are
meaningful and when they are not.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/intro.html (1

of 2) [10/1/2001 4:51:20 PM]
I've decided to include an interdisciplinary approach toward
studying criminological theory because we
need to gather as much as possible from other theoretical
interpretations in our overall understanding of
crime. While my interest is mainly sociological, I've decided to
include many biological and
psychologial based interpretations. While many such theories
are not in and of themselves specific to
crime causation many of them focus on specific types of
behavior which may be important to our overall
understanding and application of general knowledge of crime.
All theories featured here are equal in importance in our study
on crime. While it is true that some of
these theories do not answer the questions we want them to
answer, they are still important to our
understanding of such phenomena.
Let us remember one thing. Some theories define a certain type
of criminal behavior, whether it explains
juvenile deliquency (such as the many control and subculture
theories) or other criminality, it will be
indicated what the theory set out to explain. While crime in and
of itself is often regarded as a deviant
activity, not all deviant activities are defined as crime. For
example, people who suffer from mental
disorders may be labeled or viewed as "deviant" but mental
illness in and of itself is not criminal.
I have always been intrigued by social behavior, especially that
which is defined as deviant or criminal. It
is my hope that you enjoy theory as much as I do and seek to

better understand it in your own everyday
interaction.
Diane M. DeMelo
[email protected]
Criminological Theory
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/intro.html (2
of 2) [10/1/2001 4:51:20 PM]
Classical School
Classical criminology grew out of a reaction against the
barbaric system of law, justice and punishment
that was in existence before 1789. It sought an emphasis on free
will and human rationality. The
Classical School was not interested in studying criminals, but
rather law-making and legal processing.
Crime, they believed, was activity engaged in out of total free
will and that individuals weighed the
consequences of their actions. Punishment is made in order to
deter people from committing crime and it
should be greater than the pleasure of criminal gains. Classical
theory emphasized a legal definition of
crime rather than what defined criminal behavior. The
Declaration of Independence and the US
Constitution reflect the Classical movement, thus the law of
today is classical in nature.
Two famous writers during this classical period were Cesare
Beccaria (1738-1794) and Jeremy
Bentham (1748-1832), both led the movement to human rights

and free will. Becceria thought that crime
could be traced to bad laws, not to bad people. A new modern
criminal justice system would be needed
to guarantee equal treatment of all people before the law. His
famous book, On Crimes and
Punishment presented a new design for the criminal justice
system that served all people. His book
dubbed him the "father of modern criminology."
Bentham's concern was upon utilitarianism which assumed the
greatest happiness for the greatest
number. He believed that individuals weigh the probabilities of
present and future pleasures against those
of present and future pain. Thus people acted as human
calculators, he believed, and that they put all
factors into a sort of mathematical equation to decide whether
or not to commit an illegal act. He
believed then that punishment should be just a bit in excess of
the pleasures derived from an act and not
any higher than that. The law exists to create happiness for all,
thus since punishment creates
unhappiness it can be justified if it prevents greater evil than it
produces.
Classical School Positive School Chicago School
Classical School
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/classical.html
[10/1/2001 4:51:32 PM]
Positive School

Positivists, unlike the classical reformers, sought to explain the
world around them. They saw behavior as
determined by biological, psychological, and social traits. They
focused on a deterministic view of the
world, on criminal behavior instead of legal issues, and the
prevention of crime through the treatment (or
reformation) of offenders.
The use of scientific techniques was important to the positivists.
Data was collected in order to explain
different types of individuals and social phenomena. Naturalists
and anthropologists formed the theory of
evolution which was a very critical component to the study of
human criminal behavior by the
positivists. Humans were responsible for their own destinies.
The focus on positivism then is on systematic observations and
the accumulation of evidence and
objective fact within a deductive frame work, thus moving from
a general statement to a more specific
one.
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) replaced the notion of free will
and rationality with the notion of
determinism. Together with his followers, Enrico Ferri and
Raffaele Garofalo, he developed the positivist
school of criminology which sought explanations for criminal
behavior through scientific research and
experimentation. Lombroso believed in the "criminal born" man
and woman. He believed they had
physical features of ape like creatures that were not fully
developed as humans were. Lombroso
measured thousands of live and dead prisoners to prove his
theory. He noted that criminals lacked moral
sense, had an absence of remorse and used much slang.
Lombroso later added social and economic

factors to his list of crime causation but said they were second
in nature to biological, predetermined
factors. His theory however has been kept alive, not by
agreement but by much criticism.
Positive School
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/positive.html
[10/1/2001 4:51:37 PM]
Chicago School
The theme of the Chicago school focused upon human behavior
as determined by social and physical
environmental factors, rather than genetic, personal
characteristics. The school believed the community
to be a major factor on human behavior and that the city
functioned as a microcosm.
Researchers from this school developed empirical sociology,
that is, studying humans in their natural
environment rather than an armchair look at the social
environment. Chicago theorists combined data,
such as individual cases with population statistics which
constructed an important foundation that has
since been the basis for many criminological theories of today.
Members of this school focused upon the city of Chicago (hence
the name) as a source for many answers
to its probing questions. Many scholars of this time believed
that urbanization and mobility into the city

was a cause for many of the problems experienced at the time.
Crime was fostered mainly in the slums. Many unemployed
people, male, female, young and old, became
transients. A plethora of social problems emerged, ranging from
poor sanitation, inadequate housing,
juvenile gangs, vice, to name a few. People were no longer
closely-knit, nor were communities familiar.
Many had no one to turn to during these troubled times. Crime
was mainly fostered in the slum areas,
where many of the immigrants lived. People began to form their
own support groups and gangs, which
emphasized deviant values. All of this served as a laboratory for
the new sociologists at the University of
Chicago.
The school contributed two methods of study. The first was the
usage of official data, such as census
reports, housing/welfare records and crime figures. High areas
of crime, truancy and poverty were
applied to different geographical areas of the city. The second
method was the life history, as first
studied by early Chicago school theorist, W.I. Thomas. This
contributed a shift away from theoretical
abstracts to more concrete approaches of the real world and real
world related phenomena. The process
of becoming deviant or criminal was explained by psycho-social
phenomena. They wanted to present
human behavior in its natural environment, and this is why the
Chicago School is often referred to as the
Ecological School.
Further observations by researchers provided a clear analysis
that the city was a place where life is
superficial, where people are anonymous, where relationships
are transitory and friendship and family

bonds are weak. They saw the weakening of primary social
relationships as leading to a process of social
disorganization.
Chicago criminologists clearly saw pathology in the city which
led to criminality. Much of the research
conducted by Shaw and McKay illustrated this point. The
Chicago School clearly stressed humans as
social creatures and their behavior as a product of their social
environment. The social environment
provides values and definitions that govern behavior.
Urbanization and industrialization break down
older and more cohesive patterns of values, thus creating
communities with competing norms and value
systems. The breakdown of urban life results in basic
institutions such as the family, friendships and
other social groups to become so impersonal, almost
anonymous. As values became fragmented,
opposing definitions about proper behavior arise and come into
conflict with other behavior.
Chicago School
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/chicago.html
(1 of 2) [10/1/2001 4:51:42 PM]
Disorganization is more prevalent in the center of the urbanized
city, and decreases with distance. Thus,
crime developed through frequent contact with criminal
traditions, goals and values that have developed
over a period of time in disorganized areas of the city.

Chicago School
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/chicago.html
(2 of 2) [10/1/2001 4:51:42 PM]
Larry Cohen and Marcus Felson proposed their Routine
Activities theory in 1979. It remained very
popular in the 1980s. Their theory is closely linked with the
Rational Choice perspective in that it focuses
on the characteristics of crime rather than on the characteristics
of the offender. Cohen and Felson argue
that there will always be a vast supply of crime motivation and
that such motivation and supply of
offenders remains constant. They state that three crucial
components are necessary for a predatory
criminal act, that is, violent crimes against the person and
crimes which an offender attempts to stael a
direct object. These three elements include motivated offenders,
suitable targets, (something worth
taking), and the absence of capable guardians, in order to
prevent would be criminal acts. If one such
component is missing, crime is not likely to occur. If all three
elements are present, then the chances for
crime increase.
Cohen and Felson argue that the rate in which crime rises is
equal to the number of suitable targets and
the absence of individuals to protect those targets. The routine
patterns of work, play, and leisure affect
the convergence in time and place of the would be offenders,
suitable targets, and absence of guardians,

they argue. The number of caretakers, acting as guardians, who
are at home during the day has decreased
because of an increase participation of women into the work
force. Homes are often left unguarded while
both parents are at work and children are either in day care or at
school. Also, the growth of suburban
living and the decling rate of traditional neighborhoods has
decreased the number of familiar guardians,
such as family, neighbors, or friends. Finally, the baby boom
generation coming of age during the years
1960 to 1980 resulted in an excess number of motivated
offenders.
Routine Activities states that criminal offenses are related to
the nature of everyday patterns of social
interaction. Cohen and Felson used their approach to explain the
rise in crime between the years 1960 to
1980. They were concerned with the changes occuring in
society, which they believed led to social
disorganization, which further led to crime opportunity. Their
perspective shows that crime is not soley
related to biological and psychological characteristics, nor to
social or economic conditions, but that it is
just as important to concentrate on situational factors which
give rise to criminal opportunity. Routine
Activities approach is important to crime prevention and to the
changing of conditions and circumstances
in which crime is committed.
One measure of situational crime prevention is target hardening.
Target hardening makes it more difficult
for offenders to carry out crimes on specific targets. The use of
locked doors, windows, alarm systems,
watch dogs, and community crime watch programs are all
examples of target hardening--making it
harder to become a victim of crime.

