CRJS 4467
Contemporary Research & Theory
Lecture #2
1. The Structure & Relevance of Theory in
Criminology
• is criminological theory irrelevant? why is
theory important? who writes it?
• case in point: routine activities theory; social
control theory
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• theory: “a theory is a systematic explanation
for the observed facts and laws that relate
to a particular aspect of life”
• a theory includes concepts, propositions,
variables, hypotheses
• scientific theories are empirically verifiable
• scientific theories explain in order to predict
and control
2
• the wheel of science:
Theories
Empirical
Generalizations
Hypotheses
Observations
3
• public policy as informed, guided by theory?
case in point: chronic impaired drivers
• theoretical paradigms and theories suggest
both what is important to look at, and what
to disregard
• there is always a theory to what we do on
either a micro or macro level – otherwise,
behaviour would be completely random
(the case of the tigers)
4
• articulated propositions
 the formal or written content of a theory
 concepts related by propositions
 example:
changes in routine activities in society influence
crime rates by affecting the convergence in
space and time of the following three elements:
1. motivated offenders
2. suitable targets
3. the absence of capable guardians again
violation
5
 Agnew’s general strain theory (text)
• cognitive or empirical validity
 does the theory ‘fit the facts’
 cognitive validity: does the observational
and factual evidence collected fit with
what the theory predicts? does it make
sense logically, intellectually?
 proving, versus failing to reject
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• unarticulated propositions
 basic assumptions about human nature
and behaviour: are humans naturally
good, or bad? social or asocial? selfinterested or altruistic?
 examples: control theory versus strain
theories: deterrence theories versus
rehabilitation theories
 assumptions about public policy
implications of theory (Herrnstein)
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 Aichorn example (text)
 Lemert’s primary and secondary deviance
and the YOA, YCJS
 ‘broken windows’ and crime prevention
 ADD and the ritalin controversy
 gun control in Canada versus the U.S.
 early experiences of abuse and criminal
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behaviour
 mental illness and serial murder
 the Quinney example (text)
• the sentiment relevance of theory
 the intuitive appeal of the theory – the
case of labelling theory; the case of
rehabilitation; crime control through
environmental design
 Weber: ‘value free’ science
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2. Jeremy Bentham (1789): “An Introduction to
the Principles of Morals and Legislation
 the utilitarian perspective: the
maximization of pleasure and the
minimization of pain
 good and bad, causes and effects stem
from the principle of utility
 can apply both to the individual, and
the social group
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 in other words, there can be congruence
between self interest and the collective interest
 measurement of pain or pleasure
 pleasure and avoidance of pain are ends
 measured in terms of:
1. intensity
2. duration
3. certainty/uncertainty
4. propinquity or remoteness, and
5. fecundity (same)
6. purity (different), and, for persons
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7. extent or prevalence
• the utilitarian scorecard (text, p. 107)
• the legislative implications of Bentham’s
work: the pleasure of the majority, the pain
of the minority
• case in point: is the death penalty wrong, then?
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Lecture #2 - Continued
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1. Classical and Neuve Classic Schools of
Criminology: Deterrence, Rational Choice, and
Situational Theories of Crime
• two basic schools of criminological theory:
classical and positive
• classical school: Beccaria (1764) and
Bentham (1789) - utilitarian philosophers
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• the impact of utilitarianism on social policy
(later, J.S. Mill here)
• assumption of rationality, free will, free choice –
the individual controls her/his own destiny
• crime is a conscious choice, a weighing out of
rewards and costs
• therefore, to prevent crime, the costs must
outweigh the benefits
15
• specific versus general deterrence
• ‘absolute’ versus ‘restrictive’ deterrence
• note here: if the law is ineffective, what is the
effect on deterrence, both general and specific
(sic Durkheim – law and social equilibrium)
• Stafford and Warr (1993): the interplay
between general and specific deterrence/
avoidance (what consequence for crime control?)
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• empirical research on deterrence:
 certainty, celerity are the key factors in
effectiveness: not severity
 overall, not much evidence for the
efficacy of deterrence
 the perception of punishment may be
more important than the reality
 the element of police visibility as a
factor in deterrence/crime prevention
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 deterrence and imprisonment: real deterrence,
or selective incapacitation?
 extensions of deterrence theory: inhibition
and informal control of behaviour (shaming)
 the importance of social status? but for whom?
