Chapter 7

1. Chapter 7 Social Process Theories

2. Socialization and Crime • Social process theories suggest criminality is a function of socialization • Any person regardless of race, class or gender can become criminal • Elements of family, peer group, school, and church contribute to socialization processes

3. Socialization and Crime • Family Relations • Family plays a critical role in the determinant of behavior • Parental efficacy refers to supportive parents who effectively control their children • Links between inconsistent discipline and delinquency

4. Socialization and Crime • Weblink www.childpolicy.org

5. Socialization and Crime • Child Abuse and Crime • Linkage between child abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and crime • Children subjected to abuse are more likely to use violence in personal interactions • In nonviolent societies, parents rarely punish children physically

6. Socialization and Crime • Educational Experience • Children who fail in school offend more frequently than those who succeed • Schools contribute to delinquency by labeling students • School dropouts have a significant chance of entering a criminal career • 2003 national survey estimates about 1.5 million violent incidents occur in public schools each year

7. Socialization and Crime • Peer Relations • Children seek out peer groups between the ages of 8 and 14 • Peer Rejection: Children rejected by peers are more likely to display aggressive behavior • Pro-social friends may inhibit criminality • Peers and Criminality: Antisocial peer groups increase the likelihood of delinquency • Mark Warr suggests delinquent friends tend to be “sticky” meaning they are not easily lost once they are acquired

8. Socialization and Crime • Institutional Involvement and Belief • Religion binds people together • Travis Hirschi and Rodney Stark found the association between religion attendance, belief, and delinquency is insignificant • Recent research contends that attending religious services is a significant inhibitor of crime

9. Socialization and Crime • The Effects of Socialization on Crime • Social learning theory suggests people learn techniques of crimes from criminal peers • Social control theory contends people are controlled by their bonds to society • Social reaction theory argues that society contributes to criminality through the use of labels

10. Social Learning Theory • Crime is a product of learning norms, values, and behaviors associated with criminal activity • Differential Association: Edwin H. Sutherland’s view that criminality is a function of the socialization process

11. Social Learning Theory • Differential Association Theory • Differential Association: Edwin H. Sutherland’s view that criminality is a function of the socialization process • Criminal behavior is learned • Learning is a by-product of interacting with others • Learning criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups • Learning criminal behavior involves assimilating the techniques of committing crime, including motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes • The specific direction is learned from perceptions of various aspects of the legal code as favorable or unfavorable

12. Social Learning Theory • A person becomes criminal when perceiving the consequences of violating the law as favorable • Differential associations vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity • The process of learning criminal behavior involves the same mechanisms as any other learning process • Criminal behavior and noncriminal behavior express the same needs and values

13. Social Learning Theory • Testing Differential Association Theory • Difficult to conceptualize and test empirically • Research does support the core principles such as links to family, and peers with criminality

14. Social Learning Theory • Analysis of Differential Association Theory • Fails to account for the origin of criminal definitions • Assumes criminal and delinquent acts to be rational and systematic • Some suggest the theory is tautological

15. Social Learning Theory • Differential Reinforcement Theory • Ronald Akers suggests “direct conditioning” occurs when behavior is reinforced by rewards or punishment • People evaluate their own behavior through their interactions with significant others and groups in their lives • Once people are indoctrinated into crime, their behavior can be reinforced through peers and the lack of negative sanctions

16. Social Learning Theory • Testing Differential Reinforcement • Studies have suggested a strong association between drug and alcohol abuse and social learning variables • Deviant behavior is reinforced over time (I.E. smoking) • Parents may supply negative reinforcements to children’s deviant behavior

17. Social Learning Theory • Neutralization Theory • David Matza and Gresham Sykes view criminality as a process learning neutralizing techniques • Subterranean values are morally tinged influences • Drift occurs from conventional behavior to criminal behavior if one can neutralize their sense of responsibility for antisocial behavior

18. Social Learning Theory • Techniques of Neutralization • Denial of responsibility: unlawful acts are beyond an offenders control • Denial of injury: offender’s perception is changed (i.e. stealing is borrowing) • Denial of the victim: the victim had it coming (i.e. vandalism) • Condemnation of the condemners: shifting the blame to others (i.e. society) • Appeal to higher loyalties: loyalty to a higher cause (i.e. Oliver North and Iran Contra)

19. Social Learning Theory • Testing Neutralization Theory • Empirical test results are inconclusive • Not all criminal offenders approve of social values such as honesty and fairness • As Matza predicted, people do seem to drift in and out of antisocial behavior

