3.

Theories of Crime Causation

[Explanations for the Causes of Crime]

3.1. Situational Theories of Crime

3.2. Biology and Crime: Criminal Anthropology

3.3. Psychological Theories: Mental Deficiency and Crime

3.4. Sociological Theories of Crime Causation

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 3.1. Situational Theories of Crime
 These theoretical approaches to crime are sometimes called “opportunity
theories” because they analyze the various situations that provide opportunities
for specific crimes to occur

 Proposed the following assumption

The
Crime Ten Principles
opportunities of Opportunity
are highly specific. and Crime

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 3.1.1. Environmental Criminology
 It examines the location of a specific crime and the context in which it occurred
in order to understand and explain crime patterns.

 Environmental criminologists ask,

Where and when did the crime occur?
What are the physical and social characteristics of the crime site?
What movements bring offender and target together at the crime site?

 They want to know how physical “location in time and space” interacts with
the offender, the target/victim, and the law that makes the crime an illegal act.

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  They see crime patterns by mapping crimes on global, country, province,
county, city, or site specific levels, such as a particular building or plot of land.
In the nineteenth century, André Guerry examined the spatial patterning
of crime through his comparison of conviction rates in various regions in
France.
 They also relate these crime patterns to the number of targets; to the offender
population; to the location of routine activities, such as work, school, shopping, or
recreation; to security; and to traffic flow.
Adolphe Quételet tried to establish links between seasonal differences
and the probability of committing crime. He found, for instance, that
property crimes increase in the winter months in France, whereas “the
violence of the passions predominating in summer, excites to more
frequent
 The analysis of spatial crime patterns owes much of its recent popularity to the
emergence of the rational-choice perspective.
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 3.1.2. Rational Choice Perspective
 Ronald Clarke and Derek Cornish developed it based on two main theoretical
approaches.
Utilitarianism:- assumes that people make decisions with the goal of
maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain.

Traditional economic choice theory:- argues that people evaluate the

options and choose what they believe will satisfy their needs.

 A person decides to commit a particular crime after concluding that the benefits
(the pleasure) outweigh the risks and the effort (the pain)

 It assumes that people make these decisions with a goal in mind and that they are
made more or less intelligently and with free will.
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  For them, most crime is neither extraordinary nor the product of a deranged mind.
Most crime is quite ordinary and committed by reasoning individuals who decide
that the chances of getting caught are low and the possibilities for a relatively
good payoff

 Since it treats each crime as a specific event and focuses on analyzing all its
components, it looks at crime in terms of an offender’s decision to commit a specific
offence at a particular time and place.

 A variety of factors (or characteristics) come into play when an offender decides
to commit a crime. These factors are called “choice structuring properties.”
With the emphasis of rational choice theory on analyzing each crime on a
crime specific basis, each particular type of crime has its own set of choice
structuring properties

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  Nevertheless, these properties tend to fall into the same seven categories.
Thus, a potential thief, before committing a theft, is likely to consider the
following aspects (categories):
• The number of targets and their accessibility
• Familiarity with the chosen method (e.g., fraud by credit card)
• The monetary yield per crime
• The expertise needed
• The time required to commit the act
• The physical danger involved
• The risk of apprehension[arrest]
 Characteristics fall into two distinct sets: those of the offender and those of the
offence. The offender’s characteristics include specific needs, values, learning
experiences, and so on. The characteristics of the offence include the location of the
target and the potential yield.
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  Unlike traditional theories, it is not concerned with strategies of overall crime
prevention. (It leaves those problems to others.) Rather, it is concerned with
reducing the likelihood that any given offence will be committed by some-body
“involved” in criminal activity.

 This theory, therefore, has its greatest potential in developing strategies to

frustrate perpetrators and to prevent them from committing a crime then and
there.

 It has its greatest challenge in demonstrating that such prevention will not
lead to the commission of the intended crime later on or to the commission of other
crimes (displacement).

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  For rational Choice theorists, involvement in crime depends on a personal
decision made after one has weighed available information.

Rational choice implies a limited sense of rationality.

 An offender does not know all the details of a situation; rather, he or
she relies on cues in the environment or characteristics of targets.

 This means the offender may not be able to calculate the costs and
benefits accurately, and in hindsight[perception], the decision may
seem foolish.

 Further, an offender may have an impaired ability to make wise choices,

perhaps because of intoxication from drugs or alcohol.

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 3.1.3. Routine-Activity Approach
According to Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson, a crime can occur only if
there is someone who intends to commit a crime (likely offender), something or
someone to be victimized (a suitable target), and no other person present to
prevent or observe the crime (the absence of a capable guardian).
Crime

Suitable Target Likely Offender

Absence of a Capable
Guardian Absence of
Personal Handler
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  It does not explore the factors that influence the offender’s decision to commit a
crime. Instead, they focused on the routine or everyday activities of people
[ going to work, pursuing recreation, running errands[responsibilities or
everyday jobs], and the like] through which offenders come into contact with
suitable victims and targets.
 It began with an analysis of crime rate increases in the post–World War II era
(1947 to 1974), when socioeconomic conditions had improved in N-America.
 They demonstrated that certain technological changes and alterations in the
workforce create new crime opportunities.

 The logic of the routine-activity argument is straightforward: Routine patterns of

work, play, and leisure time affect the convergence in time and place of
motivated offenders who are not “handled,” suitable targets, and the absence
of guardians.
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  If one component is missing, crime is not likely to be committed. And if all
components are in place and one of them is strengthened, crime is likely to
increase.

 This approach has helped explain, among other things, rates of victimization for
specific crimes, rates of urban homicide, and “hot spots”—areas that produce a
disproportionate number of calls to police.

