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Chapter 8 – Sociological Perspectives

Business and Society Major (Soai University)

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Chapter 8 – Sociological Perspectives

- Sociological Approaches
o Auguste Comte the founder of the positivist school of philosophy, is also
recognized as the founder of sociology
 Instilled in sociology the notion that human behaviour is a function of
forces beyond the control of the individual
o The sociological perspective generally assets that individuals are socialized into
the existing social structure as they internalize society’s norms, or social
expectations
o What a given society considers acceptable is defined through two types of
norms: prescriptive (telling us what we should do) and proscriptive (telling us
what we should not do)
o One of the founding fathers of sociology, Emile Durkheim, encapsulated these
ideas when he observed that even in a society of saints there would be deviance
 He believed that human groups will always make rules, and that every
group will have some members who breaks some of the rules – that is ,
engage in crime and/or deviance
o According to Durkheim individual behaviour is the product of the social
environment rather than intrinsic traits
o Theories of social order can be classified in terms of two paradigms: consensus
and conflict
 Those in the first group subscribe to Durkheim’s understanding of society
as a set of interrelation parts, each of which contributes to the overall
functioning of the whole
 Collective conscience is the general consensus surrounding the underlying
moral framework
o Karl Marx’s conflict theories see society not as a largely consensual whole but as
an assortment of disparate groups competing for power and resources
o Symbolic interactionism can be traced to the work of Gabriel Tarde, who focused
less on the social order than the social processes through which criminal
behaviour is learned with others in the individual’s social environment
- Socio-Structural Theories
o Oldest and most fundamental of the main sociological perspectives
o Looks at root causes of crime in social institutions such as family, organized
religion, and the economic, education and political systems
- The Human Ecological School
o Ecological school of criminology is a sub-discipline of criminology that studies
how elements of the physical and social environment interact to create a
criminal environment
o Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgees founded it
o Concentric-circle theory is an early human ecological theory, according to which
cities develop from the inner city to the suburbs in a predictable series of

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concentric rings, each of which encompasses a particular set of social and


environmental characteristics
 Zone 1: central business district
 Zone 2: zone in transition from residential to industrial and commercial
use
 Zone 3: homes to working class
 Zone 4: homes to middle class residential
 Zone 5: wealthy residential-commuter area
o Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory
 Examined the spatial distribution of crime, delinquency, poverty and
infant mortality and found a pattern consistent with the concentric-circle
model
 The rates were all highest in Zone 2 and declined in each
successive circle
 Social disorganization theory is a sociological theory that sees deviance
and crime as consequences of a breakdown of social control in
environments characterized by social and economic instability
 Characteristic not of ethnicity or personality of groups in that
area, but the environmental characteristics
 Four elements that contribute to social disorganization
 Low economic status
 Ethnic diversity
 High mobility
 Family disruption
 Cultural transmission (or deviance) theory is a sociological theory that
sees deviance as a socially learned behaviour that is transmitted through
successive generations, especially in disorganized urban settings
o Summary and Evaluation
 The ecological approach drew on both biology and human geography
 It assumed that particular characteristics of the physical and social
environment can precipitate crime – that human behaviour is a product
of the social environment and that the environment defines the
boundaries of our cultural values and behaviour
- Anomie/Strain Theory
o Anomie is Durkheim’s term for a state of deregulation, breakdown or
normalness in society, usually attributed to decreased homogeneity; an anomic
social environment is conducive to crime
o Two propositions are central to Durkheim’s thesis:
 Social organization is necessary to keep undesirable human’s tendencies
in check
 Where social order breaks down and social norms lose their influence,
anomie develops and crime increases significantly

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o Durkheim regarded crime as a natural and inevitable element of society and he


recognized two types of criminals emanating from the anomic breakdown in
homogeneity: altruistic criminals and common principles
 The altruistic criminal is unable to integrate due to a decline in economic
well-being, and is offended by rules of society and seeks to change them
for the better
 The more typical offender is the common criminal, who rejects the norms
of society and intentionally violates laws with little regard for the rights of
others
o Merton’s Strain Theory
 Robert K. Merton expanded and modified Durkheim’s concept and began
to develop his own explanation of crime
 Merton based his theory of “social structure strain” on four
assumptions
o All modern societies have a core of common values
o The majority of the members of modern societies have
internalized their own society’s values
o The most significant values are those that channel energy
toward the achievement of certain success goals
o All members of a society do not have an equal opportunity
to use socially approved means to attain socially approved
goals
 According to Merton’s strain theory
o Sees emotional turmoil and conflict as resulting from
individual’s inability to achieve socially approved goals
through legitimate means
 He identified five distinct “modes of adaptation” to the goals and
means approved by society:
o Conformity – without conformity there would be no social
order.
 Someone who attends post-secondary to obtain a
well-paying job is a conformist
 Conformists have internalized both the goals of
their society and the means prescribed for
achieving them
o Innovation – people who accept the goals of society but
either lack or reject the socially accepted means of
achieving them
 Participate in illegal activity to achieve this goal
o Ritualism
 Individuals who adopt a ritualistic approach accept
the goals prescribed by society but do not put any
effort into pursuing them

