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(Sociology stuff yeah, Biological stuff yeah, Psychology stuff yeah),…
Sociology stuff yeah
Functionalist and Subcultural Theory - Focusing on how society works and is organized.Merton's strain theory:
The root of crime lies within the unequal structure of society.
It can be said that western societies value 'money success' as the goal you should pursue.Blocked opportunities:
Not everyone has an equal chance of achieveing success legitimately because society is very unequal, creating a 'strain'.This is approached in 2 ways:
- Innovation -
Accepting the goal but finding illegal was yo achieve it.
- Retreatism -
Dropouts who reject the goal and the means to achieve it.
- Supported by patters in official statistics of how lower class individuals tend to be more likely to commit crimes
- Shows how both normal and deviant arise from the same goals
- Ignores the crimes of the wealthy
- Focuses the theory on theft than other crimes such as vandalism
Realist approaches -Right sees crimes as a choice.
Left sees crime as deprived to not have a choice.Right realism:
Sees crime within biological differences and personality traits, and believes that having effective socialisation can reduce the chances of offenders by teaching them self-control and control values.It generally assumes humans are rational beings with the choice of committing a crime, and focuses on punishments other than solving the root cause of crimes.
Left realism:
See inequality in capitalist countries as the root of crime, as it is seen that crime is most common within the working class areas.There's 2 main factors of deprivation that roots crime:
- The media pumping out messages to urge people to have material possessions
- Job security with society becoming more unequal due to benefit cuts, low pay and unemployment
Subcultures turn to crimes to solve their problem, them being:
- Criminal subcultures sharing society's materialistic goals due to blocked legitimate opportunities
- Marginalized groups that are pushed out of society, causing them to commit crime to rebel
Right:
- Supported by research
- Offers a practical approach to tackling crime
- It has been found that children from lone-parent backgrounds were more likely to reoffend
Left:
- Recognizes multiple causes of crime
- Shows the reality of street crime and its effects
- Draws attention to the importance of poverty
Right:
- Not all crimes result from rational decisions
- Ignores wider structural causes of crime such as poverty
- Fails to explain white-collar crime as it focuses on street crime
Left:
- Focuses largerly on street crime
- Over-predicts the working class
- Makes crime seem like a bigger problem as it focuses on inner-city crime
Surveillance Theory - involes monitoring people to control crime.
The Panoption (all-seeing):
In modern society, we are increasingly controlled through self-surveillance.
For example, the prisoners' cells are visible to the guards, but the outside of the prison is not visible to the prisoners, causing them to behave, turning surveillance to self-surveillance and discipline to self-discipline.
Synopticon is when everybody watches over everybody else.
- Stimulated research into surveillance and disciplinary
- Other forms of surveillance have been identified by researchers
- Extent of control is exaggerated as imates will resist control
- Many do not actually change behaviour compared to what is claimed
Biological stuff yeah
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Physiological Theory - involves physical features that can defy someone's personality.
Sheldon's stomatotypes theory:
Mesomorphs are most likely to engage in crime, as they're portrayed as most engaging in physical activities and most energetic.
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- Confirmed by a number of small studies
- A good sized sample of 200 was used with a control group
- Doesn't take into account that bodies change
- Increases the likelyhood of labelling
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Genetic theory - Self explanatory
Twin Studies:
Monozygotic - From one fertilized egg, sharing 100% of their DNA
Dizygotic - From two separate eggs, sharing 50% DNA
Concordance rates (how likely both are to be convicted):
MZ Twins - 52%
DZ Twins - 22%
Experiment:
4,000 twin pairs in Denmark have been studied, and his results found what was said above about concordance.
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- Such studies are natural experiments
- Supported by research
- The study and research helped in prevention of vulnerable disorders
- Earlier studies lacked validity
- No small sample involved
- Nurture could easily affect more than genetics
Brain abnormality:
Damage to the pre-frontal cortex of the brain may cause individuals to have altered behaviour patterns, making them more immature and increased loss of self control.
- No evidence that it causes psychopathic criminality
- Crime caused by brain injury is rare
- Supported by research, with it being famous with the Phineas Gage situation
- Prisoners are more likely to have a brain injury
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Cognitive Theory - Cognition of the inner-workings of the brain.
Kohlberg's moral development:
Young children at the 'pre-conventional' stage usually define what is right and wrong in terms of what gives them rewards or punishments.
This will then develop into adulthood.
It overall suggests that the moral development in criminals is less mature, making them likely to offend.
- True for crimes such as theft and robbery rather than crimes of violence
- Delinquents are more likely to have an immature moral development
- Supported by research
- Focused on moral thinking than behaviours
- It is common for criminals to 'slip backwards' in the stages of moral development.
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Learning Theory - How criminal behaviour is learned.Social learning theory:
Suggests that we learn most of our behaviours through the observations and imitations of others. It is argued that this is the reason why criminal behaviour exists.This emphasises the importance of role models as we model behaviour from those we have observed, such as a parent, teacher or older sibling.
It also depends on the consequences of that behaviour. If the role model gets rewarded, someone is likely to copy it.Experiment:
This theory has been demonstrated on a study on young children, and it went like this:
- Children observed behaviour of adults with a 'Bobo Doll' acting aggressively towards it.
- Children saw the adult being rewarded for the behaviour or punished
- Children were left to play with the doll
They could be seen imitating the adult that was rewarded.
- Real world application
- Takes into account that we are social beings, learning from the experience of others as well
- Conducted in lab studies and seen as artificial
- Ignores choice
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Psychodynamic Theory - Our personality is seen as containing active forces that causes us to act as we do.Eysenck's personality theory:
The criminal personality scores high on both Extraversion and Neuroticism in his table of personality.There are 2 main factors that affect the likelihood of developing criminal behaviour:
- Conditioning:
Learning from experience to seek pleasure (rewards) and avoid pain (punishments)
- Genetic inheritance:
Some individuals inhering a nervous system that causes them to develop a criminal personality
- Research supports the predictions
- Explains how tendencies could increase offending
- Convicted offenders may not have those peronality traits as a whole
- Doesn't prove that personality type causes criminality
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