Unit 4 Seminar
Family Influence and Criminal Behavior
Social Process Theories
Professor Calvin Shaw
 Welcome
 Any questions/concerns?
 Any good information for the class?
 Questions to ponder as we look at theory:
 Does “environment” – how a child was raised influence
their social tendencies?
 Does family and other “intimate” groups in life teach
us the “motives” to commit crime?
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The Social Process theories of crime.
Differential association theory
Social bond theories.
Labeling Theory
Neutralization theory
 Pros and cons of each of the theories.
 Policy implications set forth by each of the social
process theories.
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 Social process criminologists operate from a general
sociological perspective known as symbolic
interactionism, which focuses on how people interpret
and define their social reality and the meanings they
attach to it in the process of interacting with one
another via language.
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 Thomas theorem: If men [and women] define situations
as real, they are real in their consequences
 Perception is reality!
 Social process theories seek to describe the process of
criminal and delinquent socialization and how the
process of social conflict pressures individuals into
committing antisocial acts.
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Edward Sutherland championed differential
association theory.
 Nine propositions outlining the process by which
individuals come to acquire attitudes favorable to
criminal or delinquent behavior:
 Criminal behavior is learned.
 Criminal behavior is learned in interaction
with other persons in a process of
communication.
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 The principle part of learning criminal
behavior occurs within intimate
personal groups.
 When criminal behavior is learned, the
learning includes techniques of
committing the crime, the specific
direction of motives, drives,
rationalizations, and attitudes.
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Differential Association Theory
 The specific direction of motives and drives is
learned from definitions of legal code as
favorable and unfavorable.
 A person becomes delinquent because of an
excess of definitions favorable to violations of
law over definitions unfavorable to violations
of law.
 Differential associations may vary in
frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.
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Differential Association Theory
 The process of learning criminal behavior by
association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns
involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any
other learning.
 While criminal behavior is an expression of general
needs and values, it is not explained by them since
non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same
needs and values.
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Diagrammatic Presentation of Differential
Association Theory
Differential social
organization in
lower-class areas
Normative conflict
leads to definitions
favorable to law
violation
Differential
association with
others holding
such definitions
Crime and
delinquency
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 Operant psychology: A perspective on learning that
asserts that behavior is governed and shaped by its
consequences.
 Behavior has two general consequences; it is reinforced
or it is punished.
 Reinforcement: Positive or negative consequences for
behavior that make it more likely the behavior will be
repeated in similar situations.
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Ronald Acker’s Social Learning Theory
-Punishment: Leads to the weakening or eliminating of
the behavior preceding it that may also be positive or
negative.
Rewards & punishments are differentially valued, &
shaping our behavior.
-Discrimination: Clues that signal whether a particular
behavior is likely to be followed by reward or
punishment.
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Illustrating Types of Reinforcement and Punishment
Reinforcement Increases
Behavior
Punishment Decreases Behavior
Positive Reinforcement
Positive Punishment
(something rewarding received)
(something punishing applied)
Negative Reinforcement
Negative Punishment
(something punishing avoided)
(something rewarding lost)
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 Social control: Any action on the part of others,
deliberate or not, that facilitates conformity to social
rules.
 Social control may be direct, formal, and coercive, but
indirect and informal social control is preferable
because it produces prosocial behavior regardless of
the presence or absence of external coersion.
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 Walter Reckless’ theory is an early control that
sought answers to why it is that some people in
similar environments are immune to criminal
temptations and others are not.
 Those of us who resist antisocial temptations are
contained by two overlapping forms of
containment: outer and inner.
 Outer containment is the social pressure on
individuals brought to bear by the family & other
important individuals and groups to abide by
community rules.
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Walter Reckless’ Containment Theory
 Inner containment relies
heavily on how persons
see themselves—their
self-concept.
 Persons with a negative
self-concept are more
likely to become criminal
and delinquent than
persons with a positive
self-concept.
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Travis Hirschi’s social control theory is a theory that
places primary importance on the family.
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 Hirshi makes the assumption that the typical delinquent
lacks:
 Attachment: Emotional component of conformity.
 Commitment: Rational component of conformity and
refers to a lifestyle in which one has invested
considerable time and energy in the pursuit of a lawful
career.
