theories of crime causation project guidelines 150 points

THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATION

Project Guidelines150 Points


Project Guidelines 150 Points

In groups of three, you will closely examine one of the six major groups of theories that attempt to provide answers to the age-old question: “Why do people commit crimes?”

Using the appropriate chapter from Criminology: The Core (3rd ed.) as your baseline resource, your group will create and present a Keynote/Powerpoint presentation that includes but is not limited to the following components:

1.INTRODUCTION to your group of theories (e.g., development of your group’s approach, influence of theories on social policy, etc...) 30 pts.

2.SUMMARY of each of the specific theories discussed in your assigned chapter 30 pts.

•ANALYSIS of both the strengths and weaknesses of your group of theories 30 pts.

1.EXAMPLES of crimes/criminals used to support your theories 30 pts.

2.OTHER RESOURCE MATERIAL that aid in explaining your group of theories (e.g., video clips, graphic statistics, supporting research, etc...); sources in addition to Siegel should be cited uniformly 30 pts.

PROJECT TIMELINE “Start to Finish” 13 Days

Project Introduction/Team & Topic Assignment 1 dayResearch & Project Assembly in Lab 4 daysPresentations, Discussions, & Activities 6 daysReview & Test 2 days

THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATIONRational Choice Theory

• Individual Choice

• Cost-Benefit Analysis (Personal and Situational Factors v. Perceived Consequences)

• Crime Prevention

• General v. Specific Deterrence

• Incapacitation

• Policy Implications of Choice Theory: “Three Strikes” sentencing policy, the death penalty


1. Which would concern you more should you be caught shoplifting: receiving legal punishment or having to face the reactions of your friends and family? Would the reactions of your friends be different than the reactions of your family? In what way?

2. Is it possible to create a method of capital punishment that would actually deter murder—for example, by televising executions? What would be the positive and negative consequences of such a policy?

3.Consider the recent shooting death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Make a list of elements that might suggest that Zimmerman, who faces a grand jury investigation next month, acted rationally. Share your analysis with the class.

4.Your friend has decided to build a house and wants it to be secure from crime. Advise your friend about the type of crime prevention or defensible space strategies that can be incorporated or implemented to make the home secure.

5.Think about times you or your friends might have broken the law or considered breaking the law. Did any of you consider doing so for "the thrill of it?” If so, what type of crime? Were any particular “risk assessment” factors weighed before engaging in the criminal behavior or before considering whether to engage in the illegal behavior?


Trait Theory

• Biological Trait Theories

• Biochemistry, Diet, Hypoglycemia, Hormones, PMS, Lead Exposure, Environmental Contaminants

• Neurophysiology, ADHD, Brain Chemistry, Arousal Theory

• Genetics

• Evolutionary Views of Crime

• Psychological Trait Theories

• associations between intelligence, personality, learning, and criminal behavior

• Psychodynamic Perspective (Freud)

• Attachment Theory

• Behavioral Perspective: Social Learning Theory)

• Cognitive Theory

• Personality, Intelligence, Mental Disorders and Crime

• Social Policy and Trait Theory

• Primary (before crime) and Secondary (after crime) Prevention Programs


Trait Theory1. If research were to significantly indicate that the tendency to commit crime is inherited, what should be done about or for the children of violent criminals? What programs would students implement and why? What would be the social, policy, and ethical implications?

2. Discuss the role of the media in terms of influencing violent behavior in society today. Direct students to perform a library search for articles pertaining to violent media's impact on aggression in society. Have students present their findings in class.

3. Ask students to consider junior or senior high school classmates who engaged in delinquent or criminal acts. Did these teens exhibit any of the "traits" discussed within the chapter?

4. A variety of mental disorders have been linked to criminal activities. Have students discuss whether criminals who have been deemed mentally ill should be incarcerated for their offenses or housed in a mental health facility. Is it appropriate to incarcerate someone with a mental illness? Are they "getting away with crime" if they are housed in a mental health facility instead of a prison?

5. Ask students to develop arguments supporting the link between intelligence and crime and against any supposed link between intelligence and crime. Students can be directed to read Murray's Bell Curve (see link) prior to debating the IQ-crime link.

THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATIONSocial Structure Theory

• Economic Structure and Crime

• Stratification of American society

• Problems of the Lower Class

• Child Poverty

• Minority Group Poverty

• 3 Branches of Social Structure Theory

• Social Disorganization Theory & The Social Ecology School

• Strain Theories

• Anomie Theory

• Institutional Anomie Theory

• Relative Deprivation Theory

• General Strain Theory

• Cultural Deviance Theory

• Theory of Delinquent Subcultures

• Theory of Differential Opportunity

• Social Structure Theory and Public Policy

• Public Assistance/Welfare

• Kennedy and Johnson’s “War on Poverty”

• Head Start

• Weed and Seed Program

THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATIONSocial Structure Theory

1.Is there a “transitional” area in your town or city? Does the crime rate remain constant there, regardless of who moves in or out? Are there any clear physical signs of disorganization?

2.Is it possible that a distinct lower-class culture exists? Do you know anyone who has the focal concerns--trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, autonomy--Miller (Cultural Deviance Theory) talks about? Were there “focal concerns” in your high school or college experience?

3.Albert Cohen (Theory of Delinquent Subcultures) suggests that subcultures develop due to a lack of recognition from middle-class decision makers such as teachers, employers, and police officers. Identify additional middle class decision makers and why their recognition might be important to lower class citizens.

4.Could “relative deprivation” produce crime among college-educated, white-collar workers? Explain why or why not.

5.Have students explain how they may have benefited from collective efficacy while growing up. What made factors made their neighborhoods cohesive?

THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATIONSocial Process Theories

• SOCIALIZATION and Crime

• Social Process Theory

• Institutions of Socialization• Family • Education• Peers• Religion

• 3 Branches of Social Process Theory

• Social Learning Theory

• Social Control Theory

• Social Reaction/Labeling Theory

• Social Process Theory and Public Policy

• Residential Treatment Programs

• Education Programs (e.g., Head Start)

• Diversion Programs

• Restitution


1. Have students identify and list the social bonds they maintained as adolescents and that they will maintain after high school. Ask students to compare their social bonds with those students they knew to be antisocial in middle school and those they may know to be antisocial now. What social bonds might account for the differences in behavior?

2. Ask students if they have ever been given a negative label, and, if so, did this negative label cause them harm? How did students lose the label or did it become a permanent marker that still troubles them today?

3. After considering the topic in item two, ask students about positive labels that might have been applied to them. How did the positive label improve their social standing and self-concept? Which type of label do students think has more "power" - a negative label or a positive label?

4. Direct students to consider their own peer relations. Ask if students have had any delinquent friends. If so, why did students not also become delinquent? Have students' delinquent peers continued their delinquency? What do students feel accounts for the difference between their law abiding behavior and the delinquent behavior of their peers?

5. Direct students to identify recent accounts of crime. What neutralization techniques do students see being used by the offender, by the offender's attorney, and others (such as neighbors and relatives of the offender)?


• SOCIALIZATION and Crime

• Social Process Theory

• Institutions of Socialization• Family • Education• Peers• Religion

• 3 Branches of Social Process Theory

• Social Learning Theory

• Social Control Theory

• Social Reaction/Labeling Theory

• Social Process Theory and Public Policy

• Residential Treatment Programs

• Education Programs (e.g., Head Start)

• Diversion Programs

• Restitution


1. Have students identify and list the social bonds they maintained as adolescents and that they will maintain after high school. Ask students to compare their social bonds with those students they knew to be antisocial in middle school and those they may know to be antisocial now. What social bonds might account for the differences in behavior?

2. Ask students if they have ever been given a negative label, and, if so, did this negative label cause them harm? How did students lose the label or did it become a permanent marker that still troubles them today?

3. After considering the topic in item two, ask students about positive labels that might have been applied to them. How did the positive label improve their social standing and self-concept? Which type of label do students think has more "power" - a negative label or a positive label?

