Why do people commit Crimes?Sociological Theories of Criminology

Sociological Theories

• Sociologists emphasize that human beings live in social groups and that those groups and the social structure they create influence behavior.

• assume that a criminal’s behavior is determined by his or her social environment

• reject the notion of the born criminal.

Sociological Perspectives:Theory of Anomie

Sociological Theorist: Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Argued that as society moved from rural to urban, traditional values and bonds that regulated behaviour were weakenedPeople would turn to crime living in a big city, no longer restrained by norms of society

The Contributions of Durkheim• Many sociological theories of crime

stem from the work of Emile Durkheim

• Social laws and institutions are “social facts” and all people can do is submit to them.

The Contributions of Durkheim

Durkheim argued that crime is also a social fact. The cause of crime is anomie.

• Crime is functional for society because it helps define the boundaries of morality.

anomieFor Durkheim, the dissociation of the individual from

the collective conscience.

collective conscienceThe general sense of morality of the times.

Anomie cont… Kitty Genovese

Young woman stabbed to death on a street in New York City -1964

As many as 37 neighbours and bystanders all heard her screams for help.

No one called the police because they all thought someone else would take action.

Sociologists call this Diffusion of Responsibility

The Bystander Effect

Bystander Effect Experiment

In the 1920s, a group of sociologists known as the Chicago School attempted to uncover the relationship between a neighborhood’s crime rate and the characteristics of the neighborhood.

Sociological Perspectives cont…Ecological School

Chicago SchoolA group of sociologists at the University of Chicago who assumed in their research that delinquent behavior was a product of social disorganization.

The Ecological Theory of the

Chicago SchoolThe Chicago School described American cities in ecological terms, saying growth occurs through a process of:

Invasion: A cultural or ethnic group invades a territory.

Domination:

Succession:

The group dominates that territory.

The group is succeeded by another group and the cycle repeats itself.

The Ecological Theory of theChicago School

• Other studies found that neighborhoods that experienced high delinquency rates also experienced social disorganization.

• These communities were more likely to condone criminal activity than more affluent neighbourhoods.

social disorganizationThe condition in which the usual controls over delinquents are largely absent, delinquent behavior is often approved of by parents and neighbors, there are many opportunities for delinquent behavior, and there is little encouragement, training, or opportunity for legitimate employment.

Weaknesses of this theory

• One of the problems with the theory of the Chicago School is the presumption that social disorganization is a cause of delinquency.

• Both social disorganization and delinquency may be the product of other, more basic factors.

Strain Theory

Current societies stress the goals of acquiring wealth, success, and power.

However, the means to achieve these goals require education and economic resources.

These means are frequently denied or unavailable to those who are economically disadvantaged or have little opportunity for formal education.

Example: youth living in the “projects” yearning for the chance to work on the streets to sell drugs because they know this is the only way they can make money.

Strain Theory• In 1938 Sociologist Robert Merton

argued that societies stress the goals of acquiring wealth, success, and power.

• the limited availability of legitimate means to wealth puts a strain on people. People adapt through:

1. Conformity—playing the game.

2. Innovation—pursuing wealth by illegitimate means.

continued…

Anomie or Strain Theory

3. Ritualism—not actively pursuing wealth.

4. Retreatism—dropping out.

5. Rebellion—rejecting the goal of wealth and the institutional means of getting it.

The Strain Theory assumes…Juveniles who are unable to achieve status through socially acceptable means will either:

• conform to middle-class values and resign themselves to their inferior status, or

• rebel and establish their own value structures, then find others like themselves and form groups to validate and reinforce the new values.

Sociological Perspectives cont…

Social Conflict Theory

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels argued that the capitalist society encouraged crime as people competed for resources and wealth.

Our society protects those with power and property.

As a result, people who are economically disadvantaged are more likely to be punished by our justice system. T

The only way to solve the crime problem is to eliminate the capitalist system.

Social Conflict Theory

• focuses on the conflict in society between rich and poor, management and labor, whites and minorities.

Social Conflict Theory

According to conflict theory, criminal law and the criminal justice system are used by dominant groups to control subordinate ones.

• All behavior occurs because people act in ways consistent with their social positions.

• Subordinate groups appear in official criminal statistics more frequently because dominant groups have control over the definition of criminality.

Social Conflict Theory

Feminist Theory

• The principal goal of most feminist theory is to abolish patriarchy by ensuring women equal opportunity and equal rights.

• intended to redirect the thinking of mainstream criminologists to include gender awareness.

patriarchyMen’s control over women’s labor and sexuality.

Definitions

• Radical feminism – a perspective that holds that any significant change in the social status of women can be accomplished only through substantial changes in social institutions such as the family, law, and medicine.

• Liberal feminism – a perspective that holds that the concerns of women can be incorporated within existing social institutions through conventional means and without the need to drastically restructure society.

• Socialist feminism – a perspective that examines social roles and the gender-based division of labor as a significant source of women’s subordination within society.

Social Psychological PerspectiveSocial psychology is the study of

the relations between individuals and people.

They are interested in how ‘regular’ people can commit atrocious crimes.

Stanley Milgram was specifically interested in how Nazi’s were able to commit horrible acts of genocide – he focused on how people could do this just by following orders.

Milgram Experiment

The Freudian Approach Psychoanalytical Theory

Sigmund Freud believed that all humans have criminal tendencies.

It is through socialization that these tendencies are controlled during childhood.

If a child has an identity problem with his/her parent, this problem may cause the child to direct its antisocial tendencies outward and thus become a criminal.

Traumatic Experiences

Traumatic experiences in early childhood leave their mark on the individual despite the fact that the individual was not aware of these experiences.

Freud and Effect of Family

According to Freud the child needs a stable home environment in order to successfully make the transition from ID to EGO. Research has supported the fact that most criminals come from unstable homes.

FREUDIAN APPROACH

John Bowlby (1946) studied 44 juvenile delinquents and compared them with non-criminal disturbed juveniles.

• 39% of the delinquents had experienced complete separation from their mothers for six-months or more during the first five years of their lives compared with 5% of the control group.

Child abuseOut of 36 sex murderers interviewed in the

USA 42% were found to have been sexually abused as youngsters (Ressler et al 1988).

Dietz and Warren (1995) found that 76% of the 41 serial rapists that they interviewed were abused when young.

But only about 10% of abused children go on to commit crimes.

Psychoanalytic Theories

Psychoanalytic theories of crime are associated with the work of Sigmund Freud

believed that people who had unresolved deep-seated problems were psychopaths.

psychopathsPersons characterized by no sense of guilt, no subjective conscience, and no sense of right and wrong. They have difficulty in forming relationships with other people; they cannot empathize with other people. They are also called sociopaths or antisocial personalities.

Psychoanalysis

• Considers crime symptomatic of deep-seated problems

• Providing psychotherapy or psychoanalysis can aid in resolving the symptoms associated with the problems.