Criminological Theory Main Page.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/routine.html
[10/1/2001 4:51:47 PM]
The growth of cultural relativity, that is, the view that cultures
are not better or worse than one another,
but simply different, in sociology led to a questioning of the
existence of a universal set of values. The
pronounced social changes following World War I and the Great
Depression, included immigration,
urbanization, and industrialization into the U.S. The crowding
of large cities and the cultural diversity
within them led to a huge urban development, which was
conducive to deviance. An explanation was
needed to sort out and understand this new phenomena. The
concept of Social Disorganization is largely
associated with the "Chicago School" of sociology and was
based on the work of W.I. Thomas and
Florian Znaniecki as well as Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay,
to name a few. Thus, the term social
disorganization refers to both an explanation of deviance and a
state of society that produces it. It was the
result of intellectual development that had taken place since
1910 in Sociology. It rooted its explanation
of deviance in social norms and community activities.
Crime was seen as a product of uneven development in society,
with change and conflict which affects

the behavior of those within it. This theory emphasized that
society was organized when people are
presumed to have developed agreement about fundamental
values and norms, with behavioral regularity.
Social organization, or social order, exists when there is a high
degree of internal bonding to individuals
and institutions in a conventional society. This cohesion
consists largely of agreement about goals that
are worth striving for and how to behave and how to not behave.
Simply put, social disorganization is
social disorder.
It was believed that social organization involved an integration
of customs, teamwork, high morale, and
bonding. This led to harmonious social relationships. Such a
group showed solidarity and homogeneous
and traditional behavior. Social disorganization theorists
believe social disorganization existed in much
of city life. They made such a relationship almost unmistakable.
They used the city as their laboratory in
which they studied deviance and crime. They concentrated their
research on disorganized local areas,
slums or inner-city areas of high crime, prostitution, suicide and
other deviant forms of behavior. Thus,
in their theoretical framework, social patterns of the urban
environment produced social disorganization,
which led to crime and deviance.
Thomas and Znaniecki compared the conditions immigrants had
left in Poland with those they found in
Chicago. They also studied the assimilation of Polish
immigrants. They found that older immigrants were
not very much affected by the move, due to managing to
continue living as peasants, even in the urban
slums. The younger generation did not grow up on these Polish
farms and thus were city dwellers. They

had very little traditions of the Old World and were not
assimilated into the new ones. The rates of crime
and delinquency started to rise and Thomas and Znaniecki
attributed this to social disorganization, which
they defined as the breakdown of effective social bonds, family
and neighborhood associations, as well
as social controls in the community. Their study influenced
others to come.
Robert Park and Ernest Burgess introduced an ecological
analysis of crime causation. Ecology is the
study of animals and plants and how they relate to one another
in their natural habitat. Park and Burgess
then examined area characteristics instead of criminals for their
explanations of high crime. They
developed the idea of natural urban areas, which consisted of
concentric zones which extended out from
downtown central business district to the commuter zone at the
fringes of the city. Each zone had its own
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/disorg.html (1
of 2) [10/1/2001 4:51:56 PM]
structure and organization, characteristics and unique
inhabitants. This had been known Burgess'
Concentric Zone Theory.
Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay were researchers at the
Chicago's Institute for Juvenile Research and
maintained a close relationship with Chicago's Sociology
department. They were interested in Park and
Burgess's conception of the "natural urban area" of Chicago and

used this model to investigate the
relationship between crime rates--mainly delinquency--and the
various zones of Chicago. They found
that the crime rate was distributed throughout the city,
delinquency occurred in the areas nearest to the
business district, that some areas suffered from high consistent
delinquency rates no matter the makeup
of the population, that high delinquency areas were
characterized by a high percentage of immigrants,
non-whites, lower income famines, and finally, and that high-
delinquency areas had an acceptance of
nonconventional norms, which competed with conventional
ones. They collected their data from over
56,000 juvenile court records with covered a period of time
from 1900-1933.
However, there were problems with the concept of social
disorganization and these problems are what
contributed to its decline. First, it confused cause and effect.
That is, it described community factors
related to crime and deviance, but it must be able to distinguish
the consequences of crime from
disorganization itself; it didn't. Many early social
disorganization theorists were not careful in clarifying
the concept of disorganization. Second, social disorganization
was rather subjective and judgmental, all
the while pretending to be objective. Observers failed to free
themselves from biases and placed their
own value judgments on behaviors. Third, it tried to explain
crime as an almost entirely lower-class
phenomena, and in no way included middle and upper-class
deviance and crime rates. Thus, it was
biased, in that it favored middle-class standards. Those in the
lower strata were assumed to have higher
levels of crime rates because their members lived in the most
socially disorganized areas of the city.

Fourth, social change was often confused with social
disorganization, and little attention was paid to
explain why some social changes were disorganized and why
others were organized. Finally, what is
disorganized? At some times, things may seem like
disorganization but at other times, they may be
highly organized systems of competing norms and values. The
concept produces a bit of ambiguity.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/disorg.html (2
of 2) [10/1/2001 4:51:56 PM]
Durkheim's Anomie
Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist, introduced the concept
of anomie in his book The Division of
Labor in Society, published in 1893. He used anomie to describe
a condition of deregulation that was
occuring in society. This meant that rules on how people ought
to behave with each other were breaking
down and thus people did not know what to expect from one
another. Anomie, simply defined, is a state
where norms (expectations on behaviors) are confused, unclear
or not present. It is normlessness,
Durkheim felt, that led to deviant behavior. In 1897, Durkheim
used the term again in his study on
Suicide, referring to a morally deregulated condition. Durkheim
was preoccupied with the effects of
social change. He best illustrated his concept of anomie not in a
discussion of crime but of suicide.

In The Division of Labor in Society, Durkheim proposed two
concepts. First, that societies evolved from
a simple, nonspecialized form, called mechanical, toward a
highly complex, specialized form, called
organic. In the former society people behave and think alike and
more or less perfom the same work
tasks and have the same group-oriented goals. When societies
become more complex, or organic, work
also becomes more complex. In this society, people are no
longer tied to one another and social bonds are
impersonal.
Anomie thus refers to a breakdown of social norms and it a
condition where norms no longer control the
activities of members in society. Individuals cannot find their
place in society without clear rules to help
guide them. Changing conditions as well as adjustment of life
leads to dissatisfaction, conflict, and
deviance. He observed that social periods of disruption
(economic depression, for instance) brought
about greater anomie and higher rates of crime, suicide, and
deviance.
Durkheim felt that sudden change caused a state of anomie. The
system breaks down, either during a
great prosperity or a great depression, anomie is the same
result.
Durkheim's Anomie
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/anomie.html
[10/1/2001 4:52:04 PM]

