SOC109 Final
What is Primary Socialization?
It occurs during childhood, immediate family are strongest influence on our behaviour
What is Secondary Socialization?
It occurs during adolesence, peers become strongest influence on our behaviour - peer groups can be either postive or negative influence
Differential Association is...
Crime is a product of normal learning processes that can affect anyone, definitions favourable to crime are acquired during social interactions
How do we acquire definitions?
Definitions are comprised of our own beliefs, values, attitutdes about what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour
Differential Reincforcement is...
Consistent with psychological theories of operant conditioning, behaviour can be learned directly or indirectly
Differential Reinforcement Theory
Social influences such as peer groups, friendship groups, schools, churches, and other social institutions have the strongest influence on behaviour
Socio-economic Inequality and Criminalization
Society is divided by social class through the process of social stratification (upper, middle, lower)
Social Disorganization (SDT)
Rates of delinquency persisted for certain neighbourhoods, regardless of which group inhabited the area. Characteristics of neighbourhood can impact crime rates/delinquency
Social Structual Theories and Public Policy
Crime cannot be responded to soley by criminal justice approaches. Must focus on the root-cause of crime
What is a dispute?
Conflict involving multiple parties, where no mutually agreeable resolution can be met
What are courts?
A monopolized authority for dispute resolution bound by standard and accessible procedures
What is a legal claim?
Must appeal to an existing law or right (one party accusing another party of something)
What are judges roles?
Overseeing courts, rendering legal decisions, evaluating legal basis of lawyers claims
What is judicial review?
Taking another look at a decision made by an administrative body
Structual Inequalities
Access to legal representation can be pricy, some juries are un-biased
What is a Tort?
Wrong-doings commited against the private interest of an individual, corporation, or government.
What is liability?
A civil remedy or damages
What is a plaintiff?
The person who brings the case to court (the accusor)
What is a civil remedy?
From a plaintiff, the civil remedy is the liability. This could be monetary value.
What are damages?
A settlement reached between the disputants
What is a settlement?
An agreed upon decision between plaintiff and defendant
What is harm?
Mistreatment done either deliberitly or non deliberatly - the basis of a tort
What is Re-entry?
Moving from prison life back into general society
Re-entry into society
Norms play a key role, prisons can serve as key sites of secondary socialization.
Legal Discrimination
Criminal record (employment and housing risks), high fees for record suspensions and pardons, effects of debt on credit checks
What is recidivisim?
The tendancy of a former offender to re-offend
Carceral Habitus is.....
Habits formed in prison such as dialect and lingo, homosexual relationships, aggressive self-presentation and physical strength
What are total institutions?
Institutions where inmates are re-socialized so they are pro-social on release and do not re-offend
Stigma is......
Social information written on the body. This information is too widely shared for any individual to address or counteract
Code switching
Experiences of incarceration can produce a third code: Decent, Street, and Yard. Long exposure to one code can be habit forming
Strain is what.....
Emile Durkheim argued that strain is a normal part of society
Durkheim and anomie
Anomie occurs when there is a breakdown between the desires of the individual and the ability of society to fill those needs
Mertonian Anomie
Culturally defined goals can include money, status, and respect. Strain is caused when these oppourtunites are blocked
Mertons 'Modes of Adaptation' in response to strain
1. Confromity 2. Innovation 3. Ritualism 4. Retreatism
5. Rebellion
Compliance is a vibe means...
How you feel about the law determines how likely you are to follow it. We are less likely to follow the law and find it legitimate when we are angry
General Deterrance is...
Deter individuals from commiting same crime
Specific Deterrance is...
Sentence should assure a person does not re-offend
What do social structure theories do?
Consider relationships between the structure of soceity and crime and deviance
What is rational choice theory?
Predicts that legal compliance is a calculated response to the consequence of the offence
Positivisim and determinism means that...
Humans process natural differences that compel some to commit crime. Determinism over free will and rationality. Some criminals can not be held responsible to their actions
What are prisons?
A type orf government controlled or sanctioned correctional facilities intended for long term confinement of adult offenders.
What is conflic theory?
Social conflict between classes that contributes to criminalization.