Week 7 Complete

crime

violation of criminal law & social problem

deviance

violation of social norms & social problem

C. Wright Mills

the problems of individual people are rooted in the social structure

social structure

Consistent and stable patterns of social interaction.

Functionalism, Conflict, and Symbolic Interactionism

3 Main Sociological Approaches

1. Prescriptive - telling us what we should do

2. Proscriptive - telling us what we should not do

2 Types of Norms

Émile Durkheim

structural functionalism: asserts that all social structures work together to promote a stable and harmonious society

individual behaviour is the product of the social environment rather than intrinsic traits

people are innately self-serving (i.e., hedonistic) and the most rational thing for people to do is reap as many benefits as possible from society

1. Consensus - Functionalism Theory (Durkheim)

   1. moral framework: collective conscience defines a society’s norms and values

   2. deviant - those who do not conform

2. Conflict - Conflict Theory (Marx)

   1. competition for power and resources

Two Paradigms to Classify Theories of Social Order

Gabriel Tarde

symbolic interactionism (i.e., process theory) traced to his work

focused less on the social order than on the social processes through which (criminal) behaviour is learned—notably imitation and interaction with others in the individual’s social environment

Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess

his ideas (inspired by the field of plant ecology) became the basis of the human ecological school of criminology

ecological school of criminology

An approach to crime study focused on how elements of the physical environment (from buildings to climate and social settings) interact to create a criminal environment.

concentric-circle theory

An early human ecological theory, according to which cities develop from the inner city to the suburbs in a predictable series of concentric rings, each of which encompasses a set of social and environmental characteristics.

City Divided into 5 Zones

1. Zone 1: Central Business District → light manufacturing, retail trade, and commercial recreation

2. Zone 2: Transitioning Zone from Residential to Industrial/Commercial Use → cheap, rundown rental housing and a growing number of factories

3. Zone 3: Working-Class → permanent homes

4. Zone 4: Middle-Class Residential

5. Zone 5: Outermost Ring → relatively wealthy residential-commuter area

Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. McKay

examined the spatial distribution of crime, delinquency, tuberculosis, poverty, and infant mortality in the city over three time periods and found a pattern consistent with the concentric-circle model

• rates were all highest in Zone 2 and declined in each successive circle

social disorganization theory

A sociological theory that sees deviance and crime as consequences of a breakdown of social control in environments characterized by social and economic instability.

McKay noted that delinquency had its origin in the juvenile’s ‘detachment from conventional groups’

personal characteristics of the residents did not lead to the social breakdown; rather, the characteristics of the environment itself, such as a lack of “social capital” (i.e., social networks), discouraged residents from working together to address problems

1. low economic status

2. ethnic diversity

3. high mobility (residents moving in and out of the area)

4. family disruption

Four Elements that contribute to social disorganization

cultural transmission (or deviance) theory

A sociological theory that sees deviance as a socially learned behaviour transmitted through successive generations, especially in disorganized urban settings.

crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)

focused on the design of the physical environment as a means of encouraging or discouraging crime

crime prevention through social development (CPTSD)

targets factors (like substance use) that correlate to crime later in life

Paul Brantingham and Patricia Brantingham

“shift from the sociological to the geographical imagination”—that is, a shift in focus from how people perceive and interact with their social environment to how they perceive and interact with their physical environment

social disorganization (SD)

a breakdown in social order caused by rapid social change

Anomie

Durkheim’s term for a state of deregulation, breakdown, or normlessness in society, usually attributed to decreased homogeneity; an anomic social environment is conducive to crime

does not try to explain:

• why people commit particular crimes

• why most young people who have engaged in crime eventually become law-abiding citizens

• effectively explain violent crimes such as assault, rape, and homicide

• does not addressing middle-class and white-collar crime

1. Social organization is necessary to keep undesirable human tendencies in check.

2. Where social order breaks down and social norms lose their influence, anomie develops, and crime increases significantly

Two propositions of Anomie

1. altruistic criminals - unable to integrate due to a decline in economic well-being and is offended by the rules of society and seeks to change them for the better

2. common criminals

two types of criminals emanating from the anomic breakdown in homogeneity:

Robert K. Merton

his definition of crime is that there are “certain phases of social structure … in which infringement of social codes constitutes a ‘normal’ response.”

1. All modern societies have a core of common values, which is referred to as “social solidarity.”

2. Many of the members of modern societies have internalized (i.e., accepted) their own society’s values. Failure to achieve this results in status frustration.

3. The most significant values channel energy towards the achievement of certain success goals (e.g., financial success).

4. All members of a society do not have an equal opportunity to use socially approved means to attain socially approved goals.

Merton’s theory of “social structure strain” on four assumptions:

strain theory

five distinct “modes of adaptation” to the goals and means approved by society

5. Conformity

6. Innovation

7. Ritualism

8. Retreatism

9. Rebellion

General Strain Theory (GST)

Robert Agnew (GST) holds that strain is caused by failure to achieve certain material goals

offers a more comprehensive account of the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional adaptations to strain, since it acknowledges that individuals have differing abilities to cope with stress, based on experience, peer influence, temperament, financial resources, and so on

strain caused by…

1. failure to achieve positively valued goals

2. removal of positively valued stimuli from the individual

3. presentation of negative stimuli

3 General Forms of Strain

Poverty

One of the Key Risk Factors for Crime

Classical School

reform the law

positive school

reform the man

environmental law

reform the environment

Clarence Ray Jeffery

argued that for a crime to occur three key elements must be present: motivation, skill, and opportunity. In terms of prevention, skill and motivation are difficult to combat

The focus of crime prevention efforts should be to reduce opportunities presented by the social and physical environment