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147 Cards in this Set
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what is delinquency |
illegal acts committed by youth under the age of 18 |
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what is the youth criminal justice act |
it handles cases for 12-17 year olds and was created in 2003 |
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who are the majority of criminal offenders |
youth |
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what is socially constructed |
the tolerance of young delinquents |
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how are you dealt with if you are under the age of 12 |
you are not criminally responsible and dealt with in another way |
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what does the term delinquency imply |
that the behaviour is illegal or anti-social
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what is the objectivist perspective |
our position |
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what is the constructionist perspective |
how we make the decision and respond to what is right and wrong |
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what does the constructionist perspective believe |
delinquency is seen as a problem simply because it has been defined as a problem -labelling theory: we give them the label of delinquent |
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do we define what is a social problem |
yes |
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what are objectivists interested in |
how certain conditions become recognized as social problems |
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how are social problems produced |
through social activities (mass media, enacted laws) ex: school shootings -the response (police in schools) is socially constructed |
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how does media portray youth |
negatively -non-representative events portrayed as typical and public demands action -media is major source for public opinions -can be influenced by race |
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what is a moral panic (Cohen) |
a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests (could be new or problem all along) |
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who do moral panics tend to involve |
youth -violence, gangs, drugs |
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what are folk devils |
external threats to established values and institutions -people who threaten social order |
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what is essential to moral panics |
the claims making process -people who identify problems (politicians, media figures) -draw attention to issue |
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what do moral panics in North America tend to be based on |
race |
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what is deviancy amplification |
media campaigns directed at youth problems have the effect of intensifying the social problems -deliberate timing: newspapers focus on issue to get people to read |
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is the rate of youth crime going up |
no 2012-2013 down 7% 2009-2013 down 20% |
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what is a theory |
an attempt to explain or predict some event or phenomenon (different than opinion) |
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what do theories contain |
principle elements providing label for phenomenon: -concepts -propositions/statements (link concepts together and why) |
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what are facts |
particular truths known by valued observations |
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what do theories provide |
picture of how phenomena occur |
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what is falsafiability |
the ability to prove a theory wrong |
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what makes a good theory |
-coherence (logically connected) -verifiability (empirical evidence) -simplicity -significance, scope, utility |
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what are the 3 proofs of causation |
-temporal order -related -non-supriousness |
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what are individual level theories |
explain behaviour by individuals and the factors that affect them |
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what are macro-level theories |
explain delinquency across spatial units |
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what are the assumptions of delinquency theories |
assumptions about human nature -consensus: society is in agreement of what is right and wrong -conflict: those in power determine what is right and wrong |
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what is theoretical integration |
combining 2 or more existing theories to explain some phenomenon |
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what is theoretical elaboration |
taking an existing theory and attempting to improve its ability to explain delinquency |
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what are the ways to combine theories |
end-to-end (sequential) side-by-side (horizontal) up-and-down (combine different levels of abstraction making a theory more broad) |
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what influenced deterrence theory |
-social philosophers: Cesare Beccaria |
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who was Cesare Beccaria |
laid the ground work for deterrence theory, argued for free will (individual responsibility for actions) and rational choice (we act voluntary and are aware of consequences) |
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in the middle ages, why did people commit crimes |
believed you were possess by something supernatural -everyone was subject to cruel and public punishments |
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what is utilitarianism |
achieve pleasure and avoid pain, wanted to end cruel punishments, proportionality (Cesare Beccaria) |
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what is the assumption of delinquency theory |
we are rational actors |
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what are the 2 components of a crime |
actus reus and mens rea |
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what is deterrence |
people are rational actors and form intent willingly |
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what is the most important point of deterrence theory |
humans weigh the risks and potential consequences -we all choose, need to adjust risk so it outweighs reward |
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how we interpret pain and pleasure depends on the.... |
person -shaped and effected by our past experiences and the experiences of others |
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under deterrence theory, what must we do to curve the criminal offender |
shape criminal behaviour as too risky for people -risks must outweigh rewards to deter |
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what are the elements of punishment in order to deter |
swiftness (celarity), certainty, severity (proportionality) |
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what are the types of deterrence |
-general deterrence: fear the consequences -specific deterrence: prevent ANOTHER act from being committed -absolute and restrictive deterrence: completely quit or quitting to something less harmful -objective and subjective deterrence: objective is what actually happens, subjective is what you perceive to happen |
