CHAPTER OUTLINE - Cengage



CHAPTER OUTLINE

Case Profile: Jay

1. youngest of six children, in impoverished community

2. although bright, regularly misses schools

3. arrested on theft charges

4. parents facing homelessness

5. teacher becomes his foster mother

6. misses appointments with probation officer

7. follows court-ordered framework including community service,

restitution, continued contact with biological family, contact with local human service agency, and retail theft group composed of other offenders, volunteers, store security and leader.

8. Jay maintains close contact with family, works harder in school, and seriously considers college.

I Introduction

A. No More Victims programs

1. kids often live in tough urban environments

2. key to understanding delinquent behavior lies in the social

environment

B. Perspective

1. individual-level phenomenon fail to account for these consistent

differences in delinquency rates

2. large cities have more crime problems than rural

C. social factors and delinquency

1. interpersonal interactions

a. weakened family ties linked to delinquency

2. community ecological conditions and social change

3. political unrest and mistrust, economic stress, and family

disintegration

4. socioeconomic status and lack of economic success

II. Social Factors and Delinquency

A. Critical social factors believed to cause or affect delinquent behaviors

1. interpersonal interactions – relationships with families, peers, schools, jobs, criminal justice agencies, and more may play an important role in creating or restraining delinquency

a. reduced influence of family in American society/increased

emphasis on individuality, independence, and isolation

2. community ecological conditions – living in deteriorated inner-city areas marked by poverty, decay, fear, and despair influences delinquency

3. social change – political unrest and mistrust, economic stress, and family disintegration have been found to precede sharp increases in crime rates; stabilization of these traditional social institutions typically precede crime rate declines

4. socioeconomic status – may also affect delinquency. Logic finds that people on the lowest rung of the economic ladder will have the greatest incentive to commit crime. Delinquency may appear as an attractive alternative to a life of indigence.

III. Social Structure Theories

A. Culture of poverty – term coined by sociologist Oscar Lewis

1. describes the crushing burden faced by the urban poor

2. marked by apathy, cynicism, helplessness, and mistrust

3. permanent underclass whose members have little chance of upward

mobility

4. hollowed out deteriorated inner core surrounded by less devastated

communities

5. truly disadvantaged are members of the urban underclass

B. Economics

1. more than half of families in poverty are fatherless and

husbandless

2. many are supported entirely by government aid

3. lack of employment opportunity also limits the authority of parents

4. poor children are more likely to suffer from health problems

5. children who live in extreme poverty exhibit the worst outcomes

6. tie delinquency rates to socioeconomic conditions, cultural values

7. frustrated by their inability to be part of the American Dream

IV. Social Disorganization

A. Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, sociologists

1. first recognized concept of social disorganization

2. delinquency rates were high in what they called transitional

neighborhoods areas

3. factories and commercial establishments were interspersed with

residences

4. cultural transmission passing on delinquent traditions

5. distinct ecological areas had developed

6. visualized as a series of concentric zones each with a stable

delinquency rate

7. data indicated a stable pattern of delinquency over a 65-year period

B. Social control

1. healthy, organized community has the ability to regulate itself

2. common goals can be achieved

3. social institutions cannot work effectively in climate of alienation

and mistrust

C. Social disorganization theory concepts

1. relative deprivation

a. where poor and wealthy live relatively close to one another

2. community change

a. some impoverished areas are being gentrified

b. formerly affluent communities becoming rundown

c. likely to experience increases in single-parent families

d. changes in housing from owner- to renter-occupied units

e. loss of semiskilled and unskilled jobs

f. growth in the numbers of discouraged

g. unemployed workers who are no longer seeking jobs

3. community fear

a. suffer social incivility, i.e., trash and litter, graffiti, burned-out buildings, drunks and vagabonds, loiterers, prostitutes, noise, congestion, and more

b. residents become convinced neighborhood is dangerous and become fearful and weary, trying not to leave their homes at night

5. collective cohesion

a. high levels of social control and social integration, develop

sense of collective efficacy or mutual trust and a willingness to intervene in the supervision of children

V. Anomie/Strain

A. Strain

1. feel isolated from the economic mainstream

2. view crime as a direct result of lower-class frustration and anger

3. Merton adopted the concept of strain to explain crime and

delinquency

4. youths may either

a. use deviant methods to achieve their goals

b. reject socially accepted goals and substitute deviant

B. General strain theory

1. Agnew argues there are more sources of strain than Merton realized

2. elements of general strain theory

a. strain caused by failure to achieve positively valued goals

b. strain as the removal of positively valued stimuli

c. strain as the presentation of negative stimuli

3. negative affective states

a. anger, frustration, and fear that derive from strain

C. Cultural deviance

1. youths’ desire to conform to lower-class neighborhood cultural

values

2. lower class values conflict with those of the larger society

3. being tough, never showing fear, living for today, and

disrespecting authority

4. experience a form of culture conflict

D. The Code of the Streets

1. Elijah Anderson asserts interrelationship of culture and behavior

2. for the “ghetto poor” lack of jobs, stigma of race, drug use, alienation, and lack of hope puts youth at risk of deviant behavior and crime.

