Theories
this perspective regarded crime as the product of internal forces
Biological Perspective
this perspective claimed that crime is a product of socialization or interaction of one person to another, and that crime is a function of upbringing, learning, and control.
Process Perspective
This perspective stressed the causes of crime based on economic and political forces
Conflict Perspective
This perspective sought to explain the onset of antisocial behavior such as aggression and violence by focusing on the physical qualities of the offenders.
Biosocial Perspective
This perspective expressed that criminal behavior, was the product of "unconscious" forces operating within a person's mind, and that conflicts occuring at various psychosexual stages of development might impact an individual's ability to operate normally as an adult
Psychological Perspective
This theory viewed that both thought and behavior have biological and social bases.
Biosocial Theory
this theory explains the existence of aggression and violent behavior as positive adaptive behaviors in human evolution. These traits allowed their bearers to reproduce disproportionately, which has had an effect on the human gene pool.
Evolutionary Theory
one of the theories under evolutionary theory which suggests that a subpopulation of men has evolved with genes that incline them toward extremely low parental involvement and become sexually aggressive who use their cunning to gain sexual conquests with as many females as possible
Cheater theory
another theory under evolutionary theory which holds that all organisms can be located along a continuum based upon their reproductive drives
R/K selection theory
people are more cooperative and sensitive to others
K-oriented people
people are more cunning and deceptive
R-oriented people
Those who require more stimulation may act in an aggressive manner to meet their needs. On the other hand, thrill is a motivator of crime.
Arousal Theory
also known as Developmental Theory suggests that criminal behavior is a dynamic process influenced by individual characteristics as well as social experiences, and that the factors that cause antisocial behaviors change dramatically over a person's life span.
Sheldon Glueck
Eleanor Touroff-Gkueck
Life Course Theory
is defined as a stable feature, characteristic, property, or condition, such as defective intelligence, impulsive personality, genetic abnormalities, the physical-chemical functioning of the brain and environmental influences on brain function such as drugs, chemicals and injuries that make some people delinquency-prone over the life course.
Latent Trait Theory
is aimed at making potential criminals fear the consequences of crime showing that crime does not pay. It focuses on potential offenders and that these offenders must receive punishment in severe, swift and certain ways.
General deterrence theory
holds that if offenders are punished so severely, the experience will convince them not to repeat their illegal acts. Its main targets are those offenders who have already been convicted as it also claims that punishing more criminals will reduce their involvement in criminal activities
Specific deterrence theory
may mean getting involved with deviant peer groups, just "hanging out", or frequenting bars until late into the night and drinking heavily
Michael R. Gottfredson, Michael Hindelang, and James Garofalo
A high risk lifestyle
also sometimes referred to as lifestyle theory has been proven to be one of the more useful theories for understanding criminal victimization and offending patterns in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Lawrence E. Cohen and Marcus K. Felson
Routine activity theory
holds that person will engage in criminal behavior after weighing the consequences and benefits of his/her actions.
Rational choice theory
Hold that low intelligence is genetically determined and inherited
Nature Theory
is a theory of brain and science of character reading, what the nineteenth-century phrenologists called "the only true science of mind."
is the study of the conformation of the skull as indicative of mental faculties and traits of character, especially according to the hypotheses of Franz Joseph Gall, and 19th-century adherents Johann Kaspar Spurzheim
Phrenology
deals with the study of facial features and their relation to human behaviour.
Physiognomy
Believe that people learn from one another through a process of imitation
theory of imitation by Gabriel Tarde
This theory holds that the human personality ia controlled by unconscious mental processes developed in early childhood.
psychodynamic or psychoanalytic psychology by Sigmund Freud.
control by unconscious mental processes determined by parental relationships developed early in childhood as what Freud believed, others, like Watson and Skinner do not.
is concerned with the study of observable behavior rather than unconscious processes.
behavioral theory by John B. Watson and popularized by Burrhus Fredrick Skinner.
argued that people are not actually born with the ability to act violently but that they learn to be aggressive through their lige experiences.
social learning theory by Albert S. Bandura
Bandura reports that children from families where parents show aggressive behaviors inside their homes would likely show similar behaviors when dealing with others.
Family members
People who reside in areas where violence is a daily occurrence are more likely to act violently than those who dwell in low-crime areas which norm stresses or shows conventional behavior.
Environmental experiences
Films and television shows, which are accessible to people of all ages and social status, commonly depict violence graphically.
