Chapter 4

SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF

DELINQUENCY

Juvenile Justice: An Introduction, 7th ed.

Chapter 4

What You Need to Know

• Shaw and McKay found that crime and delinquency was concentrated in the center of cities, where lower-SES individuals and immigrants or African Americans lived. The reason they offer for this finding was “social disorganization,” meaning the residents did not exert control, thus allowing crime to flourish.

• Differential association argues that deviance is learned just as other behavior is learned. Modifications of differential association include differential identification (which adds the idea of learning from images in the media) and differential reinforcement (which argues we learn from the results of our actions).

• Subcultural theories suggest that youths often act in accordance with a different set of values and beliefs that invariably conflict with the dictates of the larger society, thus leading them to be considered deviant.

• The techniques of neutralization presented by Sykes and Matza allow youths to violate the law while maintaining a positive self-image as a conforming member of society.

Chapter 4

What You Need to Know (Cont’d)• Routine activities theory argues that a criminal act requires a motivated

offender and a suitable target to coincide where there is an absence of capable guardianship.

• Strain theory suggests that crime is a logical outcome of the disjunction between the socially prescribed goals and the means available for achieving those goals.

• Hirschi’s social control theory states that “delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken.” Bond is composed of attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.

• Self-control theory argues that behavior is controlled by factors an individual internalizes early in life. Good self-control keeps an individual from violating the law.

• The labeling perspective proposes that involvement in the juvenile justice system leads to more deviant behavior by labeling the individual as a deviant and forcing him or her to act in accordance with that label.

• Attempts to integrate theories into more unified, coherent explanations of deviance have met only limited success in advancing sociological theory.

Chapter 4

Sociological Explanations

• Most prevalent explanations of delinquent behavior. • Great changes in society during and after the

industrial revolution led to a natural view that deviant behavior was an outgrowth of social relationships.

• Most sociological explanations are accompanied by attempts at empirical research and often find some degree of support.

• Reflect elements of both Classicism and Positivism.

Chapter 4

The Ecological Perspective

• Also called the “Chicago School” because a great deal of the research done using the city of Chicago as a focus.

• Explains deviance as a natural outgrowth of the location in which it occurs.

• Great growth in the number and size of large cities.• New urban areas were densely populated; many of

the new residents were uneducated, unemployed and could not speak English; increases in various social problems—including criminal activity.

Chapter 4

The Ecological Perspective

Shaw and McKay (1942)• Analyzed where delinquency occurred in Chicago.• Crime and delinquency was highest:

– In and around the central business district– In poor areas of the city– In areas dominated by immigrants and African Americans

• Pointed to the same physical location in the city, specifically the city center where economic conditions were poorest.

• Stability of the delinquency levels in the same areas over time • Delinquency problem was a result of constant turnover of

people in the area.• Turnover caused social disorganization, or the lack of

organization to control and make improvements in area.

Chapter 4

Sources of Neighborhood ControlPrivateinterpersonal relationships: family, friends, and close associatesParochialneighborhood networks and institutions: schools, churches, businesses, social organizations/groupsPublicagencies and institutions of the city, state, or other governmental unit

Sources of Control• Neighborhood control can come from a variety of sources• Bursik and Grasmick (1993) identify three primary sources:

• Lower-class, transient, high-crime neighborhoods have particular trouble developing these sources of control

• Inability to marshal the public support needed for effective delinquency control- vertical integration

The Ecological Perspective

Chapter 4

Critique:• Lack of a single coherent theory• Many researchers attributed results based on

grouped data to individuals- this is known as the ecological fallacy

• Knowledge about an area tells little about a specific individual

This early work brought crime and delinquency theory squarely into the sociological tradition.