3. oppositional culture which is opposed to mainstream and society competes with conventional culture

4. the code demands that disrespect be confronted, often violently.

VI. Social Process Theories: Socialization and Delinquency

A. Socialization

1. root cause of delinquency traced to learning delinquent attitudes

from peers

a. becoming detached from school

b. experiencing conflict in the home

2. process of guiding people into acceptable behavior patterns

a. through information, approval, rewards, and punishments

3. early socialization experiences have a lifelong

B. Parental efficacy

1. primary influence is the family

2. children whose parents use severe discipline yet lack warmth and

involvement are prone to antisocial behavior

3. family-crime relationship is significant across racial, ethnic, and

gender lines

5. one of the most replicated findings in the criminological literature

C. Socialization process affects delinquency in three different ways

1. learning – delinquency may be learned through interaction with other people

2. control – delinquency may result when life circumstances weaken the attachment a child has to family, peers, school, and society

3. reaction – some kids are stigmatized and find themselves locked out

of conventional society and into a deviant or delinquent way of life

VII. Social Learning Theories

A. Social learning theories

1. youths can resist crime if they have learned proper values and

behaviors

2. learn the values and behaviors associated with crime

3. involves the techniques of crime and the psychological aspects

B. Sutherland’s differential association theory

1. exposed to and learn pro-social and antisocial attitudes and

behaviors

2. kids will be vulnerable to choosing criminal behaviors over

conventional ones if

a. prodelinquency definitions outweigh the antidelinquency

definitions

b. particularly influential if they come from significant others

VII. Social Control Theories

A. Social control

1. strength of the relationships a child forms with conventional

individuals

2. develop a positive self-image

3. develop a strong commitment to conformity

B. Hirschi developed the most prominent control theory, arguing that

1. all people have the potential to commit crimes

2. people are kept in check by their social bonds or attachments to

society; if these social bonds are weakened, kids are able to engage in antisocial but personally desirable behaviors

C. Four main elements of the social bond

1. attachment to parents, peers, and schools

2. commitment to the pursuit of conventional

3. involvement in conventional activities such as school, sports, and

religion

4. belief in values such as rights of others and respect for the legal

code

D. Hirschi’s vision of delinquency causation is one of the most influential of

recent times and a significant amount of research evidence supports his ideas

1. positive social attachments help control delinquency

2. kids who are detached from the educational experience are at risk of criminality

3. kids who do well and are committed to school are less likely to engage in delinquent acts

4. kids who are attached to their families are less likely to get involved in a deviant peer group and consequently are less likely to engage in criminal activities

E. Criticism

1. social relations of delinquents

2. Hirschi portrays delinquents as lone wolves

IX. Social Reaction Theories

A. Reaction

1. the way society reacts to individuals and

2. the way individuals react to society determines individual behavior

3. delinquents become stigmatized, or labeled, by agents of social control, i.e., the police and courts, parents, neighbors

B. Labeling theory

1. youths violate the law for a variety of reasons

2. if individuals’ delinquent behaviors are detected

a. offenders given a negative label that follows them

throughout life

3. degree to which youngsters are perceived as deviants may affect

their treatment

a. neighbors may tell their children to avoid the troublemaker

4. youths will have an increasing commitment to delinquent careers

5. they accept that label as a personal identity

a. process called self-labeling

6. they may be given official labels, applied in ceremonies

7. process is a durable negative label and an accompanying loss of

status

8. the label juvenile delinquent is conferred on offenders

9. their identities may be transformed

a. they become bad kids

10. labeling process helps create a self-fulfilling prophecy

11. self-fulfilling prophecy leads to a damaged self-image

X. Critical/Social Conflict Theories

A. Social conflict theory

1. society is in a constant state of internal conflict

2. different groups strive to impose their will on others

3. those with power succeed in shaping the law to meet their needs

4. ruling class is a self-interested collective whose primary interest is

self-gain

B. Law and justice

1. theorists view the law and justice system as vehicles for controlling

the have-not members of society

2. law protects the property and physical safety of the haves from

attack by the have-nots and helps control the behavior of those who might otherwise threaten the status quo