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 3.2. Biology and Crime: Criminal Anthropology
 Between 1750 and 1850, Physiognomists and Phrenologists tried to prove that
there were links between the propensity to engage in criminal behavior and unusual
aspects of physical appearance (the face, ears, or eyes) and the shape of the
skull (bumps on the head being an indicator of dominant brain areas).

Criminal anthropology held that the worst criminals were atavists – genetic
throwbacks to an earlier stage of human evolution – or at least criminals who
were anatomically or physically different from law-abiding individuals.

Within the last two decades, biologists have followed in the tradition of Cesare
Lombroso, Raffaele Garofalo, and Charles Goring in their search for answers to
questions about human behavior.

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 Ceasare Lombroso: Genetics and Criminality
 Basing on his observations, he published a book titled “The Criminal Man” first
published in 1876 [and the recent edition in 1911]. He stated that
 Criminals were physically inferior in the standard of growth and therefore
developed a tendency for inferior acts.
 Criminals are less sensitive to pain and therefore they have little regard for the
sufferings of others
 Criminals were found to be similar as they could be savages [violent and brutal],
the insane [a complete lack of reason] and epileptic[medical disorder of the brain]
persons,
 Criminals could be distinguished from other people on the basis of
anatomical oddities,
 Women lacked the initiative to break laws, and therefore crime by a woman was a
deviation from her basic nature.
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  The search for obvious physical differences between criminals and non-criminals
did not work.

 In his later edition of his book (The Criminal Man) he gave more credit to environmental
influences such as the climate and local laws.

 He extended his theory of determinism to social as well as economic situations of

criminals.

 His focus shifted to an approach proposing that certain inherited qualities predisposed
certain people to act in criminal ways.
 But the pedigree (ancestry) analysis - which led many readers to conclude that a
propensity for crime was inherited - failed to separate the effects of genetics and
environment(e.g. the issue of role model).

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  Twin Study: In the 1920s, a German physician, Johannes Lange, found 30 pairs
of same-sex twins—13 identical and 17 fraternal pairs. One member of each pair was
a known criminal. Lange found that in 10 of the 13 pairs of identical twins, both
twins were criminal; in 2 of the 17 pairs of fraternal twins, both were
criminal.
It may not be valid to assume a common environment for all twins who grow up
in the same house at the same time.
 Adoption Studies in Sweden [1924-47] : Mednick and his associates reported
the following findings [on 4000 males from 14427 both sexes]
Biological parent with Adoptive Parent with Convicted criminals
No criminal record No criminal record 13.5%
No criminal Record Criminal Record 14.7%
Criminal Record No criminal Record 20%
Criminal Record Criminal Record 24.5%

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  No one yet has found any direct link between genes and violence. In fact, Sarnoff
Mednick, the psychologist who conducted adoption studies of criminal
behavior in Denmark, found no evidence for the inheritance of violence.
 It is unclear what we could do to prevent these children from following the
parental model

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 William Sheldon: Constitutional (Body Type) Determinants
 He, a professor in Colombia University, tried to establish a relation ship between
body structure [Physique] and behavior by identifying three basic dimensions of
body build.

 He developed his ideas from the fact that life begins in the embryo which is made
up of three different tissue layers, namely
 Endoderm: an inner layer which gives rise to the development of viscera
[ internal organs]
 Mesoderm: a middle layer which gives rise to bone, muscle and tendons-
tough bands or inelastic cords that connect muscle to bones- of the motor
organ system
 Ectoderm: an outer layer gives rise to connecting tissues of nervous
system, skin and related appendages
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  He observed that a person’s physical structure may be dominated by the basic
characteristics of any of these layers in varying degrees. Based on this he
developed three types of physical structure:

 Endodomorphic Structure:
 The person high in endomorph is soft, round and overweight.

 They are persons with fatty or bulky body having short tapering limbs
[narrowed limbs], small bones, soft and smooth skin and usually of a mild
temperament [moodiness, irritability or sensitiveness] and comfortable
persons.

 They are moody and accommodative by temperament

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  Mesomorphic Structure:
 The physique is hard and muscled-tough and Strong-as the athletic.

 These persons are strongly built with prominent muscles and bones and
connective tissue.

 They have hairy chest and large wrists [joint at base of hand] and hands.
 These persons are temperamentally serious, rigid, active, dynamic often
assertive and behave aggressively.

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  Ectomorphic Structure:
 These persons are characterized by a flat chest, a long thin body and a
little in the way of muscular development.
 They are are constitutionally lean [bend or be supported] and fragile with
delicate [non resistant] body, small face, sharp nose and fine hair
 They are sensitive by temperament and avoid crowds.
 On account of their delicate physical build up they are often shaky in
their decisions and are short tempered.
Limitations:
Not all the mesomorphics are criminals and not all criminals are
mesomorphic.
It essentially ignores hundreds of other attributes of the individual
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 3.3. Psychological Theories: Psychological Explanations
 All the approaches share the basic belief that “crime is the result of some
personality attribute uniquely possessed, or possessed to a special degree, by the
potential criminal”.

Variants : mental illness [personality disorder] vs. hereditary determinants

 Psychologists have considered a variety of possibilities to account for individual

differences such as
defective conscience,
emotional immaturity,
Inadequate childhood socialization,
maternal deprivation
poor moral development etc.
Of the several psychological explanations the following are important ones:
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 3.3.1. Criminal Thinking Patterns: Samuel Yochelson & Stanton E. Samenow

 These psychiatrists propose that, criminals possess a different way of thinking;

that is,
Criminals operate out of a unique set of cognitive patterns that, though
internally logical and consistent, is erroneous according to responsible
thinking.

The consistent lawbreaker sees himself and the world differently from
the way the rest of us see them.

