Theories
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
-
This is a theory of criminality which attributes delinquent and criminal behavior to at least three causes:
a. A conscience so overbearing that it arouses feelings of guilt.
a. A conscience so weak that it cannot control the indivi - The Psychoanalytic theory
-
This psychologist suggested that a personÂ’s psychological well-being
is dependent on the healthy interaction of:
a. The id, which consists of powerful urges and drives for gratification and satisfaction.
b. The ego, which is t - Sigmund Freud
- Sigmund Freud proposed that criminality may result if the________ is overactive, or if the_______is not strong enough to control the impulses of the id.
- Superego
- Despite the criticism of psychoanalytic theory, three basic principles are of interest to psychologists that study criminology: Which are?
-
a. The actions and behavior of an adult are understood in terms of childhood development.
b. Behavior and unconscious motives are intertwined, and their interaction must be unraveled if we are to understand criminality.
c. Criminality is essentially a representation of psychological conflict. - Lawrence Kohlberg generated the this theory, which posits that one's moral reasoning arises in three phases. Preconventional, Conventional, & Postconventional levels.
- Moral Developmental Theory
- This is a level in the moral development theory, which illustrates that childrenÂ’s moral rules and moral values consist of dos and donÂ’ts to avoid punishment or other types of negative reinforcement
- Preconventional level
- This is the second level in the moral development theory where adolescents typically reason at this level at which they believe in and have adopted the values and rules of society, and they seek to uphold these rules
- Conventional level
- The third level of the moral development theory, where individuals examine customs and social rules according to their own sense of universal human rights, moral principles, and duties
- Postconventional level
-
According to_________, most delinquents and criminals function at the Preconventional level.
In addition_______also argued argued that basic moral principles and social norms are learned through social interaction and role-playing. - Kohlberg
-
This is a theory developed from research, indicating that shortly after birth, mammals form an emotional bond between infant and mother.
The strength of that bond will affect the childÂ’s social development and ability to perform in his/her fu - Maternal Deprivation/Attachment Theory
- Studies of attachment by John Bowlby support his theory of attachment, which has what seven features?
-
a. Specificity
b. Duration
c. Engagement of emotion
d. Ontogeny
e. Learning
f. Organization
g. Biological function - Bowlby suggests that in order to be securely attached, a child must experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with a ________figure.
- Mother Figure
- This theory maintains that delinquent behavior is learned through the same psychological processes as any other behavior.
- Social learning theory
-
Albert Bandura argues that people learn violence and aggression through behavioral modeling.
The way we behave is socially transmitted through examples, which come primarily from the family, the subculture, and the mass media.
What - Observational Learning
-
a. What people learn from_________is determined by what they themselves do and what happens to them.
b. The individualÂ’s behavior in the first instance and their restraint are said to be "reinforced" by the rewards and punishments t - Direct Experience
- Bandura suggests that there are instigators that will elicit behavior via what 5 types of investigatiors
-
i. Aversive instigators
ii. Incentive instigators
iii. Modeling instigators
iv. Instructional instigators
v. Delusional instigators -
Ernest Burgess and Ronald Akers generated the theory of _____________, suggesting that:
I. The persistence of criminal behavior depends on whether or not it is rewarded or punished
II. The most meaningful rewards and punishments are - Differential Reinforcement
-
One of four discrete lines which have examined the relationship between personality and criminality.
by denoting how Investigators have looked at the___________differences between the of criminals and non-criminals. - Personality Structure
- In the_______________, Samuel Yochelson and Stanton Samenow said that criminals share abnormal thinking patterns that lead to decisions to commit crimes.
- Criminal Personality
- The research of Yochelson and Samenow revealed a common personality profile: the criminals tested showed remarkable similarity in what three aspects?
-
1) deficient self-control
2) intolerance
3) lack of responsibility -
This is a theory where, Eysenck claims that all human personality may be seen in three dimensions:
i. Psychoticism: aggressive, egocentric, and impulsive
ii. Extroversion: sensation-seeking, dominant, and assertive
iii. N - Conditioning Theory
- Traditionally, the medical profession viewed mental illness as an absolute condition or status; either you are afflicted with ________or you are not.
- Psychosis
- This_____________of diagnosis is problematic, and is apparent no where more than in the insanity defense, which calls for proof of sanity or insanity and generally does not allow for gradations in mental functioning.
- Dichotomous Scheme
- Today the mental illness known as_______ ,______ , or________is diagnosed when a personality is characterized by the inability to learn from experience, lack of warmth, and absence of guilt, but not psychosis.
