- Agnew& Brezina: "An attempt to explain somehing or describe the causes of something"

- Criminology theories are based largely on info.

-Diff. Parts of theories:

• Should identify what we want to explain
• Should identify what we believe to be the cause of delinquency
• Should explain why the indep. variable(s) cause(s) delinque.

Control Camp

- Maximize pleasure, minimize effort & pain

- Differences in delinquency rates are due to social controls

Motivational Camp

- Need motivations to commit delinquency

Differences in delinquency rates are due to the diff. motivations ppl receive

Common Assumption

- Hedonist nature

-Variations in delinq. is a result of diff. social conditions

Central Propositions

- Social control acts to prevent pp; from deviating/committing crimes

- When conrols are weakened or broken, deviant behavior is likely to be result

Early Control Theories

- Reiss & Nye's Theory of Internal/External Control

- Reckless' ContainmentTheory

 - Sykes & Matza: Tech. of Neutralization & Drift

Includes:

1) Socialization: Acquisition of self control

2) Control over person's behavior: Rewards & punishments

- One of the ealiest applications of the concept of control to criminology

- Failure of personal & "social" controls as cause of delinquency

-Personal controls are internalized

- Social controls operate thru external applications of legal & social sanctions

3 main categories of social control:

-Direct Control: Punishment imposed/threatened for misconduct & compliance rewarded

-Indirect Control: Delinquency may disappoint/hurt others

-Internal: Conscience or sense of guilt prevents delinquency

- Built on the same concept of internal & external control

- "Inner" and "Outer" containment

- Included factors that motivated youths to commit delinquent acts

• Pushes  and pulls towards delinquency

Basic Propositions

-Inner/Outer factors will produce delinquency unless they're counteracted by inner/outer containment

- When motivations are strong & containments are weak --> Delinquency is more likely

Gresham Sykes & David Matza 

- Delinquent behavior as the result of adoles. using "tech. of neutraliztion"

Techniques:

- Justifications & excusese for commiting delinquent acts

-Essentially inapprop. extensions of commonly accepted rationalizations

1) Denial of responsibility

2) Denial of injury/harm

3) Denial of vicims

4) Codemnation of codemner

5) Appeal to higher loyalties

Travis Hirschi -> Leading control theorist

4 Principal Elements

Attachment

- Extent to which one has close ties to others, admire them & identify w/ them

Commitment

- Concerns the extent to which individuals have built up an investment in conventionality (Stake in conformity)

Involvement

-Concerns one's involv. in conventional activities

Beliefs

- Endorsement of general conventional values/norms

Empirical Validity (Social Bonding Theory)

- Hirschi's research generally found support

- Exceot for involvement, the weaker the bonds, the higher probability of delinquency

Krohn & Massey:

- Social bonding variables moderately related to delin.

- More so for minor than serious delinquency

3 types of control:

1) Direct

• Setting rules
• Monitoring behavior
• Sanctioning behavior
• Reinforcing conventional behavior

2) Stake in conformity

• Emotional attachment to conventional others
• Actual or anticipated investment in conventional activites

3) Internal Control

- Low self-controll as the cause of criminal behavior

-Proposed a theory based on only one type of control - self-control

Core Propositions

-Individ. w/ high self control will be substa. less likely to commit crimes

- Indi. w/ low self-control are highly likely to commit crime

-Low self-control will lead to criminal behavi. (when opp. are available)

- Pratt & Cullen: Meta-analysis of 21 studies

• Consistent effects
• On avg. self-control variables explained variance in delinquency
• However, self-control is not the sole cause

Basic Propositions

- Social conditions force ppl into delinquent/deviant behavior

-Wouldn't engage in delinquency unless pressured by motivations

- "State of normlessness or lack of social regulations in modern society as one of the conditions that prompted suicide"

- Proposed that society evolved from a mechanical state to an organic state [mech ---> organi.]

Mechanical Solidarity

- When ppl behave/think alike, performed same tasks w/ common community oriented goals

Organic solidarity

- Evolution from mecha. to organic mean that tasks became complex & ppl are no longer tied to one another

- Used to describe the condition of deregulation that occurred in society

- Rules & norms on how ppl behave w/ respect to one another broke down & ppl no longer knew what was expected of them

-Anomie is a state where societal norms are confused or absent

- Applied Durkheim's approach to the condition of moden industrial societies

- An integrated society maintained a balance between social structure (means) & culture (goals)

- For a society to funtion, there must be a balance btw. the goals & the means to achieve those goals

- Disjuncture emerges when there's unbalance

America demonstrates disjuncture in 2 ways:

- Emphasis on goals v. Emphasis on means

Conformity

-Conformity occurs when individuals accept the culturally defined goals and the socially legitimate means of achieving them. Merton suggest that most individuals, even those who do not have easy access to the means and goals, remain conformists. 

Innovation

-

Ritualism

-The ritualist accepts a lifestyle of hard work, but rejects the cultural goal of monetary rewards. This individual goes through the motions of getting an education and working hard, yet is not committed to the goal of accumulating wealth or power.

