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SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL THEORIES OF CRIME

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL THEORIES OF CRIME.

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SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL THEORIES OF CRIME

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  1. SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL THEORIES OF CRIME

  2. …while socialisation theories assume original sin, and focus on the development or restraints or inhibitions against deviance, social psychological and sociological theories …assume that humans are essentially conforming, and deviate only when pressured into doing so by societal influences. This…explains why sociology has produced several theories of crime and delinquency, while psychological accounts of crime are usually derivatives of more general theories of development and learning (p. 88)

  3. Sociological TheoriesDifferential Association • Main thesis: different socal organisation implies different subcultural traditions; this potentially brings conflicting norms. • Emphasize the process – ratio of exposure- by which criminogenic traditions are transmitted; takes the form of 9 propositions • Critics: untestable, only accounts for the acquisition of criminal tendencies, not for performance

  4. Sociological TheoriesStrain and subcultural theories • Main thesis of strain theory: people hates wide disparity between aspirations and expectations, and may turn to illegitimate behavior • Main thesis of subcultural theory: there is normative conflict between class cultures or subcultures. • Critics: both overpredicts crime among the working class and young people

  5. Sociological TheoriesControl Theory • Main thesis: restraining factors are needed to ensure conformity • The role of self control • Violations of social restraints involve personal costs • Critics: not credible explanation toward the low self control people

  6. Sociological TheoriesLabelling theory • Main thesis: social reactions to norms violation may alter the course of deviance • 3 assumptions: Crime is a label; reactions are governed by characteristics of offenders; a deviant self-image fosters a delinquent career • Primary deviance and secondary deviance • Critics: too much focusing the underdog

  7. (Psychologists)…claimed that the acquisition and maintenance of Criminal and noncriminal behavior are governed by the same principles And that no special theory of crime is therefore necessary. However, (psychologists) … must explain how people come to enact behaviors which they know to be socially prohitibited or morally condemned (p. 94)

  8. Learning TheoriesThree distinctive schools • Applied behavioural analysis • Neo-behaviourism • Social learning theory • Increasingly concern with cognition as the structuring of experience – social cognitive theory • Knowledge exerts control over behavior

  9. Two dominant themes in learning perspectives on crime • Views crime and delinquency as a failure of socialisation • Views crime as a learned phenomenon

  10. Early learning models of criminal behaviour drew on two-process theory. Behaviour is stimulated by the development of conditioning and avoidance learning

  11. TWO VIEWS ON • SOCIALISATION PROCESS : • Internalisation of cues associated with punishment • The emphasis of SLT on cognitive learning and mediation (p. 97) • Key theme: criminal acts are operants acquired and maintained by their reinforcing consequences

  12. Learning theory and sociological theories of crime • Burgess & Akers: “Intimate personal groups” theory • Andrews: The contingent effects of exposure to criminal and anticriminal pattern + interpersonal conditions on criminal attitudes and behavior in the context on interventions within prison & probation services • Hirschi: control theory toward delinquents

  13. In contrast to positivist models,,,, the classical utilitarianism…saw criminal behavior as the outcome of rational calculation of the costs and benefits of alternative courses of action (p. 103)

  14. Environmental Criminology • Main thesis: criminality prevails according to environmental opportunities and situational constraint • Environmental determinism - key concepts: defensible space, routine activities, situational crime prevention, target hardening

  15. The deterrence hypothesis • Deterrence: any process by which an act is prevented or hindered, and is entailed in any consideration of compliant behavior • Bentham: when the calculated costs of punishment outweight the subjective benefits, a criminal behavior is deterred • Deterrence is in fact a variable

  16. Limited Rationality • Three assumptions by Clarke & Cornish (p. 108) • Limited rationality as against normative rationality – the exercise of limited factors prior committing crime

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