 Rejecting environmental Explanation, they claim “criminals are criminals”—people

become criminals as a result of a series of choices they start making at an early
age. It is these patterns that result in criminality. Crime is like alcoholism: “Once a
criminal always a criminal”.
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  The psychiatrists saw the criminals they studied as very much in control of their
actions, rather than being “sick”.
These criminals were portrayed as master manipulators who try to assign
the blame for their own behavior to others.
The consistent lawbreaker sees himself and the world differently from
the way the rest of us see them.

 For them, criminals simply don’t play the game the ways the rest of us do.
They are such inveterate liars-habitual and firmly established telling of lie-
that they can no longer separate fact from fiction.
They use words to control and manipulate, not to represent reality.

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 Limitations:

 How can small incarcerated “hard- core” criminals or men who were hospitalized
after having been acquitted of major crimes by reason of insanity represents the
majority of law breakers?

 The criminal thinking patterns theory does not explain how these choices are
made in the beginning.

 All criminals may not have a tendency to repeat or continue the same pattern of
behavior.

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 3.3.2. Personality Defects

 Many lay persons explain the cause of crime as some form of personality defect in
the offender.
Taken to its extreme degree, this explanation forms the basis for theories
that attributes a basic anti-social nature of the criminal-
Psychopathic Conception.
 Psychopathy: a severe personality disorder marked by antisocial thought and
behavior. It refers to persons who have frequent and repetitive criminal activity.

 Recently, they started to focus on underlying un-socialized character, the lack of

conscience that brings such persons into repeated conflict with society, Their
inability to learn from experience or feel guilt and their disloyalty to individuals,
groups, or society’s values

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  As Nietzel observes,
They are grossly selfish, callous-hardhearted, and irresponsible

They tend to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for their behavior
All this combines to give them an arrogance that can lead to their down fall
and capture.

According to Goleman,
About 80% of psychopaths are men.
Psychopathic personality is relatively easy to identify but difficult to rehabilitate.
Fortunately, psychopaths account for a very small percentage of law violators.
However, they commit a disproportionately large percentage of violent crimes, and
their acts are such that they attract massive publicity.
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  For years, researchers have sought some physical or physiological characteristics
that distinguish psychopathic personalities from others.
A study concluded in 1987, has shown that psychopaths seem to have an
unusual and characteristic pattern of brain organization, in that the neurological
centre that controls language demonstrates signs of irregular development.

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 3.3.3. Psychoanalytic Explanations
It was based on Freud’s new conception of the personality, which contains three
systems
# id:
 It is the only part of the personality that is present at birth. It is inherited,
primitive, inaccessible, and completely unconscious. It contains two
kinds of instincts:
The life instincts, which are sexual instincts and biological urges such as
hunger and thirst, and
The death instinct, which accounts for our aggressive and destructive
impulses.
 The ‘id’ operates according to pleasure principle; that is, to seek pleasure, avoid
pain, and gain immediate gratification of its wishes.
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  The ‘id’ is the source of the libido, the psychic energy that fuels the entire
personality; yet the ‘id’ cannot act on its own. It can wish, image fantasize,
demand.

# ego:
 it is the logical, rational, realistic part of the personality. It evolves from the ‘id’
and draws its energy from the ‘id’.

 it functions to satisfy the ‘id’s urges. Since it is mostly conscious, it acts according
to the reality principle. It must consider the constraints of the real world in
determining the appropriate times, places and objects for gratification of the ‘id’s
wishes.

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 # superego:
 It is the moral component of the personality which is formed at the age of 5 or 6
with two parts:
The conscience consists of all the behaviors for which we have been
punished and about which we feel guilty;
The ego ideal contains the behaviors for which we have been praised and
rewarded and about which we feel pride and satisfaction.
 At first the ‘superego’ reflects only the parent’s expectations of what is good and
right, but it expands over time to incorporate teachings from the broader social
world.
 In its quest for moral perfection, the ‘superego’ sets moral guidelines that define
and limit the flexibility of the ‘ego’. It is the part of the unconscious that is the
voice of conscience (doing what is right) and the source of self-criticism.
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  Persons are sometimes aware of their own morality and ethics, but the superego
contains a vast number of codes, or prohibitions, that are issued mostly
unconsciously in the forms of commands or “don’t” statements.

 Using the id-ego-superego model, the basic cause of crime is over socialization,
leading to an overly harsh superego, which represses the id so harshly that
pressure builds up in the id and there is an explosion of acting-out behavior.

 This pressure build-up in the id contains both silenced and repressed urges as well
as a kind of frustration called guilt for impulsive actions which did damage to slip
out.

 Guilt is a very common problem because of all the urges and derives coming from
the id and all the prohibitions and codes in the superego. There are a variety of
ways an individual handles guilt, and these are called defense mechanisms.
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  Freud never really had much to say about crime, other than it was most likely
motivated by guilt, committed by people with over developed superegos, and
characterized by unconscious errors (Freudian slips) which appeared to represent
a desire to get caught and be punished (presumably as the superego punishes the
id).

 Neo-freudians [Such as August Aichorn] took the position that it was not
overdeveloped but an underdeveloped superego that primarily caused crime.

He argued that a lack of guilt would develop from too many selfish desires
for immediate gratification, and that the superego would be
overwhelmed most of the time (leaving little time for guilt).

He believed that some criminals, raised as children without loving parents

or parents at all, developed under regulated ids.
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 3.4. Sociological Theories of Crime Causation
 Biologists, psychologists and psychiatrists tend to favor individualistic or clinical
perspectives, that is, they identify and locate the pathological or crime-producing
factors within the individual.

 On the other hand sociologists focus on structural factors and social processes as
explanatory factors of crime.