4. Direct students to consider their own peer relations. Ask if students have had any delinquent friends. If so, why did students not also become delinquent? Have students' delinquent peers continued their delinquency? What do students feel accounts for the difference between their law abiding behavior and the delinquent behavior of their peers?

5. Direct students to identify recent accounts of crime. What neutralization techniques do students see being used by the offender, by the offender's attorney, and others (such as neighbors and relatives of the offender)?


Social Conflict and Critical Criminology

• Origins of Critical Criminology• Marx, Conflict, and Crime• 1960s-1970s

• National Deviance Conference (NDC)• The New Criminology (Taylor, Walton, and

Young)• Law, Order, and Power (Chambliss and

Seidman)• The Social Reality of Crime (Quinney)

• Contemporary Critical Criminology• issues of social class, crime, social, control, role

of government, personal and group power, race and gender bias, threat of global capitalism to the working class, misuse of political/social/media power

• Defining Crime• socio-economic structure

• state (organized) crime

• political corruption

• illegal domestic surveillance

• human rights violations

• state-corporate crime

• state violence

• Cause of Crime

• GLOBALIZATION

• Related Theories in Critical Criminology

• Instrumental v. Structural Theory

• Left Realism

• Critical Feminist Theory

• Power-Control Theory

• Peacemaking Criminology

• Critical Theory and Public Policy

• Restorative Justice


Social Conflict and Critical Criminology

1. How would a conservative reply to a call for the increased use of restorative justice? How would a restorative justice advocate respond to a conservative call for increased imprisonment?

2. Considering recent changes in American culture, how would a power–control theorist explain recent drops in the U.S. crime rate?

3. If Marx were alive today, what might he think about increasing globalization and the concepts of surplus value and exploitation of the working class? Do students feel Marx would see replication of the capitalist processes of his day or would he adjust his vision of capitalism and conflict?

4. While many convicted murderers await execution on death row, few, if any, have gained the international notoriety and support that Mumia Abu-Jamal has. What seems to explain his becoming such a cause célèbre?

5. Ask students to describe their family environment based on Hagan’s power-control theory. Do they see their behavior as being affected by coming from either a paternalistic or egalitarian family?


Developmental Theories: Life Course and Latent Trait

• Foundations of Life Developmental Theory• integration of biological, psychological, and

sociological factors• Life-Course Theory: crime is dynamic and

multifaceted• Latent-Trait Theory: “master trait” and propensity

to commit crime

• Life-Course Theories• Basic Precepts

• Problem Behavior Syndrome (PBS)

• Pathways to Crime

• Authority-Conflict Pathway

• Covert Pathway

• Overt Pathway

• Age-Graded Theory

• discrete factors at different stages of development

• social capital

• trajectories, transitions, and turning points

• Latent Trait Theories

• Basic Precepts

• latent traits and criminal propensity

• more biological and psychological (personal traits) than social (external influences)

• persistence (stability of criminal propensity)

• desistence (opportunity for crime fluctuates)

• General Theory of Crime

• propensity to crime linked to two traits

• impulsive personality

• lack of self-control

• combination of poor parenting (intergenerational) and biological factors(inherited, prenatal factors)

• Public Policy Implications of Development• variety of programs directed at children from preschool

through early elementary grades


Development Theories: Life Course and Latent Trait1. Do you consider yourself the holder of social capital? If so, how? Compare your level and quality of social capital with that of high school students you knew to have been deviant.

2. Do you believe there is a latent trait that makes a person crime prone, or is crime a function of environment and socialization? How are these two perspectives integrated or related?

3. Do you agree with Loeber’s multiple pathway model? Do you know people who have traveled down those paths? Describe those individuals and how their behaviors fit Lober's pathways.

4. Sampson and Laub offer several examples of important “turning points” that can have a dramatic effect on one’s behavior. Can you think of other turning points?

5. Problem behavior syndrome suggests that crime is one behavior among a cluster of antisocial behaviors. Think of someone you know who has a criminal history. Does he/she possess a cluster of antisocial behaviors? Describe those behaviors.

theories of crime causation project guidelines 150 points

Documents

group of theories

specific theories

influence of theories

major groups of theories

days slide

type of crime prevention

project timeline

death penalty slide