 Involvement: A direct consequence of commitment; it is
a part of an overall conventional patter of existence.
 Belief: The acceptance of the social norms regulating
conduct.
 Antisocial and criminal behavior will emerge
automatically if social controls are lacking.
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 Self-control: The extent to which different people are
vulnerable to the temptations of the moment.
 Following an unrestrained path to pleasure often
leads to crime.
 Most crimes are spontaneous acts requiring little
skill and earn the criminal minimal, short term,
satisfaction.
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Diagrammatic Representation of Hirschi's
Social Control Theory
Lack of social bonds
—attachments,
commitment,
involvement, belief
—that function as
social controls
Releases natural
inclinations to
satisfy needs
expediently
Crime and
delinquency
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 Low self-control
is established in early childhood, it tends to persist
throughout life, and it is the result of incompetent
parenting.
 Low self-control
is the default outcome that occurs in the absence of
adequate socialization.
 Low self-control is considered a stable component of a
criminal personality.
 A criminal opportunity is a situation that presents itself
to an offender by which he or she can immediately satisfy
needs with minimal mental or physical effort.
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 The labeling or societal reaction school
takes seriously the power of bad labels
to stigmatize, and by doing so they
evoke the very behavior the label
signifies.
 Labeling theory shifts the focus from
the actor to the reactor.
 Tannenbaum (1938) viewed labeling of
a delinquent or criminal as “bad” or
“evil” as amounting to a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
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Diagrammatic Representation of Self-Control
Theory
Inadequate
monitoring and
supervision
of children by
parents
and others
Failure to develop
self-control.
Low selfcontrol is the
default option
Low selfcontrol plus
opportunity
Crime and
delinquency
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 Labeling theorists asserted that crime is defined into
existence rather than discovered.
 There is no crime independent of cultural values and
norms.
 No act is by its nature criminal, because acts do not
have natures until they are witnessed, judged good or
bad, and reacted to as such by others.
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
Edwin Lemert: Primary deviance is the initial
nonconforming act that comes to the attention of the
authorities.
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Secondary deviance: Deviance that results from
society’s reaction to offenders’ primary deviance
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Labeled persons may alter their self-concepts in
conformity with the label.
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The label may exclude the person from conventional
employment opportunities & lead to the loss of
conventional friends.
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Diagrammatic Presentation of Labeling Theory
Primary deviance
Flowing from a
variety of causes
that are of no
concern to labeling
theorists
Apprehension and
labeling as criminal or
delinquent. Person is
stigmatized with
a “master status.”
Offenders may
come to accept
labels and
change their
self-concepts to
fit those labels
Secondary
deviance
Delinquency and
crime consequent
to changes in
self-concept
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 John Braithwaite (1989): Nations with
low crime rates are those where
shaming has great social power.
 Disintegrative shaming:
Condemnation received by offenders
in the criminal justice system; this
shaming is counterproductive.
 Reintegrative shaming: A method of
condemning the offender’s acts
without condemning him or her
personhood.
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 Techniques of neutralization theory
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suggests that although delinquents
know that their behavior is wrong,
they justify it as “acceptable” on a
number of grounds:
Five techniques of neutralization
Denial of responsibility
Denial of injury
Denial of victim
Condemnation of the condemners
Appeal to higher loyalties
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Sykes and Matza’s Neutralization Theory
 If we start engaging in behavior that we consider
morally wrong, but find that behavior rewarding, we
tend to develop a form of psychological discomfort
called cognitive dissonance.
 The elimination of uncomfortable inconsistencies
between attitudes and behavior becomes a powerful
motive to change on or the other.
 Techniques of neutralization are both ways of easing
uncomfortable feelings of guilt and shame, and ways
of loosening moral constraints.
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 Differential association theory shares the
unconstrained vision in that it assumes that it is
antisocial behavior is learned, & not something that
comes naturally in the absence of prosocial training.
 Critics of differential association stress that
antisocial behavior comes naturally to the
unsocialized individual & the theory ignores
individual differences.
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 Ackers’ social learning theory specifies how definitions
favorable to law violation are learned.