- psychopathy, sociopathy, or antisocial personality
- Psychologists have found that psychopaths, like EysenckÂ’s extroverts, have a___________, forcing them to constantly seek external stimulation and rendering them less susceptible to learning by direct experience, including punishment.
- low internal arousal level
- When examining criminal behavior, it is easy to make the fundamental psycholegal error, which results when a "cause" for criminal behavior is identified and then it is assumed that any behavior resulting from that cause must be excused by law.<
- Psychological Causation
- The study of the physical aspects of psychological disorders.
- Biocriminology
- Recent research has demonstrated that crime does indeed have_________aspects similar to those found in studies of depression.
- Psychobiological
- In the studies done by Modern Biocriminality, There has been evidence that strongly suggests a___________ to criminality.
- genetic predisposition
-
One type of abnormality is the XYY chromosomal male; he receives two Y chromosomes from his father instead of one.
b. Recent studies have discounted the relationship between the extra Y chromosome and criminality.
c. One problem is - XYY Syndrome
-
Within this study:
Researchers have compared identical and fraternal twins in an attempt to determine whether or not crime is genetically predetermined.
The largest study of twins by Christiansen and Mednick found that the chance o - Twin Studies
-
a. One way to conduct this study would be to separate genetic and environmental factors, so you can study the reactions of infants separated at birth from their natural parents and placed randomly in foster homes.
In the largest study of this - Adoption Studies
- This argues that all members of society subscribe to one set of cultural values; the values of the middle class.
- Strain Theory
- These claim that the lower class has its own, different set of values, which tends to conflict with the values of the middle class.
- Cultural Deviance Theories
- These are based on the assumption that the motivation to commit crime is a part of human nature. As such, social control theorists seek to understand why people do not offend.
- Social Control Theories
- Thses theories are used to seek and uncover the reasons for differences in crime rates in the social environment.
- Sociological theories
-
From the Structural-Functionalist perspective, Durkheim introduced the concept of________, which is the breakdown of social order as a result of the loss of standards and values.
As a result of this he firmly believed that as a simple society - Anomie
-
1. Durkheim introduced the concept of anomie in a discussion of______.
2. Statistical analyses revealed that these rates increase in periods of rapid change when people are abruptly thrown into unfamiliar situations, for better or worse.
- Suicide
-
All non-sociological theories make is that there is a difference between criminals and non-criminals. What
would these four crime theories be? -
I) Religious (posessed by demons)
II)Psychological (Mindset-so to speak)
III) One's free will-(This is the basis of our justice system)
IV)Biological-(the offenders have the criminal mind through traits from parents) -
In MertonÂ’s Theory of Anomie, he argues that in a class-oriented society, opportunities to get to the top are not equally distributed, with very few members of the lower class ever reaching the top.
His theory of anomie emphasizes the importa -
a. cultural aspirations, or goals that people believe are worth striving for
b. institutionalized means or accepted ways to attain the desired ends. -
In addition to his theory of Anomie MertonÂ’s__________explains crime in the United States in terms of
the wide disparities in income among the classes. - Strain Theory
- For a society to be stable, what two elements must be fairly well integrated?
- Disparity between goals and means fostering frustration
- Merton proposes five modes of adaptation that explain how people adapt to societyÂ’s goals and means. What are they?
-
1. Conformity
2. Innovation
3. Ritualism
4. Retreatism
5. Rebellion - This is argued to be the influence of high-crime rates by suggesting that individuals should succeed by any means necessary, even if those means are illegitimate.
- The American dream
- At the crux of the problem is the dominance of economic institutions, as demonstrated by what?
-
a. The devaluation of noneconomic roles and functions.
b. The accommodation of other institutions to economic needs.
c. The penetration of economic norms. - General Strain Theory suggests that there are three basic types of strain-producing events, which are?
-
a. Strain caused by failure to achieve positively valued goals.
b. Stress caused by the removal of a positively valued stimuli from the individual.
c. Strain caused by the presentation of negative stimuli. - Robert Agnew revised MertonÂ’s theory to explain what?
- More Criminal behavior
- _______________attributes crime to a set of values that exist in disadvantaged neighborhoods. However__________is simply defined as any behavior that members of a social group define as violating their norms
-
Cultural deviance theory
Deviance -
Cultural deviance theorists argue that our society is made up of various
groups and subgroups, each with its own standards of___________ . - right and wrong
-
This theory focuses on the development of high-crime areas in which there is a disintegration of conventional values caused by rapid industrialization, increased immigration, and urbanization.