The Ecological Perspective

Chapter 4

Learning Theory

• Sees deviance as a result of learning.• Variety of factors contribute to the

learning process:–With whom an individual has contact –What the individual observes –The consequences of one’s behavior

Chapter 4

Learning Theory

Differential Association:• Sutherland (1939) • Views learning as the culmination of various social

inputs faced by individuals throughout their lives.• Children learn to accept deviance the same as

conventional behavior.• Major sources of learning are the people with whom

an individual comes in contact, particularly the family, peers, and religious institutions.

• Nine specific points to differential association.

Chapter 4

Learning TheorySutherland’s Differential Association Theory1. Criminal behavior is learned.2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of

communication.3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate

personal groups.4. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of the

crime, which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes very simple; (b) the specification of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.

5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable.

6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law.

7. Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and

anticriminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.

9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values, because noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.

Chapter 4

Learning TheoryConcerns with Differential Association Theory• Sutherland failed to define or operationalize many of

his terms.– Frequency (number of contacts), duration (length of a

contact), priority (temporal order of the contacts), and intensity (significance of the contact) definitions supplied by other researchers.

• Most of the empirical support is indirect and highly qualified.

• Explicitly discounted the influence of factors other than social, face-to-face contacts.

• Changes in the modern world have prompted researchers to modify and extend the original ideas of differential association.

Chapter 4

Learning TheoryDifferential Identification:• Glaser (1956) • Proposes that personal association is not

always necessary for the transmission of behavioral cues.

• Real and fictional presentations on television and in other mass media provide information concerning acceptable behavior.

• Role-taking: child assumes the role that is portrayed in the media.

Chapter 4

Learning Theory

Differential Reinforcement: • Jeffery (1965)• The ideas of operant conditioning.• An individual learns from a variety of sources, both

social and nonsocial.• If the behavior results in a pleasurable payoff (e.g.,

useful stolen goods) the behavior will be repeated.• The absence of an acceptable return on the behavior

or experiencing an undesirable outcome (such as being caught and imprisoned) would prompt avoidance of the activity in the future.

Chapter 4

Subcultural Theories

• Subcultural theorists focus directly on the fact of diversity in the population.

• Defining subculture is not easy.– In its simplest sense, a subculture is a smaller part of a

larger culture.– Subculture exists within and is part of the larger culture.– Typically refers to a set of values, beliefs, ideas, views,

and/or meanings that a group of individuals holds and that are to some degree different from those of the larger culture.

• Delinquency and criminality are the result of individuals attempting to act in accordance with subcultural norms.

Chapter 4

Subcultural Theories

Lower-class Gang Delinquency• Cohen (1955) • Lower-class boys feel ill-equipped to compete in and

cannot succeed in a middle-class society.• Lower-class boys are expected to follow the goals

and aspirations of the middle class.• The failure to succeed in terms of middle-class values

leads to feelings of failure and diminished self-worth.• The result is culture conflict: by following one set of

cultural (or subcultural) practices, the individual is violating the proscriptions of another culture.

Chapter 4

Subcultural Theories

• Aspects of “lower-class gang delinquency”:– Malicious: act with the intent of causing trouble and harm

for another person, not for what it brings the person.– Negativistic: much of the deviant activity is a means of

tormenting others.– Nonutilitarian: immediate “hedonistic” pleasure instead of

supplying any long-term need or solution.

• In general, there appears to be little point in the behavior besides causing trouble for the larger middle-class culture.

Chapter 4

Subcultural Theories

Lower-class Male Subculture• Miller (1958)• The lower class operates under a distinct set of cultural

values, or focal concerns (next slide).• At the same time that these values provide positive

reinforcement in the lower-class world, they bring about a natural conflict with middle-class values.

• Goal of the lower-class individual is not to violate the law or the middle-class norms.

• Goal is to follow the focal concerns of their class and peers.• Deviant behavior, therefore, is a by-product of following the

subcultural focal concerns.

Chapter 4Trouble Refers to the fact that lower-class males spend a large amount of time

preoccupied with getting into and out of trouble. Trouble may bring about desired outcomes such as attention and prestige.

