Concepts
People who commit crime but are able to avoid detection by the law.
Secret Deviants
Crime results when there is a breakdown in the ability of social institutions to regulate the natural appetites of the individuals in society.
Anomie
Punishment commensurate with the harm done and offenders culpability.
Rational Choice Theory
Our sense of self-identity is built on the views that others have of us and how this identity can be negatively impacted through other people's reactions to our behavior.
Labelling Theory
Techniques of Neutralization
Sykes and Matza
Criminal acts are neither inherently good or evil; the social context influences the label.
Legal Relativism
Lower class youths have cultural aspirations, but limited means to achieve, as a consequence they rebel through a process called reaction formation.
Status Frustration
Focus on practices that instill self-control in children.
Social Control Theory
Problematic ecological factors in neighborhood lead to low collective efficacy among residents which allows for higher rates of crime in the neighborhood.
Social Disorganization Theory
Social Learning Theory
Ronald Akers
The application of the label in a criminal justice process transforms them from someone who committed an deviant act to an evil person.
Dramatization of Evil
Values and rationalizations are used by individuals prior to and after committing crimes that allow them to violate laws to which they basically subscribe.
Techniques of Neutralization
Reducing crime and criminalization requires changing structural relationships to protect the needs of the masses.
Conflict Theory
Those who control the resources in society have the power to criminalize behavior that is in conflict with their economic interests.
Conflict Theory
General Theory of Crime
Gottfreidson and Hirshi
The law is an ideological device that mystifies, or renders opaque, the power of the dominant classes by pretending to be neutral in its protection of individuals regardless of their power.
Criminalization
Basic beliefs or values through which people filter their information.
Ideology
Reduce social reactions to crime through (1) decriminalization, (2) diversion, (3) decarceration and (4) restitution or reparation.
Labelling Theory
Humans are group involved beings and society is a continuity of group interaction "of moves and countermoves, of checks and cross-checks.
Group Conflict Theory
Social Disorganization Theory
Shaw and McKay
After an offense takes place, the offender's life experiences are reframed in relation to the crime they committed.
Retrospective Interpretation
The variation across time and place about what behaviors constitute a crime.
Relativity of Crime
Increase access to legitimate opportunities by instituting policies that reduce poverty and increase opportunities.
Strain Theory
The motivation and techniques of crime are learned through associations with others.
Differential Association/Social Learning Theory
Social Reality of Crime
Richard Quinney