Labeling Theories
What is Cooley's "Looking Glass Self" and why is it relevant to labeling theories?
each person's self-image is constructed through interactions with other people. Has to do with labeling theories because the effect on the label on one's identity is an integral part of the theory.
What is the difference between a career criminal and a criminal career?
Career criminal: chronic offender who commits frequent crimes over a long period
Criminal career: simply suggests that involvement in criminal activity begins at some point in a person's life, continues for a certain length of time, and then ends
Identify and describe the first period of the History of Sentencing in America (1930-1975).
Indeterminate sentencing: sentencing was premised on rehabilitations and Judges had wide discretion and parole boards decided when someones was released and under what conditions.
Large prisons
Pre-sentence investigations
problems:
Potential racial bias because of so much discretion
Lack of procedural fairness, transparency, and consistency
What is procedural justice?
the idea of fairness in the processes that resolve disputes and allocate resources in the criminal justice system
What are the four criteria for inferring causation?
Correlation: Two phenomena must vary with each other
Theoretical Rationale: There must be a good reason to believe that the one phenomenon causes the other
Time Sequence: Causal phenomenon must come first in time
Absence of Spuriousness: Both phenomena must not be caused by something else
Define Becker's Labeling Theory (including the 2 hypotheses).
social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constitute deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them outsiders
The deviant is the one to whom that label has successfully been applied
Status Characteristics: Those labeled delinquent represent groups of lower social status
Deviance Amplification/Secondary Deviance: Process of being labeled increases the likelihood of future criminal behavior– through changing one’s self-image
Identify and describe the 6 concepts relevant to a criminal career.
Participation: Whether someone participates in crime
Prevalence: Fraction of people of the group that has participated in crime
Frequency: Rate of criminal activity one engages in
Onset: Beginning of a criminal career
Desistance: End of a criminal career
Duration: Length of a criminal career
Identify and describe the second period of the History of Sentencing in America (1975-84).
Sentencing Reform:
Main goals: fairness, equality, proportionality
Parole guidelines: for when a person can be released on parole
Sentencing guidelines: provided range of sentences (generally based on offense severity and criminal history)
Voluntary:Guidelines based on past behaviors/sentencing statistics
Presumptive: Judge required to give sentence within recommended range and required to give explanation if they deviate (incentivizes them to follow guidelines)
Determinate sentencing: required people to serve a minimum portion of their prison sentence: Much more predictive
What are the 2 main concerns of Tyler's process-based model of regulation (theory of procedural justice)?
What affects the ability of the police and the courts to gain long-term compliance with decisions made by legal authorities?
What affects the ability of the legal system to encourage general compliance and cooperation with legal authorities?
How can theories inform policy?
Theories can establish the etiology or causes of crime
Some causes lend themselves to policy
Establishing whether a theory has policy relevance requires some testing in real-world setting
What is the difference between primary deviance and secondary deviance?
Primary Deviance: Sporadic deviant behavior, often situational in nature, which is rationalized, excused, or even tolerated by conventional members of society
Secondary Deviance: Adoption of a deviant identity that leads to more stable patterns of deviance or criminal behavior
Explain the age-crime relationship and the two ideas about why this relationship occurs.
crime rates rise rapidly throughout the adolescent years, peak in the late teens or early twenties, and steadily decline from then on.
the number of offenders remains the same, but each offender commits fewer offenses (change in frequency)
Suggests that none of these offenders are career criminals
The number of offenders declines, but each remaining offender still engages in a high rate of offending (change in participation)
Suggest presence of career criminal that need to be incapacitated
Identify and describe the third period of the History of Sentencing in America (1984-1996).
Tough on Crime:
Mandatory minimums: Shift sentencing discretion from judges to prosecutors (who are less insulated from political influences)
Life without parole
3 strike laws
What are the 3 things legal authorities want to cultivate (according to Tyler's model)?
Compliance with the Law
Cooperation with Legal Authorities
Support for Empowerment of Law
name the 3 of 6 important individual difference etiologies.
