Unit 12

Crime and its effects on

society

PUBLIC SERVICES
 Sociological theories of crime
Strain Theory
Why do people engage in crime according to strain theory?
They experience strain or stress, they become upset, and
they sometimes engage in crime as a result. They may
engage in crime to reduce or escape from the strain they
are experiencing. For example, they may engage in
violence to end harassment from others, they may steal to
reduce financial problems, or they may run away from
home to escape abusive parents. They may also engage in
crime to seek revenge against those who have wronged
them. And they may engage in the crime of illicit drug use
to make themselves feel better.
 Major Types of Strain
 The major types of strain. Agnew describes
two general categories of strain that
contribute to crime: (1) others prevent you
from achieving your goals, and (2) others
take things you value or present you with
negative or noxious stimuli.
 While strain may result from the failure to
achieve a variety of goals, Agnew and others
focus on the failure to achieve three related
goals: money, status/respect, and—for
adolescents—autonomy from adult
 Social Learning Theory
 Why do people engage in crime according to social
learning theory? They learn to engage in crime, primarily
through their association with others. They are reinforced
for crime, they learn beliefs that are favourable to crime,
and they are exposed to criminal models. As a
consequence, they come to view crime as something that
is desirable or at least justifiable in certain situations.
 According to social learning theory, juveniles learn to
engage in crime in the same way they learn to engage in
conforming behavior: through association with or
exposure to others. Primary or intimate groups like the
family and peer group have an especially large impact on
what we learn.
 Social Learning and Behaviour
Reinforcement
 Differential reinforcement of crime.
Individuals may teach others to engage in
crime through the reinforcements and
punishments they provide for behaviour.
Crime is more likely to occur when it (a) is
frequently reinforced and infrequently
punished; (b) results in large amounts of
reinforcement (e.g., a lot of money, social
approval, or pleasure) and little
punishment; and (c) is more likely to be
reinforced than alternative behaviours.
 Control Theory
 Strain and social learning theorists ask, Why do people
engage in crime? They then focus on the factors that
push or entice people into committing criminal acts.
Control theorists, however, begin with a rather different
question. They ask, Why do people conform? Unlike strain
and social learning theorists, control theorists take crime
for granted. They argue that all people have needs and
desires that are more easily satisfied through crime than
through legal channels. For example, it is much easier to
steal money than to work for it. So in the eyes of control
theorists, crime requires no special explanation: it is often
the most expedient way to get what one wants. Rather
than explaining why people engage in crime, we need to
explain why they do not.
 What Control theory argues.
 According to control theorists, people do not engage in
crime because of the controls or restraints placed on
them. These controls may be viewed as barriers to crime
—they refer to those factors that prevent them from
engaging in crime. So while strain and social learning
theory focus on those factors that push or lead the
individual into crime, control theory focuses on the factors
that restrain the individual from engaging in crime.
Control theory goes on to argue that people differ in their
level of control or in the restraints they face to crime.
These differences explain differences in crime: some
people are freer to engage in crime than others.
 Types of Control
 Direct control. When most people think of control they think of
direct control: someone watching over people and sanctioning
them for crime. Such control may be exercised by family members,
school officials, co-workers, neighbourhood residents, police, and
others. Family members, however, are the major source of direct
control given their intimate relationship with the person. Direct
control has three components: setting rules, monitoring
behaviour, and sanctioning crime.

 Stake in conformity. The efforts to directly control behaviour are a

major restraint to crime. These efforts, however, are more
effective with some people than with others. For example, all
juveniles are subject to more or less the same direct controls at
school: the same rules, the same monitoring, and the same
sanctions if they deviate. Yet some juveniles are very responsive
to these controls while others commit deviant acts on a regular
basis. One reason for this is that some juveniles have more to lose
by engaging in deviance. These juveniles have what has been
called a high "stake in conformity," and they do not want to
jeopardize that stake by engaging in deviance. If people have a
strong emotional attachment to conventional others, like family members
and teachers, they have more to lose by engaging in crime.
 Labelling Theory
 According to labelling theory, official efforts to control
crime often have the effect of increasing crime.
Individuals who are arrested, prosecuted, and punished
are labelled as criminals. Others then view and treat
these people as criminals, and this increases the
likelihood of subsequent crime for several reasons.
Labelled individuals may have trouble obtaining
legitimate employment, which increases their level of
strain and reduces their stake in conformity. Labelled
individuals may find that conventional people are
reluctant to associate with them, and they may
associate with other criminals as a result. This reduces
their bond with conventional others and fosters the
social learning of crime. Finally, labelled individuals
may eventually come to view themselves as criminals
and act in accord with this self-concept.
 Social disorganization theory
 Social disorganization theory seeks to explain community
differences in crime rates. The theory identifies the
characteristics of communities with high crime rates and
draws on social control theory to explain why these
characteristics contribute to crime.
 Crime is said to be more likely in communities that are
economically deprived, large in size, high in multiunit
housing like apartments, high in residential mobility (people
frequently move into and out of the community), and high in
family disruption (high rates of divorce, single-parent
families). These factors are said to reduce the ability or
willingness of community residents to exercise effective
social control, that is, to exercise direct control, provide
young people with a stake in conformity, and socialize young
people so that they condemn delinquency and develop self-
control.
Situations Conducive To Crime
 People who are disposed to crime generally commit more
crime than those who are not. But even the most
predisposed people do not commit crime all of the time.
In fact, they obey the law in most situations. Several
theories argue that predisposed individuals are more likely
to engage in crime in some types of situations than
others. These theories specify the types of situations most
conducive to crime. Such theories usually argue that
crime is most likely in those types of situations where the
benefits of crime are seen as high and the costs as low,
an argument very compatible with social learning theory.