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what are the 3 types of research on deterrence theory |
pre-test-intervention-post-test perceptual deterrence: what you perceive risk of being caught and look at criminal activity (certainty deters) justice system processing and deterrence: based on youth transferred to adult court, but Canada you are in youth court with possibility of adult sentence |
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are juvenile rational actors? |
no, do not have the same culpability as adults, have reduced responsibility, rehabilitating and treating youth, juveniles may not have the capacity of though (deterred less effectively), and consider only short term consequences |
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what are the policy implications under deterrence theory? |
get tough on crime (if punishment is tough, it will change risk calculations), crime prevention through environmental design (make crimes difficult to commit), situational crime prevention methods |
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what is the theory of atavism |
Cesare Lombroso-criminal are evolutionary throwbacks, people are born bad, believed criminals had internal features that distinguished them from law-abiders |
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what are the features under theory of atavism |
large or small skulls, thick cranial bones, protruding ears, receding chins, small ears |
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what did william sheldon believe |
criminal behaviour is related to body shape, physiques are linked to personality types or behaviour trait
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what are the body types under william sheldon |
endomorph: fat and round, extraversion and love ectomorph: frail and skinny, sensitive and introvert mesomorph: strong and muscular, assertive and aggressive (most associated) |
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what is the contemporary biological theory |
minor physical anomalies (MPA's): congenital conditions, facial asymmetry, furrowed tongues, link between MPA and aggression |
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what may MPA indicate |
problem with brain development or mental health disorder |
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is the timing of puberty important |
yes, precocious girls and off-time boys (early puberty), |
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what is the average age of puberty |
boys: 11.5 girls: 10.5 |
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what are the risks of early puberty in girls |
eating disorder, hyperactivity, depression, more likely to date and have sex early, and get involved in older boys |
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what does early puberty provide youth with |
the opportunities to commit crimes |
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what are the types of heredity studies |
parents and children living together, adopted children, twins |
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do specific genes correlate with certain behaviours |
certain combinations increase delinquency only when environmental factors are present -genes on their own do nothing |
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what do neurotransmitters do |
nervous system functions, dopamine and serotonin (affect psychological functions) |
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what do high and low levels of serotonin do/ |
high: conduct disorder, violence/aggression low: anxiety, panic, OCD, depression |
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what are enzymes |
monoamine oxidase (MAO) |
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what do high and low levels of MAO do |
high: parkinsons, depression, schizophrenia low: low self-control (commonly males in adolescence) |
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what do hormones do |
cortisol and testosterone |
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when is cortisol released |
due to stress, low: less responsive to stress, under aroused therefore less fearful/sensitive to punishment |
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what does testosterone influence |
temperament and social functions |
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what does the automatic nervous system do |
fight or flight (regulates sympathetic nervous system) |
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what are the 4 main theories focused on nervous system and delinquency |
-dissipation (time required for ANS to return after stressful situation) -classical conditioning (punishing will build up feeling of distress) -low baseline arousal (seek out danger to increase arousal) -fearlessness (less likely to be deterred or distressed) |
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what are the 2 measures to test for nervous system |
resting heart rate, skin conductance activity (delinquents have lower of both) |
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do adolescents use the same part of the brain for decisions than adults |
no, they respond to stress differently |
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what is anti-social and delinquent behaviour caused from |
dysfunction in the frontal lobe (responsible for plannin, reasoning, and emotional control) |
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what can dysfunction in the frontal lobe result from |
brain injury, child abuse, development (prenatal and postnatal), emotional trauma |
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what are the environmental risks for frontal lobe dysfunction |
smoking, alcohol abuse, lead, air and water pollution |
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what are the definitional problems of biological theories |
studies use different outcome measures (either delinquent or not), small samples or samples in facilities |
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what does early psychological research focus on |
psychological factors that can lead to delinquency |
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what is morally insane under psychological theory |
inherited, irresistible impulses, morbid fascination with unnatural things, moral depravity, moral mania, and violent passions |
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what is feeble minded under psychological theory |
lack of intelligence, less appreciative of complex situations, 5-90% of girls, 3-80% of boys, and inherited |
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what is used to test for feeble mindedness |
binet-simon intelligence tests: memory, attention, verbal skills, avg score is 100 |
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what is psychoanalytical theory |
need to recognize the power of the unconscious mind, each person grows and develops in stages (sexual development), abnormalities occur that create conflict in our developing personality from the interplay between instinctual drives and societals restraints, conflicts are pushed into unconscious which develops defence mechanisms (delinquency) |
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what are the components to personality |
id: primal urges and instincts ego;awareness of external environment superego: the norms and morals of society (development varies) |
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what affects ego and superego development |
deficient childrearing, we all have repressed feelings of guilt in the ego |
