Chapter 3
The Search
for Causes
1
Theories of Crime
Why does
a person
commit a
crime?
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2
Criminological Theory
A set of interrelated
propositions that
attempt to describe,
explain, and predict
a set of events.
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3
Goal of Theory
To permit the
construction of
models that allow
for a better
understanding of
criminal behavior
and…
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4
Goal of Theory
…that enhance the
development of
strategies which
allow us to
address
the problem of crime.
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5
Categories of Theory
• Classical and
Neoclassical
• Biological
• Psychobiological
• Psychological
• Sociological
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6
Categories of Theory
• Social-Psychological
• Conflict
• Phenomenological
• Emergent
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7
Classical School Theory
Basic Assumptions:
•
Crime is caused by the individual
exercise of “free will.”
2. Pain and pleasure are the two central
determinants of human behavior.
3. Punishment is sometimes required
to deter law violators.
• Crime prevention is possible through
swift and certain punishment,
which offsets any gains to be had
through criminal behavior.
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8
Classical School Theory
Cesare Beccaria (1738 – 1794)
Essays on Crimes and Punishment (1764)
• considered a radical departure from the
thinking of the day
• posited that punishment needs to be:
• certain
• swift
• severe
• believed that punishment should fit the crime
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9
Classical School Theory
moved beyond
superstition
and mysticism
as explanations
for deviance
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10
Social Policy and Classical Theory
• Today, many programs designed to
prevent crime are rooted in
Classical Theory.
• Followers of this theory call for the
expanded use of imprisonment.
• Punishment is necessary for crime
prevention.
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11
Hedonistic Calculus
Concept developed by Jeremy Bentham
• People seek pleasure
while at the same time
trying to avoid pain.
• People make “free will”
decisions to commit
crime by weighing of
advantages versus
disadvantages of
action.
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Hedonistic Calculus
• If advantages outweigh
disadvantages, then a
person will likely
commit crime.
• To deter people from
committing crime, the
punishment/disadvantages
need(s) to outweigh the
rewards/advantages.
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13
NeoClassical School
• emphasis on rationality
and cognition
• Rational Choice Theory
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14
Biological Theories
Basic Assumptions:
• Human behavior is constitutionally or
genetically determined.
2. Basic determinants of human behavior
may be passed from generation to
generation.
• Some behavior is the result of propensities
inherited from more primitive
developmental stages in the
evolutionary process.
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Biological Theories
Franz Joseph Gall (1758 – 1828)
phrenology - study of the shape of
the head and its relationship to
human behavior
Gall shifted thinking to
focus on the head and brain,
calling his approach
“crainioscopy”
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Crainioscopy
• The brain is the organ of the
mind.
• The brain consists of
localized faculties or
functions.
• The shape of the skull
reveals underlying
development (or lack of
development) of areas
within the brain.
• A personality can be revealed
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by a study of the skull.
17
Phrenology in the U.S.
Johann Gasper Spurzheim
(1776-1853)
• He was a student of
Gall’s.
• He brought the study of
phrenology to U.S.
• Phrenology remained a
viable approach until
the 20th century.
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18
Cesare Lombroso
(1835-1909)
Lombroso is considered to be
the “father of the positive
school of criminology.”
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Cesare Lombroso
He borrowed the term
“atavism” from the work of
Charles Darwin.
“atavism” – A condition
characterized by the
existence of features
thought to be common in
earlier stages of human
evolution (throwbacks).
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Cesare Lombroso
Criminal Man delineated his idea of atavism
which included the identification of stigmata
(characteristics).
Examples of stigmata:
• long arms
• large lips
• crooked nose
• large amount of body hair
• eyes of different colors
• ears lack defined lobes, etc…
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21
Charles Goring & Karl Pearson
• They studied 3,000 English convicts in
1913.
• They compared them to a detachment
of Army officers.
• They found NO significant differences
between the two groups using
Lombroso’s criteria for criminality.
• Lombroso’s work began to fall into
disrepute.