Although there may be some factors related to criminal behavior at individual

level, the majority experts in the field believe that the key to understanding
delinquent or criminal behavior lies in the social environment.

 For sociologists, explanations of crime and delinquency as an individual-level

phenomenon fail to account for the consistent social patterns in deviance.

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 3.4.1. Social Structural Theories of Crime Causation
 Social structure theories hold that crime is a function of a person’s place (status) in
the socioeconomic structure.

According to sociologists who employ structural model, crime is best seen as an

expression of structural changes in the economy, opportunities, societal values,
and changing roles and relationships.

 Sociologists look at the social forces producing criminal behavior, including

neighborhood condition, poverty, socialization, and group interaction (Siegel,
2003: 14)

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 3.4.1. 1. Poverty, Inequality, unemployment and Crime
 Poverty, or stratification by social class, though some say religion, was the first
sociological variable ever looked into as a possible cause of crime for the
following reason:
it was an enduring social problem in all societies across time, like crime; and

it was suspected that something in the causes of poverty were the same as
as the causes of crime.

 Things like poverty and crime seemed like things that were here to stay, as part
and parcel of any given society.

Social class is sociology’s main predictor of beliefs, behavior, life-styles and of life
itself.

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  Poverty and inequality are not the same thing.

Poverty is generally regarded as absolute deprivation (or at least a rate or

average across an entire population), and

It can be defined as the lack of some fixed level of material goods

necessary for survival and minimal needs.

Modern criminologists study inequality (who’s worse off), which is

regarded as relative deprivation, well being.

It refers to a comparison between the material level of those who have

the least in a society and the material level of the group in that society.

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  Consequently, a country in which everyone is poor will have poverty but not
equality. Likewise, a fairly well-off country can have inequality but no poverty.

Structural poverty may exist in different forms in different regions of the same
country.

 There are a number of different ways to measure poverty and inequality. These
include: unemployment, high rates of divorce, single parent households, high
population density, dilapidated (decayed) housing, poor schools, residential
mobility, population turnover, concentration of minorities, etc. the problem is that
all these things are highly correlated with one another.

 In research, this is called the problem of multicolinearity, where all the possible
causal factors are highly correlated with one another.

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  Theoretically, the relationship between inequality and crime is believed to
operate through a person’s individual assessment of the equity of a particular
distribution of economic resources.

Some individuals respond by resorting to property crime to address their

grievances, and other people develop a deep anger can be manifested in violent
ways.

Not all people who perceive wage inequality resort to crime. Some
become entrepreneurs, others get involved I political action, and still others
direct the feelings of anger and frustration toward themselves.

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  It’s often thought that more crime occurs during economic downturns
(Unemployment), and this is generally true, for the most part.

However, some studies have found that crime actually decreases during such
periods. Juvenile delinquency, for example, is often referred to as a crime of
affluence, because it goes up during economic upswings; i.e., when
unemployment is low.

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 3.4.1. 2. Social Disorganization Theories of Crime
 Social disorganization basically refers to the failure of social institutions or social
organizations (e.g., schools, business, policing, real states, group networking) in
certain communities and/or neighborhoods (although nothing prohibits such theories
from being couched at the “macro” level to talk about all of the society).

 It has its origin to the ecological school which refers to a group of professors
associated with the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago from
1920 to 1932
These professors include: Small, Mead, Park, Burgess, Faris, Ogburn, and
Wirth.
In addition, Sutherland and Thrasher worked there for a while, and

Some of the more well-known students were Shaw and Mckay, Everett
and Helen Hughes, and Saul Alinsky.
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  Shaw and Mckey (1942), who borrowed from Park and Burgess, and developed
cultural transmission theory in the 1930s and 1940s, are probably the most famous.

 However, Shaw and Mckey’s ideas have been extensively improved upon in
recent years. For example, Robert Sampson and colleagues (1997) added the terms
“collective efficacy” and “social capital” to the criminological vocabulary.

Collective efficacy refers to a community’s ability to maintain order in

public places;
Social capital refers to having many informal networks (interdependence,
relying upon anther, ties) within a community; and

a community must first have social capital in order to have collective

efficacy.

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  Cohen and Felson’s (1979) routine activities theory is also often treated in
criminology as an example of a modern social disorganization theory. This theory
holds that in order to eliminate crime anyplace, you need to address three
necessary conditions:
pool of motivated offenders;
suitable targets of opportunity; and
ineffective guardianship.

 All social disorganization theories are really theories about place, not people,
(contextual, not compositional), and to understand them; it’s best to start at the
beginning with the Chicago School.

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 Assumptions of the Chicago School (Social Disorganization)

Although there is probably much disagreement over it, the following are some of
the important assumptions in most, if not all, social disorganization theories.

 Crime and delinquency are caused primarily by social factors (environmental

determinism)
 The facts speak imperfectly for themselves, but better if fitted into theory
(positivism)
 Official statistics are OK, but field work is better (acceptance of official arrest
data)
 The city is a perfect natural laboratory (cities like Chicago reflect society as a
whole)
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  Components of social structures are unstable (conflict, anomie, social
disorganization; conflict and anomie if talking about political economy or society;
social disorganization if talking about cities and neighborhoods)
 Instabilities and their effects are worse for the lower classes (lower class crime
focus)
 Human nature is basically good (social ability thesis) but subject to
vulnerability and inability to resist temptation.

 The city is a perfect natural laboratory (cities like Chicago reflect society as a
whole)

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 Concentric Zone Theory

Park and Burgess were two Chicago School professors who shared the same
office, and they were the ones who take the ecological “plant” or organic
approach the furthest in sociology.