Toughness Emphasis on physical prowess, athletic skill, masculinity, and bravery. Partly a response of lower-class males raised in [single] female-headed households.

Smartness Basically the idea of being “streetwise.” The concern is on how to manipulate the environment and others to your own benefit without being subjected to sanctions of any kind.

Excitement Refers to the idea that lower-class individuals are oriented around short-term hedonistic desires. Activities, such as gambling and drug use, are undertaken for the immediate excitement or gratification that is generated.

Fate The belief that, in the long run, individuals have little control over their lives. Luck and fortune dictate the outcome of behavior. Whatever is supposed to happen will happen regardless of the individual’s wishes. This allows for a wide latitude in behavior.

Autonomy While the individual believes in fate, there is a strong desire to resist outside control imposed by other persons. Individuals want total control over themselves until fate intervenes.

Chapter 4

Subcultural Theories

Sykes and Matza: Techniques of Neutralization• Subtle failure in subcultural theories to address the fact that

no individual operates exclusively in the subculture.• Every individual must deal with both the subcultural and the

larger cultural expectations.• Requires individuals to find justifications for the discrepancies

between different lifestyles and behaviors.• Five techniques of neutralization that allow the juvenile to

accommodate the deviant behavior while maintaining a self-image as a conformist (next slide).

• Youths invoke the techniques to justify their behavior in light of confrontation with conventional cultural values.

Chapter 4Denial of Responsibility The youth may claim that the action was an accident

or, more likely, assert that he or she was forced into the action by circumstances beyond his or her control.

Denial of Injury Focuses on the amount of harm caused regardless of violating the law. The absence of harm to an individual may involve pointing to a lack of physical injury, the action was a prank, or the person or business could afford the loss.

Denial of the Victim The juvenile can deny the existence of a victim by claiming self-defense or retaliation, the absence of a victim (such as involving a business and not a person), and/or that characteristics of the victim brought the harm on himself or herself (such as hazing a homosexual).

Condemnation of the Condemners The youth turns the tables on those individuals who condemn his or her behavior by pointing out that the condemners are no better than he or she. In essence, the condemners are also deviant.

Appeal to Higher Loyalties Conflict between the dictates of two groups will be resolved through adherence to the ideas of one group. The juvenile may see greater reward and more loyalty to the subcultural group on some issues which, in turn, lead to deviant behavior.

Chapter 4

Subcultural Theories

Critique of the Subcultural Approach• Greatest problem entails identifying a subculture.

– Typical process of identifying subcultures is through the behavior of the individuals.

– If you act a certain way, you are in a subculture, which is why you act that way: this is tautological.

• The use of behaviors to identify subcultures results in substituting behaviors for values.

• Questionable to what extent you can impute values from behaviors.

• Possible middle-class bias in many subcultural explanations.

Chapter 4

Routine Activities and Rational Choice• Basic premise that the movement of offenders and

victims over space and time places them in situations in which criminal activity will be more or less possible.

• Routine activities perspective assumes that the normal behavior of individuals contributes to deviant events.– Cohen and Felson (1979) – Three criteria necessary for the commission of a crime: 1. The presence of a suitable target2. A motivated offender3. An absence of guardians

Chapter 4

Routine Activities and Rational Choice

• Rational choice theory assumes that potential offenders make choices based on various factors in the physical and social environments.– Cornish and Clarke (1986)– Does not mean that offenders plan their behavior in detail– Unplanned, spontaneous behavior may rest on past

observations, experiences, and routine activities that lay the foundation for unconscious decision making

– Poses an interesting conundrum for juvenile justice:• If one assumes that youths do not have the capacity to make truly

informed decisions, to what extent can it be claimed that they are making rational choices?

Chapter 4

Strain Theories

• View deviance as a direct result of a social structure that stresses achievement but fails to provide adequate legitimate means of succeeding.

