CHAPTER 9

The sociological theories of crime that we had discussed to date could be classified as single factor theories. Each theory such as strain theory identified one causative factor. Herein lies the major weakness and that none do a very good job at explaining criminal behavior. There are always numerous exceptions that they do not account for. In the last couple of decades, with the help of powerful computers, researchers have been able take a more complex look at criminal behavior. Some have taken the more important aspects of the single factor theories and combined them to make them to hopefully develop an integrated theory that simply describes anti-social behavior more accurately. The text classifies these latest theories into latent trait and developmental. I will briefly discuss two of the latent trait theories, Human Nature and Self-Control and three of the developmental theories. All of these theories will provide you with a more complete picture of anti-social behavior but by virtue of the need to classify the different perspectives you will note that there is still significant disagreement between the experts.

 

 

LATENT TRAIT THEORIES

Premise: Criminal behavior is controlled by a master trait at birth or soon thereafter that remains stable and unchanged throughout ones life.

Human Nature (James Q Wilson and Richard Hernstein, 1985)

Premise: Crime is a rational choice that is influenced by certain biological and psychological factors such as low intelligence, mesomorphic body type, genetic influences, impulsive personality, anger and sociological factors such as living in a lower socio-economic community, low quality family life, all contribute to crime.

These different biological, sociological and psychological traits are developed early and will impact the individual's behavior throughout their entire life.

The solution, according to these authors, is not to make punishment harsher but to strengthen families and for schools to get involved in teaching acceptable conduct since we don’t have the capability for changing the latent trait itself.

General Theory of Crime

Premise: Crime is a function of rational choice which is influenced by ones level of self-control. People lacking self-control will seize criminal opportunities.

Ineffective child rearing ------>Poor Self Control------>impacts decision-making------>opportunity = crime

Interpretation of the above diagram: A child starts out in life with biological factors that may predispose them to crime and at the same time may be victims of poor quality child rearing. These factors produce a personality that lacks self-control. Figure 9.4 lists examples of impulsive traits indicative of low self-control. Once a person develops this personality, they will have it the rest of their life. This low self-control in turn impacts the ability of an individual to make rational decisions. Persons with low self-control are more likely to ignore potential negative consequences of their actions. Finally, crime will not result unless there is opportunity. When opportunity presents itself, those with low self-control are most likely to engage in criminal activity. An individual's level of self-control never changes so there is always the potential to commit crime but what does change is the opportunities which will dissipate as one gets older. This theory is supposed to be able to explain all crime from burglaries to securities fraud.

As with other theories, GTC has been supported and criticized depending upon ones perspective. Read the over the twelve criticisms . Pay particular attention to the criticism that people do change over time. It is difficult for me to accept that a person's level of self-control never changes. If that is true, then we have wasted many years trying to teach people how to behave when we should have been working on ways to reduce opportunity.

DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

Premise: Multiple social, personal and economic factors can influence criminality and these factors change over time and so to does criminal involvement.

As you read through this section of the chapter be sure and be familiar with the information provided on the Gluecks who were pioneers in the study of the life cycle of delinquency. Also, be aware of the term problem behavior syndrome which life course developmental theorist’s view as just one of many problem behaviors that usually co-exist such as smoking, substance abuse, school problems, early pregnancy, etc. Finally, before we get started on the developmental theories, on page 290 there is a discussion about the differences in the offenders depending upon when they begin their criminality. You will probably run across these terms in recent research. They include the Adolescent Limited offenders and the Life-Course Persisters. The difference is that Adolescent Limited offenders may appear to be similar in behavior to the Life Course Persistent offenders during their teen years but they will desist from criminality before they reach adulthood. They also start their criminal behavior later. Life-Course Persisters on the other hand get an earlier start in crime and will continue into adulthood. They are more likely to be influenced by individual traits such as low verbal ability, ADHD, etc.

Developmental theories reject the idea that a person develops a master criminogenic trait that they carry with them through life. They believe that significant life events can change people over time. These theorists are sociologists who tend to ignore biological and psychological factors such as IQ. They tend to view all causes of human behavior from a sociological perspective.

Social Development (Joseph Weis, Richard Catalano, J. David Hawkins)

Premise: Social disorganization reduces the social bond but this weak social bond can be counteracted as the child matures by developing strong bonds with the family which in turn influences the child's school experiences and their values. Youths who fail to develop strong bonds with family and school will develop attachments to delinquent peers.

The reason why this is a developmental model is because Weiss and company take into consideration the various influences that a youth will be exposed to as they mature. This includes starting out with the social structure in which they are born and then followed by the relationships with the parents, then the school and peer groups.

 

Sampson and Laubs Age-Grade Theory (Robert Sampson and John Laub, 1993)

Premise: Criminal careers are developed in early childhood because of weak social bonds with pro-social people and that criminal behavior can be affected by events that occur later in life as they age. The most important two events are marriage and employment termed turning points in crime.

Turning Points in Crime

 Employment: finding a job or building a successful career can help one desist from crime.

