Agnew (General Strain Theory)
- Strain caused by:
1) Mean-goals discrepancy: failure to achieve positively valued goals
2) Relative deprivation:
... [Show More] disjunction of expectations/achievements
3) Loss of positive, motivating influences: removal of positively valued stimuli
4) Presence of negative stimuli: bad friend/poverty
Status Frustration
- Albert Cohen
Working-class: Internalized mc values: status (success)
Poorly educated = cannot compete with MC kids
Status-frustration = Reaction formation
Subculture = opposition/devaluation of middle-class definition of success
- Collard & Ohlin
Opportunity Structure
Job market is the problem
Ideology: merit-> success
Lower classes: lose to middle class, status frustration, subculture
Walter Miller: Working Class Focal Concerns
- Enduring working-class subculture
- Frustration/blocked opportunity
- Focal concerns = attention/emotional involvement
- FATEST
1) Fate —> life can’t be changed, make the best of it
2) Autonomy —> don't let them push you around
3) Trouble —> life is tough/don’t run away
4) Excitement —> look for fun
5) Smartness —> look good, act sharp
6) Toughness —> manliness
Sykes and Matza: Drift/Neutralization Techniques
- No subculture needed/Delinquents are like others
1) Conventional: conformity/guilt/respect for law-abiding individuals
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2) Selfish values
i. denial of responsibility: beyond control
ii. denial of victim: deserved it
iii. denial of injury: no harm done
iv. commendation of condemners
v. appeal to a higher loyalty: gangs etc
Chapter 7: Social Structure Theories
- Focus of 20th century criminology is sociology; led by Park & Burgess to study social ecology of city
—> Natural Areas: zones/neighbourhoods that develop as a result of social forces operating
in urban areas, and become natural areas of crime
Sociological Criminology
- sociologists look at how patterns of behaviour exist with the social structure & how criminal
patterns exist within society, how they predicted and controlled
- concern about ecological distribution of crime, the effect of social change
Economic Structure and Crime
- Shift in distribution of poverty: retired people are better off
1) Inequality
-> epidemic (neighbourhood quality decrease, resident problems increase)
-> culture of poverty: lower class culture characterized by values/norms in conflict with conventional society, passed on through generations —> apathy, cynicism, helplessness, mistrust
-> Underclass: world cut-off from society-> lacking education/skills needed to survive which
increase criminality
2) Are the poor undeserving?
-> people in poverty are more likely to experience high crime, poor school, excessive mortality, unemployed, single parent household—> (self-help and increase mobility = hard)
3) Unemployment and Crime
-> there is little evidence that changing market conditions cause offenders to renounce crime
-> crime is linked to economic deprivation
-> social embeddedness (hagan) -> early behaviour patterns become stable, lifelong habits
Branches of Social Structure Theory
= looks at class stratification [Show Less]