 They saw cities as consisting of five zones (CBD- Central Business Center,
transition, workingmen, residential, and commuter), each gradually invading and
dominating the adjacent zones, with an overall growth outward.

 At the time their findings were quite radical for the idea that cities grow from
the inside out. The “natural” process was one of invasion, dominance, and
succession; much like the way a new species of plant takes control of an
ecosystem.

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  Their “zonal hypothesis” was that delinquency is greatest in the zone of
transition [zone 2].

 They defined social disorganization as “the inability of a group to engage in

self-regulation” which is a social control theoretic formulation.

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 Gang Theory

One of the more important contributions of the Chicago School was early gang theory
which gave way to host of different approaches that are often called cultural
deviance or sub-cultural theories, which emerged in the 1950s.

 These involved explorations into.

how delinquent subcultures arise in urban, lower class areas (strain
theories);
how subcultures of violence remains so enduring in city slums;
how lower class culture as a whole influences urban gang delinquency; and
how the mechanisms of learning delinquency work

 Many modern gang theories continue to reflect these concerns and have
decidedly cultural and sub-cultural emphases of a “gang”.
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 Cultural Transmission Theory [Shaw and Mckey’s social disorganization theory]

Specialized in using official data to make pin maps, spot maps, rate maps, and
zone maps and aggressively borrowing from Park and Burgess, the two hardcore
sociologists of deviance, Shaw and Mckey

 studied and noticed that the same neighborhoods in Chicago seemed to have
about the same delinquency rates regardless of which ethnic group moved in.

 “I never met a delinquent who acted alone” , Shaw.

 Their ideas developed into Cultural Transmission Theory (or Shaw and
Mckey’s 1942 social disorganization theory), which was a dominant
criminological theory for much of the 20th century.

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  The theory simply states that “traditions of delinquency are transmitted
through successive generations of the same zone in the same way
language, roles, and attitudes are transmitted.”

 They defined social disorganization as “the inability of local communities to

realize the common values of their residents or solve community
experienced problems.”
 Many researchers in criminology have focused on how criminal traditions get
embedded into the functioning of a community and co-exist alongside
conventional values.
 Some of these foci resulted in sub cultural theories, a separate (and
somewhat ethnocentric) area of criminology that emerged that lower-class
neighborhoods simply tend to have different values and needs, and are simply
organized differently in ways that best serve their interests.

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  Sutherland (1947) termed the phenomenon differential social organization
(instead of disorganization, to avoid any implied value judgments the term
“disorganization” implies).

 The three traditional sources of social disorganization in social disorganization

theory [residential instability/mobility; racial/ethnic heterogeneity; and
poverty] are ways in which “criminal traditions” got embedded into
communities.
 Shaw and Mckey were also concerned about the three D’s of poverty: Disease,
Deterioration, and demoralization. They never said that poverty causes
crime. Poverty, by itself, is never a cause of crime; it only facilitates crime by
deprivation of adequate resources to deal with crime.

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  They only said that “poverty areas” tended to have high rates of residential
mobility and racial heterogeneity that made it difficult for communities in
those areas to avoid becoming socially disorganized.

 These two population variables (mobility or turnover which impedes informal

social structures of social control, and heterogeneity which obstructs the
quest to work together on common problems) have become the primary
causal variables for social disorganization theories.
 Most policy implications in social disorganization theory are dedicated to
finding alternative to incarceration[imprison]. Social disorganization would justify
youth athletic leagues, recreational programs, summer camps, along with
urban planning and alternative to incarceration as crime control policy.

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 3.4.1. 3. Strain Theories of Crime
Strain theory has fairly consistently captured the imagination of criminologists for
over a century, and may well be the most theoretically explored area of criminology.
 Strain (structural strain) refers generally to the processes by which inadequate
regulation at the societal level filters down to how the individual perceives his or her
needs.
Strain (individual strain) refers to the frictions and pains experienced by the
individual as they look for ways to meet their needs (the motivational mechanism
that causes crime).
Durkheim’s theory of anomie is the basis for strain theory, at least in so far
“anomie” is translated as “deregulation.” It should be noted that control theories
also trace their inspiration to Durkheim, and have translated “anomie” as
“normlessness”.
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 Durkheim's Theory of Crime
His view that social forces caused crime [was extremely radical at the time] is found
in his concept of “anomie” developed in the book, Suicide, published in 1897,
Suicide could be explained in terms a variety of social facts affecting individual.
 The following are types of suicide identified by Durkheim

 Egoistic Suicide: low integration

- lack of full participation together with emotional involvement that
participation entails
- feeling of isolation, deprivation & detachment
Altruistic suicide: extreme integration
- when group norms, expectations(goals), values, customs have an
extreme influence to force the individual.
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  Anomic suicide: low regulation
-failure to internalize the norms of society
-inability to adjust to changing norms
-tension resulting from conflicting norms
-disjunction b/n means & ends
-breakdown of social norms

Fatalistic suicide: excessive regulation

-seeing nothing bright in the future
-being pessimistic/hopeless

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  Durkheim’s theory of crime is embedded in his more general theory of
modernization (the progression of societies from mechanical to organic
solidarity).

 The main direction of society is seen in growing division of labor & differentiation
of tasks, duties, occupational roles as society moves forward.

 Based on the quality of social bond society is divided in to two:

Mechanical Society and
Organic Society

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 Mechanical Solidarity Organic Solidarity

Characteristics of Pre industrial society Industrial society

Main Similar, uniform moral & religious Highly differentiated tasks, &
Social bond consensus mutual dependence
Position of Collectivism, focus on group or Trying to achieve
individual community individual interest

Economic Isolation, sufficient, limited Division of labor, mutual

structure exchange with outsider world dependence of groups &
exchange
Social control Repressive laws, punish offenders Restitutive laws, safeguarding
[criminal laws] contract
[civil laws]

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  In mechanic solidarity, crime is normal (punishing criminals maintains social
solidarity through a process of invidious (unfair, unhappiness) comparison).