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22
Ernest A. Hooton (1939)
• created profiles of 13,000 male prisoners in
•
•
•
•
10 states
measured each prisoner on 107
characteristics
compared profiles to those of 3,000
National Guard members, firemen, etc.
found some support for Lombroso’s ideas
concluded that the prisoners demonstrated
a decided physical inferiority
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23
Criminal Families
Richard Dugdale study, 1877
• used family tree method to study
the Juke family
• found that over 75 years,
the heirs of Ada (one of
the earliest Jukes) included 1,200
persons, most of whom were social
degenerates
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Criminal Families
Henry Goddard study, 1912
• Goddard studied two lines of the
Kallikak family.
• One line was descended from a
feebleminded bar maid.
• Over half of the descendants of
this line were determined to be
feebleminded.
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Criminal Families
Goddard study (cont.)
• The second line was
descended from a “virtuous
Quaker girl.”
• 1/3 of these
descendants were
determined to be
feebleminded.
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William Sheldon
1893-1977
somatotyping – classification of
people into types according
to body build
Identified 3 body types:
mesomorph –
predominance of
muscle, bone, and
connective tissue
ectomorph –
thinness, fragility, and
delicacy of body
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endomorph – soft
roundness
throughout short
tapering limbs,
small bones, soft
velvety skin
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William Sheldon
Sheldon posited that there is a relationship
between body type and personality/behavior
and therefore a link between body type and
crime.
• mesomorphs – most prone to aggression
(i.e., Arnold Schwarzenegger)
• endomorphs – happy and outgoing
(i.e., Santa Claus)
• ectomorphs – shy and withdrawn
(i.e., Olive Oil)
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Biochemical Factors and
Imbalances
links some violent
and disruptive
behavior to eating
habits, vitamin
deficiencies, genetics
and inheritance
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Psychobiological Theories
Focus is on the relationship of the
following to criminal behavior:
1. DNA
2. environmental contaminants
3. nutrition
4. hormones
5. physical trauma
6. body chemistry in human cognition
and behavior
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Psychobiological Theories
Chromosome Theory
1965 – Patricia Jacobs discovered
“supermales.”
supermale – Men with an extra “Y”
chromosome (XYY).
• The study found that
“supermales” are more common
in prisons than in the general
public.
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Psychobiological Theories
Chromosome Theory
Stephen Schafer (1969)
Theories in Criminology
Reported on studies that tended to show that the XYY
male:
• is more aggressive
• is taller
• is thinner
• has acne
• has a tendency toward homosexuality
f. has a somewhat lower IQ, and
g. has a tendency to commit a succession of
apparently motiveless property crimes
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Psychobiological Theories
Chromosome Theory
More recent studies have completely
disputed earlier studies.
The XYY male has been found in equal proportions
in free society and prison.
Major problem with XYY theory:
How does one explain those XYY males in free
society who do not commit aggressive acts?
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Psychobiological Theories
Biocriminology
A field of study that has
made attempts at linking
violent or disruptive
behavior to eating habits,
vitamin deficiencies,
genetics, inheritance, and
other conditions which
impact body tissues.
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Psychobiological Theories
Heredity and Environment
Studies of children adopted at birth
have shown a tendency toward
criminality of biological
parents when the
study controls for the
environment in
which they live.
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Psychobiological Theories
Heredity and Environment
Studies of identical twins separated at
birth indicate that they exhibit a
greater similarity in terms
of criminality than do
fraternal twins, who exhibit
greater similarities than
individuals who are just
siblings.
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36
Psychological Theories
Basic Assumptions:
• The individual is the main unit of analysis.
2. Personality is the major motivational element.
3. Crimes result from inappropriately conditioned
behavior.
• Abnormal mental processes may
have a number of causes.
• diseased mind
• inappropriate learning
• improper conditioning
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Psychological Theories
behavioral conditioning A psychological
principle which holds
that the frequency of
any behavior can be
increased or decreased
through reward, punishment, and/or
association with other stimuli.