• Two basic underlying assumptions:1. Man is inherently egoistic. 2. Society does not provide equal access to the means of reaching one’s

wishes and desires.• Mismatch between the expectations or goals of the individual

and the available means to achieve those goals is called anomie (state of normlessness).– The inability of the individual to regulate his or her expectations in

accordance with the societal structure.• Anomie may result in various forms of deviant behavior,

including crime.

Chapter 4

Strain Theories

Merton: Modes of Adaptation• Outlines five modes of adaptation, or ways an individual may

respond, to the strain between goals and means.

Mode of Adaptation Cultural Goals Institutionalized MeansConformity + +Innovation + –Ritualism – +Retreatism – –Rebellion ± ±

+ means acceptance, – means rejection, ± means rejection and substitution

• Delinquency appears in innovation, retreatism, and rebellion, in which accepted modes of behavior (means) are replaced by unacceptable actions

Chapter 4

Strain Theories

General Strain Theory• Suggests that strain can arise from two additional

sources:1. The removal of desired or valued stimuli2. The presentation of negative stimuli, which may cause an

individual to become angry or frustrated

• Sources of strain may prompt individuals to respond with delinquent or criminal behavior.

• There are also many nondeviant coping mechanisms that an individual can utilize.

• There is empirical support for general strain theory.

Chapter 4

Strain Theories

Assessing Strain Theory:• Major problem of operationalizing the key concepts, such as

anomie, aspirations, opportunity, and perceptions.• The assumed relationship between strain and deviant

behavior is not clear:– In some instances, deviance appears to be related to low aspirations.– In others, deviance may actually cause changes in aspirations.

• Many studies focus on middle- and upper-class youths, while the Mertonian strain theory appears more applicable to lower-class and gang activity.

• Fails to explain why one person chooses deviance and another does not.

Chapter 4

Social Control Theory

• Social control theories seek to find factors that keep an individual from becoming deviant.

Reckless: Containment Theory• Proposes that there are factors that promote

conformity as well as forces promoting deviance.• The individual may have some control over his or her

own behavior.• Two types of containment and three forces

promoting deviance.

Chapter 4

Social Control Theory

Elements of Reckless’s Containment Theory

Forces promoting conformity:• Outer Containment

– The influence of family, peers, and environment on behavior; social pressure, supervision, training, and group membership

• Inner Containment– Individual factors such as self-concept, tolerance of frustration, goal-directedness,

internalized moral codes

Forces promoting deviance:• Internal Pushes

– Restlessness, discontent, anxiety, hostility• External Pressures

– Poverty, unemployment, minority status, social inequality• External Pulls

– Deviant peers, subcultures, media presentations

Chapter 4

Social Control Theory

Hirschi: Control Theory• States that “delinquent acts result when an

individual’s bond to society is weak or broken.” • Bond is developed through socialization during early

childhood and consists of four elements: 1. Attachment2. Commitment 3. Involvement4. Belief

• Weak or broken bond does not cause deviance. Rather, it allows for deviance.

Chapter 4

Social Control TheoryElements of Hirschi’s BondAttachment• “Sensitivity to the opinion of others” (p. 16) • The more an individual cares about what others think of himself/herself, the less likely

he/she will choose behavior that brings about negative input.Commitment• A “person invests time, energy, himself, in a certain line of activity” (p. 20)• As a person builds an investment in conventional endeavors, any choice of deviant

behavior will place that investment at risk.Involvement• “Engrossment in conventional activities” (p. 22) • Because time and energy are limited, once they are used in the pursuit of conventional

activities, there is no time or energy left for deviant behavior.Belief• “The existence of a common value system within the society or group” (p. 23)• As a person is socialized into and accepts the common belief system, he/she will be less

likely to violate those beliefs through deviant activity.

