Review
Labeling Theory
Social Support Theory
 Process Theories
• Differential Association/Social Learning
 Theories (Sutherland, Akers)
 Evidence
 Policy Implications
• Informal Social Control Theories
 Types of control
 Theories (Hirschi, Gottfreodson and Hirschi, Sampson
and Laub)
 Evidence
 Policy Implications
Family
Context
Low
Direct
Control
Low SelfControl
• Large family size, single
parents, parental deviance
• Inadequate supervision,
recognition, punishment
• Insensitive, impulsive,
risk-taking…
 Extension
of Hirschi’s social bond theory
• Age graded
• Adult social bonds
 Quality Marriage
 Quality Job
 Why matter!
Childhood
Context
Individual
Differences
Adolescence
Parenting
• Supervision
• Discipline
Social Bonds
• Family
• School
Delinquent Peers
Adulthood
Delinquency
Length of
Incarceration
Adult Crime
Social Bonds
•Marriage
•Good Job
•
A product of sociological criminology
(Hirschi)
– The distinction is based on assumptions about
human nature: What is the nature of human beings
in…
• Social Learning Theory?
• Social Control/Deterrence Theory?
• Strain/Anomie Theory?
•
Distinctions are not really important in
psychology
– Operant conditioning, vicarious learning, cognitive
psychology are all grounded in “principles of
learning”
Developed by Frank Tannenbaum,
Edwin Lemert, and Howard Becker
Key concepts
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Emphasis is on interactions between
individuals and institutions of formal control
(e.g., police, courts, prisons).
Contact with police and the courts may create
negative self-image.
Formal interventions may increase criminal
behavior.
View of crime and deviance as relative
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No act is inherently evil, bad, or criminal.
Deviant categorization depends on
many factors
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When/where the act is committed
Who the offender is
Who the victim is
What the consequences are
Focus on how power and conflict shape
society (social context)
Moral entrepreneurs
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Powerful groups define and react to deviant
behavior
Benefits powerful, can hurt the less powerful
Criminal justice system: agents enforce
the law in the interest of powerful
groups
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Importance of self-concept
Symbolic interactionism
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People communicate through symbols.
People interpret symbolic gestures and
incorporate them into their self-image.
“Looking-glass self”
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Developed by Charles Horton Cooley
One’s own self-concepts are the product of other
people’s conceptions or symbolic labels
Self-fulfilling prophesy
Little empirical support
Inaccurate assumptions
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Primary deviance as relative, sporadic, and
unimportant
Nature of the person predicts official reaction
more than the nature of the act
Effect of official sanctions on future behavior
Racial bias does exist…but not sole (or
most important) cause of CJ response to
crime
Arrest sometimes decreases future crime
Policy implications
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Schur: “Radical nonintervention”
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Act (1974)
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Diversion programs
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Divert offenders away from the formal juvenile
justice processing to programs run by other entities
(i.e., social service programs)
Deinstitutionalization (esp. status offenders)
Due Process revolution in Juvenile Court
 Labeling
theory most popular in 1960s-
1970s
• The central ideas had been around as early as
the 1930s
• Good “fit” for the social context of 1960s
• Ironic Twist
 Government, trying to do good, actually makes
people worse
 Good fit with the “can’t trust the government” social
movement era
Lawrence Sherman’s “Defiance” Theory
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Police sanctions can
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Produce defiance (escalation in offending)
Produce deterrence (decrease in offending)
Be irrelevant
Reintegrative shaming
Reintegrative Shaming
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Developed by John Braithewaite
Effect of formal punishment depends
upon how a person is punished.
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Shaming and reintegrative punishment will
decrease future crime.
Stigmatizing punishment will increase future
crime.
Restorative Justice
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Goal of the criminal justice system: to repair
the harm created by the offense
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Victim central to process
Community volunteers also important
Punishment of offender does little to repair harm
(inflicting pain not really “accountability”).
Empirical research
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Victim-offender mediation
Restitution
Sentencing circles
Mixed findings
Criticism
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Limited (depends on voluntary participation)
Might reduce funding to more effective
rehabilitation programs
 Newcomer
to the theory world (mid
1990s)
 Francis Cullen
• Deterrence/control view of human nature is too
simplistic
• Social Support as “precondition” for effective
parenting (control)
• Social Support independently important
 Altruism
▪
Deviant behavior is the result of individuals
interacting with social institutions over time.
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Social control theory: inadequate socialization
Differential association/social learning theory:
improper socialization
Labeling theory: socialized to accept delinquent
identity (interaction with the criminal justice
system)
▪ Not well supported by research
▪ Revisions (e.g., informal labeling, reintegrative shaming)
more promising
 Social
Structure
• Anomie/Strain
• Social Disorganization
 Social
Process
• Learning
• Control
• Labeling