Criminology Chapter 7: Social Process Theories- Socialization And Society

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Sociological Social Psychology

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The study of human interactions and relationships, emphasizing such issues as group dynamics and socialization.

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Socialization

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The interactions people have with various organizations, institutions, processes of society.

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Social Process Theory

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The view that criminality is a function of people's interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society.

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Parental Efficacy

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Parenting that is supportive, effective, and non-coercive.

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Social Control Theory

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The view that people commit crime when the forces that bind them to society are weakened or broken.

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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

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The view that people become criminals when significant members of society label them as such and they accept those labels.

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Differential Association Theory

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According to Sutherland, the principle that criminal acts are related to a person's exposure to an excess amount of antisocial attitudes and values.

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Differential Reinforcement Theory

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An attempt to explain crime as a type of learned behavior. First proposed by Akers in collaboration with Burgess in 1966, it is a version of the social learning view that employs differential association concepts as wall as elements of psychological learning theory.

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Direct Conditioning/Differential Reinforcement

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Behavior is reinforced by being either rewarded or punished while interacting with others; also called differential reinforcement.

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Negative Reinforcement

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Using other negative stimuli (punishment) or loss of reward (negative punishment) to curtail unwanted behaviors.

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Neutralization Theory

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Holds that offenders adhere to conventional values while drifting into periods of illegal behavior. In order to drift, people must first overcome (neutralize) legal and moral values (justify to themselves).

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Subterranean Values

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Morally tinged influences that have become entrenched (established and unlikely to change) in the culture but are publicly condemned (disapproved of). They exist side by side with conventional values and while disapproved of in public may be admired or practiced in private.

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Drift

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According to Matza, the view that youths move in and out of delinquency and that their lifestyles can embrace both conventional and deviant values.

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Commitment to Conformity

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A strong personal investment in conventional institutions, individuals, and processes that prevents people from engaging in behavior that might jeopardize their reputation and achievements.

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Containment Theory

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The idea that a strong self image insulates a youth from the pressures and pulls of criminogenic influences in the environment.

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Social Bond

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Ties a person has to the institutions and processes of society. According to Hirschi, elements of the social bond include commitment, attachment, involvement, and belief.

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Symbolic Interaction Theory

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The sociological view that people communicate through symbols. People interpret symbolic communication and incorporate it within their personality. A person's view of reality then, depends on his or her interpretation of symbolic gestures.

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Stigma

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An enduring label that taints a person's identity and changes him or her in the eyes of others.

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Racial Profiling

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Selecting suspects on their ethnic or racial background.

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Reflected Appraisals

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When parents are alienated from their children, their negative labeling reduces their children's self-image and increases delinquency.

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Retrospective Reading

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The reassessment of a person's past to fit a current generalized label.

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Dramatization of Evil

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As the negative feedback of law enforcement agencies, parents, friends, teachers, and other figures amplifies the force of the original label, stigmatized (labeled) offenders may begin to reevaluate their own identities. The person becomes the thing he is described as being.

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Primary Deviance

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According to Lemert, deviant acts that do not help redefine the self image and public image of the offender.

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Secondary Deviance

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According to Lemert, accepting deviant labels as a personal identity. Acts become secondary when they form a basis for self-concept, as when a drug experimenter becomes an addict.

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Contextual Discrimination

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A practice in which African Americans receive harsher punishments in some instances (as when they victimize whites) but not in others (as when they victimize other blacks).

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Diversion Programs

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Programs of rehabilitation that remove offenders from the normal channels of the criminal justice system, thus avoiding the stigma of a criminal label.