Robert K. Merton, an American sociologist, borrowed
Durkheim's concept of anomie to form his own
theory, called Strain Theory. It differs somewhat from
Durkheim's in that Merton argued that the real
problem is not created by a sudden social change, as Durkheim
proposed, but rather by a social structure
that holds out the same goals to all its members without giving
them equal means to achieve them. It is
this lack of integration between what the culture calls for and
what the structure permits that causes
deviant behavior. Deviance then is a symptom of the social
structure. Merton borrowed Durkheim's
notion of anomie to describe the breakdown of the normative
system.
Merton's theory does not focus upon crime persay, but rather
upon various acts of deviance, which may
be understood to lead to criminal behavior. Merton notes that
there are certain goals which are strongly
emphasized by society. Society emphasizes certain means to
reach those goals (such as education, hard
work, etc.,) However, not everyone has the equal access to the
legitimate means to attain those goals. The
stage then is set for anomie/strain.
Merton presents five modes of adapting to strain caused by the
restricted access to socially approved
goals and means. He did not mean that everyone who was
denied access to society's goals became
deviant. Rather the response, or modes of adaptation, depend on
the individual's attitudes toward cultural
goals and the institutional means to attain them. The conformist

is the most common mode of adaptation.
Such individuals accept both the goals as well as the prescribed
means for achieving the goal.
Conformists will accept, though not always achieve, the goals
of society and the means approved for
achieving them. Innovators accept societal goals but have few
legitimate means to achieve those goals,
thus they innovate (design) their own means to get ahead. The
means to get ahead may be through
robbery, embezzlement or other such criminal acts. Ritualists,
the third adaptation, abandon the goals
they once believed to be within their reach and thus dedicate
themselves to their current lifestyle. They
play by the rules and have a daily, safe routine. Retreatists, the
fourth fifth adaptation is given to those
who give up not only the goals but also the means. They often
retreat into the world of alcoholism and
drug addiction. These individuals escape into a nonproductive,
nonstriving lifestyle. The final adaptation,
that of rebel, occurs when the cultural goals and the legitimate
means are rejected. Individuals create
their own goals and their own means, by protest or
revolutionary activity.
Adaptation Means -- Goal
Conformist Accepts -- Accepts
Innovator Rejects -- Accepts
Ritualist Accepts -- Rejects
Retreatist Rejects -- Rejects
Rebel Revolts/Creates New

http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/mert_strain.ht
ml [10/1/2001 4:52:15 PM]
In the mid 70s, strain theory came under heavy attack after
having dominated deviance research in the
decade of the 60s, prompting that it become abandoned.
However, since that time, strain theory has
survived such attacks, but has left behind a diminished
influence. In 1992, Robert Agnew proposed a
general strain theory that focuses on at least three measures of
strain. He argues that actual or anticipated
failure to achieve postively valued goals, actual or anticipated
removel of positively valued stimuli, and
actual or anticipated presentation of negative stimuli all result
in strain.
Agnew's strain theory focuses primarily on negative
relationships with others, in that a person is not
treated in a way that he or she expects or wants to be treated.
He argues that people are pressured into
criminal or deviant acts by negative affective states, such as
anger, which results in negative
relationships. Such a negative affect leads to pressure which
then leads to illegitimate ways to attain a
goal. Other strain theories explain strain in a way that
relationships with others prevent one from
reaching positively valued goals. They focus primarily on goal
blockage, that which is often experienced

by the middle or lower classes.
Agnew argues that strain theory is central in explaining crime
and deviance, but that it needs more
revision to play such a central role in sociology. His theory is
written at a social-psychological level so
that it focuses on an individual's immediate social environment.
Much of the theory is focused toward
adolescent criminality--delinquency, because so much of the
data available for testing involves surveys
of adolescents. He argues that his theory is capable of
overcoming empirical and theoretical criticisms
associated with previous versions of strain theory.
Agnew suggests that criminologists pay special attention to the
magnitude, recency, duration, and
clustering of such strainful events. He spells out that several
cognitive, emotional, and behavioral
adaptions to strain receive little or not attention. He proposes a
series of factors that determine whether a
person will cope with strain in a criminal or conforming
manner, including temperament, intelligence,
interpersonal skills, self-efficacy, association with criminal
peers, and conventional social support.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/gen_strain.ht
ml [10/1/2001 4:52:24 PM]

In criminology, subcultures theories emerged as a way to
account for delinquency rates among
lower-class males, of these the infamous teenage gang.
Subculture theories believe that the delinquent
subcultures emerged in response to the special problems that the
members of mainstream society do not
face.
The strain theorists explained crime as a result of frustrations
suffered by lower-class individuals
deprived of legitimate means to reach their goals. Cultural
deviance theories assumed that people became
deviant by learning the criminal values of the group to which
they belonged to. This laid down the
foundation for subculture theories during the 1950s.
A subculture is defined as a subdivision within the dominant
culture that has its own norms, values and
belief system. These subcultures emerge when individuals in
similar circumstances find themselves
virtually isolated or neglected by mainstream society. Thus they
group together for mutual support.
Subcultures exist within the larger society, not apart from it.
The members of the subculture are different
from the dominant culture.
The subculture theories we will look at are extensions of strain,
social disorganization and differential
association theories. Subculture theories help to explain why
subcultures emerge (extension of strain),
why they take a particular shape (extension of social
disorganization), and why they continue from one
generation to another (extension of differential association).
For instance, Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti's
Subculture of Violence thesis argues that the

value system of some subcultures not only demands but also
expects violence in certain social situations.
It is this norm which affects daily behavior that is in conflict
with the conventional society. Here we will
explain the subculture theories proposed by Albert Cohen,
(Subculture of Delinquency), Richard
Cloward & Lloyd Ohlin (Differential Opportunity), Walter
Miller (Lower-Class Focal Concerns) and
Marvin Wolfgang & Franco Ferracuti (Subculture of Violence).
To better understand and appreciate subculture theories one
must first probe into the historical time
period of the 1950s. The values of the middle class were
dominant and anything else was not considered
normal.
Peaking urbanization produced more and more deteriorated
cities in America. The suburbs of the middle
class were emerging. Delinquency was mainly perceived as a
problem of the lower class. The middle
class "we-they" separation led to seeing itself as the far superior
class.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/subculture.ht
ml [10/1/2001 4:52:33 PM]
Cohen's Subculture of Delinquency
Theory
In 1955 Albert K. Cohen wrote Delinquent Boys. He attempted

to look at how such a subculture began.
Cohen found that delinquency among youths was more prevalent
among lower class males and the most
common form of this was the juvenile gang. Cohen, a student of
Sutherland and Merton, learned from
Sutherland that differential association and cultural
transmission of criminal norms led to criminal
behavior, while Merton taught him about structurally induced
strain.
Delinquent subcultures, according to Cohen, have values that
are in opposition to those of the dominant
culture. These subcultures emerge in the slums of some of the
nation's largest cities. Often, they are
rooted in class differentials, parental aspirations and school
standards. Cohen notes that the position of
one's family in the social structure determines the problems the
child will later face in life. Thus, they
will experience status frustration and strain and adapt into
either a corner boy, college boy, or a
delinquent boy.
Corner boys lead a conventional lifestyle, making the best of a
bad situation. They spend most of their
time with peers and receive peer support in group activities.
These boys are far and few between. Their
chances for success are limited. Cohen argues that their
academic and social handicaps prevent them
from living up to middle-class standards.
Delinquent boys, on the other hand, band together to define
status. Their delinquent acts serve no real
purpose. They often discard or destroy what they have stolen.
Their acts are random and are directed at
people and property. They are a short-run hedonistic subculture
with no planning. They often act on

impulse, often without consideration for the future. Members
are loyal to one another and allow no one
to restrain their behavior.
Stealing, in the delinquent gang, serves as a form of achieving
peer status within the group, with no other
motive. Cohen declared that all children seek social status, but
not everyone can compete for it in the
same way. Reaction-formation, a Freudian defense mechanism,
serves to overcome anxiety, as a hostile
overreaction to middle class values can occur. A delinquent
subculture is created to resolve problems of
lower-class status.
Much of Cohen's work has been both praised and criticized. It
helps to answer questions that remain
unresolved by strain and cultural deviance theories. His notion
of status deprivation and the middle-class
measuring rod has been very useful to researchers. His theory,
however, fails to explain why some
delinquent subcultures eventually become law-abiding, even
when this social class position is fixed.
Later, he expanded his theory to include not only lower-class
delinquents but also variants of
middle-class delinquents and female delinquent subcultures.
Cohen's theory stimulated later formations
of new theories.
Cohen's Subculture of Delinquency Theory
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/cohen.html
[10/1/2001 4:52:39 PM]

Cloward & Ohlin's
Differential Opportunity Theory
In 1959, Richard Cloward noted that Merton's anomie theory
specified only one structure of opportunity.
He, however, argued for two and not one. He thus proposed that
there are also illegitimate avenues of
structure, in addition to legitimate ones. In 1960 he and Lloyd
Ohlin worked together and proposed a
theory of delinquent gngs known as Differential Opportunity
Theory. This theory, like Cohen's theory,
combines the strain, differential association as well as the social
disorganization perspectives.
Delinquent subcultures, according to Cloward and Ohlin,
flourish in the lower-classes and take particular
forms so that the means for illegitimate success are no more
equally distributed than the means for
legitimate success.
They argue that the types of criminal subcultures that flourish
depend on the area in which they develop.
They propose three types of delinquent gangs. The first, the
criminal gang, emerge in areas where
conventional as well as non conventional values of behavior are
integrated by a close connection of
illegitimate and legitimate businesses. This type of gang is
stable than the ones to follow. Older criminals
serve as role models and they teach necessary criminal skills to
the youngsters. The second type, the
conflict or violent gang, is non stable and non integrated, where
there is an absence of criminal
organization resulting in instability. This gang aims to find a
reputation for toughness and destructive
violence. The third and final type, the retreatist gang, is equally

unsuccessful in legitimate as well as
illegitimate means. They are known as double failures, thus
retreating into a world of sex, drugs, and
alcohol. Cloward and Ohlin further state that the varying form
of delinquent subcultures depended upon
the degree of integration that was present in the community.
Cloward & Ohlin's Differential Opportunity Theory
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/diff_opp.html
[10/1/2001 4:52:53 PM]
Walter Miller didn't see juvenile delinquency as being rooted in
the rejection of the middle-class value
system, as did other subculture theorists, but in the value
system of the lower class. It is this value system
that generates delinquent acts. This value system emerged as a
response to living in the slums.
Miller was an anthropologist who was familiar with
enthnography. Having closely studied the lower
class areas in Boston, in 1955, he came up with his own
conclusions, and thus his Lower-Class Focal
Concerns theory. He saw society as composed of different social
groups. Each group had its own
subculture. He used the concept of focal concerns, and not
value, to further describe things that were
important to the subculture. These "focal concerns" are
important aspects in the subculture and require
constant attention and care.

