Schmall crim today8e_ppt_ch7

Criminology Today
An Integrated Introduction
CHAPTER
Criminology Today: An Integrated Introduction, 8e
Frank Schmalleger
Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Social Structure
Theories
7

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Frank Schmalleger
Major Principles of Sociological
Theories
• Social structure theories examine:
 Institutional arrangements within a
social structure
 Social processes as they affect
socialization and have an impact on
social life
• Macro focus
 Stress types of behavior likely to be
exhibited by group members

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Frank Schmalleger
Figure 7–1 Major Principles of Sociological Theories of Crime
Source: Schmalleger, Frank, Criminology. Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson
Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

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Frank Schmalleger
Key Sociological Explanations For
Crime
• Social structure theories
 Crime is the result of an individual's
location within the structure of society.
• Social process and social development
theories
 Crime is the end product of various
social processes.
• Conflict theories
 Crime is the product of class struggle.

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Frank Schmalleger
Social Structure Theories
• See formal and informal economic and
social arrangements of society as the
root causes of crime and deviance
• See negative aspects of social structure
as producers of criminal behavior
• Highlight arrangements within society
that contribute to low SES of
identifiable groups as significant causes
of crime

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Frank Schmalleger
Social Disorganization Theory
• Associated with the ecological school of
criminology
• W.I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki
 Found crime rates rose among displaced
persons
 Suggested cause was social
disorganization due to immigrants'
inability to transplant norms and values
from home cultures into the new one

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The Chicago School
• Social ecology
 Links structure, organization of human
community to interactions with its
localized environment
 Social pathology-based disease model
• Robert Park and Ernest Burgess
 Viewed cities as having five concentric
zones, each with unique characteristics
and populations

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Figure 7–2 Chicago’s Concentric Zones

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Shaw and McKay
• Applied concentric zone model to study
of juvenile delinquency
• Found offending rates remained
constant over time within zones of
transition
• Cultural transmission
 Traditions of delinquency transmitted
through successive generations in the
same zone

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The Chicago School
• Research demonstrated tendency for
crime to be associated with urban
transitional zones.
• Key contribution of ecological school
 Society has a major influence on human
behavior.

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The Criminology of Place
• Environmental criminology
• Emphasizes importance of geographic
location and architectural features in
terms of prevalence of victimization
continued on next slide

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• Sherman
 "Hot spots" of crime
 Place-based crime prevention
• Stark
 Theory of deviant neighborhoods

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• Broken windows theory
 Wilson and Kelling
 Neighborhood physical deterioration
lead to increased crime, delinquency,
vandalism
 Led to increase in "order maintenance
policing" and crackdown on quality-of-
life offenses

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• Defensible space
 Oscar Newman
 The range of mechanisms that combine
to bring an environment under the
control of its residents

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• Criminology of place holds that location
can be as predictive of crime as the
lifestyles of victimized individuals or
social features of victimized
households.

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Collective Efficacy and Crime
• Order maintenance policies may be less
effective in reducing crime than
empowering residents to exert positive
social control in their neighborhoods.
• Collective efficacy
 Collective ability of residents to produce
social action to meet common goals and
preserve shared values

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Frank Schmalleger
Strain Theory
• Strain
 The pressure that individuals feel to
reach socially determined goals
• Anomie (Robert K. Merton)
 A disjunction between socially approved
means to success and legitimate goals

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Strain Theory
• Merton said legitimate goals are
desirable to all but acceptable means to
achieve them are not equally available.

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Strain Theory
• Crime becomes an alternative means to
success for those lacking the tools
necessary to succeed in socially
approved ways.
• Not everyone accepts legitimacy of
socially approved goals.

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TABLE 7-1 GOALS AND MEANS DISJUNCTURE

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Relative Deprivation
• Messner and Rosenfeld blame crime on
inconsistencies in the American Dream.
• Relative deprivation
 Economic and social gaps between rich
and poor living in close proximity

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• Distributive justice
 People's perceptions of their rightful
place in reward structure of society
 Culturally dependent

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• Types of relative deprivation
 Personal
• Individual feels deprived compared with
others
 Group
• Communal sense of injustice shared by
members of a group

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General Strain Theory (GST)
• Robert Agnew reformulated strain
theory into a comprehensive
perspective.
• Sees crime as a coping mechanism to
help people deal with socioemotional
problems generated by negative social
relations

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Frank Schmalleger
Figure 7–4 The Six Central Propositions of General Strain Theory
Source: The Six Central Propositions of General Strain Theory by Robert Agnew from Pressured Into Crime: An
Overview of General Strain Theory (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

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Frank Schmalleger
General Strain Theory
• Expands upon traditional strain theory
 Widens focus
 Strain may have cumulative effect on
delinquency.
 More comprehensive account of
adaptations to strain
 More fully describes wide variety of
factors affecting choice of delinquent
adaptations to strain

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• Agnew says chronic or repetitive strain
creates predisposition for delinquency.
 May manifest as negative affective
states

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• Strain theories share two features.
 Focus on negative relationships with
others
 Argue that adolescents pressured into
delinquency by negative affective states

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Culture Conflict Theory
• Root cause of crime found in clash of
values over acceptable or proper
behavior
• Thorsten Sellin
 Conduct norms provide valuative basis
for human behavior, are acquired early
in life through childhood socialization
 Clash of norms between variously
socialized groups results in crime

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Culture Conflict Theory
• Primary culture conflict
 A fundamental clash of cultures
• Secondary culture conflict
 Smaller cultures within the primary one
clash

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Subcultural Theory
• Subculture
 A collection of values and preferences
communicated to participants through a
process of socialization
• Subcultural theory
 Sociological perspective emphasizing
the contribution made by variously
socialized cultural groups to the
phenomenon of crime

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Focal Concerns
• Walter Miller identified a lower class
subculture with its own values and
norms.
• Behaviors upholding these norms may
violate those of middle-class culture.
• Crime is not a consequence of poverty
and lack of opportunity but emanates
from values characteristic of these
subcultures.

