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39 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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an assumption that attempts to explain why or how things are related to each other
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theory
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: the explanation of criminal behavior, as well as the behavior of police, attorneys, prosecutors, judges, correctional personnel, victims, and other actors in the criminal justice system
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criminological theory
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a product of the Enlightenment based on the assumption that people exercise free will and are thus completely responsible for their actions
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classical theory
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the principle that a policy should provide “the greatest happiness shared by the greatest number”
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utility
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an imaginary agreement to sacrifice the minimum amount of liberty necessary to prevent anarchy and chaos
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social contract
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the prevention of individuals from committing crime again by punishing them
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special or specific deterrence
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the attempt to prevent people in general from engaging in crime by punishing specific individuals and making examples of them
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general deterrence
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: a modification of classical theory in which it was conceded that certain factors, such as insanity, might inhibit the exercise of free will
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neoclassical theory
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according to biological theories, a criminal’s innate physiological makeup produces certain physical or genetic characteristics that distinguish criminals from noncriminals
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biological inferiority
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the study of “criminal” human beings
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criminal anthropology
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a person who reverts to a savage type
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atavist
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a structure surrounding the brain stem that, in part, controls the life functions of heartbeats, breathing, and sleep
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limbic system
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persons characterized by no sense of guilt, no subjective conscience, and no sense of right and wrong. They have difficulty in forming relationships with other people; they cannot empathize with other people
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psychopaths, sociopaths, antisocial personalities
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the dissociation of the individual from the collective conscience
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anomie (Durkheim)
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the general sense of morality of the times
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collective conscience
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a group of sociologists at the University of Chicago who assumed in their research that delinquent behavior was a product of social disorganization
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Chicago School
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the condition in which the usual controls over delinquents are largely absent, delinquent behavior is often approved of by parents and neighbors, there are many opportunities for delinquent behavior, and there is little encouragement, training, or opportunity for legitimate employment
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social disorganization
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the contradiction between the cultural goal of achieving wealth and the social structure’s inability to provide legitimate institutional means for achieving the goal; it is caused by the inability of juveniles to achieve status among peers by social acceptable means
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anomie (Merton and Cohen)
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a means by which a person can learn new responses by observing others without performing any overt act to or receiving direct reinforcement or reward
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imitation or modeling
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Sutherland’s theory that persons who become a criminal do so because of contacts with criminal patterns and isolation from anticriminal patterns
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differential association
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: a theory that explains criminal behavior and its prevention with the concepts of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, punishment, and modeling or imitation
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learning theory
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the presentation of a stimulus that increases or maintains a response
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positive reinforcement
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the removal or reduction of a stimulus whose removal or reduction increases or maintains a response
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negative reinforcement
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a process in which behavior that previously was positively reinforces is no longer reinforced
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extinction
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the imposition of a penalty for criminal wrongdoing
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punishment
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a view in which people are expected to commit crime and delinquency unless they are prevented from doing so
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social control theory
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a theory that emphasizes the criminalization process as the cause of some crime
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labeling theory
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the way people and actions are defines as criminal
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criminal process
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a theory that assumes society is based primarily on conflict between competing interest groups and that criminal law and the criminal justice system are used to control subordinate groups. Crime is caused by relative powerlessness
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conflict theory
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the ability of some groups to dominate other groups in a society
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power differentials
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in conflict theory, the inability to dominate other groups in society
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relative powerlessness
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theories of crime causation that are generally based on a Marxist theory of class struggle
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radical theories
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for radical criminologists, the competition among wealthy people and among poor people and between rich people and poor people, which causes crime
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class struggles
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a group of social scientists who argue that critical criminologists need to redirect their attention to the fear and the very real victimization experienced by working-class people
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left realists
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inequalities that are defined by a person as unfair or unjust
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relative deprivation
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an approach that suggests the solutions to all social problems, including crime, are the transformation of human beings, mutual dependence, reduction of class structures, the creation of communities of caring people, and universal social justice
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peacemaking criminology
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: a perspective on criminality that focuses on women’s experiences and seeks to abolish men’s control over women’s labor and sexuality
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feminist theory
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men’s control over women’s labor and sexuality
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patriarchy
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an area of critical thought that, among other things, attempts to understand the creation of knowledge, and how knowledge and language create hierarchy and domination
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postmodernism
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