Chapter Four

Sociological Explanations of Delinquency

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1.      To be familiar with the major sociological theories which have been and continue to be used as a basis for delinquency control programs.

2.      To know which sociological theories are best supported by empirical research.

3.      To know about current efforts to improve theories, including efforts to integrate the best ideas from different theories.

4.      To be aware of the differences in sociological theories generally used by police, court, and correctional personnel.

CHAPTER OUTLINE:

Major Sociological Theories

·        Sociology was the first major discipline to study criminology and crime causation.

·        Judgments about whether a theory is too deterministic or whether it correctly assumes that social life is mainly characterized by conflict or order usually rest on personal beliefs and are therefore a matter of opinion.

Social Structure and Anomie-Robert Merton

·        Robert Merton built his work on the work of Emile Durkheim, who was one of the earliest sociologists to talk about the social system and how it affects the individual; he focused his attention on anomie.

·        Merton’s explanation considers three concepts: 1) the cultural goals or aspirations that people learn from their culture, 2) the norms that people employ when attempting to achieve the goals, and 3) the institutionalized means that are available for goal achievement.

·        Merton identified five adaptations within the context of potential strain between these cultural goals and means: conformity, innovation, ritualism, rebellion, and retreatism.

Gang Theory-Frederick Thrasher

·        Thrasher maintained that gangs originate naturally during the adolescent years from spontaneous play groups.

·        The major factor that transforms a play group into a gang is conflict with other groups.

·        Thrasher studied gangs by utilizing a systematic way to analyze gang activity and gang behavior.

·        Like Durkheim and Merton, Thrasher described how the environment can be conducive to delinquent behavior.

Cultural Transmission and Social Disorganization-Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay

·        Shaw and McKay theorized that delinquency and crime were learned and transmitted from one group to another and from one generation to the next and were fairly stable within the central part of large cities.

·        There were two central ideas to this perspective: 1) extreme economic deprivation results in neighborhood mobility and a varied neighborhood population which resulted in social disorganization, and 2) crime is transmitted through personal and group contacts.

·        Today this theoretical perspective has a number of flaws including the assumption that if a person lives in a neighborhood that is heavily populated by one type of person and has a high crime rate, this means that the person is likely to be a criminal.

Differential Association-Edwin Sutherland

·        An important principle of differential association is that delinquent behavior will be predictable if there is an excess of definitions within the environment favorable to the violation of laws versus those definitions that are unfavorable to the violation of laws.

·        Sutherland’s concepts of frequency, duration, priority, and intensity in relation to the quality and quantity of relationships help explain the effects of differential association.

·        The major criticism of Sutherland’s theory is that it is difficult to empirically test the principles and objectively measure “association” and the priority, intensity, duration, and frequency of relations.

Self-Role Theory-George Herbert Mead

·        Role theory helps explain why only a limited number of persons assume criminal identities while the majority of people remain law abiding.

·        Becoming delinquent and assuming a criminal identity involve more than merely an association with law violators; the associations have to be meaningful to the individual and supportive of a role and self-concept which the individual wants to become committed to.

Working-Class and Middle-Class measuring Rod-Albert Cohen

·        Cohen maintained that working-class boys have not been equipped to deal with the competitive struggle that takes place in middle-class institutions.  This results in frustration.

·        Group or gang delinquent activity legitimizes and supports aggression against middle-class institutions.

·        Major criticism of this theoretical perspective is that there is little empirical support for the key concept that working-class boys reject middle-class values.

Success Goals and Opportunity Structures-Lloyd Ohlin and Richard Cloward

·        Ohlin and Cloward expanded on anomie theory, role theory and differential association by emphasizing that the environment also needs to provide opportunities for legitimate alternatives as well as illegitimate alternatives.

·        Ohlin and Cloward described three types of adaptation to environmental strain: 1) criminal subculture; 2) conflict subculture, and 3) retreatist subculture.

Lower-Class Boy and Lower-Class Structure-Walter Miller

·        Due to the processes of immigration, migration, and mobility, a lower-class culture develops resulting in a pattern of behavior which is distinct to that class.

·        Many of the boy’s delinquent activities revolve around his desire to become a “real man.”

Delinquency and Drift-David Matza

·        According to Matza, psychological makeup and environmental factors do not destine and individual to become delinquent.  There is, however, a movement between convention and crime (i.e., drift).

·        When the youngster drifts into delinquency and when the moral commitment to conventionality is neutralized, this is when the element of  ”will to crime” plays an important part.

Bond of the Individual to Society-Travis Hirschi

·        Hirschi did not attempt to explain why some adolescents do break the law but he tried to explain why some do not.

·        Youths do not generally take part in exciting but illegal activities because they generally have strong bonds to conventional society: 1) attachment to parents; 2) commitment to educational or other legitimate goals, 3) involvement in conventional activities, and 4) belief in legitimate values.

·        Although social control theory can explain some of the differences between youths in levels of delinquency, it does not predict why certain adolescents exhibit particular patterns of delinquency.

The Labeling Perspective-Edwin Lemert

·        The emphasis is on explaining why certain laws are passed and enforced, and why police and court personnel officially process some people, but not others; the emphasis is on the reactions to people who break the law.

