Individuals have free will and Freedom to make personal behavioral choices No matter environmental factors such as poverty or beliefs.
• Individuals maximize their happiness, food or resources by weighing benefits and costs of their future actions before deciding on behavior.
Step 1:
The Questions...........
1. Why does a person commit a crime?
2. What causes crime and deviance?
3. Are people basically good?
4. Why are some people violent and aggressive?
Looked at from a variety of angles
Developmental—rate and growth of person
Socialization—skills/knowledge needed to perform roles
Adaptational—how a person copes with life events
*****Overlapping of sciences*******
Life Course Theories
Culmination of events that take place in a persons life that explain behavior.
Conflict Theory
- Focuses on the conflict in society between rich and poor, management and labor, whites and minorities.
- Crime is caused by relative powerlessness.
- Views society as in constant conflict and struggle over scarce social and economic resources resulting in inequality
- Views society as divided between the “haves” and the “have nots”
- The “haves” construct society and social institutions to maintain their advantage.
Biological Explaination
Psychological Explanation
- Criminal behavior is inherited, therefore people are born criminal
- Careful, scientific measurement can be made to identify criminal features
Cesare lombroso
The beginnings of psychological theories of crime can be found in the works of Sigmund Freud.
In contrast with biological theories, psychological theories of crime focus on the following:
- Individual experience
- Emotional adjustment
- Personality traits and types
Psychological criminologists may sympathize with the importance of biological factors, such as brain structure and genetics.
However, they continue to stress the importance of potentially devastating life events which may trigger psychological disturbances or trigger points.
The Id / The unconscious mind
- The id is present from birth.
- Comprised of powerful forces, drives and instincts
- Freud highlighted the way in which innate desires and repressed emotions shape individual human behavior.
- The Id is not evil, but simply lacks moral
The Ego / The conscious mind
- Begins to develop when we are between six and eight months old.
- The ego is the voice in your head telling you not to do something, or that you need to do something.
- The ego controls the majority of our conscious decisions.
- As the ego grows, so does the individuals ability to delay gratification.
- Any behavior could be explained by the experiences of that individual during their childhood.
Father of modern criminology
So What does any of this have to do with crime and criminal behavior?
The Super Ego / Moral Values
- In relation to criminal behavior, the key point to look at is how the super ego is formed.
- If the super ego has problems forming, then there will not be the same internal regulation of behavior.
- Criminal behavior can be understood as the expression of the internal buried conflicts that are the result of traumas or deprivations during childhood.
- Develops when we are three to five years old.
- The superego is the internalization of the values and norms of society that we are initially taught by parents or other caregivers, and later by authority figures.
Freud put particular emphasis on relationships within the family, for example mother-child bond or father-child bond.
The super ego is always reminding us what the right thing to do is.
Several traits that are found in individuals who commit violent and sex crimes include:
- Lack of self control
- Lack of victim empathy
- High levels of social hostility and aggression
Social Control Theory
Labeling Theory
- This theory emphasizes on the idea that deviance and crime occur because of inadequate constraints.
- Social control theory proposes that people's relationships, commitments, values, norms, and beliefs encourage them not to break the law.
- Thus, if moral codes are internalized and individuals are tied into, and have a stake in their wider community, they will voluntarily limit their propensity to commit deviant acts.
- Based on Howard Becker's work in the 1960's
- States that when someone commits a crime they are labeled by society as a criminal.
- When people are labeled they are likely to accept the label as part of themselves. Once the label is accepted they are more likely to commit crimes.
- For example, a teenager who lives in an urban area frequented by gangs might be labeled as a gang member. Accordingly, the teenager might begin to behave like a gang member or become one.
Social Structure Theories
Social Learning Theory
- Can be broken down in to a number of smaller ideas.
- Based on the work of Robert Sears and Albert Bandura
- Suggests that people, especially children learn from their environment and observations and from imitating others.
- The social behavior is also influenced by being rewarded or punished for these actions
- It suggests that people can be more likely to become deviant if the same type of behavior is accepted and observed in there environment.
- A criminal’s behavior is determined by his or her social environment.
Types
7
Classical Criminology
1. Decisions to violate the law are weighed
against possible punishments.
Assumptions
Two Theories:
2. To deter crime, the pain of punishment must outweigh the benefit of illegal gain.
Neo Classical Criminology:
A modification of classical theory in which it was conceded that certain factors, such as insanity, might inhibit the exercise of free will.
1. Classical Criminology (18th Century)
2. Positivist criminology
The Positivist School of Thought
1. Human behavior is determined and not a matter of free will.
2. Criminals are fundamentally different from noncriminals.
3. Science can be used to determine what causes crime.
4. Crime is frequently caused by multiple factors.
What does this mean?
- No point to look into deterring crime!
- Instead focus on rehabilitation?
Quick Review
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1. Purpose of the CJ system
- Do Justice
- Control and Prevent Crime
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2. Dual Justice systems
3. How ones perception is formed
4. Society's drive as what is important
5. Confidence in the CJ system