Tests of this fell out of favor in the 1970s, but - Social Disorganization Theory
- Their work led to the conclusion that the crucial factor is not ethnicity but the position of the group in terms of economic status and cultural values.
-
The Park and Burgess Models and
Shaw and McKayÂ’s Work - ______________indicates that delinquency is socially learned behavior, transmitted from one generation to the next in disorganized urban areas.
- Cultural transmission
-
This man suggested separating the possible consequences of rising crime rates in neighborhoods into three categories:
a. Psychological and Social Effects
b. Behavioral Effects
c. Economic Effects - Ralph Taylor
- This theory maintains that people learn to commit crime as the result of contact with antisocial values, attitudes, and criminal behavior patterns. It has nine propositions that explain the process of the transmission of values
- Differential Association Theory
-
This states that different groups learn different conduct norms and that the conduct norms of some groups may clash with conventional middle class rules.
It does this by focusing on the source of these criminal norms and attitudes. - Culture Conflict Theory
-
A subdivision within the dominant culture that has its own norms, beliefs, and values.
These tend to emerge when people in similar circumstances find themselves isolated from the mainstream and band together for mutual support.
The - Subcultures
- This theory is intended to explain how a delinquent subculture rises, where it is found within social structure, and why it has the particular characteristics that it does.
- Albert CohenÂ’s theory
- ____________are rooted in class differentials in parental aspirations, child-rearing practices, and classroom standards.
- Delinquent subcultures
- In school, lower-class children are evaluated by middle-class teachers on the basis of a_______________.
- Middle-class measuring rod
- The relative position of a youngsterÂ’s family in the____________determines the problems the child will have to face throughout life.
- Social Structure
-
Cohen argues that lower-class children experience status frustration and strain, to which they respond by adopting one of three roles.
In this role, he argues that some people hang out in the neighborhood with their peer group, spending the da - Corner Boys
-
Cohen argues that lower-class children experience status frustration and strain, to which they respond by adopting one of three roles:
In this role, he argues that people continually strive to live up to middle-class standards, but their chanc - College Boys
-
Cohen argues that lower-class children experience status frustration and strain, to which they respond by adopting one of three roles:
In this role, he argues that lower-class people band together to form a subculture in which they can define - Delinquent boys
-
This theory was developed by Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin.
It begins with the assumption that conventional means to conventional success are not equally distributed among the socioeconomic classes, that lack of means causes frustration for - The theory of differential opportunity
- These gangs emerge in areas where conventional and illegitimate values and behavior are integrated by a close connection of illegitimate and legitimate businesses.
- Criminal gangs
-
These gangs emerge in neighborhoods characterized by transience and instability, which offer few opportunities to get ahead in organized criminal activities
a. Their goal is to gain a reputation for toughness and destructive violence. - Conflict gangs
-
The gangs have members that have been unsuccessful in both the legitimate world and the illegitimate worlds of organized criminal activity and violence-oriented gangs.
a. Members are labeled double failures.
b. This subculture is ch - Retreatist gangs
-
Not all lower-class youngsters who are unable to reach societyÂ’s goals become members of these three types of gangs. Many chose to accept their situation and to live within its constraints.
True of False - True
-
These two men sought to explain violent criminal behavior among lower-class young urban males.
They argue that in some subcultures behavior norms are dictated by a value system that demands the use of force or violence.
C. Violence - Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti
- This person hypothesizes that juvenile delinquency is not rooted in the rejection of middle-class values; it stems from lower-class culture, which has its own value system.
- Walter Miller
- This type of system has evolved as a response to living in disadvantaged neighborhoods characterized by single-parent households.
- Value System
- With in this theory, Gang norms are the adolescent expression of the lower-class culture
- Miller's Theory
- Miller has identified six focal concerns to which lower-class males give persistent attention which are?
-
1. Trouble
2. Toughness
3. Smartness
4. Excitement
5. Luck
6. Autonomy - When studying female delinquent gange, researchers are focusing on attention on two types of female gangs which are?
-
1. Gangs that are affiliates of male gangs.
or
2. Gangs that consist of all females. - Anne CampbellÂ’s research suggests that females join gangs for the same reasons as males, which are?
- mutual support, protection, and a sense of belonging.