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• the Neuve classical school
 rational choice theory and routine
activities theories
 Rational choice theory: Gary Becker (1968)
choice uncertainty, and the subjective
expected utility model (SEU) - also
‘bounded rationality’ and ‘human capital’
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 Routine Activities Theory (Cohen & Felson,
1979)
 assumes motivated offender, suitable target,
absence of capable guardianship – but also
rationality and an unexpected, ‘eventmental’
dimension
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria
• the classical school of criminology
• the Enlightenment (1725 - 1850)
• human logic & science, free will, and the
social contract
• the ‘science of human society’
• the birth of criminology
• Cesare Beccaria An Essay on Crimes and
Punishments (1764)
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• man in the natural state: ‘nasty, brutish, short’
to paraphrase Hobbes (1651)
• the purpose of law to ameliorate the
inequality and misery, to promote
“the greatest happiness of the greatest
number”
• influence of printing - and much progress has
been made
• but: where the cruelty of punishments, and the
‘irregularity of proceedings in criminal cases’
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are concerned, little attention paid here
2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• “every act of authority of one man over
another, for which there is not an absolute
necessity, is tyrannical”
• the defense of the public liberty through
reasonable punishment of the individual
transgressor
• justice - the bond that is necessary to keep the
interest of individuals united
• punishments not to exceed the necessity of
preserving the bond
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• no punishment without a law that prescribes it
• punishment not to exceed what is prescribed
by the law
• judges have no right to make, interpret law this is the prerogative of legislators, and of the
(sovereign) government
• laws and criminal code must be in a language
easily understood by common people if they
are to be expected to obey the law
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• a ‘scale of crimes’ must be constructed, from
the most to least serious threat to the
dissolution of society (public liberty)
• a ‘calculus’ relating punishments to crimes
• “pleasure and pain are the only springs of
action in human beings endowed with
sensibility”
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• “the end of punishment, therefore, is no other
than to prevent the criminal from doing
further injury to society, and to prevent
others from committing the like offense”
• note - secret and false accusations - the
necessity of an open, public criminal process
• torture - no one is guilty until proven so what justification then for torture?
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• the degree of punishment, and the
consequences of a crime, ought to be so
contrived as to have the greatest possible
effect on others, with the least possible pain
to the delinquent. If there be any society in
which this is a fundamental principle, it is an
unlawful society; for mankind, by their union,
originally intended to subject themselves to
the least evils possible”
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• the advantages of immediate punishment just in sparing the criminal uncertainty, and
reduces privation of liberty pending final
adjudication
• also certainty and severity as factors in
punishment
• specific versus general deterrence
• the public punishment of small crimes will
deter individuals from committing more
serious crimes
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• the right to prepare a proper defense
• prevention better than prosecution - hence the
paramount need for ‘good’ law - the need for
education, to reward virtue
• the severity of punishments tied to the degree
of social development?
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2. Criminology - Pioneers - Beccaria (cont’d)
• That a punishment may not be an act of
violence of one, or of many, against a
private member of society, it should be
public, immediate, and necessary, the least
possible in the case given, proportioned to
the crime, and determined by the laws”
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2. Lawrence Cohen & Marcus Felson
- “A Routine ActivityApproach” (1979) (cont’d)
• influential in policing in terms of the ‘broken
windows’ (Wilson & Kelling, 1982) theory of
crime, also in terms of ‘ecological management’
and ‘target hardening’ approaches, especially
victim awareness programs, crime prevention
• the police as guardians against ‘disorder’
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focus on ‘direct-contact predatory’ types of
crimes, where “someone definitely and
intentionally takes or damages the person or
property of another”
- direct physical contact between offender and
victim or object
33
•changes in routine activities in society influence
crime rates by affecting the convergence in
space and time of the following three elements:
1. motivated offenders
2. suitable targets
3. the absence of capable guardians against a
violation
note: the case of population demographics,
incident reporting and patrol deployment
34
• “if the proportion of motivated offenders or
even suitable targets were to remain stable in
a community, changes in routine activities
could nonetheless alter the likelihood of their
convergence in space and time, thereby
creating more opportunities for crimes to occur.”