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what does guilt push us to |
criminal behaviour, desire for punishment |
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what is personality |
our stable patterns of behaviour that distinguish us (how we interpret events and react to them) |
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what is the minnesota multiphasic personality inventory's traits linked to delinquency |
boys: psychopathic deviation, social extraversion and hypomania, girls: psychopathic deviation and social extraversion |
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what is Eysenck's personality theory |
delinquents are high on extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism |
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what is the five factor model |
impulsivity (act before thinking), sensation seeking, linked to learning problems, poor school performance, and aggression |
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on average, how much lower are delinquents on standard intelligence tests and why |
6-10 points -official bias, influence of social status/minority group membership, influence on poor school performance, low intelligence is a measure of low cognitive abilities and impulsivity, interactive effects |
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what are learning disabilities |
various physical or mental dysfunctions that delay the development of acquisition of knowledge |
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what do learning disabilities affect |
personality traits, school performance, differential treatment by law enforcement (cant talk out of problems) |
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what is conduct disorder |
childhood or adolescent onset (10+), mild, moderate, or severe (increases the risk of aspd), aggression to people/animals, destruction of property, deceitfullness/theft, serious violation of rules |
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what is oppositional defiance disorder |
can be progression to conduct disorder, more prevalent among youth from lower socioeconomic status and areas with high crime rates, losing temper, arguing with adults, actively defies or refuses to comply with adults rules, angry and resentful (under 18 only) |
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what development stage are you in at birth |
sensory motor stage |
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what stage are you in at age 12 |
formal operational stage |
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when do we have changes in our moral reasoning |
when we have different life experiences |
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what is the main source of moral development |
childbearing practices (parental warmth and consistent punishment is necessary)
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what do non-offenders believe |
law benefits everyone, respect the rights of others, respect the law, higher stages of moral reasoning |
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what do cognitive theories study |
information processing mechanisms and mental processes, examines how thoughts and information processing pathways become impaired, planning, problem solving, and decision making |
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how do we process information |
we encode info so it can be interpreted, we search for the proper response, and we act relying on mental scripts |
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how do delinquents process information |
interpret cues, attribution of intent, generalization of goals |
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what are the limitations of psychological theories |
lack of evidence as to which personality traits affect delinquency, influence of psychological and genetic factors |
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what was the early research on communities and delinquency |
early sociologists used maps to look at the distribution of crime (known as cartographic school), not guided by underlying theory, linked findings to the environment, lack of morality among people in certain areas |
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who were park and burgess |
influenced by european studies, noticed delinquency in certain locations like in other studies, forms the basis for social ecology |
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what is social ecology |
the systematic analysis of delinquency rates as they're geographically distributed, distribution is mapped within areas of city and correlated with other community characteristics |
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what did park argue |
sociologists should look at urban communities for patterns of domination and succession (how residents maintain relationships) |
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what are concentric zones |
city grows from inside out, the zone of transition is poorest, as you move outward people are richer and crime rate is lower |
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what is the zone of transition |
the oldest part of town and is invaded by business and industrial expansion |
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what did shaw and mckay study |
looked at the rates of delinquency over time periods (percentage of 10-16 year old boys in a particular area who had been petitioned to the court), used official police data, looked at where boys lived |
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what was happening during shaw and mckays study |
population expansion (recent immigrants), city core deteriorating, wealthier population believed immigrants were bringing them down and moved outwards away from them, industrialization, urbanization, geographic and social mobility |
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what is residential instability |
zone 2: transitional zone conditions were so bad people do not want to stay and when they get enough money they move |
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what was the population like in social disorganization theory |
neighbourhoods no longer shared common values, kids were free to get into trouble (gangs can recruit), |
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what do social disorganization theorists not argue |
that immigration causes crime |
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what does social disorganization refer to |
a set of conditions for that part of town transitional zone: lack of home ownership, high number of families on welfare, lack of community/social ties, delinquency is caused by social factors (confused therefore vulnerable) |
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what are the critiques of social disorganization |
-ecological fallacy: cant go from macro-level data and tie to individuals, downplays ethnic/cultural factors within groups that can protect against or contribute to delinquency, certain areas have high crime rates not predicted by shaw and mckay -measurement: used police data (spend time in worse parts of town) -socialization model: kids learn criminal values social control: different ethnic groups have different values and dont know how to respond to it |
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in socially disorganizated areas, what is the effect of parents working multiple jobs |
lack of supervision, no one to control bad behaviour, dont rely on neighbours to watch, adults are less likely to intervene |
