1. Introduction to Criminology Instructor: Jorge Pierrott
CRJ 270
Instructor: Jorge Pierrott

2. 7
Social Structure Theories

3. Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, students should be able to answer the following questions:
What is the nature of sociological theorizing, and what are the assumptions upon which sociological perspectives on crime causation rest?
What do sociologists mean by the term social structure, and how might the organization and structure of a society contribute to criminality?
What three key sociological explanations for crime are discussed in this chapter, and what are the characteristics of each?
What are the policy implications of the theories discussed in this chapter?
What are the shortcomings of the social structure approaches to understanding and preventing crime?

4. Major Principles of Sociological Theories
Social structure theories examine institutional arrangements within a social structure and social processes as they affect socialization and have an impact on social life
Macro focus
stress types of behavior likely to be exhibited by group members
Some suggest that the negative influences of the social environment predispose certain people to lives of crime and that such negative influences may remain active even when people’s circumstances change
B. This perspective emphasizes the idea that crime is a social phenomenon and that the role that society, social institutions, and social process play in the development and control of crime is central to any understanding of crime

5. Key Sociological Explanations For Crime
Social structure theories
Crime is the result of an individual's location within the structure of society
Social process/social development theories. (Social learning, inappropriate socialization, and interpersonal relationships.)
Crime is the end product of various social processes
Conflict theories
Crime is the product of class struggle
Social Structure Theories
You can take the person of a bad environment, but you can’t take the bad environment out of the person.
Focuses on:
the social and economic conditions of life,
including poverty,
alienation,
social disorganization,
weak social control,
personal frustration,
relative deprivation,
different opportunities,
alternative means of success, and
deviant subcultures.
Social Process Theories
Interaction between and among different social institutions, groups, and individuals. This approach stresses inappropriate socialization and social learning as well as interpersonal relationships, strength of the social bond, lack of self-control, and personal group consequences of societal reactions to deviance as contributing to crime.
Class struggle – this perspective emphasizes existing power relationships between social groups, distribution of wealth within society, ownership of the means of production, and economic and social structures of society as they relate to social class and social control.

6. Social Structure Theories
Look at formal and informal economic and social arrangements of society as the root causes of crime and deviance
See the negative aspects of social structure as producers of criminal behavior
Family disorganization
Poverty or
Income inequality within the economic arrangements of society and
disadvantages due to lack of success.
continued on next slide

7. Social Structure Theories
Highlight arrangements within society that contribute to low SES of identifiable groups as significant causes of crime
Theorists groups believe that these groups are more likely to commit crime, and they see economic and social disenfranchisement as fundamental causes of crime.
Factors: Poverty, lack of education, subculture values
The social structural perspective sees crime as primarily a lower-class phenomenon, while the criminality of the middle and upper class is frequently considered to be less serious, less frequent and less dangerous.

8. Social Disorganization Theory
Depicts social change, social conflict and lack of social consensus as the root causes of deviance)
Associated with the ecological school of criminology
Human ecology – describe the interrelationship between human beings and the physical and cultural environments
W.I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki
Found crime rates rose among displaced persons
Suggested cause was social disorganization resulting from immigrants' inability to successfully transplant norms and values from home cultures into the new one
Studied Polish immigrants in the early 1900’s.

9. The Chicago School Social ecology Robert Park and Ernest Burgess
Links structure, organization of human community to interactions with its localized environment
Social pathology-based disease model
Social Pathology
Robert Park and Ernest Burgess
Viewed cities as having five concentric zones, each with unique characteristics and populations
Social pathology – defined as “those human actions which run contrary to the ideals of residential stability, property ownership, sobriety, thrift, habituation to work, small business enterprise, sexual discretion, family solidarity, neighborliness and discipline of will.

