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Summary Criminology Unit 3: AC 1.2 write up model answer
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Summary Criminology Unit 3: AC 1.2 write up modelanswer
Sociological theories - ANSWER A group of perspectives that focus on the nature
of the power relationships that exist between social groups and on the influences
that various social phenomena bring to bear on the types of behaviors that tend to
characterize groups of people.
3 sociological approaches - ANSWER -social structure
-social process
-social conflict
Social structure theories - ANSWER -social groups as the root causes of crime
-Structural theories predict that negative aspects of societal structures, such as
disorganization within the family, poverty or income inequality within the economic
arrangements of society, and disadvantages brought about by a lack of success for
some in the educational process, produce criminal behavior.
3 social structure theories - ANSWER -social disorganization theory
-strain theory
-culture conflict theory
social disorganization theory - ANSWER -the breakdown of social institutions, such
as the family, the economy, education, and religion, play in crime causation.
-Crime was a normal part of all societies and that law was a symbol of social
solidarity.
The Chicago School - ANSWER -An ecological approach to explaining crime that
examined how social disorganization contributes to social pathology.
Social Ecology (Park & Burgess) - ANSWER An approach to criminological
theorizing that attempts to link the structure and organization of a human community
to interactions with its localized environment.
Social Pathology (Park & Burgess) - ANSWER -A concept that compares society to
a physical organism and that sees criminality as an illness or a disease that may
produce deviant behavior among individuals and groups who live under or are
exposed to such social conditions.
-Social disorganization (& social pathology) may arise when a group is faced with
social change, uneven development of culture, maladaptation, disharmony, conflict
and lack of conscience
-increase in immigrant population
-Parks & Burgess viewed cities in terms of concentric zones.
-Each zone had its unique characteristics wherein unique populations and typical
forms of behavior could be found.
-Five concentric zones
,Cultural Transmission (Shaw & McKay) - ANSWER -Through a process of social
communication, the transmission of delinquency through successive generations of
people living in the same area.
-Conducted studies of arrest rates for juveniles in Chicago in 1900-1906, 1917-1923,
& 1927-1933.
-Associated with high rates of neighborhood transition,
-Rates of offending remained relatively constant over time within zones of transition
-Concluded that delinquency was caused by the nature of the environment in which
immigrants lived rather than by some characteristic of the immigrant groups
themselves.
Chicago school formalized the use of two sources of information: - ANSWER 1.
Official crime and population statistics - Population statistics when combined with
crime information, provided material that gave scientific weight to ecological
investigations.
2. Ethnographic data - Gathered in the form of life stories, or ethnographies,
described the lives of city inhabitants.
-By comparing these two, researchers were able to show that life experience varied
from one location to another and that personal involvement in crime had a strong
tendency to be associated with place of residence.
Criminology of Place - ANSWER -Modern rebirth of ecological theories
-A perspective that emphasizes the importance of geographic location and
architectural features as they are associated with the prevalence of victimization.
-Hot spots of crime, including neighborhoods, specific streets, and even individual
houses and businesses, have been identified by recent write.
-A study revealed that 3% of places (addresses and intersections) in Minneapolis
produce 50% of all calls to the police.
Rodney Stark developed a theory of deviant neighborhoods: - ANSWER 1. To the
extent that neighborhoods are dense and poor, homes will be crowded.
2. Where homes are more crowded, there will be a greater tendency to congregate
outside the home in places and circumstances that raise levels of temptation and
offer opportunity to deviate.
3. Where homes are more crowded, there will be lower levels of supervision of
children.
4. Reduced levels of child supervision will result in poor school achievement, with a
consequent reduction in stakes in conformity and an increase in deviant behavior.
5. Poor, dense neighborhoods tend to be mixed-use neighborhoods.
6. Mixed use increases familiarity with and easy access to places offering the
opportunity for deviance.
Broken Windows Thesis - ANSWER -Physical deterioration in an area leads to
increased concerns for personal safety among area residents and to higher crime
rates in that area.
-Sparks interest for offenders of other neighborhoods
, Strain Theory - ANSWER -A sociological approach that posits a disjuncture
between socially and culturally sanctioned means and goals as the cause of criminal
behavior.
-Depicts delinquency as a form of adaptive, problem-solving behavior, usually
committed in response to problems involving frustrating and undesirable social
environments.
Original amonie - ANSWER -book "Suicide"
-normlessness
-The term explains how a breakdown of social conditions can lead to feelings of
personal loss & dissolution.
-Anomie was a feeling of strain that resulted from not being embedded personally in
society.
-It marked the loss of a sense of belonging.
Classical Strain Theory - ANSWER -Developed the concept of anomie, a
disjunction between socially approved means to success and legitimate goals.
-Legitimate goals are desirable for everyone.
-Widely acceptable means to these goals are not equally available to all members of
society.
-Crime tends to arise as alternative means to success when individuals feel the
strain of being pressed to succeed in socially approved ways but the tools necessary
for such success are not available to them.
-Strain increases as the gap between goals and the availability of the means
necessary to achieve them widens.
Strain - ANSWER the pressure that individuals feel to reach socially determined
goals
Relative Deprivation - ANSWER -Messner and Rosenfeld - Contemporary version
of Merton's strain theory
-The economic and social gap that exists between rich and poor people who live in
close proximity to one another.
-People assess their position in life by comparing themselves with things and people
they already know.
-Inner-city inhabitants develop relative deprivation when they grow up in
impoverished communities and witness well to do lifestyles in nearby neighborhoods.
-Relative deprivation creates feelings of: anger, frustration, hostility, and social
injustice
-related to the notion of distributive justice
distributive justice - ANSWER -The rightful, equitable, and just distribution of
rewards within a society.
-Refers to an individual's perception of his or her rightful place in the reward structure
of society.
-Even wealthy and socially privileged individuals may feel slighted or shortchanged if
they believe they have been inadequately rewarded for their behavior or
accomplishments
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