In organic societies, the function of law is to regulate the interactions of various
parts of the whole of society. When this regulation is inadequate, a variety of
social problems occur, including crime.

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 Merton's Strain Theory of Crime
 The cornerstone of what is known as “the means-end theory of deviance” is that
crime breeds in the gap, imbalance, or dysfunction between culturally induced
aspirations for economic success and structurally distributed possibilities of
achievements.
 Merton’s strain theory of crime can be seen from his general categories of people
with regards to their relationship to culturally accepted goals and the means to
achieving those goals.

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 Cultural Normative
Goals means
Conformists accept accept successful investor or businessman who is economically
successful because of their employment or hard work
Ritualists reject accept a middle-management worker who cares little for
wealth but still continues to climb the socioeconomic
ladder through traditional means and hard work.
Innovators accept reject Stock broker who engages in illegal insider trading, drug
dealers, thieves, and prostitute
Retreatists reject reject Severe alcoholics, some homeless people, and hermits
who avoids societal goals and means without replacing
those norms with their own counter-cultural forces
Rebels reject reject American Nazi party, “skinheads,” and the Ku Klux Klan
who reject societal goals and mean but substitute with
the new ones

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  The theory assumes fairly uniform economic success aspirations across social
classes, and explain why crime is concentrated among the lower classes who
have the least legitimate opportunities for achievement.

 Merton argued that the combination of the cultural emphasis and social structure
which produces intense pressure for deviation”.

For him, the lower class is the most vulnerable to this pressure, or strain, and will
maintain their unfulfilled economic aspirations in spite of frustration or failure.

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  he also stated that Imperfect coordination of means and ends leads to limited
effectiveness of social structure in providing regularity and predictability and a
condition of “anomie or cultural chaos supervenes[follow unexpectedly and
immediately].
 It must be remembered that Merton (1938) regarded his typology of adaptations as
making links between structural inequality and individual behavior for the sole purpose
of shedding light on structural strain.
 Behaviorally, however, innovators tend to be more involved in property offenses,
ritualists more involved in deviance, retreatists more involved in drug use, and rebels
represented in all crime categories.
 He proposed anomie to be a situation in which societies inadvertently[in careless
manner or without realizing] bring to bear pressure, or strain, on individuals that can
lead to rule-breaking behavior. This pressure or strain is caused by the discrepancy
between culturally defined goals and the institutionalized means available to achieve
these goals
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 Theories of Cultural Poverty
 This theories view that lower-class people form a separate culture with their own
values and norms, which are sometimes in conflict with conventional society.
They tie crime rates to socioeconomic conditions and cultural values.
Areas that experience high levels of poverty and social disorganization
have high crime rates.

Those neighborhoods that become disorganized are incapable of social

control because they are wracked by deterioration and economic failure;
they are most at risk for crime.

In such areas social institutions such like schools and churches cannot
work an effective social control effort.
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  Strain theorists argue that although most people share common values and
goals, the means for legitimate economic and social success are stratified by
socioeconomic class.

Hence, the state of anomie occurs when the goals cannot be achieved
using available means.

It links criminal behavior to the strain of being blocked out of the

socioeconomic mainstreams.

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 Cultural Deviance Theory
 This theory holds that deviance is the result of people’s desire to conform to
lower-class neighborhood cultural values that conflict with those of the larger
society.
By joining gangs and committing crimes, lower-class youths are rejecting
the culture that has already rejected them.
Both legitimate and illegitimate opportunities are closed to youths in the
most disorganized inner-city areas.
 All social structure theorists believe that social conditions control behavior
choices.
Neighborhoods that provide few employment opportunities are the most
vulnerable to predatory crime.
Lack of employment opportunity also limits the authority of parents,
reducing their ability to influence their children.
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 Theory of Differential Opportunity Structures
 It claims that poverty of the lower classes prevents them from using legitimate
means, such as education, to acquire valued goods, thus giving them no
alternative but engage in illegitimate activities.

Whether they actually commit crimes depends on their access to the structures of
illegitimate opportunity.

The logical conclusion is that opening up avenues of educational and economic

opportunity will reduce criminality

It also stresses access to illegitimate means, and it is this aspect that may
represent the key, rather than the blocking of economic and educational
opportunities, to an understanding of criminality in less developed countries.

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 Messner and Rosenfeld’s Strain Theory
 They (1994) developed an institutional theory similar to Merton’s, sometimes
called “American Dream theory”.
The American dream is a broad, cultural ethos that entails a commitment to the
goal of material success, to be pursued by huge multinational corporations.
Their argument is not only that concern for economics has come to dominate
culture, but that the noneconomic institutions in society have tended to become
subservient to the economy. Goals other than material success (such as
parenting, teaching, and serving the community) are just not important any
more.
The cause of crime is anomie, and the American Dream fosters anomie.
Since the emphasis is upon seeking the most efficient way to achieve
economic success, crime is often seen as the most efficient way to make
immediate monetary gain.
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  Beliefs, values, and commitments are the causal variables
Commitment -devotion to the goal of material success- is the main causal
variable.
Achievement [involves the use of material success to measure one’s self-
worth] and Individualism [the notion of intense personal competition to
achieve material success] are two of the values that make up American
Dream
Universalism [the idea that chances for success are open to everyone] and
“fetishism” of money [the notion that there are no rules for when enough
is enough, when it comes to money] are beliefs that may create an
intense fear of failure.