 This is emphasized through the use of operant
conditioning, although it neglects the role of
individual differences in the ease or difficulty with
which persons learn.
 Hirschi’s social control theory is criticized for its lack
of emphasis on the social, economic & political factors
that impede stable and nurturing families.
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 One of the positive elements of neutralization theory
is that it eliminates much of the over determined
image of subcultural values implied in subculture
theories.
 Neutralization theory says nothing about the origins
of the antisocial behavior the actors seek to
neutralize.
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 The major criticism of self-control theory arises from
the Gottfredson and Hirschi’s claim that it is a general
theory meant to explain all crime.
 Labeling theory comes dangerously close to claiming
that the original causes of crime do not matter.
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Theory
Key Concepts
Strengths
Weaknesses
Differential
Association
Crime is learned in
association with peers
holding definitions
favorable to law violation.
Most likely to occur in
differentially organized
(lower-class)
neighborhoods.
Explains the onset of
offending and the
power of peer
pressure.
Neglects possibility of like
seeking like (birds of a
feather). Does not make
distinction between private
accepters and temporary
compliers.
Social
Learning
Definitions favorable to
law violation depend on
history of reinforcement
and punishment. Excess
rewards for criminal
behavior perpetuate it.
Adds powerful
concepts of operant
psychology to explain
how people learn
criminal behavior.
Links sociology to
psychology.
Neglects individual
differences affecting what
is reinforcing to whom and
the ease or difficulty with
which one learns.
Social
Bonding
Bonds to social
institutions prevent
crime, which otherwise
comes naturally. The
bonds are attachment,
commitment, involvement,
and belief.
The most popular and
empirically
supported theory.
Emphasizes
importance of the
family and provides
workable policy
recommendations.
Neglects structural
variables contributing to
family instability and to
loss of occupational
opportunities. Neglects
differences in the ease
with which attachment
is
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achieved.
Theory
Key Concepts
Strengths
Weaknesses
Self-Control
Low self-control explains all
crime and analogous acts. Low
self-control occurs in the
absence of proper parenting.
Exposure to criminal
opportunities explains
differences in criminal
behavior among low self-control
individuals.
Identifies a single
measurable trait to be
responsible for many
antisocial behaviors.
Accords well with the
impulsive nature of most
criminal behavior. Links
sociology to psychology.
Claims too much for a
single trait. Neglects child
influences on parenting
behavior and the affects
of genes on low selfcontrol.
Labeling
Crime has no independent
reality. Original primary
deviance is unimportant; what
is important is the labeling
process, which leads to
secondary (continuing)
deviance. Labeling people
criminal leads them to organize
their self-concepts around that
label.
Explains consequences of
labeling with a “master
status.” Identifies the
social construction of
crime and points to the
power of some (the
powerful) to criminalize
the acts of others (the
powerless).
The neglect of causes of
primary deviance. Advice
that criminals should be
treated not punished
contradicts the theory
that says that there is
nothing intrinsically bad
about crime and therefore
there is nothing to “treat.”
Neutralization
Delinquents and criminals learn
to neutralize moral constraints
and thus their guilt for
committing crimes. They drift
in and out of crime.
Emphasizes that criminals
are no more fully
committed to antisocial
attitudes than they are to
prosocial attitudes. Shows
how criminals handle
feelings of guilt.
Says nothing about the
origins of behavior being
neutralized. More a theory
of antisocial
rationalization than of
crime.
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 If learning crime and delinquency within a particular
culture is the problem, then changing relative aspects
of that culture appear to be the answer; the provision
of positive role models to replace negative role
models.
 Given the importance of nurturance and attachment,
both versions of control theory support the idea of
early family intervention designed to cultivate these
things.
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Policy & Prevention:
Implications of Social Process Theory
 Social-control theory emphasizes opportunity as well
as self-control, thus some of the same policies
advocated by routine activities and rational choice
theorists (target hardening) are being recommended.
 Labeling theory recommends that we allow offenders
to protect their self-images as non-criminals by not
challenging their “techniques of neutralization.”
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The only policy implication of neutralization theory is
that criminal justice agents charged with managing
offenders should strongly challenge their excuse
making.
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 Thank you
 Goodnight
 See you in two weeks after the Midterm!