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what is the broken window theory |
describes neighbourhoods and their physical appearance, neighbouthoods with broken windows can lead to delinquency because the characteristics of the neighbourhood are signs of a communities apathy about the appearance of what their community looks like -less likely to control youth -allows gangs in -residents fear crime if we clean up windows we can control delinquent behaviour and bring community together |
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what are incivilities |
signs of physical decay and disorder, link is not clear, it affects the perception of delinquency rather than the actual delinquency rate |
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what is public housing |
apartments, townhouses provided for low income residents, fear of crime and rates of violent victimization are high in public housing -kids who grow up in public housing are not a higher risk than other kids |
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what is the peer influence model |
if you have delinquent friends, youre likely to be delinquent (learn from parents and people in community) |
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what is collective socialization model |
focuses on adults, affluent adults are more likely to model prosocial behaviour and intervene, it will curve delinquency, problem: not enough in communities |
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what is institutional model |
focuses on adults (not the parents), if these adults treat kids in socially disorganized areas differently, then it will affect their life chances |
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what is relative deprivation model |
suggests that exposure to affluent adults contributes to delinquency, people compare themselves and get frustrated when they have less becoming delinquent |
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what is collective efficacy |
communities whoa re cohesive and maintain high levels of social control, mutual trust combined with shared willingness to intervene |
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what are the three forms of collective efficacy |
informal social control, institutional social control, public social control |
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what is a communal school organization |
participation by students, informal social relations, administration support for teachers and moral is high |
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what is school climate |
the overall vibe of a school and its ability to promote or curve delinquency, positive climate: kids look out for each other, students are less likely to misbehave |
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what are the policy implications of communities |
community organization (increase relationships), revitalization of local economies (higher pay, education), parenting programs (watch kids and form ties) |
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what is conflict theory |
the powerful enact laws that only help them and not society as a whole |
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what does turks argue |
that whether or not youre identified as a criminal is value conflicts (if conflicts appear threatening to societies officials, you will be identified as delinquent) |
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what are the four main themes to conflict theory |
-individuals and social organizations are stratified and inequality allows domination of one group -most events can be understood by examining the interests of groups and individuals -groups with more power can reach or maintain a dominant position -changes in society are caused mainly by conflict among groups |
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what is power control theory |
explaining gender differences in delinquency (everyday typical crimes), mothers are primary socializing agent for children, especially girls,what we teach and socialize children depends on power position in the household
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what are the four general classes of workers |
employers, managers, workers, surplus population |
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what are the two types of families: |
egalitarian: both parents work in positions of power, control efforts are even, girls are free to take risks patriarchal: just fathers work in positions of power, mother is main controlling force over kids, especially girls (gender difference is greatest) |
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what are most conflict theories not concerned with |
delinquency but with how power differentials in society create conditions under which particular laws are passes |
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what is the chivalry hypothesis |
more likely to let female offender go because they feel bad |
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what was power control theories research extended to |
look at beliefs about childrearing and gender roles, egalitarian: more liberal views |
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what do racial theories of delinquency believe |
most behaviour is a struggle among the classes of society (assumes that economic system of capitalism is primarily responsible for class divisions in society) |
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how do radical theories believe that bourgeousie control the proletariet |
economically, institutionally, legally |
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who is most official crime in delinquency committed by |
lower and working classes (reaction to control by bourgoisie |
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who was highly influenced by karl marx |
radical theorists applied ideas |
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what did karl marx deem criminals |
lumpen proletariet -criminals are the people who have come up short for the struggle for excess (alternative means to succeed or survive) |
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what do radical theorists believe we need to do to control crime |
overthrow capitalism |
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what is instrumental marxism |
the state and its laws are instruments that the owners use to control workers; enables the powerful to impose morality on the rest of society; criminology should show how law works to reserve only the rich and powerful |
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what is structural marxism |
individual components of a society should be considered in relation to larger social, historical, political, and cultural structures; laws show that capitalism works well; law is used to control members of any class who threaten capitalism |
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how does capitalism deal with people who oppose their opposition |
formalize illegal acts and conversion |
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what does capitalism create |
class divisions that a small minority have a lot of wealth a large majority have no wealth |
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what are the policy implications of radical theory |
-no practical solutions for delinquency -equalize power: reduce income inequality -changes to conflict resolution: mediation, restorative justice (responds to crime with compassion rather than adversarial system, encourages offenders to take responsibility, redefines crime in terms of conflict among offender, victim, and community, parties have to be open) |
