Social Process Theories

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Chapter 7
Social Process Theories
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Socialization and Crime

• Social process theories suggest criminality is a
  function of socialization
• Any person regardless of race, class or gender
  can become criminal
• Elements of family, peer group, school, and
  church contribute to socialization processes

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Socialization and Crime

• Family Relations
• Family plays a critical role in the determinant
  of behavior
• Parental efficacy refers to supportive parents
  who effectively control their children
• Links between inconsistent discipline and
  delinquency

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Socialization and Crime

• Weblink
• www.childpolicy.org

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Socialization and Crime

• Child Abuse and Crime
• Linkage between child abuse, neglect, sexual
  abuse, and crime
• Children subjected to abuse are more likely to
  use violence in personal interactions
• In nonviolent societies, parents rarely punish
  children physically

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Socialization and Crime

• Educational Experience
• Children who fail in school offend more
  frequently than those who succeed
• Schools contribute to delinquency by labeling
  students
• School dropouts have a significant chance of
  entering a criminal career
• 2003 national survey estimates about 1.5 million
  violent incidents occur in public schools each
  year

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Socialization and Crime

• Peer Relations
• Children seek out peer groups between the ages of
  8 and 14
• Peer Rejection Children rejected by peers are
  more likely to display aggressive behavior
• Pro-social friends may inhibit criminality
• Peers and Criminality Antisocial peer groups
  increase the likelihood of delinquency
• Mark Warr suggests delinquent friends tend to be
  sticky meaning they are not easily lost once
  they are acquired

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Socialization and Crime

• Institutional Involvement and Belief
• Religion binds people together
• Travis Hirschi and Rodney Stark found the
  association between religion attendance, belief,
  and delinquency is insignificant
• Recent research contends that attending religious
  services is a significant inhibitor of crime

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Socialization and Crime

• The Effects of Socialization on Crime
• Social learning theory suggests people learn
  techniques of crimes from criminal peers
• Social control theory contends people are
  controlled by their bonds to society
• Social reaction theory argues that society
  contributes to criminality through the use of
  labels

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Figure 7.1 The Social Processes that Control
Human Behavior
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Social Learning Theory

• Crime is a product of learning norms, values, and
  behaviors associated with criminal activity
• Differential Association Edwin H. Sutherlands
  view that criminality is a function of the
  socialization process

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Social Learning Theory

• Differential Association Theory
• Differential Association Edwin H. Sutherlands
  view that criminality is a function of the
  socialization process
• Criminal behavior is learned
• Learning is a by-product of interacting with
  others
• Learning criminal behavior occurs within intimate
  personal groups
• Learning criminal behavior involves assimilating
  the techniques of committing crime, including
  motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes
• The specific direction is learned from
  perceptions of various aspects of the legal code
  as favorable or unfavorable

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Social Learning Theory

• A person becomes criminal when perceiving the
  consequences of violating the law as favorable
• Differential associations vary in frequency,
  duration, priority, and intensity
• The process of learning criminal behavior
  involves the same mechanisms as any other
  learning process
• Criminal behavior and noncriminal behavior
  express the same needs and values

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Figure 7.2 Differential Associations
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Social Learning Theory

• Testing Differential Association Theory
• Difficult to conceptualize and test empirically
• Research does support the core principles such as
  links to family, and peers with criminality

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Social Learning Theory

• Analysis of Differential Association Theory
• Fails to account for the origin of criminal
  definitions
• Assumes criminal and delinquent acts to be
  rational and systematic
• Some suggest the theory is tautological

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Social Learning Theory

• Differential Reinforcement Theory
• Ronald Akers suggests direct conditioning
  occurs when behavior is reinforced by rewards or
  punishment
• People evaluate their own behavior through their
  interactions with significant others and groups
  in their lives
• Once people are indoctrinated into crime, their
  behavior can be reinforced through peers and the
  lack of negative sanctions

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Social Learning Theory

• Testing Differential Reinforcement
• Studies have suggested a strong association
  between drug and alcohol abuse and social
  learning variables
• Deviant behavior is reinforced over time (I.E.
  smoking)
• Parents may supply negative reinforcements to
  childrens deviant behavior

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Social Learning Theory

• Neutralization Theory
• David Matza and Gresham Sykes view criminality as
  a process learning neutralizing techniques
• Subterranean values are morally tinged influences
• Drift occurs from conventional behavior to
  criminal behavior if one can neutralize their
  sense of responsibility for antisocial behavior

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Social Learning Theory

• Techniques of Neutralization
• Denial of responsibility unlawful acts are
  beyond an offenders control
• Denial of injury offenders perception is
  changed (i.e. stealing is borrowing)
• Denial of the victim the victim had it coming
  (i.e. vandalism)
• Condemnation of the condemners shifting the
  blame to others (i.e. society)
• Appeal to higher loyalties loyalty to a higher
  cause (i.e. Oliver North and Iran Contra)

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Figure 7.3 Techniques of Neutralization
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Social Learning Theory

• Testing Neutralization Theory
• Empirical test results are inconclusive
• Not all criminal offenders approve of social
  values such as honesty and fairness
• As Matza predicted, people do seem to drift in
  and out of antisocial behavior

