Criminology 310. Exam notes.
Study unit 7. Social Control Perspectives.
DISCUSS THE DELINQUENCY AND DRIFT THEORY OF MATZA AND SYKES. (10
MARKS)
Delinquency = detach from morality… crime
Drift is “in limbo” between convention and crime
Emphasise choice and sense of injustice
Norms are neutralized, yet still part of society.
Neutralization protects from responsibility:
Deny responsibility
Denial of injury
Denial of victim
Condemnation of condemners
Appeal to higher loyalties
Important characteristics of delinquent = primacy of custom (virtues of subculture)
and harm (tort, but not crime)
Matza says: the process of becoming a delinquent begins when a juvenile neutralizes
him/herself from the moral bounds of the law and drifts into delinquency.
Drift, according to Matza means that “the delinquent transiently exists in limbo between
convention and crime, responding in turn to the demands of each, flirting now with one, now
the other, but postponing commitment, evading decision. Thus, he drifts between criminal
and conventional action.”
Matza’s drift theory places greater importance than differential association theory on the
exercise of juveniles’ choices and on the sense of injustice that juveniles feel about the
discriminatory treatment they have received.
Matza, having established that the delinquent is one who drifts back and forth between
convention and deviancy, then examines the process by which legal norms are neutralized.
But fundamental to his analysis is the contention that delinquent youths remain integrated
into the wider society and that a violation of legal norms does not mean surrendering
allegiance to them.
Delinquency then becomes permissible when responsibility is neutralized. Neutralization
provides a means of understanding how delinquents insulate themselves from responsibility
for wrongdoing.
Sykes and Matza claim that there are five techniques of neutralization, or justifications, of
delinquent behaviour and make such behaviour possible by defining it as acceptable.
1. Denial of responsibility (“I didn’t mean it)
2. Denial of injury (“I didn’t hurt anyone”)
3. Denial of the victim (“they had it coming to them”)
4. Condemnation of the condemners (“everyone is picking on me”)
, 5. Appeal to higher loyalties (“I didn’t do it for myself”)
The sense of responsibility, then is the immediate condition of drift. But other conditions
of drift include the sense of injustice, the primacy of custom, and the assertion of tort.
Matza claims that subcultural delinquents are filled with a sense of injustice because
they depend on a memory file that collects examples of inconsistency. The primacy of
custom relates to the male delinquent’s observation of the virtues of his subculture; these
virtues stress the “traditional precepts of manliness, celebrating as they do the heroic themes
of honour, valour and loyalty when faced with dare, challenge and insult. The assertion of tort
which has to do with a private transaction between the accused and the victim, occurs when
the subcultural delinquent considers a harmful wrong to be a tort instead of a crime.
Subcultural delinquents frequently believe that the justice process cannot be invoked unless
the victim is willing to file a complaint.
Matza concludes that “the breaking of the moral bind to law arising from neutralization and
resulting in drift does not assure the commission of a delinquent act.” The missing element
that provides “the thrust or impetus by which the delinquency act is realized is will.” The will
is activated both on mundane occasions and in extraordinary situations. But the subcultural
delinquent is not likely to have the will to repeat an old offense if he or she has failed in the
past. Matza sees desperation as being intertwined with the mood of fatalism; that is,
because the delinquent feels pushed around, he or she needs to make something happen to
restore the mood of humanism. Crime then enables the subcultural delinquent to see
him/herself as cause rather than as effect.
Matza developed the drift theory to account for the majority of adolescents who, from time to
time, engage in delinquent behaviour. But in becoming deviant he introduced the concepts
of will, commitment and conversion. Using nonempirical terms, Matza suggested that
delinquents’ will must be captured by deviant influences before they are committed to a
delinquent way of life. When delinquents permit their will to be captured, then a type of
conversion experience happens. The former nondelinquent becomes a different kind of
person and is willing to stand up for this new way of life.
DISCUSS THE CONTAINMENT THEORY OF RECKLESS (10 MARKS)
Assumption: strong inner containment + reinforcing external containment provide
insulation against criminality
Elements of the containment theory:
Inner containment: self-components (self-control, positive self-concept, well
developed superego, ego strength, high frustration tolerance, high sense of
responsibility, ability to find substitute satisfactions, goal orientations, etc.)
Outer containment: external regulators/structural buffers in environment that
hold us within bounds (e.g. reinforcement of norms and expectations, effective
supervision and discipline; and opportunity for acceptance, identity and
belongingness.)