Miller identified six focal concerns to which the lower class
give attention to. The concern over trouble is
a major feature of the lower class. Getting into trobule and
staying out of trouble are very important daily
preoccupations. Trouble can either mean prestige or landing in
jail. Toughness, another concern, further
represents a commitment to law-violation and being a problem
to others. Machismo and being daring is
stressed. The third focal concern is that of smartness. It is the
ability to gain something by outsmarting or
conning another. Prestige is often the reward for those
demonstrating such skills. Another focal concern
is excitement. Living on the edge for thrills and doing
dangerous things as well as taking risks is a crucial
concern. Another focal concern is that of fate. It is a crucial
concern to the lower class. many believe that
their lives are subject to forces outside of their control. The last
focal concern focuses upon automony.
This signifies being independant, not relying on others and
rejecting authority.
Miller further observed that an absence of a father in a young
boy's life posed a problem for learning
appropriate male behavior. This served as a device for gangs to
accomodate the problem faced by young
males who had no presence of a father figure. Miller's theory
has however received mixed reviews. Many
say that he disregarded the fact that many lower class people
actually do conform to societal norms.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/miller.html

[10/1/2001 4:53:01 PM]
A group of labeling theorists began exploring how and why
certain acts were defined as criminal or
deviant and why other such acts were not. They questioned how
and why certain people thus became
defined as criminal or deviant. Such theorists viewed crimnals
not as evil persons who engaged in wrong
acts but as individuals who had a criminal status placed upon
them by both the criminal justice system
and the community at large. From this point of view, criminal
acts thus themselves are not significant, it
is the social reaction to them that are. Deviance and its control
then involves a process of social
definition which involves the response from others to an
individual's behavior which is key to how an
individual views himself. To make this point, let's briefly
examine a crucial point made by sociologist
Howard S. Becker, in 1963.
"Deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but
rather a consequence
of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an
offender. The deviant is
one to whom that label has successfully been applied; deviant
behavior is behavior
that people so label."
Labeling theory focuses on the reaction of other people and the

subsequent effects of those reactions
which create deviance. When it becomes known that a person
has engaged in deviant acts, she or he is
then segregated from society and thus labeled, "whore," theif,"
"abuser," "junkie," and the like. Becker
noted that this process of segregation creates "outsiders", who
are outcast from society, and then begin to
associate with other individuals who have also been cast out.
When more and more people begin to think
of these individuals as deviants, they respond to them as such;
thus the deviant reacts to such a response
by continuing to engage in the behavior society now expects
from them.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/labeling.html
[10/1/2001 4:53:13 PM]
Howard Becker’s Developmental Career
Model
Howard Becker’s developmental career model is a social-
process approach. Becker argues that deviance
exists in the eye of the beholder, much like beauty. He stresses
that no act is intrinsically deviant, but
must be defined as such. Becker’s notion of a developmental
process is that it precedes the attainment of
a deviant identity or career. He uses the process of becoming a
marijuana user as an unfolding sequence
of steps that lead one to a commitment and participation in a
deviant career. He argues that such an

identity occurs over time, having both a historical and
longitudinal course. In his example, for instance,
the person must have access to the drug; must experiment with
the drug; the person must continue to use
the drug. Each of these steps involves some subtle changes in
the person’s attitude and perspective, as
well as their behavior, he argues. “The circumstances that
determine movement along a particular path
includes properties of both the person and of the situation,” he
states.
Howard Becker’s Developmental Career Model
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/becker.html
[10/1/2001 4:53:25 PM]
Theories of social control focus on the strategies and techniques
which help regulate human behavior and
thus lead to conformity and compliance of the rules of society,
including the influences of family, school,
morals, values, beliefs, etc.,
Does existence of rules guarantee peaceful existence of the
group? Who is to ensure compliance with
such rules? Social control theorists are out to study such
questions. They are interested in learning why
people conform to norms, they ask why people conform in the
face of so much temptation, peer pressure,
and inducement. Juveniles and adults conform to the law in
response to certain controlling forces which

are present in their lives. Thus, they are likely to become
criminal when the controlling forces in their
lives are defective or absent.
Social control theorists argue that the more involved and
committed a person is to conventional activities,
the greater the attachment to others (such as family and
friends), the less likely that a person is to violate
the rules of society.
Social control has its roots in the early part of this century in
the work of sociologist E.A. Ross. Ross
believed that belief systems, not specific laws, guide what
individuals do and this serves to control
behavior, no matter the forms that beliefs may take.
Social control is often seen as all-encompassing, practically
representing any phenomenon leading to
conformity, which leads to norms. Others see social control as a
broad representation of regulated
mechanisms placed upon society's members. In other words,
social control regards what is to be
considered deviant, violations of the law, right or wrong. Social
control mechanisms can be adopted as
laws, norms, mores, ethics, etiquette, and customs, which all
control and thus define behavior.
Social control theory is viewed from two perspectives. The
macrosocial perspective explores formal
control systems for the control of groups, including the legal
system such as laws, law enforcement,
powerful groups in society (who can help influence laws and
norms) and economic and social directives
of government or private organizations. Such controls can serve
to be either positive or negative.

On the other hand, the microsocial perspective focuses on
informal control systems, which help to
explain why individuals conform. It also considers the source of
control to be external, that is, outside of
the person.
We will focus on microsocial views of social control while
examining the theories of Travis Hirshi
(Social Bonds) and Gresham Sykes and David Matza's
Techniques of Neutralization (Drift Theory).
Walter Reckless' Containment Theory is also included here are a
theory of social control, although we
can also consider it a self-concept approach.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/s_control.html
[10/1/2001 4:53:36 PM]
Walter Reckless' Containment Theory
In 1961 sociologist Walter C. Reckless proposed Containment
Theory, which explains delinquency as
the interplay between two forms of control known as inner
(internal) and outer (external) containments.
Containment theory assumes that for every individual a
containing external structure as well as a
protective internal structure exist. Both buffer, protect, and
insulate an individual against delinquency.
Reckless wanted his theory to explain not only delinquency, but
also conformity.

Containment theory shows that society produces a series of
pulls and pushes toward the phenomenon of
delinquency. It suggests that these inner and outer containments
help to buffer against one's potential
deviation from legal and social norms and work to insulate a
youth from the pressures, pulls, and pushes
of deviant influences.
Of the two, Reckless suggested that inner containments are
more important. It is these inner
containments, he argued, that form one's support system. The
stronger one's inner containments, the least
likely one would commit crime; the weaker one's inner
containments, the more prone to crime one would
become.
Inner containments, simply put, are "self" components. They are
the inner strength of one's personality.
These include a good self-concept, strong ego, well developed
conscience, high sense of responsibility,
and high frustration tolerance. Outer containments refer to one's
social environment. These are normative
constraints in which society and groups use to control its
members. Outer containments include
belonging (identification with the group), effective supervision,
cohesion among group members
(togetherness), opportunities for achievement, reasonable limits
and responsibilities, alternative ways and
means of satisfaction (if one more more ways are closed),
reinforcement of goals, norms values, and
discipline.
Internal pushes are personal factors which include restlessness,
discontent, rebellion, anxiety, and
hostility. External pulls include deviant peers, membership in a
deviant/criminal gang, and pornography.