·        Lemert distinguished between primary deviance and secondary deviance.  During secondary deviance the delinquent experiences a change in self-concept; the adolescent identifies himself or herself as a delinquent and subsequently acts like a delinquent.

·        One criticism of the simplified labeling explanation is that it ignores the possibility that offenders can reject labels and thereby exercise their free will.

Adolescent Subcultures and Capitalistic Economic Structure-Herman Schwendiger and Julie Siegal Schwendiger

·        The Schwendigers identified the economic conditions under which there is a development of peer groups that are likely to support delinquency among members.

·        A capitalistic economic system is the context in which certain social class relationships are reflected in individuals’ places in the labor force.

·        The Schwendingers argued that schools and available programs can exacerbate these adolescents’ marginalized status; thus, this can result in their eventual lack of participation in the labor force.

·        In the context of the school environment that favors some youths over others, three major forms of adolescent peer groups can develop: 1) streetcorner youths, 2) youths who focus on academic pursuits, and 3) socialites.

Advances in Sociological Theory

·        Efforts to test many of the theories described previously continue into the present.

·        Some of the most important advances in theory involve integrating different types of explanations; these theoretical perspectives attempt to improve sociological theory to explain delinquency.

Females-Traditional and New Theories

·        Because many of the original theories used to explain delinquency were based on research limited to boys, these theories needed to be modified to understand gender differences in delinquency, especially why girls are so much less delinquent than boys.

·        Josephina Figueira-McDonough argued that social control theory explains girls’ and boys’ behavior equally well; predictors suggested by strain theory also work equally well.

·        Some experts have predicted that as the female gender role changes in our society, girls will become more and more like boys in their delinquency, with girls acting more violent and taking part in activities like gang fighting.

·        Because of the importance of girls’ running away and other status offenses, it is important to understand girls’ status offending.

·        According to Chesney-Lind, girls often run away from abuse, and once they are “on the streets,” several negative outcomes are possible.

A General Theory of Crime

·        Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson further refined the classical theory on control through social bonds and focused on one type of control-self control.

·        These theories emphasized the distinction between crime and criminality.

·        Individuals who have low self-control tend to get involved in criminal activity and other similar acts.

·        Low self-control is due to inadequate child-rearing practices.

Economic Marginalization and Social Disorganization

·        The structure of society promotes the exclusion of youth from many types of role relationships; this exclusion ultimately leads to delinquency.

·        One example of this exclusion is mainstream legitimate economic opportunities.

·        Both legal and illegal opportunities to make money continue to shape the delinquency of gangs and other youth cliques.

·        Recent data collection efforts have confirmed the importance of neighborhood context in explaining delinquency.

General Strain Theory

·        Robert Agnew argued that traditional strain theory in criminology focuses on primarily one form of goal blockage-the failure to achieve aspirations.

·        Agnew maintained that there are three sources of strain: 1) strain as the failure to achieve positively valued goals, 2) strain as the removal of positively valued stimuli from the individual, and 3) strain as the presentation of negative stimuli.

·        Anger is an essential component to general strain theory.

Rational Theories

·        Recently, some criminologists have focused on why some offenders decide to commit one type of offense rather than another.

·        Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson developed the routine-activity approach.  They attempted to explain changing crime rate trends due to structural changes in “routine activities” of everyday life.

·        Within the context of these structural changes in routine activities, crime can occur with the convergence of three components: motivated offenders, suitable targets, and the absence of a capable guardian.

·        Ronald Clarke and Derek Cornish developed the rational-choice perspective; this perspective is based on a set of assumptions much different than the positivist theories.

·        There is a fundamental distinction between criminal involvement and criminal events.

Conclusions from Sociological Theories

·        Ongoing empirical research has not provided much support for subcultural theories of Ohlin and Cloward, Miller, and Cohen; Matza’s theory also has not received a great deal of support by research.

·        Efforts continue to build and enhance the simplified descriptions of the labeling perspective.

·        As an alternative to theories which focus on just one social class, racial group, or sex, some people have attempted to identify things about our society which cause delinquency.

Integration of Sociological and Psychological Theories

·        A major failure in most criminological theories, which primarily focus on sociological factors, is that they have no incorporated psychological factors and personality traits associated with crime and delinquency.

·        The National Youth Survey is one recent example of research that is designed to test integrated sociological and psychological theory.

·        Under the sponsorship of the federal government, recommendations based on a similar integration of strain, social control, and social learning theories have been set forth for the treatment of violent juvenile offenders.

Theories and Delinquency Control

·        There is a direct relationship between theories of delinquency causation and the choice of methods and programs to control it.

·        Understanding this relationship reveals the root of police tendencies to base their actions in the classical school, and court the correctional personnel to use the positive school.

CLASSROOM DISCUSSION:

1.      How did the different theorists influence each other’s thinking about delinquency?  For example, how did the subcultural gang theories of Ohlin and Cloward, Miller, and Cohen influence the direction of Matza’s work?

2.      Which theories best explain official rates on delinquency, and which best explain self-reported delinquency?

3.      Which theories are best supported by empirical evidence?

4.      How do the theories vary in their recognition of conflict within our society, and in the degree to which they picture youths as having little or not free will?

5.      For each theory, decide whether the control of delinquency should involve a) individual treatment, b) changes in society, c) emphasis on the amount and seriousness of punishment, or d) some combination of these strategies.