20. Social Learning Theory • Are Learning Theories Valid? • Learning theories fail to explain how the first criminal learned the necessary techniques and definitions of crime • Fails to account for spontaneous crime or expressive crimes • Learning of some criminality frequently occurs after one has committed the first criminal act

21. Social Control Theory • All people have potential to violate the law • Self-control refers to a strong moral sense that renders a person incapable of hurting others or violating social norms • Walter Reckless argued a strong self-image insulates a person from the criminogenic influences of the environment • Howard Kaplan suggests youths with poor self-concepts are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior (normative groups)

22. Social Control Theory • Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory (social control theory) • Travis Hirschi links the onset of criminality to the weakening of the ties than bind people to society ( social bonds) • Attachment (sensitivity to and interest in others) • Commitment (time, energy, and effort into conventional activities) • Involvement (insulates people from the lure of crime) • Belief (moral respect for law and social values)

23. Social Control Theory • Testing Social Control Theory • Empirical studies revealed a strong support for Hirschi’s control theory • Youths strongly attached to parents were less likely to commit criminal acts • Youths involved in conventional activities were less likely to engage in criminal behavior • Youths involved in unconventional behaviors such as drinking and smoking were more prone to delinquency • Youths who maintained weak relationships with others moved toward delinquency • Those who shunned unconventional acts were attached to peers • Delinquents and nondelinquents shar similar beliefs about society • Recent research shows attachments to peers, school and family may be interrelated

24. Social Control Theory • Opposing Views • Friendship: A criticism of Hirschi’s theory is the notion that delinquents are detached loners • Not all elements of the bond are equal: Some people are very involved and not attached • Deviant peers and parents: Some people are very attached to deviant peers • Restricted in scope: May not explain all modes of criminality • Change bonds: Bonds seem to change over time • Crime and social bonds: Direction of association might be miscalculated in the wrong direction

25. Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory) • Explains criminal careers in terms of destructive social interactions and stigma-producing encounters (symbolic interaction theory) • People are given a variety of symbolic labels that define the whole person • Negative labels stigmatize and reduce one’s self-image • Social groups create definitions of positive and negative labels • Labels may actually maintain and amplify criminal behavior

26. Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory) • Crime and Labeling Theory • Crime and deviance are defined by the social audience • Howard Becker described those making the rules as moral entrepreneurs • Social groups create deviance by labeling particular people as “outsiders”

27. Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory) • Differential Enforcement • Those with social power penalize the powerless • Content of law reflects power relationships • Street crimes punished more severely than white-collar crimes

28. Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory) • Consequences of Labeling • Labels produce stigma • Condemnation is carried out in “ceremonies” such as trials and media attention (degradation ceremonies) • Differential social control: Self-labeling involves one taking on the attitudes and roles reflected in how a person views the way others see them • Joining deviant cliques: Some labeled people may join cliques and other outcast peers • Retrospective reading: refers to the reassessment of a person’s past to fit a current generalized label or status • Dramatization of evil: Labels become a personal identity

29. Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory) • Primary and Secondary Deviance • Edwin Lemert defined a norm violation with little or no long-term influence as primary deviance • Secondary deviance refers to a norm violation that results in application of a negative label with long-term consequences • The process whereby secondary deviance pushes offenders out of the mainstream of society is referred to as deviance amplification

30. Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory) • Research on Social Reaction Theory • Evidence supports the targets of labeling (poor and powerless) are victimized by the law and justice system • Contextual discrimination: refers to judges imposing harsher sentences on minorities • Empirical evidence supports that negative labels influence self-image • Cumulative disadvantage: Provokes repeat behaviors

31. Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory) • Is Labeling Theory Valid? • Inability to specify the conditions the must exist before an act or individual is labeled • Failure to explain differences in crime rates • Ignores the onset of deviant behavior • Charles Tittle suggests criminal careers occur without labeling

32. Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory) • Evaluating Social Process Theories • The branches of social process theory-social learning-social control and social reaction are compatible • Interactions of social institutions, family, schools, peers, and the justice system are important in creating and inhibiting criminal behavior • Social process theories are not persuasive in explaining fluctuations in crime patterns

33. Public Policy Implications of Social Process Theory • Learning theories have greatly influenced the way criminal offenders are treated • Residential treatment programs utilize group interaction to promote conventional behavior • Head Start is a well-known program designed to help lower-class youths achieve proper socialization • Diversion programs are concerned with avoiding the stigma of a criminal label • Restitution programs permit an offender to repay the victim rather than face the stigma of a formal trial and court-ordered sentence