Finally, external pressures refer to the adverse living conditions
which give rise to crime. These include
relative deprivation, poverty, unemployment, insecurity, and
inequality.
Walter Reckless' Containment Theory
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/containment.h
tml [10/1/2001 4:53:51 PM]
Travis Hirschi's Social Bond Theory
Travis Hirschi took his theory to a different approach. He didn't
attempt to explain why individuals
engage in criminal acts, but rather why individuals choose to
conform to conventional norms. It is, in a
strict sense, not a theory of crime causation, but rather a theory
of prosocial behavior used so often by
sociologists and criminologists to better explain deviance and
criminality.
In 1969 Travis Hirschi presented four social bonds which
promote socialization and conformity. These
include attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. He
claimed that the stronger these four bonds,
the least likely one would become delinquent. Hirschi first
assumes that everyone has potential to
become delinquent and criminal and it is social controls, not
moral values, that maintain law and order.
Without controls, he argues, one is free to commit criminal acts.
Hirschi further assumes that a consistent value system exists

and all of society is thus exposed to such a
system. Moral codes are then defied by delinquents because
their attachment to society is weak. While
Sykes and Matza believe that delinquents share the same values
and attitudes as non delinquents, Hirschi
views delinquents as rejecting such social norms and beliefs.
The first bond, attachment, refers to one's interest in others.
One's acceptance of social norms and the
development of social conscious depend on attachment for other
human beings. Hirschi views parents,
schools, and peers as important social institutions for a person.
Attachment takes three forms--attachment
to parents, to school, and to peers. While examining attachment
to parents Hirschi found that juveniles
refrain from delinquency due to the consequences that the act
would most likely produce, therefore
putting such a relationship between parent and child in
jeopardy. In some respect, can argue that this acts
as a primary deterrent to engaging in delinquency. Strength,
however, in such a deterrent would largely
depend on the depth and quality of the parent-child interaction.
The amount of time child and parent
spend together are equally important, including intimacy in
conversation and identification that may exist
between parent and child. While examining the bond with
school, Hirschi found that an inability to do
well in school is linked with delinquency, through a series of
chain events. He argued that academic
incompetence leads to poor school performance, which leads to
a dislike of school, which leads to
rejection of teachers and authority, which results in acts of
delinquency. He argued that one's attachment
to school depends on how one appreciates the institution and
how he/she is received by fellow peers and
teachers. Hirschi also noted that he found that one's attachment

to parents and school overshadows the
bond formed with one's peers.
The second bond is that of commitment and it involves time,
energy, and effort placed on conventional
lines of action. In other words, the support of and equal
partaking in social activities tie an individual to
the moral and ethical code of society. Hirschi's control theory
holds that people who build an investment
in life, property, and reputation are less likely to engage in
criminal acts which will jeopardize their
social position. A lack of commitment to such conventional
values will cause an individual to partake in
delinquent or criminal acts.
The third bond is involvement. This addresses a preoccupation
in activites which stress the conventional
interests of society. Hirschi argues that an individual's heavy
involvement in conventional activities
doesn't leave time to engage in delinquent or criminal acts. He
believes that involvement in school,
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/hirschi.html
(1 of 2) [10/1/2001 4:54:02 PM]
family, recreation, etc., insulates a juvenile from potential
delinquent behavior that may be a result of
idleness.
The final bond is that of belief and it deals with assents to
society's value system--which entails respect
for laws, and the people and institutions which enforce such

laws. Hirschi argued that people who live in
common social settings share similar human values. If such
beliefs are weakened, or absent, one is more
likely to engage in antisocial acts. Also, if people believe that
laws are unfair, this bond to society
weakens and the likelihood of committing delinquent acts rises.
Even with its weaknesses, Hirschi's theory held a position of
importance in criminology for several
decades. More than anything, social control theorists want to
explain delinquency, not adult crime
persay. However, since the characteristics of the theory are
found present in adolsecents, they are also
present in postadolescent behavior, argues one critic. Hirschi's
theory remains silent on this analysis.
Many other critics have faulted Hirschi's work because he used
too few questionnaire items to measure
social bonds. He failed to describe the chain of events that
result in inadequate social bonds. There was
also a creation of an artifical division of socialized verses
unsocialized youths. Finally, Hirschi's theory
explains no more than 50 percent of delinquent behavior and
only a 1-2 percent difference in future
delinquency, while it is supposed to explain why delinquency
occurs.
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/hirschi.html
(2 of 2) [10/1/2001 4:54:02 PM]
Sykes and Matza's

Techniques of Neutralization
In the 1960s David Matza, and his associate Gresham Sykes,
developed a different perspective on social
control which explains why some delinquents drift in and out of
delinquency. Neutralization Theory, or
Drift theory as it is often called, proposed that juveniles sense a
moral obligation to be bound by the law.
Such a bind between a person and the law remains in place most
of the time, they argue. When it is not in
place, delinquents will drift.
According to Sykes and Matza, delinquents hold values, beliefs,
and attitudes very similar to those of
law-abiding citizens. In fact, they feel obligated to be bound by
law. Then, if bound by law, how can they
justify their delinquent activities? The answer is that they learn
"techniques" which enable them to
"neutralize" such values and attitudes temporarily and thus drift
back and forth between legitimate and
illegitimate behaviors. They maintain that at times delinquents
participate in conventional activities and
shun such activity while engaging in criminal acts. Such a
theory proposes that delinquents disregard
controlling influences of rules and values and use these
techniques of neutralization to "weaken" the hold
society places over them. In other words, these techniques act
as defense mechanisms that release the
delinquent from the constraints associated with moral order.
In Delinquency and Drift (1964), David Matza suggested that
people live their lives on a continuum
somewhere between total freedom and total restraint. The
process by which a person moves from one
extreme of behavior to another extreme is called drift, and this
is the very foundation of his theory.

Along with Sykes, Matza rejected the notion that subcultures of
delinquency maintain an independent set
of values than the dominant culture. They hold that delinquents
actually do appreciate culturally held
goals and expectations of the middle-class, but feel that
engaging in such behavior would be frowned
upon by their peers. Such beliefs remain almost unconscious, or
subterranean, because delinquents fear
expressing such beliefs to peers.
Techniques of Neutralization suggest that delinquents develop a
special set of justifications for their
behavior when such behavior violates social norms. Such
techniques allow delinquents to neutralize and
temporarily suspend their commitment to societal values,
providing them with the freedom to commit
delinquent acts.
Sykes and Matza's theoretical model is based on the following
four observations.
1. Delinquents express guilt over their illegal acts.
2. Delinquents frequently respect and admire honest, law-
abiding individuals.
3. A line is drawn between those whom they can victimize and
those they cannot.
4. Delinquents are not immune to the demands of conformity.
Thus, Sykes and Matza propose the five Techniques of
Neutralization.
Denial of responsibility. Delinquent will propose that he/she is

a victim of circumstance and that
he/she is pushed or pulled into situations beyond his/her
control. ("It wasn't my fault!")
Sykes and Matza's Techniques of Neutralization (Drift Theory)
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/sykes_matza.h
tml (1 of 2) [10/1/2001 4:54:19 PM]
Denial of injury. Delinquent supposes that his/her acts really do
not cause any harm, or that the
victim can afford the loss or damage. ("Why is everyone making
a big deal about it; they have money!")
Denial of the victim. Delinquent views the act as not being
wrong, that the victim deserves the
injury, or that there is no real victim. ("They had it coming to
them!")
Condemnation of the condemners. Condemners are seen as
hypocrites, or are reacting out of
personal spite, thus they shift the blame to others, being able to
repress the feeling that their acts are
wrong. ("They probably did worse things in their day!")
Appeal to higher loyalties. The rules of society often take a
back seat to the demands and loyalty to
important others. ("My friends depended on me, what was I
going to do?!")
Sykes and Matza further argued that these neutralizations are
available not just to delinquents but they
can be found throughout society.

