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LECTURE 11 THE MEANING OF CRIME: SOCIAL PROCESS PERSPECTIVE
FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS
- Social reality is construction
- Interactions create meaning and meaning is derived from prev. experience
- Criminal behavior defined by others
- Differing interpretations
- Status derived from social definition of crime
- Limited opportunity & social reaction
- Conformity vs. non-conformity
LEARNING THEORY
MODELLING THEORY
Albert Bandura (1925-?)
- People learn by observing others
Aggression seen as a means to an end
- If stand up for self – can improve how treated by others
Critique – lacks comprehensive explanatory power
- How do you explain sibling differences in behavior?
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Unconditioned stimulus: meat powder
Conditioned stimulus: bell
Learned that the sound of the sound of the bell preceded treat; induced salivation (conditioned response)
BEHAVIOUR THEORY
B.F. Skinner
Stimulus-response approach to behavior
Positive and negative rewards and punishments
Focus is on environment
Behaviours are modified depending on reward/punishment
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Behavior learned through “law of effect”
- Desirable effects (e.g. comfort, food, praise) are likely to be repeated
- Undesirable effects (e.g. loss, pain, etc.) unlikely to be repeated
Established connection between behavior and its consequences.
Learning to either make or withhold a particular response because of its consequences.
REINFORCEMENT
Positive reinforcement: Gain something we desire as a consequence of certain behavior.
Negative reinforcement: Avoiding an unpleasant event or stimulus as a consequence of certain behavior.
Rejected notion that crime was caused by “criminal type” or “psychopathology”
Said it was the social context that contributed to criminal behavior
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION cont.
Criminal behaviour is learned through social interaction with intimate groups
Learning includes:
a) Techniques to commit crime
b) Rationalizations and motives to commit crime
When ones definitions favorable to the violation of law exceed those unfavorable to the violation of law criminal behavior will occur
AKERS’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
Extended Sutherland’s differential association and focused on peer influences
”differential social reinforcement”
Social reinforcements (or positive consequences) encourage individuals to continue in a life of crime
Behavior can also be learned through modeling
NEUTRALIZATION THEORY
Developed by Sykes and Matza (1957)
If pressures to commit crime are so great, then why aren’t more people criminals?
Apart from committing crimes, why are criminals mostly like normal people?
TECHNIQUES OF NEUTRALIZATION
- Denial of responsibility
- Denial of injury
- Denial of victim
- Condemnation of the condemners
- Appeal to higher loyalties
LABELLING THEORY
FRANK TANNENBAUM
“The dramatization of evil”; a “tag” being applied to identify child as delinquent
The child might then change own self-image or others might come to regard them as delinquent
An arrest leads to the delinquent being singled out for special treatment, precipitating a series of events including exposure to criminal justice institutions
Family and other social bonds control delinquent behaviour
Inner containment: components of the “self” (e.g., self control, good self-image, frustration tolerance)
Outer containment: social environment (e.g., family supervision and values, institutional reinforcement)
CONTAINMENT THEORY, cont.
Internal pushes (e.g. restlessness, impatience and anger) and external pulls (e.g., poverty, unemployment, the media, or delinquent friends) may pressure in a person into crime
Inner and outer containment control or contain crime
- If there containments are weak a person will be more susceptible to the pushes and pulls
HIRSCHI’s SOCIAL BOND THEORY
Four strands of the bond:
Attachment: ties to conventional activities, institutions and individuals
Commitment: getting an education, vocational training and eventually a good job
Involvement: time spent in/with conventional activities, institutions and individuals
Belief: shared values – it’s wrong to steal, people should respect the law
GENERAL THOERY OF CRIME
Proposed by Gottfredson and Hirschi
Low self-control results in criminal behavior; absence of proper socialization (poor parenting) leads to low self control
- Common traits: low intelligence, self centered, impulsive
LSC may also result in drinking/drug use, smoking promiscuity, gambling, overeating
Critics point out that some crimes(corporate, white collar, organized) require high levels of self control
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORIES
LIFE COURSE THEORY
Sampson and Laub were students of Hirschi
They suggested that self control that self control could change over time through social ties
Based on large scale study of juvenile delinquents followed to age 70
LCT IN SUM
Life trajectory (course) of crime influenced by social bonds
Different life points will have different effects