Research most strongly supports #1, 5, and 6…
Early childhood problems that are the result of neglectful or abusive parenting, school failure, lack of emotional regulation, and problem-solving taught
Neurological deficits may lead to greater propensity to crime
Head injuries, pregnancy complications, poor diet, excessive alcohol consumption may be contributors to a greater propensity to crime
Personality factors established in early life, such as low self-control, nonverbal orientation, and present orientation
Association with delinquent peers
Weak attachment to prosocial others and institutions
What does Farrington's study suggest about labeling theory?
Study's question: What is the effect of public labeling on crime?
After conviction, individuals are likely to report higher levels of delinquency compared to the matched individuals who had similar attributes and were not convicted. Finding supports labelling theory and follows the causal order that label → crime
What is criminal propensity?
some people are more prone to commit crime and other people are less prone, but everyone's propensity to commit crime is relatively stable over their life course after about age eight
Identify and describe the fourth period of the History of Sentencing in America (1996-2013).
Equilibrium:
Main Goals: Balance between Sentencing Reform and Tough-on-Crime
Key Points included…
Sentencing Guidelines
Reduce Reoffending
Why do people cooperate with authority and comply with the law (4 reasons according to Tyler's model)?
People comply with legal authorities for four primary reasons…
Motivate-Based Trust: Trust in the motives of legal authorities
Procedural Justice: Perception of fairness of procedures
Distributive Justice: Perception of fairness of outcomes
Outcome Favorability: Favorability of outcomes
People comply with the law and cooperate with legal authorities for four primary reasons…
Risk: People want to minimize costs and maximize benefits, like with Deterrence and Rational Choice Theories
Performance: People cooperate when authorities are able to manage problems in their community
Equal Distribution of Services
Legitimacy: Belief that legal authorities are entitled to be obeyed
Formed through judgments about procedural justice, inferences of motive-based trust, judgments about the fairness of decision making, and judgments about the fairness of treatment
People who experience procedural justice feel an increased obligation to obey the law
Name the 3 of 5 important structure/process etiologies.
Research most strongly supports #1, 2, and 3…
Neighborhood disadvantage (joblessness, concentrated poverty, etc.)
Neighborhood Abandonment and Blight (e.g., vacant and dilapidated homes)
Increasing the certainty of detection and punishment reduces crime rates
Subcultures of crime and violence that form in neighborhoods or communities leads to more crime
Cultures that emphasize material success over the proper means of obtaining success
What does Liberman/Kirk/Kim's study suggest about Labeling Theory? (and also what is the difference between secondary sanctioning and secondary deviance)
Question: What is the effect of labels on delinquent behavior versus the effects of labeling on the societal responses to the label?
Having an arrest record increases the likelihood of a future arrest
When accounting for an individual’s self-reported delinquent behavior, the arrest record continues to be predictive of future arrest but the individual’s self-reported offending is not predictive of future arrest
Both of these indicate that formal agents of social control treat individuals with arrest records more punitively and lends support to Secondary Sanctioning (i.e., the idea that labelling can influence societal responses)
Secondary Sanctioning: Social responses can be influenced by labelling
Secondary Deviance: Adoption of a deviant identity leads to more stable patterns of deviance or criminal behavior (self-fulfilling prophecy)
What is a latent trait and its significance to criminal propensity?
quality that is unobservable but can be inferred through various measures. Likely cause of criminal propensity?
What 3 focal concerns influence sentencing decisions (from the focal concerns perspective)?
1. Blameworthiness: Offender's culpability and the degree of injury caused to the victim
2. Protection of the community: need to incapacitate the offender or deter would-be offenders
3. Practical Constraints and Consequences: working relationships, resource constraints, and defendant's situation
What leads a procedure to be viewed as fair?
Quality of Decision Making: Neutral, unbiased decisions based on objective information
Quality of Interpersonal Treatment: Being treated with dignity and fairness
3. openness and explanation
What is selection bias?
Pre-existing differences between two groups that could explain the differences in effects/results