Attempts have been made over the years to verify the
assumptions made by Neutralization Theory, and
the results have, thus far, been inconclusive. Studies have
indicated that delinquents approve of social
values, while others do not. Other studies indicate that
delinquents approve of criminal behavior, while
others seem to oppose it. Neutralization Theory, however,
remains an important contribution to the field
of crime and delinquency. Social bond theorist, Travis Hirschi,
asked an important question: do
delinquents neutralize law-violating behavior before or after
they commit an act? Neutralization theory
loses its credibility as a theory which explains the cause of
delinquency if juveniles use techniques of
neutralization before the commission of a delinquent deed and
therefore becomes a theory which simply
describes reactions that juveniles incur due to their misdeeds.
The theory does fail on the account that it
doesn't clearly distinguish why some youths drift into
delinquency and others do not. The theory remains
too abstract and vauge to be of any practical use unless we
understand why drift occurs, critics have
argued.
Sykes and Matza's Techniques of Neutralization (Drift Theory)
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dianedemelo/crime/sykes_matza.h
tml (2 of 2) [10/1/2001 4:54:19 PM]
mediaone.netCriminological Theory on the WebIntroduction to
Criminological Theory Classical SchoolPositive SchoolChicago
SchoolCohen & Felson's Routine ActivitiesSocial
DisorganizationDurkheim's AnomieMerton's Strain
TheoryAgnew's General Strain TheoryOverview of Subculture
TheoriesCohen's Subculture of Delinquency TheoryCloward &

Ohlin's Differential Opportunity TheoryMiller's Lower-Class
Focal ConcernsOverview of Labeling TheoriesHoward Becker’s
Developmental Career ModelOverview of Social Control
TheoriesWalter Reckless' Containment TheoryTravis Hirschi's
Social Bond TheorySykes and Matza's Techniques of
Neutralization (Drift Theory)
1/26/2018 Theories of Crime
http://www.sheldensays.com/theories_of_crime1.htm 1/16
Theories of Crime and Delinquency (chapters 6-7)
Two Major Types of Theories of Crime
• Kinds of people theories
– “What makes a person turn to crime" or "why did Billy
kill his mother"
– Involves motives, situational factors, subjective feelings,
etc.
• Kinds of environment theories
– “Why is crime higher in the inner cities?" or “Why does
the US have a much higher rate of crime
than other nations?” or “Why is the highest rate of violence in
the Southern states?”
– Explaining rates more often takes into consideration
factors external to the individual actor
• These two types focus, in other words, on the question of

individual motivation and crime rates,
respectively
• The key point here is that we develop theories in order to
explain something; we are not excusing it
Classical School of Criminology
• The classical school of thought about crime and criminal
justice emerged during the late eighteenth century
with the work of an Italian named Cesare Beccaria and an
Englishman named Jeremy Bentham.
• Classical thinking derives its core ideas from a period
known as the Enlightenment, first emerging in
France during the early eighteenth century.
Underlying Principles of the Classical School
• humans have free will and are hedonistic
– They try to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
• The main instrument of the control of human behavior is
fear, especially fear of pain.
– Punishment, as a principal method of operating to create
fear, is seen as necessary to influence
human will and thus to control behavior.
• Some code of criminal law, or some system of
punishment is necessary to respond to crime
• The main purpose of the criminal justice system is to
prevent crime through deterrence.

– A potential criminal will decide against committing a
crime because the punishment would be too
costly.
Classical School Summary
• six principles underlie the Classical approach to crime:
– all people are by their nature self-seeking and therefore
liable to commit crime;
– in order to live in harmony and avoid a "war of all
against all" people agree to give up certain
freedoms in order to be protected by a strong central state;
– punishment is necessary to deter crime and the state has
the prerogative to administer it;
– punishment should fit the crime and not be used to
rehabilitate the offender;
– use of the law should be limited and due process rights
should be observed;
– each individual is responsible for his or her actions and
thus mitigating circumstances or excuses
are inadmissible
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) & Utilitarianism

• On Crimes and Punishment (1764) had a profound
influence as many countries (including the US) modeled
their systems after his work.
• the major principle that should govern legislation was
"the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers"
– This philosophical doctrine is known as utilitarianism,
the idea that punishment ought to be based
on its usefulness or utility or practicality.
• "For a punishment to attain its end, the evil which it
inflicts has only to exceed the advantages derivable
from the crime."
– In other words, punishment should fit the crime.
Beccaria’s Basic Thesis
• “In order for punishment not to be, in every instance, an
act of violence of one or of many against a private
citizen, it must be essentially public, prompt, necessary, the
least possible in the given circumstances, proportionate
to the crimes, dictated by the laws.”
• Punishment should be "swift and certain“
• The purpose of the criminal justice system is to prevent
crime through deterrence.
– According to this line of thinking, a potential criminal
will decide against committing a crime
because the punishment would be too costly.
Rational Choice Theory

• routine activities theory
– Criminals plan very carefully by selecting specific
targets based on such things as vulnerability
(e.g., elderly citizens, unguarded premises, lack of police
presence) and commit their crimes
accordingly.
– Thus people who engage in certain “routine activities”
during the course of their daily lives place
themselves at risk of being victimized
One flaw in this view is that there is an assumption that people
should stay home more often to avoid being
a victim when in fact certain groups (especially women and
children) seem to be much more vulnerable at
home than anywhere else
See comment by Klein on p. 187 about “Operation Hammer”
that illustrates some problems with deterrence
Availability of alternative choices
A good analogy is that of a “menu” at a restaurant.
Some have better “menus” than others
Cause & Effect
• Free will – does such a thing exist?

• Everything has a cause – the world would not exist
without causes
• People often fail to examine causes when it comes to
crime
– Police seek causes of a homicide all the time
– See discussion of “Dr Laura” on p. 188
The Crime Control and Due Process Models
• The classical school of thought has generally led to two
contrasting models of the criminal justice system
• Roughly the equivalent of two differing political
ideologies, namely, conservatism and liberalism.
Crime control model – conservative
• It is better to emphasize protecting citizens from crime
than protecting the civil liberties of citizens.
• Repressing crime (often by any means necessary) should
be the goal of the cj system
• The CJ system should be like an "assembly line” where
cases are expedited rapidly – no release of
offenders on “technicalities”
• The concern should be more over "public safety" than
individual rights.
Due process model - liberal

• The CJ system should be an "obstacle course“ rather
than an “assembly line.”
• Better to let several criminals go free than to falsely
imprison an innocent person.
• Based upon the assumption that the criminal justice
process is plagued by human error throughout.
• At each stage of the criminal process individual rights
should be safeguarded.
Problems with the Classical Approach
• People do not always act rationally and not all people
are hedonists and self-serving
• Incorrectly assumes that people are equal in terms of life
chances – but you cannot have equal justice in an
unequal society
– Famous quote from the French philosopher Anatole
France who praised the “majestic equality of
the law” in that it “forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under
bridges, to beg in the streets and to
steal bread.”
• The classical school does little to address the causes of
crime

– Almost like saying that a person for no apparent reason
“chooses” to commit a crime, with no
consideration of why this happened.
– One critic noted that under this view justice is "an exact
scale of punishments for equal acts
without reference to the nature of the individual involved and
with no attention to the question of
special circumstances under which the act came about”
– It is based upon an “atomistic” view of humans which
sees human behavior disconnected with any
sort of social context – I call this “de-contextualization”
– From the atomistic point of view, deterrence means that
when the state punishes person X, other
persons are unaffected by that punishment in every way except
in calculations of the desirability of
engaging in crime.
An illustration of Classical School Logic
It assumes that fear of consequences will deter, meaning fear of
losing something you have (respect, status,
etc.)
What if you don't have anything, that you are "down and out"
and have "nothing to lose"?
Listen to Bob Dylan's classic song, rated the no. 1 rock and roll
record of all time by Rolling Stone
Magazine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeErkbkavrg&feature=related
- here are the words:
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?

People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeErkbkavrg&feature=related
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody has ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise

With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and
the clowns
When they all did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
How does it feel
How does it feel

To be on your own
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're all drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it
babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
The Positivist School of Criminology

• Positivism - a method of inquiry that attempts to answers
questions through the scientific method.
– The researcher examines the "real world" of "empirical
facts" through the testing of "hypotheses"
with the main goal of arriving at the ultimate "truth" and
deriving "laws" (e.g., the law of falling
bodies, the law of relativity).
• This school of thought argues that humans do not have
free will, that their behavior is determined by
various biological, psychological and sociological factors.
– Thus, responsibility for one's actions is diminished
• Need to address the various factors that are thought to be
the most likely causes of why crime occurs in the
first place (e.g., poverty, mental illness).
• Make the punishment fit the offender, rather than fit the
crime, as the classical school proposes.
– The CJ system should try to rehabilitate the offender
Quételet & Guerry
• Adolfe Quételet (a Belgium mathematician) and Andre-
Michel Guerry (a French statistician) in Europe
during the 1830s and 1840s were the first to do detailed
statistical studies of crime.