 Marriage: attachment to a non-deviant spouse who is willing to support and sustain their partner despite their criminal backgrounds can help one desist from crime. Sustaining a happy marriage through the child rearing years will more than likely produce non-deviant children.

This theory also holds that people can change as opposed to the latent trait theories which holds that people do not change only opportunities do. As people build up social capital they become more and more resistant to criminal tendencies. What is social capital? It is an investment in positive relations with individuals and institutions such as marriage and career. Those who have an investment in these relations will avoid behaviors that may destroy them. People who are building social capital are really strengthening social bonds.

This theory has a couple of major weaknesses. They do not explain why some people make that investment in social capital and others do not. They also don't explain why some who have made the investments in say marriage and/or a career, will continue to commit criminal acts.

  

  Risk and Protective Factors

Instead of trying to create a theory of crime it makes more practical sense to identify those characteristics that are associated with crime such as living in poverty.  These are call risk factors.  Protective factors are those characteristics that tend to be associated with pro social behavior such as having strong family support.  Counselors and probation officers can usually identify the risk and protective factors and focus on those that they can change in the case of risk.

 

 The following risk factors were determined by a panel of experts based on the most recent research on juvenile delinquency.  The Risk factors mentioned below are associated with childhood delinquency and later violent juvenile offending. (These risk and protective factors are not in your text.

 

Individual Factors

·        Early antisocial behavior

Best predictor for early onset.. Includes oppositional rule violation and aggression, such as theft, fighting, vandalism.  All early onset offenders were Behavior problems as rated by parents before aged 3  Physical aggression at age 4-5 best predictor of delinquency before age 13.

Most children express anger and physical aggression between 1-2 years but in most children it is under control by age 3 (terrible twos)

·        Emotional

By 3 children can express entire range of emotions, anger, pride, shame and guilt.  Not known whether emotional factors are causes of del beh or correlates.

Two concepts of behavior

1. Behavioral inhibition

Fearfulness, anxiety, timidity, shyness

2. Behavioral activation

Novelty and sensation seeking, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and predatory aggression.

 

High levels of behavioral activation combined with low levels of behavioral inhibition are risk factors for anti-social behavior.

 

·        Poor Cognitive Development-Low Intelligence

This includes low intelligence, language development, social cognition, and neuropsychological functions.

Effect a child’s development within the first two years of life.  Children with lower intelligence or cognitive deficits don’t learn social rules as well and will not perform well in school   Verbal IQ’s are lower than performance IQ’s. and the mean global IQ is lower as well.

Neuropsychological defects can effect the ability of children to control their behaviors.  Some will have impaired social cognition processes such as failure to attend to appropriate social cues.

 

·        Hyperactivity

Probably result of neuropsychological deficit.  Early hyperactivity such as kindergarten age is a good predictor of later del.

 

 

Family Factors

·        Large family size

Related to diminished level of supervision and care

·        Familial antisocial behaviors

Anti-social adults tend to select anti-social partners.  Anti social parents show increased levels of family conflict, exercise poorer supervision and experience more family breakdown and direct more hostility towards their children.

·        Parental Psychopathology

Children of parents with ASPD are also likely to have ASPD.  Same with depression.  Psychiatric disorders are probably genetic.

 

·        Parenting

1.  high level of parent-child conflict

2.  poor monitoring

3.  low level of positive involvement

·        Maltreatment

Usually occurs with other family risk factors.

·        Family Violence

·        Divorce

Establishing the exact effect of divorce is difficult because of other co-occurring risks.

 

·        Teenage parenthood

Strong relationship with del.  May be more an effect of the mother’s own anti-social personality along with anti-social peers

·        Family structure

Peer Factors

·        Association with deviant peers

Related to increased co-offending and in the minority of cases, the joining of gangs.  Deviant peer associations do contribute to delinquency,

Do deviant peers model and reinforce antisocial behaviors or the association with deviant peers is just another manifestation of a child’s predisposition towards delinquency.  In other words, do birds of a feather flock together or does bad company corrupt?

 

·        Peer rejection

Studies have shown that peer rejection at an early age (after socialization with peers begins) is related to late adult offending and join deviant peer groups.

 

 

 

 

School and Community Ties

·        Failure to bond to school (low commitment)

It is likely that children who perform poorly because of cognitive deficits will have poor academic performance will fail to bond to school and will have lower expectations of success.

·        Poor academic performance

·        Low academic aspirations

 

·        Living in a poor family (poverty)

·        Neighborhood disadvantage (poverty)

·        Disorganized neighborhoods

Few social controls, gangs, norms favorable to crime.

·        Concentration of delinquent peers

·        Access to weapons

 

 

Schools and peer relationships are mediating factors rather than primary causes of delinquency.  Due to community, family and individual risk factors, a child already has a personality that may set them at risk when they begin their associations with others and with schools.  If a child already is at risk with an anti-social personality then they will more likely be rejected from the mainstream groups and will seek out deviant peer associations.