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Psychological Theories
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
•
•
•
•
•
Pavlov worked with dogs who salivated
whenever food was presented to them.
Dogs were given food only when a bell was
rung.
After dogs were conditioned to associate
food with the bell, the bell was rung but
no food was provided.
Dogs continued to salivate each time the
bell was rung.
Pavlov won the Noble Prize for medicine in
1904.
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Psychological Theories
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
psychoanalysis – A theory of human behavior,
based upon the writings of Freud, which
sees personality as a complex composite of
interacting mental elements.
Freud identified 3 elements of the
personality:
1. id
2. ego
3. superego
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Psychological Theories
id – The source of drives which are seen as
primarily sexual.
ego – Rational entity which outlines paths
through which the desires of the Id can be
fulfilled – often referred to as the “reality
principle.”
superego – A guiding principle, often
compared to the conscience, which
judges the quality of the alternatives
presented by the ego.
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Psychopathology and Crime
• psychopathic personality - several
theories of causation
• psychotic offender - mental disorder
organic or functional
• psychological profiling - attempt to
categorize, understand, and predict the
behavior of certain types of offenders,
based upon behavioral clues they
provide
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Sociological Theories
Basic Assumptions:
1. Social groups, social institutions, the
arrangement of society, and social roles
are all appropriate for study.
2. Group dynamics, group organization, and
subgroup relationships form the causal
basis of criminality.
• The structure of society and the relative
degree of social organization or social
disorganization are important factors
contributing to criminal behavior.
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Sociological Theories
Social Ecology School
Robert Park and Ernest Burgess
a. They began mapping city of Chicago
based on social characteristics of city.
• They developed the concentric zone
theory.
1. Concentric zones are likened to a bull’s
eye with the center of the city being the
target.
2. Theory found at the University of
Chicago
in the 1920s.
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Sociological Theories
Social Ecology School
•
•
•
•
Shaw and McKay adapted work of Park and Burgess’
concentric zone theory.
They discovered that the amount of crime increased
as one moved towards center of the city.
Zone two, the zone of transition, demonstrated the
highest rates of crime.
Crime in this zone is dependent upon structural
elements such as:
•
poverty
•
illiteracy
•
lack of schooling
•
unemployment
•
illegitimacy
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Sociological Theories
Anomie Theory
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
• He was the first to use term anomie in
his book Division of Labor in Society to
represent an abnormal form of the
division of labor.
• He refined the use of the term in his book
Suicide to mean a condition of
“normlessness.”
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Sociological Theories
Anomie Theory
Robert K. Merton (1910 - )
•
•
defined term anomie as a disjuncture between
societal goals and legitimate means
developed typology of adaptations:
• Conformist – accepts goals and means
• Innovator – accepts goals, rejects means
• Retreatist – rejects both goals and means
• Ritualist – rejects goals, accepts means
• Rebel – rejects goals and means and
substitutes his/her own goals and means
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Sociological Theories
Subcultural Theory
A theoretical perspective that is
based on the idea of a subculture,
which is composed of a group of
people who participate in a shared
system of values and norms, which
are different from those of the
larger culture.
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Sociological Theories
Subcultural Theory
Albert K. Cohen
• Delinquent Boys (1955)
• He developed the concept of reaction
formation, which is lower class
youth rejection of middle class
values.
• Reaction formation leads to the
development of gangs and
reinforces the subculture.
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Sociological Theories
Subcultural Theory
Walter Miller
Lower Class Culture as a Generating
Milieu of Gang Delinquency (1958)
Focal concerns:
a. represent the key
characteristics of lower class
culture
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Sociological Theories
Subcultural Theory
Walter Miller (cont.)
b. priority of focal concerns for lower
class:
• trouble
• toughness
• excitement
• smartness
• fate
• autonomy
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Sociological Theories
Subcultural Theory
Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
•
•
•
•
They wrote Delinquency and Opportunity (1960).
They combined work of Sutherland and Merton.
Access to the legitimate opportunities has to
increase while access to illegitimate
opportunities must decrease if delinquency
is to be reduced.