• Quételet found strong correlations between rates of crime
and such factors as illiteracy, poverty, and
similar variables
• He also noted that these same variables remained the
same as the highest crime rates continued to occur in
the same parts of the city through several decades
• Some called this school of thought the “Cartographic
School” since it used maps to plot crimes within a
certain geographic area.
• Interestingly, this idea was to take hold in the early 20th
century with the “Chicago School” and the
“concentric zone” theory (more about this later)
Cesare Lombroso
• Italian doctor who stressed the biological roots of crime
and argued that there was such as thing as a “born
criminal”
– Such a person was a sort of an “atavistic” throwback with
various stigmata or characteristics that
are throwbacks to more primitive people.
– Criminals, said Lombroso, are essentially biologically
inferior.
– Like the Neanderthal Man
• Can you identify a “criminal”?
• There continue to be stereotypes of what criminals “look
like” within American society (with the media

playing a major role in this).
• Unfortunately many of these stereotypes center on race
(mostly African-American and Hispanic) and class
(mostly lower class or the “underclass”).
• “Cops” on Fox is a good representation of many
stereotypes.
– For instance, it seems as if just about everyone they
arrest is a black man who is seen spread-
eagled on the ground or against the hood of a police car, and not
wearing a shirt.
Variations of Positivistic Criminology
• Today there are three major versions of positivist
criminology: biological (which began with Lombroso),
psychological, and sociological.
– Biological positivism locates the causes of crime within
the individual's physical makeup;
– psychological positivism suggests the causes are in faulty
personality development;
– sociological positivism stresses certain social factors
within one's environment or surrounding
culture and social structure

• Some of these variations will be explored here,
especially the sociological views.
Body Types
• Humans can be divided into three basic body types or
somatotypes.
• These body types in turn are said to correspond to certain
innate temperaments.
• Endomorph - excessive body weight and
– Described as being “soft” and having an extroverted
personality (the stereotype of the “jolly fat
man” comes to mind).
• Mesomorph - athletically built and muscular.
– Described as being active and behaving aggressively.
– Said to be most likely to be involved in serious criminal
activity and to join gangs.
• Ectomorph - thin and delicate and having an introverted
personality (they are also said to be loners and
hence not likely to engage in crime).
Criminality as an Inherited Trait
• Pretty much discredited within scientific circles, but
some still claim there is a “criminal gene”
– Alive and well today – see section called “Gene Warfare”
• Mostly explained by social and cultural factors

• No such thing as a “born criminal”
• Likewise with the so-called XYY chromosome
abnormality (see text)
– One variation is PMS to explain female crime
Psychological Theories
• Feeblemindedness and Crime – closely related to genetic
theories, claiming that low IQ causes crime
– This can easily be dismissed when considering white
collar and corporate crime
• Psychoanalytic Theories – based largely upon Freud’s
theories (id, ego, superego)
• Mental illness and crime
– Although it has never been proven that various kinds of
mental illnesses “cause” crime, it is
nevertheless true that a large proportion of inmates (as many as
1/3) have suffered from one or
more symptoms of various mental diseases.
The Psychopathic Personality
• This is a variation of the “personality trait” perspective

noted in the text (but a topic I only mentioned in
passing)
• What is interesting is that a researcher came to the
conclusion that the characteristics associated with this
personality type fit the modern American corporation!
Institutional Characteristics of Corporations & Psychopathic
Traits
• Irresponsible – in an attempt to satisfy the corporate
goal (profits) everybody else is put at risk
• Manipulative – they try to manipulate everything,
including public opinion, not to mention politicians
• Grandiose – we’re no. 1 or the best
• Lack of empathy and asocial tendencies – no concern
with victims
• Refuse to accept responsibility and unable to feel
remorse – when corporations get caught breaking the
law they pay big fines and then continue doing what they were
doing before
• Relates to others superficially – present themselves to
the public as doing good, when in fact they may not
• psychopaths use charm to hide what they are really all
about
Key Sociological Theories
Social Disorganization/Social Ecology
• Crime stems from certain community or neighborhood

characteristics, such as poverty, dilapidated
housing, high density, high mobility, and high rates of
unemployment.
– Concentric zone theory is a variation that argues that
crime increases toward the inner city area.
Social Ecology
• One of the key ideas of the social ecology of crime is the
fact that high rates of crime and other problems
persist within the same neighborhoods over long periods of time
regardless of who lives there.
– Thus there must be something about the places
themselves, perhaps something about the
neighborhoods, rather than the people per se that produces and
perpetuates high crime rates
• One explanation is the Concentric zone theory which
argues that crime increases toward the inner city
area
• Studies of the rates of crime and delinquency, especially
by sociologists Henry Shaw and David McKay
in Chicago, demonstrated that over an extended period of time,
the highest rates were found within the first
three zones no matter who lived there. These high rates were
strongly correlated with such social problems
as mental illness, unemployment, poverty, infant mortality, and

many others
Illustrations of Concentric Zones
For examples go to this web site:
http://images.google.com/images?
q=concentric+zone+model&hl=en&rls=RNWN,RNWN:2006-
42,RNWN:en&um=1&ie=UTF-
8&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title
Why is Crime So High the nearer you get into the inner-city?
• According to the Concentric Zone view, this is caused by
a breakdown of institutional, community-based
controls, which in turn is caused by three general factors:
industrialization, urbanization, and immigration.
• People living within these areas often lack a sense of
community because the local institutions (e.g.,
schools, families, and churches) are not strong enough to
provide nurturing and guidance for the area’s
children.
• It is important to note that there are important political
and economic forces at work here.
• The concentration of human and social problems within
these zones is not the inevitable “natural” result of
some abstract laws of nature but rather the actions of some of
the most powerful groups in a city (urban
planners, politicians, wealthy business leaders, and so on).
Thrasher’s Theory of Gangs
• Frederic Thrasher did the first detailed study of gangs in
Chicago in the 1920s

• He concluded that the control mechanisms of local
institutions is revealed by:
– the disintegration of family life
– inefficiency of schools
– formalism and externality of religion
– corruption and indifference in local politics
– low wages and monotony in occupational activities
– Unemployment
– Lack of opportunity for wholesome recreation.
http://images.google.com/images?q=concentric+zone+model&hl
=en&rls=RNWN,RNWN:2006-42,RNWN:en&um=1&ie=UTF-
8&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title
• All these factors enter into the picture of the moral and
economic frontier
• Coupled with deterioration in the housing, sanitation,
and other conditions of life in the slum, gives the
impression of general disorganization and decay.
• The gang functions with reference to these conditions in
two ways

– It offers a substitute for what society fails to give
– It provides a relief from suppression and distasteful
behavior. It fills a gap and affords an escape
Strain/Anomie Theory
• Cultural norms of “success” emphasize such goals as
money, status, and power, while the means to obtain
such success are not equally distributed
– As a result of blocked opportunities many among the
disadvantaged resort to illegal means, which
are more readily available.
• The concept of anomie refers to inconsistencies between
societal conditions and opportunities for growth,
fulfillment, and productivity within a society
– The term anomia has been used to refer to those who
experience personal frustration and
alienation as a result of anomie within a society).
• It also involves the weakening of the normative order of
society- that is, norms (rules, laws, and so on)
lose their impact on people.
• Anomie was first used by 19th Century sociologist Emile
Durkheim who described it as follows:
– Under capitalism there is a more or less chronic state of
“deregulation” and that industrialization
had removed traditional social controls on aspirations.
– The capitalist culture produces in humans a constant

dissatisfaction resulting in a never-ending
longing for more and more.
– And there is never enough - whether this be money,
material things, or power.
– There is a morality under capitalism that dictates
“anything goes,” especially when it comes to
making money (it certainly applies to the modern corporation).
• The basic thesis of strain theory is this: Crime stems
from the lack of articulation or “fit” between two of
the most basic components of society: culture and social
structure
• Culture consists of
– the main value and goal orientations or “ends” and
– the institutionalized or legitimate means for attaining
these goals.
• Social structure, as used here, consists of the basic social
institutions of society, especially the economy,
but also such institutions as the family, education, and politics,
all of which are responsible for distributing
access to the legitimate means for obtaining goals.
• This “lack of fit” creates strain within individuals, who
respond with various forms of deviance.

• Thus people who find themselves at a disadvantage
relative to legitimate economic activities are motivated
to engage in illegitimate activities (perhaps because of
unavailability of jobs, lack of job skills, education,
and other factors).
• Within a capitalist society like United States, the main
emphasis is on the “success” goals, while less
emphasis is on the legitimate means to achieve these goals.
• Moreover, these goals have become institutionalized in
that they are deeply embedded into the psyches of
everyone via a very powerful system of corporate propaganda.
• At the same time, the legitimate means are not as well
defined or as strongly ingrained. In other words,
there is a lot of discretion and a lot of tolerance for deviance
from the means but not the goals. One result
of such a system is high levels of crime.
• Another important point made by strain theory is that our
culture contributes to crime because the
opportunities to achieve success goals are not equally
distributed.
• We have a strong class structure and incredible
inequality within our society, which means that some have
extreme disadvantages over others.
• Another way of saying the same thing is that culture
promises what the social structure cannot deliver, that
being equal access to opportunities to achieve success. People
faced with this contradiction (one of many
under capitalism) face pressures, or “strains,” to seek
alternatives.