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 3.4.2. Social Process Theories of Crime Causation
view crime as the result of a person’s interaction with agents of socialization

 emphasize on socialization as the key determinant of behavior.

 Socialization: process of guiding people into acceptable behavior patterns through
information, approval, rewards, and punishments.

Criminal behavior is, therefore, the result of incomplete or negatively focused

socialization process (Siegel, 2003).

Sociologists believe that the socialization process affects social deviance in three
different ways: learning, control, and reaction.
Hence, Social Learning, Control, and Labeling theories are all examples of
social process theories.
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 3.4.2. 1. Social Learning Theories of Crime
 Criminality is a function of individual socialization, how individuals have been
influenced by their experiences or relationships with family relationships, peer
groups, teachers, church, authority figures, and other agents of socialization.
Learning: habits and knowledge that develop as a result of experiences with the
environment, as opposes to instincts.
Two types of learning in behavioral psychology :
Classical conditioning:- stimuli produce a given response without a prior
training
Operant conditioning:- rewards and punishments are used to reinforce
given responses. E.g. verbal behavior, sexual behavior, driving a car,
writing a paper, wearing clothing, or living in a house.
Most social behavior is of an operant nature. E.g. Imitation is oldest
social learning theory of Tarde (1843-1904)
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  Accordingly, social learning theories argue that criminal behavior develops by
learning the values, attitudes, and behaviors associated with criminal behavior.

Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory

His study of white collar crime (a field he pioneered) and professional theft led
him to believe that there were social learning processes that could turn anyone into
criminal, anytime, anywhere.

He (1883-1950) believed that as children are socialized, they are exposed to and
learn both pro-social and anti-social attitudes and behaviors from friends,
relatives, parents, and so on.

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 He developed nine propositions which explained the process by which
transmission of values takes place

 Criminal behavior is learned

 Criminal behavior is learned in interaction[participation] with other
persons in a process of [verbal and non verbal] communication.
 The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within
intimate personal groups [Families and friends ].

 the learning of crime includes techniques of committing the crime, and

the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.

 The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of

the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable to violate.
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  A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions
favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law

 Differential association may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and

intensity as per to the frequency of contacts, their duration, and their
meaning to the individual.

 The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and

anti-criminal patterns involves all the mechanisms that are involved in any
other learning of conventional behavior patterns

 While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is

not explained by those general needs and values, since noncriminal
behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.

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 Jeffery’s Differential Reinforcement Theory
A criminal act may lead to reinforcement, but it may also lead to punishment.
he argues that crime occurs because criminal acts in the past, for a particular actor,
have not been punished enough.

Criminals have different conditioning histories.

It is possible for a person living in a criminal environment to not become a
criminal and for criminals to be found in noncriminal environments.
Associations with others do not matter.

Jeffery’s theory is compatible with the classical school of criminology in that

perceived certainty of punishment, not its severity, is what deters people from
criminal acts.
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 Matza’s Nuetralization Theory
It holds that people learn the values, attitudes, and techniques of criminal
behavior through subterranean (underground) values, which exist side by side
with conventional values. Few people are “all good” or “all bad”.

He argues that most criminals are not involved in criminal all the time. They drift
from one behavior to another, sometimes deviant, and sometimes conventional.

He states that criminals frequently admire honest, law abiding persons, and
therefore are not immune from guilt and the demands of conformity.

He also identified the following techniques of neutralization that criminals use to
escape from the demands of conventionalism:

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  Denial of responsibility: It is not my fault; I didn’t have a choice

 Denial of injury: It’s not big deal; they have too much money

 Denial of victim: They had it coming; they had a bad attitude

Condemnation of the condemners: Everybody does it: Why me?

 Appeal to higher loyalties: only cowards back down; protecting.

Neutralization theory can explain the behavior of occasional criminals, like

shoplifters or poachers.

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 3.4.2. 2. Control Theories of Crime
 Social control is interrelated in complex ways with social inequalities of resources
and power, political economy, organizational phenomena, cultural meanings,
race and ethnic relations, gender issues, and other sociological issues
Control theorists ask why most people do not commit crime.
They argue that there is no problem of explaining why people commit
crime since all human beings suffer from innate human weaknesses which
make them unable to resist temptation.
 They focus on “restraining” or “controlling” factors that are broken or missing
inside the personalities of criminals.
They posit that deviance results from a weakened commitment to the major
social institutions (family, peers, and schools).
lack of such commitments allows people to exercise antisocial behavioral
choices.
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 Early Argument [1951]: psychiatric sense
Delinquency was the result of a failure of personal and social controls.
 Personal control problems stemmed from the juveniles’ inability to refrain from
meeting their needs

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 Drift Theory of Matza
Delinquents “drift” in and out of crime on occasional basis, most of the time
conforming, some of them offending.

In addition, most offenders “age out” of crime and settle down to law-abiding
lifestyles.

Their part-time involvement in crime is due to their “neutralizing”, not rejecting,

society’s standards.

Drift[ move or wander aimlessly is caused by a broad sense of injustice and a sense
of irresponsibility, both reinforced by the potential delinquent’s perceptions of
conventional legal standards for justice.

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 Hirschi (1969): Causes of Delinquency
He identified the following components of what he calls the “social bond” – things
that keep people from committing criminal acts:

 Attachment: affection and sensitivity to others

 Commitment: investment in conventional society or stake in community

 Involvement: being busy, restricted opportunities for delinquency

 Belief: degree to which person thinks they should obey the law.
These components are associated with family, peer relationship, school and
religion factors
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 3.4.2. 3. Labeling Theories of Crime
 They argue that the way society reacts to individuals and the way individuals
react to society determines behavior.

It posits that society creates deviance through a system of social control agencies
that designate (or label) certain individuals as criminal, thereby stigmatizing them
and encouraging them to accept this negative identity.