• in short, structural changes in a society can alter
the routine activities that people engage in,
altering the relative probability of predatory crime
35
Hawley’s Human Ecological Theory and RAT:
•
usually, criminologists concentrate on the spatial
distribution of crime, not the temporal distribution
•
Hawley identified three important temporal
components of community structure:
1. rhythm (periodicity of events)
2. tempo (# events per unit of time)
3. timing (coordination, synchronization of
interdependent events)
36
• the probability that a violation will occur is a
function of the convergence of offenders and
targets in the absence of guardianship, or:
Pc = [ O * T] / AG
• illegal activities feed not from other illegal
activities, but from legal activities; hence,
points of juncture are at increased risk - hence,
focus on routine activities, temporally and
spatially
37
•
note the significance of urbanization and
suburbanization, the automobile, electronic
technology, computers, other technology, mass
production of weaponry, store hours
• target suitability - value (materially, symbolically),
physical visibility, access, inertia (weight, size,
features, physical response of victim or target)
• e.g. teens and clothing
38
•
e.g. the proportion of individual households as
predictive of crime rate
• employment or unemployment rates?
• FLFP and property crimes?
• school attendance and theft?
• impaired driving
• older offenders, older victims
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3. Sherman & Berk: The Deterrent Effects of Arrest
for Domestic Assault (ASR, 1984)
•
conflicting demands/alternatives for police:
1. forced separation
2. mediation
3. arrest
• randomized experiment conducted with
Minneapolis Police Department
• simple misdemeanor domestic assaults
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• random selection of advice/mediation, separation,
arrest strategies
• follow-up interviews with victims
• measurement of subsequent victimizations
following the intervention
• both police-based and victim-based outcome
measures employed
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• 28.9% of suspects ‘failed’ within 6 mos:
police-reported data indicate arrest most deterrent,
followed by advice/mediation, separation
• victim-reported data showed arrest most deterrent,
followed by separation, advice/mediation
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4. Rational Choice Theory (Clarke & Cornish)
•
six basic propositions:
1. crimes are purposive & deliberate acts,
committed with the intention of benefiting
the offender
2. In seeking to benefit themselves, offenders
do not always succeed in making the best
decisions because of the risks and
uncertainty involved.
3. offender decision making varies
considerably with the nature of the crime.
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4. Decisions about becoming involved in
particular kinds of crime (involvement
decisions) are quite different from
those relating to the commission of a
specific criminal act (event decisions).
5. Involvement decisions can be divided
into three stages – becoming involved
for the first time (initiation), continued
involvement (habituation), and ceasing to
offend (desistance) – that must be
separately studied because they are
influenced by quite different sets of
variables.
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6. Event decisions include a sequence of
choices made at each stage of the
criminal act (e.g. preparation, target
selection, commission of the act, escape
and aftermath.)
• human behaviour is almost never senseless
• acts as satisficing rather than optimizing
• decision making is relevant to a specific crime
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•
involvement decisions relate to ‘stages’ in
a criminal career:
1. initiation
2. habituation
3. desistance
• event decision refer to decisions related to
committing a specific act
• additional factors:
1. background factors
2. current life circumstances
3. situational variables
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•
refer to Figures 1 & 2, pages 28 and 30
•
refer to Figures 3 & 4, pages 30, 31
•
what makes rational choice theory different?
1. focus on choice
2. a theory of both crime & criminality
3. focus on dynamic nature of crime
4. importance of situation & opportunity
5. distinction between motive and motivation
6. the normality of crime
7. a general theory
8. policy relevance
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9. compatibility with criminal justice
•
applications of the rational choice theory:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
repeat victimization
preferences of thieves (CRAVED)
serial kills
dramatic fall in suicide
situational crime prevention
e.g. photo-radar
‘green space’
7-11 redesign
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•
criticisms of rational choice theory
1. criminals are far from rational
2. only some crimes are rational
3. the theory is nothing new
Can rational choice theory explain pedophilia?
Vandalism? Minor assault? Terrorism?
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