10. Zone I – contained retail businesses and light manufacturing.
Figure Chicago’s Concentric Zones Source: Robert E. Park, Ernest W. Burgess, and R. D. McKenzie, The City (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1925), p. 55. Copyright © 1925 University of Chicago Press. Reprinted by permission.
Zone I – contained retail businesses and light manufacturing.
Zone II - Surrounding the city center, was in transition from residential to business uses.
Zone III – contained mostly working class tenements.
Zone IV – was occupied by middle class citizens with single family homes.
Zone V – the suburbs, was called the “commuter zone”

11. Shaw and McKay
Applied concentric zone model to the study of juvenile delinquency
Found offending rates remained constant over time within zones of transition (studies from 1900 – 1933)
They concluded that delinquency was caused by the nature of the environment in which the immigrants lived rather than by some characteristic of the immigrant groups themselves
continued on next slide

12. Shaw and McKay Cultural transmission
Traditions of delinquency are transmitted through successive generations of the same zone
Key contribution of ecological school
Society has a major influence on human behavior
Shaw and McKay developed the concept of cultural transmission: traditions of delinquency are transmitted through successive generations of the same zone

13. The Criminology of Place
Environmental criminology
Emphasizes the importance of geographic location and architectural features as they are associated with the prevalence of victimization
“Hot spots” of crime – certain neighborhoods, specific streets and even individual houses and businesses
continued on next slide

14. The Criminology of Place
Broken windows thesis (Wilson and Kelling)
Physical deterioration and unrepaired buildings lead to increased concerns for safety among area residents
Led to increase in “order maintenance policing” and crackdown on quality-of-life offenses

15. The Criminology of Place
Defensible space
The range of mechanisms that combine to bring an environment under the control of its residents
Architectural changes that enhance barriers, define boundaries, and remove criminal opportunity can reduce the risk of crime
Places can be criminogenic because of the routine activities associated with them or because they provide the characteristics that facilitate the commission of crime
Some crime prevention programs are combining ideas from criminology of place with spatial mapping techniques
continued on next slide

16. The Criminology of Place
Location can be as predictive of crime as the lifestyles of victimized individuals or social features of victimized households
Places can be criminogenic

17. Strain Theory Strain Anomie (normlessness) (Robert K. Merton)
The pressure that individuals feel to reach socially determined goals
Anomie (normlessness) (Robert K. Merton)
A disjunction between socially approved means to success and legitimate goals
Crime results from attempts to achieve legitimate goals through illegitimate means

18. Table 7-1 Goals and Means Disjuncture
Conformity – signifies acceptance of the goals that society holds as legitimate for everyone, with ready availability of the means approved for achieving those goals.
Innovation – arises when an emphasis on approved goals achievement comes with a lack of opportunity to participate fully in socially acceptable means to success.
Ritualism – refers to the type of behavior arising when members of society participate in socially desirable means but show little interest in goal achievement.
Retreatism – describes the behavior of those who reject both socially approved goals and the means.
Rebellion – describes the actions of a person who wishes to replace socially approved goals and means with some other system, political radicals, revolutionaries and antiestablishment.

19. Relative Deprivation
Messner and Rosenfeld blame crime on inconsistencies in the American Dream
Relative deprivation
The economic and social gap that exists between rich and the poor who live in close proximity
continued on next slide

20. Relative Deprivation Distributive justice
An individual's perception of his or her rightful place in the reward structure of society

21. General Strain Theory (GST)
Robert Agnew reformulated strain theory into a comprehensive perspective
Crime seen as a coping mechanism enabling those who engage in it to deal with the socioemotional problems generated by negative social relations

22. Central Propositions of GST
Strain refers to events and conditions that are disliked by individuals
Strains increase the likelihood of particular crimes primarily through their impact on a range of negative emotional states
Poor conventional copings skills and resources
Availability of criminal skills and resources
Low levels of conventional social support
Routine association with criminal others
Personal beliefs and values favorable to crime
Frequent exposure to criminal behavior
continued on next slide

23. Central Propositions of GST
Those strains most likely to cause crime (a) are perceived as high in magnitude or
(b) as unjust;
(c) are associated with low self-control; and
(d) create some pressure or incentive to engage in criminal coping
continued on next slide

24. Central Propositions of GST
The likelihood that individuals will react to strains with criminal behavior depends on a range of factors
Patterns of offending over the life course, group differences in crime, and community and societal differences in crime can be partly explained in terms of differences in the exposure to strains conducive to crime
Ability to engage in legal coping
Costs of crime and
Disposition of crime
continued on next slide

25. Central Propositions of GST
Crime can be reduced by reducing individuals exposure to strains that are conducive to crime and reducing their likelihood of responding to strains with crime

26. General Strain Theory Expands upon traditional strain theory
Widens focus
Strain may have cumulative effect on delinquency
More comprehensive account of adaptations to strain
More fully describes wide variety of factors affecting choice of delinquent adaptations to strain
continued on next slide

27. General Strain Theory
GST has been further refined to incorporate the possible existence of biological factors that may make some individuals particularly susceptible to effects of strain
Behavioral factors – juveniles who measured high in negative emotionality and low in constraint were more likely to react to strain with delinquency and noted that incorporation of such traits into GST represents an integration between strain theory and rapidly growing research on behavior genetics and crime.

