Pre-Classical and the Classical School
The assumption that people will see maximum pleasure to avoid pain or punishment.
What is hedonism?
Based on trying to change a person's behavior through laws and punishments. May be the dominant theory in the American criminal justice system.
What is deterrence theory?
The use of empirical evidence through scientific inquiry to improve society. Sought to determine other causes of criminal behavior not including choice.
What is positivism?
The study of the relationship between humans and their environments.
The assumption that people commit their crimes because of strain, stress, or pressure.
What is Strain Theory?
Theological, metaphysical, and scientific.
What are the three stages of the human progression of knowledge?
General deterrence and specific deterrence.
What are the two types of deterrence?
The belief that people who have certain features and traits will be criminals.
What is hard determinism?
Created by Burges (1925) is the theory that cities grow starting from the central District outwards.
What is Concentric Zone Theory?
The process of learning and how we receive information.
What are learning theories?
An English philosopher and the founder of utilitarianism. He believed that a person's expectation of the future was predictive for deterrence, therefore punishments should be severe enough to deter people from crime.
Who is Jeremy Bentham?
Recognizes that everyone experiences punishments differently, and a person’s environment, psychology, and other conditions can contribute to crime as well. Therefore, crime is a choice based on context.
What is neoclassical theory?
The assumption that there are distinguishing characteristics that differentiate criminals and non-criminals, this is discovered by scientific investigations.
What are trait theories?
The inability of social institutions to control an individual’s behavior.
What is social disorganization?
Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.
What are the five personality adaptations that result from the strain of not being able to achieve a cultural goal according to Merton (1938)?
Italian mathematician and economist who wrote An Essay on Crimes and Punishment (1764) which attacked Europe's unfair treatment of the accused.
Who is Cesare Beccaria?
Proposed an explanation for criminal behavior, which is that offenders rationally calculate the costs and benefits before committing a crime and seek to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Although this theory does not provide a motivation, it expects that some people will always commit a crime if they are given the opportunity.
What is Rational Choice Theory?
A trained medical doctor in Italy who wrote The Criminal Man in 1876. He claims 1/3 of criminals were born that way.
Who is Cesare Lombroso?
Former students of Burgess (1925) who did further research and discovered the addresses of juvenile court referred male youths were almost all located in the transition zone.
Who are Shawn and McKay (1942)?
These are different than the other theories discussed, this is the assumption that if people were left on their own, they would commit crimes and be selfish.
What are control theories?
The study of how humans obtain valid knowledge. Studied by August Comte.
What is epistemology?
A motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian.
What three things must exist for a crime to be committed according to Routine Activity Theory?
Impact criminal behavior, however we cannot determine how much because human behavior is complex.
What are biology and personality?
1. Large number of condemned building and poor physical status.
2. Population Composition, this zone has the highest population of Immigrants and African-American families.
3. Socioeconomic Differences, highest on welfare, low percent of people who own their own homes, lowest on median rent.
What are the three differences the Transition Zone has compared to other zones?
These theories focus on the people who label, react, and want to control the offenders. They analyze how certain labels can negative affect a person for a long time.
What are social reaction theories?