Access to both kinds of opportunities means
that individuals can choose whether or
not to be delinquent.
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Sociological Theories
Subcultural Theory
Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti
• They wrote Subculture of Violence (1967).
• They examined homicide rates in
Philadelphia in 1950’s.
• They coined term “subculture of violence.”
• subculture of violence – The setting in
which violence is a traditional, and
often accepted, method of dispute
resolution.
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Social Policy and Sociological
Theories
Social programs are
instituted to change
cultural conditions
and societal
arrangements that
lead people into crime.
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Social-Psychological Theories
Basic Assumptions:
• They highlight the role played by
weakened self-esteem and the
lack of meaningful social roles
in crime causation.
• Relationship of individual to
social group is stressed as
underlying cause of behavior.
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Social-Psychological Theories
Differential Association
Edwin Sutherland (1883-1950)
• Principles of Criminology (1939),
third edition
• views crime as a product of
socialization
• based on work of Gabriel Tarde’s
Laws of Imitation
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Social-Psychological Theories
Differential Association
Nine basic principles:
1. Criminal behavior is learned.
2. Criminal behavior is learned in
interaction with other persons in
a process of communication.
3. The principle part of the learning of
criminal behavior occurs within
intimate personal groups.
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Social-Psychological Theories
Differential Association
• When criminal behavior is learned, it includes a)
techniques of committing the crime, and b) the
specific direction of motives, drives,
rationalizations, and attitudes.
• The specific direction of motives and drives is
learned from definitions of the legal codes as
favorable or unfavorable.
• A person becomes delinquent because of an
excess of definitions favorable to violations of
the law over definitions unfavorable to violations
of the law.
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Social-Psychological Theories
Differential Association
• Differential associations may vary in frequency,
duration, priority, and intensity.
• The process of learning criminal behavior by
association with criminal and anticriminal
patterns involves all 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 those general needs and values since
noncriminal behavior is an expression of those
same needs and values.
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Social-Psychological Theories
Social Learning Theory
social learning theory – A
perspective that says people
learn how to behave by modeling
themselves after others whom
they have the
opportunity to
observe.
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Social-Psychological Theories
Social Learning Theory
Ronald L. Akers and Robert L. Burgess
• They applied learning theory constructs
to the theory of Differential
Association.
• They called their theory Differential
Reinforcement Theory.
• The constructs of learning theory was
taken from B.F. Skinner.
• Primary learning takes place through
operant conditioning.
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Social-Psychological Theories
Restraint Theories
Containment Theory
•
•
•
Walter Reckless (1899-1988)
The Crime Problem (1961), fourth edition
containment - aspects of social bond and
personality which act to prevent individuals
from committing crime
• inner and outer containment
• outer - elements outside of individual
• pulls - i.e., delinquent peers
• pressures - i.e., the law, family, school
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Social-Psychological Theories
Restraint Theories
Containment Theory (cont.)
• inner and outer containment (cont.)
• inner - those elements psychological in
nature
• pushes and pulls - i.e., conscience,
positive self-image, tolerance for
frustration, aspirations/motivations
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Social-Psychological Theories
Social Control Theory
Travis Hirschi
• He wrote Causes of Delinquency (1969).
• social bond – The relationship individual
has with society.
• The stronger the bond, the less likely the
individual would engage in
delinquency.
• Elements of the social bond include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
attachment (to others)
commitment (to appropriate lifestyles)
involvement (in conventional values)
belief (in correctness of rules of society)
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Social-Psychological Theories
Techniques of Neutralization
Gresham Sykes and David Matza
a. They wrote Techniques of Neutralization
(1957).
• A list of escalating techniques of
neutralization that allow a person
to commit a delinquent act.
c. The techniques are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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denial of responsibility
denial of injury
denial of victim
condemnation of condemners
appeal to higher loyalties
65
Conflict Theory
conflict perspective – An
approach which holds that
crime is the natural
consequence of economic
and other social inequities.