Crime and the American Dream
• The pursuit of the “American dream” creates a high rate
of crime
• Core values of the Dream
– Achievement
– Individualism
– Universalism
– Fetishism of Money
• There is a "dark side" to the American Dream, which
stems from a contradiction in American capitalism
– the same forces that promote "progress" and "ambition"
also produce a lot of crime since there is
such an incredible pressure to succeed "at any cost."
An example of the importance of money is taken from an early
rock and roll song called "Money" by
Barrett Strong with words included here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sZTcdrt0g0
The best things in life are free

But you can keep 'em for the birds and bees;
Now give me money, (that's what I want) that's what I want,
(That's what I want) That's what I want (That's what I want)
yeah,
That's what I want.
Your lovin' give me such a thrill,
But your lovin' don't pay my bills;
[refrain]
Money don't get everything it's true,
What it don't get I can't use;
[refrain]
Well, now give me money, (That's what I want)
A lotta money, (That's what I want)
Oh yeah, I wanna be free, (That's what I want)
Oh, lotta money, (That's what I want)
That's what I want (That's what I want) yeah,
That's what I want.

Well, now give me money, (That's what I want)
A lotta money, (That's what I want)
Wo, yeah, You need money (That's what I want)
Gimme money, (That's what I want)
That's what I want (That's what I want)
That's what I want.
Delinquency and Opportunity
• Blocked opportunity aspirations cause poor self‑concepts
and feelings of frustration and
• These frustrations lead to delinquency, especially within
a gang context.
• A key concept here is differential opportunity structure,
which is an uneven distribution of legal and illegal
means of achieving economic success, especially as they are
unequally available according to class and
race.
Social Embeddedness
• For disadvantaged youths, involvement in crime begins
well before they can legally be involved in the
labor market.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sZTcdrt0g0

• just as one can become socially embedded in the world
of regular job contacts and the world of work, so
too can one become embedded in a network of crime and
deviance.
• In most of the high‑crime, inner‑city neighborhoods, the
odd jobs of middle‑class youths noted above do
not exist in large number (for example, in the projects there are
no lawns to be mowed).
Cultural Deviance Theories
• criminal values and traditions emerge within
communities most affected by social disorganization
• Cohen's “culture of the gang” perspective
– a high proportion of lower‑class youths (especially
males) do poorly in school;
– poor school performance relates to delinquency;
– poor school performance stems from a conflict between
dominant middle‑class values of the school
system and values of lower‑class youths; and
– most lower‑class male delinquency is committed in a
gang context, partly as a means of meeting
some basic human needs, such as self‑esteem and belonging.
Lower Class Focal Concerns
• Basic thesis:

– there are concerns (norms and values) within the
lower‑class culture and
– female‑dominated households are an important feature
within the lower class and are a major
reason for the emergence of street‑corner male adolescent
groups in these neighborhoods
• Two key concepts here are
– (1) focal concerns, which include trouble, toughness,
smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy;
and
– (2) one‑sex peer units that serve as alternative sources of
companionship and male role model
development outside the home
Focal Concerns of lower class culture
• Trouble
• Toughness
• Smartness
• Excitement
• Fate
• Autonomy

One‑sex peer group
• Very important because:
– Gangs provide male members opportunities to prove their
own masculinity in the absence of an
adequate male role model within their family of origin.
– The principal unit in lower‑class society is an
age‑graded, one‑sex peer group constituting the
major psychic focus and reference group for young people.
– The adolescent street‑corner group is one variant of the
lower‑class structure, and the gang is a
subtype distinguished by law‑violating activities
Belonging and status
• two central concerns of the adolescent street‑corner
group are belonging and status
– One achieves belonging by adhering to the group’s
standards and values and continues to achieve
belonging by demonstrating such characteristics as toughness,
smartness, and autonomy.
– When there is conflict with other norms (for example,
middle‑class norms), the norms of the group
are far more compelling because failure to conform means
expulsion from the group.
– Status is achieved by demonstrating qualities adolescents
value (for example, smartness, toughness,

and others, as defined by lower‑class culture).
Control/ social bond theory
• Instead of asking “Why do they do it?” this theory asks
“Why don't they do it?”
• What prevents people from crime is that we are “bonded”
to society, especially the norms of society that
we have internalized.
• There are four major elements of this bond:
– Attachment
– Involvement
– Commitment
– Belief
Social Learning Theory
• Simply put, criminal behavior is learned, just like
anything else
• Sutherland’s “differential association” is the most
famous variation
– The key point is that one becomes a delinquent/criminal
because of an excess of definitions
favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to
violation of law

– Over time, the duration and intensity of association with
others involved in crime further reinforces
one’s own values and behavior.
Techniques of Neutralization
• Rationalizations
– He deserved it
– Appeal to higher loyalties (e.g., peer group, doing it for the
hood)
– Everyone else does it
– No one was harmed
Labeling Perspective
• three key parts:
– (1) how and why certain behaviors are defined as
criminal or deviant;
– (2) the response to crime or deviance on the part of
authorities (for example, the official processing
of cases from arrest through sentencing); and
– (3) the effects of such definitions and official reactions
on the person or persons so labeled.
• This view does not concern itself with why people

violate the law in the first place, but rather the effects of
how society reacts to law breaking
Primary and secondary deviance
• Primary deviance includes acts that the perpetrator
and/or others believe are not indicative of one's true
identity or character.
– Commonly expressed by others as "this is not like you."
• Secondary deviance refers to a process whereby the
deviance takes on self-identifying features
– that is, deviant acts begin to be considered as indicative
of one's true self, the way one "really" is
• Guilt v. shame
– Guilt – you did something bad (primary)
– Shame – you are a bad person (secondary)
Social reality of crime
• Based upon the view that “crime” is a matter of
definition resulting from a social process
• A key term is “power” which helps shape legislation, as
law often reflects the interests of the most
powerful groups

• Six propositions offered in the text describe how the
“reality of crime” is created and perpetuated.
• Based upon the view of society as “segmented” into
different class, racial, gender and other divisions,
each with their own interests.
Critical/Marxist Perspectives
• capitalism produces a number of problems including
crime
• material conditions is key term
– Class, gender and racial inequalities
– Big economic changes (downsizing, etc.) produce
problems including crime
• Surplus population or underclass is created
• crime control industry is another result – crime is
functional for capitalism
Criminological Theory Summaries
Theory Main Points Theorists/Researchers

Classical Crime occurs when the benefits outweigh the
costs—when people pursue self-interest in the
absence of effective punishments. Crime is a free-
willed choice. See also deterrence, rational
choice.
Beccaria
Positivist Crime is caused or determined. Lombroso placed
more emphasis on biological deficiencies, whereas
later scholars would emphasize psychological and
sociological factors. Use science to determine the
factors associated with crime.
Lombroso
Guerry
Quetelet
Individual Trait Criminals differ from noncriminals on a number
of biological and psychological traits. These traits
cause crime in interaction with the social
environment.
Glueck & Glueck
Mednick
Caspi
Moffitt
Social Disorganization Disorganized communities cause crime
because
informal social controls break down and criminal
cultures emerge. They lack collective efficacy to

fight crime and disorder.
Shaw & McKay
Sampson
Bursik & Grasmick
Differential Association
Social Learning
Subcultural
Crime is learned through associations with
criminal definitions. These definitions might be
generally approving of criminal conduct or be
neutralizations that justify crime only under
certain circumstances. Interacting with antisocial
peers is a major cause of crime. Criminal
behavior will be repeated and become chronic if
reinforced. When criminal subcultures exist, then
many individuals can learn to commit crime in one
location and crime rates—including violence—
may become very high.
Sutherland & Cressey
Sykes & Matza
Akers
Wolfgang & Ferracuti
Anderson
Anomie
Institutional-Anomie
The gap between the American Dream’s goal of
economic success and the opportunity to obtain
this goal creates structural strain. Norms weaken

and ‘anomie’ ensues, thus creating high crime
rates. When other social institutions (such as the
family) are weak to begin with or also weakened
by the American Dream, the economic institution
is dominant. When such an institutional
imbalance exists—as in the United States—then
crime rates are very high.
Merton
Messner & Rosenfeld
Strain
General Strain
When individuals cannot obtain success goals
(money, status in school), they experience strain
or pressure. Under certain conditions, they are
likely to respond to this strain through crime. The
strains leading to crime, however, may not only be
linked to goal blockage (or deprivation of valued
stimuli) but also to the presentation of noxious
stimuli and the taking away of valued stimuli.
Crime is a more likely response to strain when it
results in negative affect (anger and frustration).
Cohen
Cloward & Ohlin
Agnew
Control
General Theory of Crime
Control Balance

IntroductionDynamics of Crime TheoryEarly Schools of Tho.docx

IntroductionDynamics of Crime TheoryEarly Schools of Tho.docx

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Mehr von normanibarber20063

Mehr von normanibarber20063 (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

IntroductionDynamics of Crime TheoryEarly Schools of Tho.docx