- Subcultural theory assumes that individuals engage in delinquent or criminal behavior because:
-
1. legitimate opportunities for success are blocked
2. criminal values and norms are learned in lower-class slums. -
Gang research suggests increased female participation in gangs, and in gang-related activities, but not including serious delinquent acts and drug abuse
True or False - False
- Gangs whose criminal activities include physical assaults, theft, burglary, and distribution of illegal drugs.
- Delinquent gangs
- These gangs attach themselves to an ideology that targets racial and ethnic groups; physical assaults and even murder are justified by their belief system.
- Hate gangs
- Gangs affiliated with this practice worship of specific gods, desecration of graveyards, ritualistic drug use, animal sacrifice, various witchcraft and pagan rituals, and submission to sexual abuse or pain.
- Satanic gangs
- Experts note that many affluent gang members come from broken, unstable, or extremely dysfunctional homes. Their problems stem from problems like
- divorce, separation, physical or sexual abuse, or a drug-or alcohol-addicted parent.
-
This was a non-profit program, based on opportunity theory.
It provided employment, social services, teacher training, legal aid, and other crime-prevention service on New YorkÂ’s Lower East Side.
Little was done to evaluate the pro - Mobilization for Youth (MOBY)
- Based on HirschiÂ’s Social Control Theory. This part focuses on the informal systems of social control.
- The Microsociological Perspective
-
In this theory, Hirschi posited four social bonds that promote socialization and conformity:
a. Attachment: attachment to parents, school, and to peers
b. Commitment: commitment to or investment in conventional lines of action, incl - Social Control Theory
- Unlike it's little counter-part, in Hirschi's theory this perspective explores formal systems for the control of groups.
- Macrosociological Perspective
-
proposed that juveniles sense a moral obligation to be bound by the law.
When that bond is not present, the youth may enter into a state of this or a period of when he or she exists in limbo between conventional behavior and criminal behavior - Drift Theory
-
This person suggested that delinquency is the result of the failure of control mechanisms:
1. a failure to internalize socially accepted and prescribed norms of behavior;
2. a breakdown of internal controls; and
3. a lack - Albert J. Reiss
-
Jackson Toby proposed a model to explain delinquency.
1. He discusses the complimentary role of neighborhood social disorganization and an individualÂ’s own stake in conformity.
2. Toby posits that differing stakes in conformity, or - Personal and Social control model
-
This assumes that for every individual there exists a containing external structure and a protective internal structure, both of which provide defense, protection, or insulation against delinquency.
The outer containment is a structural buffer - Containment Theory
- Travis Hirschi and___________'s general theory of crime suggests that offenders have poor self-control, as a result of inadequate socialization and poor child-rearing practices, coupled with poor attachment.
- Michael Gottfredson
- This combines a criminological theory, such as differential association, with a number of social controls.
- Integrated theory
- These theories of crime are all explanations of onset, continuance, escalation, de-escalation, and desistance of offending behavior.
- Developmental/life course theories
- This theory suggests that the reactions of other people and the subsequent effects of those reactions create deviance
- Labeling theory
- Labeling theory emanates from a group of scholars, who viewed the human self as formed through a process of
- Social interaction.
-
As an assumption of the labeling theory this person contended that there are two kinds of deviant acts:
Primary and Secondary Deviations - Edwin Lemert
- In Edwin Lemert's assumptions of the labeling theory he states that_________ are the initial deviant acts that bring on the first social response; these acts do not affect the individualÂ’s self-concept.
- Primary Deviations
- In the assumptions of the Labeling Theory made by Edwin Lemmert, he states that ___________ are the acts that follow the societal response to the primary deviation; these acts result from the change in self-concept brought about by the labeling process
- Secondary deviations
-
During this era of protest, arrests of middle-class youth increased dramatically.
As a result, this led people to ask whether arrests were being made for behavior that was not really criminal, and whether the criminals were the people in gove - 1960s
- This person wrote states that "Deviance is not a quality of the act but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an "offender."
- Howard S. Becker
- This person states that Human behavior is deviant to the extent that it becomes viewed as involving a personality discreditable departure from a group's normative expectation, and it slicts interpersonal and collective reactions that serve to isolate, tr
- Kai Erickson
-
This person was known as the leading labeling theorist of the 1960s.
He elaborated on the explanations created by sociologist Kai Erickson. By stating that; human behavior is deviant to the extent that it comes to be viewed as involving a pers - Edwin Schur
- Labeling theory has been crucial in calling attention to the way individuals are processed through what type of American system?
- criminal justice system.