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Focal Concerns
• Trouble
 Getting in, staying out, dealing with
trouble
• Toughness
 Concern with masculinity
• Smartness
 Ability to outsmart or con others and
avoid being duped

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Focal Concerns
• Excitement
 Search for thrills: fighting, gambling,
picking up women, etc.
• Fate
 The concept of luck, being lucky
• Autonomy
 Taking care of oneself, not getting
pushed around

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Delinquency and Drift
• Gresham Sykes and David Matza
• Members of delinquent subcultures also
participate in the larger culture,
understand conventional values, know
their offending is wrong.
• Use neutralizing self-talk to mitigate
shame and guilt associated with
violating social norms.

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Figure 7–5 Techniques of Neutralization
Source: Schmalleger, Frank, Criminology. Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson
Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

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Frank Schmalleger
Delinquency and Drift
• Delinquents drift between crime and
conventional action, choosing the most
expedient.
• Use neutralization techniques to
overcome guilt, keep from being
alienated from larger society
• Drug dealers, street robbers,
carjackers, hackers all use techniques
of neutralization

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Violent Subcultures
• Franco Ferracuti and Marvin Wolfgang
• Violence is a learned form of adaptation
to problematic life circumstances.
• Learning to be violent takes place
within the context of a subculture
emphasizing violence over other forms
of adaptation.
• Group's value system constitutes a
subculture of violence.

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Violent Subcultures
• Southern subculture of violence
 Explains geographic differences in
violent crime in U.S.
 Some forms of violence more acceptable
in southern U.S.
• Black subculture of violence
 Explains high rate of black under-class
homicide in U.S.

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Differential Opportunity Theory
• Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
 Blended subcultural and strain theory
• Two types of socially structured
opportunities for success
 Legitimate
• Access may be denied to members of
lower class subcultures

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• Delinquent behavior results from:
 Ready availability of illegitimate
opportunities
 Replacement of cultural norms with
expedient subcultural rules
• Two necessary parts to delinquent act
 Behavior violates basic social norms.
 When officially known, criminal justice
agents agree norms were violated.

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• Crime and deviance are as normal as
any other form of behavior supported
by group socialization.
• Deviance is an effort to conform to
subcultural norms and expectations.
• Conventional behavior conforms to
norms of wider society.

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Types of Delinquent Subcultures
• Criminal subcultures
 Criminal role models readily available
• Conflict subcultures
 Status through violence
• Retreatist subcultures
 Drug use and withdrawal from wider
society

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Types of Lower Class Youth
• Type I: Desire entry into middle class
by improving economic position
• Type II: Desire entry to middle class
but not improvement in economic
position
• Type III: Desire wealth without entry to
middle class
• Type IV: Dropouts who retreat from
mainstream via drug and alcohol use

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Reaction Formation
• Albert Cohen
 Associated with both strain theory and
subcultural perspective
• Youth held accountable to norms of
wider society through "middle class
measuring rod" of expectations
• Not everyone is prepared to effectively
meet such expectations.

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Frank Schmalleger
Reaction Formation
• Juveniles experience status frustration
when judged according to middle-class
standards they cannot achieve.
• Reaction formation
 Process by which a person openly
rejects that which he wants, or aspires
to, but cannot obtain or achieve
 Juveniles develop hostility toward
middle-class values.

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The Code of the Street
• Elijah Anderson
 Contemporary street code stresses a
hyperinflated notion of manhood resting
on the idea of respect.
 Street culture's violent nature means a
man cannot back down from threats.
• Decent vs. street families

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Gangs Today
• Modern gangs are involved in serious
and violent crimes.
• Gangs can be big business.
 Traditional criminal activities
 Drug dealing
• Distinctions between gangs and
violence
• Co-offending especially prevalent in the
lives of gang members

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Policy Implications of Social
Structure Theories
• Chicago Area Project (Clifford Shaw)
 Tried to reduce social disorganization in
slum neighborhoods by creating
community committees
• Mobilization for Youth
 Based on differential opportunity theory
 Provided new opportunities, tried to
change fundamental arrangements of
society, address root causes of crime

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Policy Implications of Social
Structure Theories
• War on Poverty
 Kennedy and Johnson Administrations
 Programs designed to reduce crime
rates by redistributing wealth in
American society

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Critique of Social Structure
Theories
• Some argue the inverse of the "root
causes" argument.
 Suggest poverty and social injustices
are produced by crime
• If so, addressing poverty and social
inequity as the root causes of crime is
and ineffective crime prevention
strategy.

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Frank Schmalleger
Critique of Ecological Theories
• May give too much credence to the
notion that spatial location determines
crime
• Seems unable to differentiate between
social disorganization and the things it
is said to cause
• Many crimes occur outside of socially
disorganized areas.

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Frank Schmalleger
Other Critiques of Social Structure
Theories
• Link low SES to high delinquency
 Not supported by empirical studies
• Overemphasis on environments creates
bias against looking elsewhere for
possible causes.
• Cannot predict which individuals, or
which proportion of given population,
will turn to crime

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