Chapter 4

Social Control Theory

Problematic Issues with Hirschi’s Theory• Does not adequately explain how bond becomes

weak or broken.• The relative impact of the four elements of bond is

left unresolved (e.g., is attachment most important?).• Drift between delinquency and conformity cannot be

explained using control theory.• Assumes that all bonding is to conventional,

nondeviant lifestyles (it may be possible that a juvenile is bonded to deviance)

Chapter 4

Social Control Theory

Self-Control Theory• Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) argue that self-

control, internalized early in life, can serve to keep a person from involvement in deviant behavior.

• Primary source of self-control is good parenting. • Should the parents fail to build self-control, other

social institutions, such as schools, may influence its formation but are typically poor substitutes for the family.

• Once self-control is internalized, it serves to modify an individual’s behavior throughout his or her life.

Chapter 4

The Labeling Perspective• Basic assumption is that being labeled as deviant by social

control agents forces the person to act according to the label• Foundation in the ideas of symbolic interactionism

– Every individual develops his or her self-image through a process of interaction with the surrounding world

– How an individual sees himself or herself is determined by how that person thinks others see him or her

– A simple way of viewing this process is through what Cooley (1902) calls the looking-glass self

• Tannenbaum (1938) saw the sanctioning of deviant behavior as a step in altering a juvenile’s self-image from that of a normal, conventional youth to that of being a delinquent

• Process of labeling entails a transfer of evil from the act to the actor

Chapter 4

The Labeling PerspectiveLemert: Primary and Secondary Deviance• Two types of deviance:

– Primary deviance: those actions that “are rationalized or otherwise dealt with as functions of a socially acceptable role.”

– Secondary deviance: when an individual “begins to employ his deviant behavior or a role based upon it as a means of defense, attack, or adjustment to the overt and covert problems created by the consequent societal reaction to him.”

– The behavior is secondary if the act cannot be rationalized as the outcome of a nondeviant social role and is committed as an attack or defense against societal reaction.

– Secondary deviance, therefore, is a mentalistic construct.

Chapter 4

The Labeling Perspective• Reasons for conforming to the label:

– A deviant label makes participation in conventional activity difficult.

– Accepting the label blunts the impact of any negative feedback provided by society.

– Individuals conform to labels as a means of striking out against those who are condemning them — “I’ll show you.”

• A single deviant act generally will not lead to the successful application of a label.

• Lemert (1951) proposes an outline of repeated primary deviant acts followed by increasingly stronger social reactions that eventually culminate in the imposition and acceptance of a deviant label.

Chapter 4

The Integration and Elaboration of Theories

• Trend to attempt to integrate various theories into more unified, coherent explanations of deviance.

• Attempts to take components of various theories and construct a single explanation that incorporates the best parts of the individual theories.

• Social control, strain, and differential association theories have been typically used.

• A sequential processes leading to deviance has been proposed.• For example, strain is seen as leading to a weakened bond to

conventional society, which in turn leads to increased bonding with deviants and subsequent deviant behavior. Mediating this entire process is the influence of learning.

Chapter 4

The Integration and Elaboration of Theories

• Developmental theories, or life-course theories, generally reflect efforts that incorporate ideas from several theories and perspectives

• Reintegrative shaming incorporates elements of several theories.– Labeling and symbolic interaction are important for understanding the

risk in shaming someone. – Social control elements appear in the need to bond the person to

society.– Family is a key actor in teaching proper behavior (learning theory).

• Integrated theories have yet to undergo rigorous testing.• The fact that no single theory has adequately explained

deviance suggests that this new direction should be continued.

Chapter 4

Impact of Theories on Juvenile Justice

• Social learning theory provides support for interventions that focus on providing proper role models and environments conducive to conforming behavior.

• Trends toward deinstitutionalization, community corrections, and less restrictive interventions rely on the arguments of labeling theory.

• Movements toward incarceration and deterrence of juveniles clearly rely on Classical and Neoclassical assumptions of free will and hedonistic choice.

• Educational programs, economic assistance, vocational training, physical improvement of inner cities, and other efforts can be traced to strain, subcultural, learning, and ecological explanations of social ills.