28. Culture Conflict Theory
Thorsten Sellin
Root cause of crime found in different values about what is acceptable or proper behavior
Conduct norms provide the valuative basis for human behavior and are acquired early in life through childhood socialization
Clash of norms between variously socialized groups results in crime
continued on next slide

29. Culture Conflict Theory
Types of culture conflict
Primary: a fundamental clash of cultures. (Immigrant father kills his daughter’s lover following Old World tradition that demand a family’s honor be kept intact.)
Secondary: smaller cultures within the primary one clash. (Middle class values find fault with inner city or lower class norms)

30. Subcultural Theory Subculture Subcultural theory
A collection of values and preferences communicated to participants through a process of socialization
Subcultural theory
Sociological perspective emphasizing the contribution made by variously socialized cultural groups to the phenomenon of crime
Smaller groups within the larger culture may have values that do not conform to the national culture and may even encourage deviant activity.
Example – Cornerville – a three year study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago in This included racketeering and bookmaking.

31. Focal Concerns
Walter Miller identified existence of a lower class culture:
A long established, distinctively patterned tradition with an integrity of its own
Behavior that upholds lower class norms may be seen by the middle class as deliberately nonconforming
He outlined six focal concerns or key values of delinquent subcultures (trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy)
continued on next slide

32. Focal Concerns
Violation of middle-class norms is a byproduct of actions primarily oriented to the lower-class system
He concluded that subculture crime and deviance result from specific values characteristic of such subcultures
Miller’s work was based on a study of black, inner-city delinquents in Boston and may not generalize well to other places or times
continued on next slide

33. Focal Concerns Trouble Toughness Smartness
Getting in, staying out, dealing with trouble
Toughness
Concern with masculinity
Smartness
Ability to outsmart or con others and avoid being duped
continued on next slide

34. Focal Concerns Excitement Fate Autonomy Search for thrills
The concept of luck, being lucky
Autonomy
Taking care of oneself, not getting pushed around

35. Delinquency and Drift Sykes and Matza
Members of delinquent subcultures also participate in the larger culture
Offenders use neutralizing self-talk to mitigate shame and guilt associated with violating social norms
continued on next slide

36. Figure 7-5 Techniques of Neutralization Source: Schmalleger, Frank J
Figure Techniques of Neutralization Source: Schmalleger, Frank J., Criminology. Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Denying responsibility – They point to their background of poverty, abuse and lack of opportunity. The trouble they get into is not their fault.
Denying injury – They explain that everyone does it or that individuals or companies can afford it. They’re so rich, they’ll never miss it.
Denying the victim – They justify the harm done by claiming that the victim deserved the victimization.
Condemning the condemners – They assert that authorizes are corrupt or are responsible for their own victimization and that society has made them what they are and must now suffer the consequences. They’re worse than I am. They’re all on the take.
Appealing to higher loyalties – They use defense of their family, honor, gang, girlfriend, or neighborhood. I have to protect myself.

37. Delinquency and Drift
Delinquents tend to drift between crime and conventional action – choose the most expedient
Use techniques of neutralization to keep from being alienated from larger society
Lois Presser and Orly Turgeman-Goldschmidt’s neutralization theory
Interviewed 27 men who had committed serious violent crimes they found the following:
Victims were to blame for harms that resulted from provoking the offenders.
Victims were themselves offenders or deserving of harm.
Harm to a victim that was not premeditated or intended carried no blame.
The legal sanctioning of an offender negated any harm.
Harms to the offender and his or her family stemming from the crime negated any harms caused the the offender.
continued on next slide

38. Violent Subcultures Ferracuti and Wolfgang
violence is a learned form of adaptation to problematic life circumstances
Learning to be violent takes place within the context of a subculture emphasizing violence over other forms of adaptation
continued on next slide

39. Delinquency and Drift Soft determinism:
Delinquents are neither forced to make choices nor entirely free to make choices
Neither forced to make choices because of fateful experiences early in life nor entirely free to make choices by their reality of their situations.
Israeli computer hackers
Attacked al-Qaeda web sites
Al-Jazeera news network
Israeli computer hackers

40. Violent Subcultures
Group's value system constitutes a subculture of violence
Southern subculture of violence
Black subculture of violence
They suggest that for members of these violent subcultures, violence can be a way of life and thus the users do not feel guilt about their aggressive behavior.
According to Clarke, many black males learned from earlier generations to seek status through their ability to harm, intimidate and dominate others.