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Social Learning Theory

• Are Learning Theories Valid?
• Learning theories fail to explain how the first
  criminal learned the necessary techniques and
  definitions of crime
• Fails to account for spontaneous crime or
  expressive crimes
• Learning of some criminality frequently occurs
  after one has committed the first criminal act

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Social Control Theory

• All people have potential to violate the law
• Self-control refers to a strong moral sense that
  renders a person incapable of hurting others or
  violating social norms
• Walter Reckless argued a strong self-image
  insulates a person from the criminogenic
  influences of the environment
• Howard Kaplan suggests youths with poor
  self-concepts are more likely to engage in
  delinquent behavior (normative groups)

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Social Control Theory

• Hirschis Social Bond Theory (social control
  theory)
• Travis Hirschi links the onset of criminality to
  the weakening of the ties than bind people to
  society ( social bonds)
• Attachment (sensitivity to and interest in
  others)
• Commitment (time, energy, and effort into
  conventional activities)
• Involvement (insulates people from the lure of
  crime)
• Belief (moral respect for law and social values)

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Figure 7.4 Elements of Social Bond Theory
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Social Control Theory

• Testing Social Control Theory
• Empirical studies revealed a strong support for
  Hirschis control theory
• Youths strongly attached to parents were less
  likely to commit criminal acts
• Youths involved in conventional activities were
  less likely to engage in criminal behavior
• Youths involved in unconventional behaviors such
  as drinking and smoking were more prone to
  delinquency
• Youths who maintained weak relationships with
  others moved toward delinquency
• Those who shunned unconventional acts were
  attached to peers
• Delinquents and nondelinquents shar similar
  beliefs about society
• Recent research shows attachments to peers,
  school and family may be interrelated

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Social Control Theory

• Opposing Views
• Friendship A criticism of Hirschis theory is
  the notion that delinquents are detached loners
• Not all elements of the bond are equal Some
  people are very involved and not attached
• Deviant peers and parents Some people are very
  attached to deviant peers
• Restricted in scope May not explain all modes of
  criminality
• Change bonds Bonds seem to change over time
• Crime and social bonds Direction of association
  might be miscalculated in the wrong direction

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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

• Explains criminal careers in terms of destructive
  social interactions and stigma-producing
  encounters (symbolic interaction theory)
• People are given a variety of symbolic labels
  that define the whole person
• Negative labels stigmatize and reduce ones
  self-image
• Social groups create definitions of positive and
  negative labels
• Labels may actually maintain and amplify criminal
  behavior

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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

• Crime and Labeling Theory
• Crime and deviance are defined by the social
  audience
• Howard Becker described those making the rules as
  moral entrepreneurs
• Social groups create deviance by labeling
  particular people as outsiders

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Figure 7.5 The Labeling Process
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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

• Differential Enforcement
• Those with social power penalize the powerless
• Content of law reflects power relationships
• Street crimes punished more severely than
  white-collar crimes

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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

• Consequences of Labeling
• Labels produce stigma
• Condemnation is carried out in ceremonies such
  as trials and media attention (degradation
  ceremonies)
• Differential social control Self-labeling
  involves one taking on the attitudes and roles
  reflected in how a person views the way others
  see them
• Joining deviant cliques Some labeled people may
  join cliques and other outcast peers
• Retrospective reading refers to the
  reassessment of a persons past to fit a current
  generalized label or status
• Dramatization of evil Labels become a personal
  identity

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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

• Primary and Secondary Deviance
• Edwin Lemert defined a norm violation with little
  or no long-term influence as primary deviance
• Secondary deviance refers to a norm violation
  that results in application of a negative label
  with long-term consequences
• The process whereby secondary deviance pushes
  offenders out of the mainstream of society is
  referred to as deviance amplification

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Figure 7.6 Primary and Secondary Deviance
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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

• Research on Social Reaction Theory
• Evidence supports the targets of labeling (poor
  and powerless) are victimized by the law and
  justice system
• Contextual discrimination refers to judges
  imposing harsher sentences on minorities
• Empirical evidence supports that negative labels
  influence self-image
• Cumulative disadvantage Provokes repeat behaviors

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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

• Is Labeling Theory Valid?
• Inability to specify the conditions the must
  exist before an act or individual is labeled
• Failure to explain differences in crime rates
• Ignores the onset of deviant behavior
• Charles Tittle suggests criminal careers occur
  without labeling

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Social Reaction Theory (Labeling Theory)

• Evaluating Social Process Theories
• The branches of social process theory-social
  learning-social control and social reaction are
  compatible
• Interactions of social institutions, family,
  schools, peers, and the justice system are
  important in creating and inhibiting criminal
  behavior
• Social process theories are not persuasive in
  explaining fluctuations in crime patterns

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Public Policy Implications of Social Process
Theory

• Learning theories have greatly influenced the way
  criminal offenders are treated
• Residential treatment programs utilize group
  interaction to promote conventional behavior
• Head Start is a well-known program designed to
  help lower-class youths achieve proper
  socialization
• Diversion programs are concerned with avoiding
  the stigma of a criminal label
• Restitution programs permit an offender to repay
  the victim rather than face the stigma of a
  formal trial and court-ordered sentence