Retreatism

-Retreatism involves rejecting both the cultural goal of success and the socially legitimate means of achieving it. The retreatist withdraws or retreats from society and may become an alcoholic, drug addict, or vagrant.

Rebellion

-

- Crime is caused by goal blockage

-De-emphasized material success & emphasized status

- Lower working class boys are not concerned w/ monetary succes

-Inability to gain status & acceptance in conventional society produces strain

-Status in conve. society is achieved by meeting standards of dress, behavior, scholastic, abilities, etc.

-Status deprivation produces status frustration

- Strain emerges within ind./groups when middle class standards are applied to lower classes

- Readily available v. unavailable

- 3 Diff. subcultues (gangs) -> Stealing, substtance abuse & fighting

- Juvenile gangs do not specialize, instead they host in a range of activites

-Specialization is common in adult gangs

- Sought to explain high crime rate in U.S.

4 Value Orientation of the American Dream

Strong achievements of orientation

Individualism

Strong emphasis on universalism

Fetishism of $$

- Economy dominates other institutions in society

-Results in...

1) Functions of non-economic institutions devalued

2) Non-economic institutions must accomodate

3) Economic norms begin to disrupt the institu. balance of power

-Economy doesnt strongly caution the use of legitimate but effective means to moneary success

- Micro evel of delinquency & crime

- Goal: Blockage + Strain + Delinquent Behavior

3 Diff. types of deviance-producing strain:

1) Failure to achieve positively valued stimuli

2) Removal of positively valued stimuli

3) Confrontation w/ negatively valued stimuli --> Prior victimization tends to produce deviance

- Criminals are biologically diff. from non-criminals

-Criminals are less evolved

Indiv. Theories of Delinquency

-At the turn of 19th century, indiv. theories dominated

-Suggested crime reduction thru isolation & segregation of these ind.

Criticisms

-Ind, theories ignored larger changes that took place in society

- US moved rapidly into modern era

Changes?

Quantitative: 1st incorporated in 1833. Pop = 4,000

Qualitative: Racial & ethnic composition of city changed bc of migrants

Settlement Conditions

-Migrants sought to work in factories

-Migrants had little to no resources

-Key to study delinquency & crime is to study traits outside of individual

Ernest Burgess (1925)

- Studied city development

*Urban areas grow thru a process of continual expansion from their inner core toward outer areas

-Zone 1: Central Business District

-Zone 2: Zone of Transition

*Poverty

*Racial/Ethnic Heterogeneity

*Residential mobility/Transciency (ppl moving in & out)

- Believed Burgess' theory could help & if correct, rates of delinquency should be higher in inner-city areas

- Innercity areas: Poverty, rapid population growth, heterogeneity & transciency disrupt core societal institutions (ex. family, education, etc)

-These conditions cause social disorganization

Hypothesis:

-Higher delin. rates --> High social disor.

-Lower delin. rates --> Low social disor.

Edwin Sutherland 

- Delinquency is learned & learned through interactions

Principal part of learning occurs within intimate groups include:

1)Technique of commiting delinquency

2) Direction of motives, rationalization, & attitudes

Balance of definitions:

Behavior depends on definitions of legal codes (favorable/unfavorable)

Delinquency is a result of excess of definitions favorable to law-violation over definitions that are unfavorable

-Diff. association may vary in frequency,duration, priority & intensity

-Involves mechanisms in learning other non-delinquent behaviors

- Integrates Sutherland's concepts w/ differential reinforcement & other principles

-Voids?

*Mechanisms of learning

*What are definitions?

-Diff. Association: Refers to learning process thru interacting w/ a culture & individuals within that culture

-Definitions: One's attitudes/meanings that we attach to behavior

Differential Reinforcement

*Positive Reinforcement

Obtaining approval, $,food or pleasant emotions

Negative Reinforcement

Escaping negative events

Positive Punishment

Undesired consequences attached to behavior

Imitation

Engagement of behavior after observation of similar behavior in others

Moffit 2 types of Delinquents

1) Life course persistent

2) Adolescent Limited

Proposition

-Delinquency is a result of societal reactions

Frank Tennenbaum

- Crime is not a manifestation of ind. diff. ; it's a part of an "educational process"

"Dramatization of Evil"--> After a juvenile is arrested, his/her status is held up to public scrutiny. Social audience creates deviant/deviance by defining the acts & actors as such

Deviance is socially constructed

Deviance is the rule-breaking behavior that is labeled deviant by ppl in positions of power

Rules reflect... Those prone to rule-breaking are called the "outsiders"

-Reflected appraisals, Parental Labeling, & Delinquency

-Concept of self -- Instrumental in directing behavior

-Reflected Appraisals: A person's view of how other see them

-Crime, shame & reintegration

-Delinquency is higher when shaming is stigmatizing (ex. Sex Offender Registrar)

-Deli. is lower when shaming is reintegrative

(VORP: Victim Offender Reconcilation Prog.)

Primary Deviant

*Peripheral to self: Can still separate person from deviance. Detached from the core.

Secondary Deviant

*Core to self: Can no longer detach delinquent behavior/label from person