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Conflict Theory
Basic Assumptions:
• Society is composed of diverse
social groups, and diversity is
based upon distinctions which
people hold to be significant.
• Conflict among groups is
unavoidable because of differing
interests and differing values.
• The nature of group conflict centers
on exercise of political power.
• Law is a tool of power.
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Conflict Theory
Radical Perspective
• A perspective of the broader
conflict approach that sees
crime as engendered by the
unequal distribution of wealth,
power, and other resources.
• It has also been called “critical” or
“Marxist” criminology.
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Conflict Theory
Radical Criminology
Austin Turk (1934 -)
• He wrote Criminality and the
Legal Order, (1969).
• Radical criminology recognized
that the struggle to control
resources is central to
society, and it encompassed the
notion that law itself is a tool
of the powerful.
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Conflict Theory
Radical Criminology
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
a. Marx assumed lower classes are always
exploited by the “owners” of the means of
production.
b. It is the labor of the lower classes that provides
for the accumulation of wealth by the upper
classes.
c. Working class suffers under the consequences
of a “false class consciousness” – the poor
are trained to believe that capitalism is in
their best interest.
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Conflict Theory
Peacemaking Criminology
peacemaking – A perspective
that holds that crime control
agencies and the citizens they
serve should work together to
alleviate social problems and
human suffering, and thereby
reduce the amount of crime.
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Conflict Theory
Peacemaking Criminology
1. Roots are found in Christian and
Eastern philosophies.
2. It has been referred to as
“compassionate criminology.”
3. It was popularized by work of
Richard Quinney and Hal
Pepinsky.
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Phenomenological School
phenomenological criminology - The
belief that social actors endow their
behavior with meaning and purpose.
A crime might mean one thing to the
person who commits it, something
else to the victim, and something
different for the police, courts, and
corrections.
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Phenomenological School
Basic Assumptions:
• Significance of behavior depends upon a
social consensus about what behavior
“means.”
• “Crime” is a product of an active process
of interpretation and social definition.
• Continued criminal activity may be a
consequence of limited opportunities
for acceptable behavior rather than a
product of choice.
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Phenomenological School
George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
• He’s associated with symbolic
interaction theory.
• He demonstrated how we give meaning
to things.
• Human behavior is relative to the
intentions behind it.
• Human behavior is relative to the
situation in which it is interpreted.
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Phenomenological School
Labeling
•
Labeling was introduced by Frank
Tannenbaum (1893-1969) in his book
Crime and the Community (1938).
1. Howard Becker wrote about the labeling
theory in his book, Outsiders (1963).
a. Criminality is not a quality inherent in
the act or the person.
b. Crime results from social definition
through law of unacceptable
behavior.
c. Deviance is “created” by society.
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Phenomenological School
Labeling
Edwin Lemert
•
•
•
•
He wrote Social Pathology (1951).
He believed that there were two
delinquencies, primary and secondary.
primary deviance – An individual commits
deviant act, but does not view him or
herself as deviant.
secondary deviance – An individual
commits a deviant act and sees him or
herself as a deviant.
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Emergent Theories
Feminist Criminology
feminist criminology – A
developing intellectual
approach that emphasizes
gender issues in criminology.
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Emergent Theories
Feminist Criminology
• Rita Simon – Women And Crime (1975)
and Freda Adler – Sisters In Crime
(1975)
• attempts to explain differences in rates of
crime for women and men as due
primarily to socialization rather than
biology
• Kathleen Daly and Meda Chesney-Lind
•
•
emphasize need for a “gender-aware”
criminology
gender - the central organizing principle
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Emergent Theories
Postmodern Criminology
Includes such theories as:
1. chaos analysis
2. discourse analysis
3. topology theory
4. critical theory
5. realist criminology
6. constitutive theory
7. anarchic criminology
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Emergent Theories
Postmodern Criminology
a. has been called
“deconstructionist theory”
b. builds on idea that past
criminological theory has failed to
realistically assess the true
causes of crime, and therefore
failed to offer workable solutions
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