Mass media
is a branch of psychology that studies the perception of reality and the mental process required to understand the world we live. It focuses on mental processes- the way people perceive and mentally represents the world around them.
Cognitive theory
Coordination of senses with motor response, sensory curiosity about the world. Language used for demands and cataloguing. Object performance developed.
Sensorimotor (0-2)
Symbolic thinking, use of proper syntax and grammar to express full concepts. Imagination and intuition are strong, but complex abstract thought still difficult. Conservation developed.
Preoperational (2-7)
Concepts attached to concrete situations. Time, space, and quantity are understood and can be applied, but not as independent concepts
Concrete Operational (7-11)
Theoretical, hypothetical, and counterfactual thinking. Abstract logic and reasoning. Strategy and planning become possible. Concepts learned in one context can be applied to another.
Formal Operations (11+)
is the Swiss psychologist who was the first to make a systematic study of the acquisition of understanding in children based on his cognitive development theory. He hypothesized that a child's reasoning processes develop in an orderly manner, from birth onwards and it has 4 stages
Jean William Fritz Piaget
suggests that people who obey the law simply to avoid punishment or who have outlooks mainly characterized by self-interest are more likely to commit crimes than those who view the law as something that benefits all of society and who honor the rights of others
Moral development theory by Lawrence A. Kohlberg
refers to the socialization and social learning that helps to explain the ways in which children growing up in a violent family learn violent roles and, subsequently, may play out the roles of victim or victimizer in their own adult families as adults
Intergenerational transmission theory
Focuses on assortative mating where female offenders tend to cohabit with or get married to male offenders.
Alternative Theory
where convicted people tend to choose each other as mates because of physical and social proximity; they meet each other in the same schools, neighborhoods, clubs, pubs, and so on.
social homogamy
where people examine each other's personality and behavior and choose partners who are similar to themselves
phenotypic assortment
This theory suggests that (1) the presence of criminal behavior depends on whether or not it is rewarded or punished and (2) the most meaningful rewards and punishment are those given by groups that are important in an individuals' life i.e. the peer group, the family, teachers in school, etc. In other words, people respond more readily to the reactions of the most significant people in their lives.
differential-association reinforcement theory by Ernest W. Burgess and Ronald L. Akers
in his theory of conditioning claims that all human personalities may be seen in three dimensions such as psychoticism, extroversion and neuroticism.
Eysenck's Conditioning Theory by Hans J. Eysenck
The main concept of this theory is that the genes and environment are factors for some individuals to form the kind of personality that is likely to commit crimes.
Integrated theory by James Q. Wilson and Richard Julius Herrnstein
expressed the notion that a child needs warmth and affection from his/her mother or a mother substitute.
Maternal deprivation and attachment theory by Edward John M. Bowlby
most important phenomenon to social development takes place after the birth of any mammal and that is the construction of an ________ between the infant and his mother
emotional bond
who linked crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics.
Social disorganization theory by Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. Mckay
who noted that distinct ecological area had developed in the city of Chicago comprising a series of 5 concentric circles or zones, and that there were stable and significant differences in interzone crime rates.
Concentric zone theory by Ernest W. Burgess and Robert E. Park
applied Durkheim's ideas of anomie to criminology. He holds that crime is a function of the conflict between the goals people have and the means they can use to legally obtain that goals.
Strain Theory Robert K. Merton
in which the individual accepts both conventional goals and means
conformity
where the individual accepts the goals but rejects the legitimate means of attaining them.
innovation
wherein an individual rejects the goal but have legitimate means of attaining them
ritualism
which the individual tends to reject both the goals and means of the society
retreatism
which the individuals involved in substituting an alternative set of goals and means for conventional ones.
Rebellion
emphasizes that a sharp division between the rich and the poor creates an atmosphere of envy and mistrust. Criminal motivation is fueled both by perceived humiliation and the perceived right to humillate a victim in return.
Relative Deprivation Theory by Judith R. Blau and Peter M. Blau
suggests that criminality is the direct result of negative affective states the anger, frustration, depression, disappointment, and other adverse emotions that derive from strain.
General Strain Theory by Robert Agnew
This theory combines the effects of social disorganization and strain to explain how people living in deteriorated neighborhoods react to social isolation and economic deprivation. Because of the draining, frustrating and dispiriting experiences, members of the lower class create an independent subculture with its own set of rules and values.
Cultural Deviance Theory