41. Differential Opportunity Theory
Cloward and Ohlin (1960)
blended subcultural thesis with strain theory
Two types of socially structured opportunities for success
Legitimate
Illegitimate
continued on next slide

42. Differential Opportunity Theory
Members of lower-class subcultures may be denied access to legitimate opportunities
Illegitimate opportunity structure
Pre-existing subcultural paths to success not approved of by the wider culture
continued on next slide

43. Differential Opportunity Theory
Delinquent behavior results from
Ready availability of illegitimate opportunities
Replacement of cultural norms with expedient subcultural rules

44. Types of Delinquent Subcultures
Criminal subcultures
Criminal role models readily available
Conflict subcultures
Status through violence
Retreatist subcultures
Drug use and withdrawal from wider society

45. Types of Lower Class Youth
Type I:
Desire entry into middle class by improving their economic position
Type II:
Desire entry to middle class but not improvement in economic position
continued on next slide

46. Types of Lower Class Youth
Type III:
Desire wealth without entry to middle class
Type IV:
Dropouts who retreat from mainstream through drug and alcohol use

47. Reaction Formation Albert Cohen
Youth held accountable to norms of wider society through “middle class measuring rod” of expectations
Expectations:
School performance, language proficiency, cleanliness, punctuality, neatness, nonviolent behavior, and alliance to similar standards.
Not everyone is prepared to effectively meet such expectations
continued on next slide

48. Reaction Formation Reaction formation
The process in which a person openly rejects that which he wants, or aspires to, but cannot obtain or achieve

49. The Code of the Street Elijah Anderson Decent vs. street families
Contemporary street code stresses a hyperinflated notion of manhood resting on the idea of respect
Street culture's violent nature means a man cannot back down from threats
Decent vs. street families

50. Gangs Today Modern gangs are involved in serious and violent crimes
Gangs can be big business
Traditional criminal activities
Drug dealing
Distinctions between gangs and violence
Co-offending especially prevalent in the lives of gang members

51. Policy Implications of Social Structure Theories
Chicago Area Project attempted to reduce social disorganization in slum neighborhoods by creating community committees
Mobilization for Youth provided new opportunities and tried to change the fundamental arrangements of society, addressing the root causes of crime
The Chicago Area Project was developed in the 1930s by Clifford Shaw as a way of reducing delinquency in transitional neighborhoods
The project attempted to reduce social disorganization in slum neighborhoods by creating community committees staffed with local residents
The project had three objectives:
Improve the physical appearance of poor neighborhoods
Provide recreational opportunities for youth
Involve project members directly in the lives of troubled youth through school and courtroom mediation
A 50-year review of the program declared that it was effective in reducing rates of juvenile delinquency
The Mobilization for Youth program was based on differential opportunity theory
It tried to provide new opportunities and to change social arrangements so as to address the root causes of crime and delinquency
The program emphasized community action that attacked entrenched political interests
continued on next slide

52. Policy Implications of Social Structure Theories
War on Poverty tried to reduce crime rates by redistributing wealth in American society

53. Critique of Social Structure Theories
Some argue the inverse of the “root causes” argument – suggest poverty and social injustices are produced by crime
If so, addressing poverty and social inequity as the root causes of crime is and ineffective crime prevention strategy

54. Critique of Ecological Theories
May give too much credence to the notion that spatial location determines crime
Seems unable to differentiate between social disorganization and the things it is said to cause
Many crimes occur outside of socially disorganized areas

55. Critique of Strain Theories
Original formulation less applicable to modern society
Delinquents do not report being more distressed than other youth

56. Critique of Subcultural Theories
Seen as lacking in explanatory power
Seen as tautological (circular)
Hs been criticized or being racist

57. Other Critiques of Social Structure Theories
Social structure theories link low SES to high delinquency – not supported by empirical studies
Overemphasis on environments creates bias against looking elsewhere for possible causes
Cannot predict which individuals, or which proportion of given population, will turn to crime