-
This is a model of the Conflic theory, which states that criminal lawbreaking assumes that members of society for the most part agree on what is right and wrong, and that law is the codification of these shared social values.
According to this - The Consensus Model
-
This term has its roots in rebellion and the questioning of values.
Those who believe in this, suggest that laws do not exist for the collective good, but that they represent the interests of specific groups that have the power to get them en - Conflict theory
- This person suggests that the entire process of lawmaking and crime control is a direct reflection of conflict between interest groups, all trying to get laws passed in their favor and to gain control of the police power.
- George Vold
-
This person argues that the consensus model is utopian.
a. Social change is constant, social conflicts are ever-present, disintegration and change are ongoing, and all societies are characterized by coercion of some people by others.
- Ralf Dahrendorf
- This person explained that criminality is a social status imposed on a class subordinate to the lawmakers.
- Austin Turk
-
According to Marx, society has always been organized in such a hierarchical fashion, with the state representing the interests of those who own the means of production, not the common good.
2. Capitalism breeds egocentricity, greed, and preda - Radical Theory
-
This person argued that in a modern capitalist society, people are not altruistic.
People concentrate on profit rather than in the needs of the community.
Capitalism encourages criminal behavior by creating a climate that is less co - Willem Adriaan Bonger
-
In___________________, Rusche and Kirchheimer advance that punishments have always been related to the modes of production and the availability of labor, rather than to the nature of the crimes themselves.
By revealing that the severe and crue - Punishment and the Social Structure
-
Radical Criminology since the 1970s
Is more concerned with the way the system controlled people than with the traditional _______________ explanations of crime and criminality. - Sociological and Psychological
-
The capitalist ruling class uses the criminal law to impose its will in the rest of the people in order to protect its property and to define as criminal any behavior that threatens the
__________________ - Status Quo.
- This person attacks Marxist criminology for focusing solely on class interests and ignoring the reality that society is made up of many interest groups.
- Klockars
-
these types find that the cause of female criminality is male aggression, as well as menÂ’s attempts to control and subordinate women.
Socialist feminists view female criminality in terms of class, gender, and race oppression. - Radical Feminist Theory
-
Recognize street crime as an inevitable outcome of social and political deprivation.
They seek a crime-control agenda capable of being implemented in a capitalist system that will protect the more vulnerable members of the lower classes from c - Left Realism
-
This is the belief that crime and punishment have a reciprocal effect on each other, with one causing the other.
b. advocates the redistribution of power.
c. Instead of opposing the circumstance in an organized fashion, anarchists c - Abolitionist Theory
- This is the belief that the destruction of communities by the state is the root of crime.
- Anarchist theory
-
Examines the location of a specific crime and the context in which it occurred in order to understand and explain crime patterns.
Unlike traditional criminological theories, this type criminology assumes that people are criminally motivated. - Environmental Criminology
-
Ronald Clarke and Derek Cornish developed this perspective based on:
a. Utilitarianism
b. Pleasure-Pain Principle
This perspective assumes that people make decisions with a goal in mind, and that these decisions are made with free wi - Rational-Choice Perspective
-
Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson suggest that a crime can occur only if there is:
a. A likely offender
b. A suitable target
c. Absence of a capable guardian
d. A revision of the approach added the absence of a personal handler.
< - Routine-Activity Approach
- These have been developed for the purposes of understanding crime from the victimÂ’s perspective, or with the victim in mind.
- Theories of victimization
-
These theories argue that variations in lifestyle affect the number of situations with high victimization risks that a person experiences.
This type theory of victimization centers on nine propositions.
This theory, along with the r - Lifestyle Theories
-
Marvin Wolfgang found that many victims actually bring upon themselves the attack that led to their murder.
He coined the term "victim precipitation - Victim-Offender Interaction
-
___________of crime have been used to deal with the following crime issues:
a. Burglars and burglaries
b. Robbers and robberies
c. Hot products
d. College campus crime - situational theories
-
These focus on the specific characteristics of situations in order to determine which factors account for the initial, as well as multiple, victimizations.
They dispel the misconception that crime is uniformly distributed.
Offenders - Repeat Victimization
-
Certain types of crimes are committed in specific places.
Efforts to prevent victimization should be focused on the place, and not the potential victim. - Hot Spots of Crime
-
These theories of crime focus on the interactions among the victim, the offender, and the place.
By combining theories of crime with lifestyle theory, situational factors, and place considerations to examine victimization rates, criminologica - Interrelatedness of Theories