3. consequently, deep-seated hostility is generated among members

of the lower class toward a social order they may neither shape nor share in

C. The cause of delinquency

1. delinquency as a normal response to the conditions created by

capitalism

2. child-saving movement’s real goal was to maintain order and control

3. delinquency is a function of the capitalist system’s inherent

inequity

4. the values of capitalism are reinforced

5. schools prepare youths for placement in the capitalist system

a. class and delinquency – lower class youths form gangs which serve as a means of survival in a system that offers no reasonable alternative

b. controlling delinquents – theorists suggest that the justice system may help to sustain such behavior by failing to control them because it is in their best interest to maintain a large number of outcast deviant youths

XI. Social Structure Theories and Delinquency Prevention

A. Social structure theories

1. 1960s were the heyday of delinquency prevention programs based

on social structure theory

2. seemed compatible with the policies of Kennedy and Johnson

administrations

B. New York City–based Mobilization for Youth funded with $50 million

1. MOBY created employment opportunities in the community

2. coordinated social services

3. sponsored social action groups such as tenants’ committees

C. Operation Weed and Seed

1. federal multilevel action plan for revitalizing communities

2. social service and law enforcement agencies must cooperate to be

effective

3. four basic elements in this plan:

a. law enforcement

b. community policing

c. prevention, intervention, and treatment

d. neighborhood restoration

D. Socialization and delinquency prevention

1. one approach has been to help social institutions improve their

outreach

2. educational programs have been improved

a. expanding preschool programs

b. develop curricula relevant to students’ lives

c. stress teacher development

3. aimed at strengthening families in crisis

4. developing good family relations is an essential element

5. providing services for youngsters who have been identified as

E. Labeling and delinquency prevention

1. divert youths from official processing at initial contact with police

2. others might be eligible for alternative sanctions

3. alternative community-based sanctions substituted for state

training schools

4. anything producing stigma was to be avoided

5. removal of juveniles from adult jails

6. end housing status offenders and juvenile delinquents together

7. critics claimed that nonintervention movement created a new class

of offenders

a. phenomenon as widening the net

F. Critical theories and delinquency prevention

1. conflict resolution may be the key to its demise

2. approach that relies on nonpunitive strategies for delinquency

control

3. turns the justice system into a healing process

a. rather than a distributor of retribution

4. restorative justice is based on a social rather than a legal view of

delinquency

5. participation of community members in the adjudication process

6. balanced approach benefits victims, offender, and the community

a. community protection and victims’ rights

b. offenders must take responsibility for their actions

G. Principles of balanced and restorative justice

1. crime is fundamentally a violation of people and interpersonal

relationships

2. victims and the community have been harmed and are in need of

restoration

3. victims, offenders, and the affected communities are the key

stakeholders

4. violations create obligations and liabilities

5. offenders have the obligation to make things right as much as

possible

6. coercion is to be minimized

7. community’s obligations are to both victims and offenders

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Social structure theories hold that delinquent behavior is an adaptation to conditions that predominate in lower-class environments. The social disorganization view suggests that economically deprived areas lose their ability to control the behavior of residents. Gangs flourish in these areas. Delinquency is a product of the socialization mechanisms in a neighborhood: unstable neighborhoods have the greatest chance of producing delinquents. Such factors as fear, unemployment, change, and lack of cohesion help produce delinquent behavior patterns.

Strain theories hold that lower-class youths may desire legitimate goals, but their unavailability causes frustration and deviant behavior. Merton linked strain to anomie, a condition caused when there is a disjunction between goals and means. In his general strain theory, Robert Agnew identifies two more sources of strain: the removal of positive reinforcements and the addition of negative ones. He shows how strain causes delinquent behavior by creating negative affective states, and he outlines the means adolescents employ to cope with strain.

Social process theories hold that improper socialization is the key to delinquency. Control theories suggest that kids are prone to delinquent behavior when they have not been properly socialized and lack a strong bond to society. Without a strong bond, they are free to succumb to the lure of delinquent behavior. Labeling and stigma may also reinforce delinquency. Kids who receive negative labels may internalize them and engage in self-labeling. This causes a self-fulfilling prophecy, which breeds even more deviant behaviors and locks kids into a delinquent way of life.

Critical, or social conflict theory, views delinquency as an inevitable result of the class and racial conflict that pervades society. Delinquents are members of the “have-not” class that is shut out of the mainstream. The law benefits the wealthy over the poor.

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