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  They believe that labeling and reacting to offenders as “criminals” has
unanticipated negative consequences, depending on the criminal behavior making
the crime problem worse.

 For them, the criminal justice system is dangerous in the sense that it is “casting
the net” of social control too widely. Thus, net-widening, or any state
intervention, is inherently criminogenic.

They do have revisionist assumptions: critical of conceptions that crime is behavior

that violates criminal law.

To be sure, they agree that certain acts, like murder, are inherently reprehensible.

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  However, they argue it’s not the harm that makes an act “criminal”, but whether
the label is conferred on the act, and this varies from situation to situation.
The audience, not the actor, determines when certain behavior becomes
defined as crime. This is called the social constructionist viewpoint that
crime varies from situation to situation, across time and place. .

Tannenbaum (1938) : dramatization of evil

 he argued that the process of tagging, defining, identifying, segregating,

describing, and emphasizing, any individual out for special treatment becomes a way
of stimulating, suggesting, and evoking the very traits that are complained of.

A person becomes a thing they are described as being.

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 Becker (1963): Moral Entrepreneur
He coined the term to describe individuals who lead campaigns to outlaw certain
behaviors by making them “criminal.”

Being a criminal becomes a person’s master status. It controls the way they are
identified in public. Others do not consider their other statuses – that of spouse,
parent, or worker – only that they are first and foremost a criminal.

Sometimes this public scrutiny might scare or shame a person into conformity,
but most likely it has the effect of pushing the person to the point where they
give up all further attempts to conformity.

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 Resent Stand [1974]

 Although social constructivist accounts are still there, labeling theory

accommodated itself to legalistic definitions, or at least a focus on state power.

 Modern labeling theories came to recognize that societies “create” crime by

passing laws, and that the substantive nature of the law should be an object of
study.

 Sometimes these are called criminalization theories, and they have some
resemblance with societal reaction approaches

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 3.4.3. Social Conflict Theories of Crime
They consider criminal behavior to be a result of economic deprivation caused by
the inequities of the capitalist system of production
 The unequal distribution of wealth and power resulted in the constant state of
internal and intergroup conflict with in a society-the root causes of crime.
 Those in power use the justice system to maintain their status while keeping
others subservient.
The law and the justice system are vehicles for controlling the have-not members of
society;
Legal institutions help the powerful and rich to impose their standards of good
behavior on the entire society.
The competition and conflict between incompatible values and interests has an
implication of the idea is that people with less power are more likely to be
defined and processed as deviants and criminals.
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 3.4.3. 1. The Marxist Tradition
 There must be something rotten in the core of a social system which increases its
wealth without diminishing its misery, and increases in crime even more than its
numbers

 In Marxism, humans are never completely socialized, claim higher loyalties than
societal norms, and are culture-builder not culture-products.
Explanations of crime based on socialization experiences, normative
structures, and cultural demands are therefore incompatible with Marxist
tradition.
Reject both classical (free will) and positive (determinism) traditions
Social institutions such as laws and the state as well as ideologies are only
reflections of economic realities.
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 For example the efficient capitalism created the surplus population which
is seen as a threat, and hence the economically powerful use the laws and
state to avoid the threat and protect their interests.

The Surplus population’s economic powerlessness translates into political

powerlessness.

 In response to the expropriation of their labor and exploitation of their potential

in commercialized relationships, criminals come to recognize their true objective
interests and engage in proto-revolutionary action to bring about the end of
capitalism

 Marxist penology (Adamson 1984) pays little attention to the abolishment of

crime, but very definitely wants to abolish prisons. Rehabilitation of prisoners is
rejected as a strategy because it would only serve bourgeois interests (Scull 1977)

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  Bonger (1916), a traditional Marxist, saw capitalism as breeding social
irresponsibility and saw conflict as likely to continue indefinitely because
capitalism creates a climate of motivation for crime.

 Chambliss (1975) formulated a theory of lawmaking, lawbreaking, and law

enforcement based on ideas that law expands as class gaps widen and both crime
and crime control divert attention from real economic problems.

 Quiney’s writings (1974; 1977) tend to center upon the notion of class
fragmentation, or how the ruling class gets the lower classes to fight amongst
themselves.

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 3.4.3. 2. The Weberian Tradition
 He viewed humans as benevolent and brotherly. Flesh and blood (realpolitik)
individuals are both actors and agents of society.
They pursue a variety of ends, not always in a rational manner.
The most important of these ends is the power to affect decisions of
authorities.
Collins (1975) argued that people are seen as preferring to give rather
receive orders, with prestige being their main interest, and conflict is
inherent in competition for the scarce resources.

The law will be used more severely against the poor and
uneducated.
Law is also greater where other forms of social control (like
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etiquette, custom, folkways, and ethics) are weak. 92
  Mcgarell and Catellano (1991) provide a theory of differentiation consistent with
the Weberian tradition.

Differentiation is defined as a social condition where people are vastly

different in race, ethnicity, religion, urbanization, and inequality.

Greater differentiation is associated with greater interpersonal and

intergroup conflict.

The higher the level of conflict is the greater the use of criminalization as a
method to deal with the conflicts.

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11/03/21 19:29 94
  Vold’s (1958) group conflict theory consists of the idea that continually competing
interest groups come into conflict with one another, and those that oppose the
interests of dominant groups are more likely to violate the law

Groups are continuously being formed and at risk of displacement by

other groups.
Group contact is described as the expression of force-ratio between
dominant and minority interests.
Law formalizes these ratios as positions of strength to position of
weakness.
Crime is always in defense of one’s group interests.

Quinney (1969; 1970) argued the powerless will have their definitions

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