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Goes to school and does well but does not



try to excel
 Retreatism – this mode applies to people who
reject both society’s goals and the accepted means
of achieving them
 Rebellion – rebels reject the system in its entirety.
Instead of finding ways to live in it, they seek to
replace it.
 Agnews’s Strain Theory
o Agnew’s general strain theory holds that strain is caused
by failure to achieve certain material goals, and he
identified three general forms of strain:
 Strain caused by failure to achieve positively valued
goals
 Strain caused by the removal of positively valued
stimuli from the individual
 Strain caused by the presentation of negative
stimuli
o Summary and Evaluation
 It is clear that Durkheim’s and Merton’s ideas
about anomie have had a major impact on
sociological criminology
 It does not explain why particular people commit
particular crimes, or why most young people who
have engaged in crime eventually become law-
abiding adults
 Criticized for not addressing middle-class and
white-collar crime
- Social-Process Theories
o The father of sociology in the United States, Charles Horton Cooley, coined the
term “looking-glass self” to describe how our self-concept depends on how we
imagine others perceive us
o Symbolic interactionism is a sociological approach to studying behaviour
focusing on the symbolic value of words and gestures in everyday social
interactions
 in other words, our social being is the product of our interactions with
others in our social environment and our self-identity depends on who
those others are and how we communicate with them
 There are arguably six main social-process theories:
 Differential association
 Social learning
 Social bond
 Social control
 Labelling

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 Neutralization
- Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory
o Differential association theory is a sociological theory that holds that criminal
behaviour is socially leaned through frequent exposure to negative influences
o Sutherland believed that people learn how to commit crimes primarily through
social interaction
o The more intimate the contact, the more likely it is that the behaviours will be
imitated
o The theory is based on nine fundamental principles:
 Criminal behaviour is learned through cultural transmission
 Criminal behaviour is learned in direct interaction with other persons in a
process of communication
 The principal part of learning of criminal behaviour occurs within intimate
personal groups
 The process of learning criminal behaviour includes learning the
techniques of committing the crime and learning the specific direction of
motives, drives, rationalization and attitudes
 The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of
legal codes as favourable or unfavourable
 A person becomes a delinquent because of an excess of definitions
favourable to violation of law over definitions favourable to the law
 Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority and
intensity.
 The process of learning criminal behaviour involves all the mechanisms
that are involved in any other learning
 While criminal behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, it
is not explained by those general needs and values, since the motives for
criminal behaviour are not the same as those for conventional behaviour
- Variations on Differential Association Theory
o Differential reinforcement theory is a sociological theory that sees crime as a
learned behaviour reinforced by its consequences
- Labelling Theory
o Two fundamental questions:
 Why do some behaviours come to be defined as normative while others
are defined as deviant?
 What are the individual/psychological and social consequences of being
identified as a criminal or delinquent?
o Labelling theory is a sociological explanation of crime that proposes that
negative labelling can predispose people to feel like out-casts, increasing the
likelihood of further deviant or criminal behaviour
o Moral entrepreneurs are individuals who use their power and/or influence to
shape the legal system to their advantage
- Primary and Secondary Deviance

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o Primary deviance – acts of behaviour that run counter to societal norms but that
have not been socially recognized or labelled as deviant
 Example: office worker who takes home some business pens (theft but
like…is it really)
o Secondary deviance – deviant acts or behaviour that result from labelling
- Summary and Evaluation
o If you view and treat people as criminals, they will come to commit criminal acts
 Labelling theory
o In summary, social-process theories include social learning theory, social bond
theory, social control theory, levelling theory and reintegrate shaming
 Value importance of social interaction in crime causation
- Radical and Critical Theories: Conflict, Peacemaking, Feminist and Left Realist
o Conflict theory is a social theory that sees crime as the product of social and/or
economic disparities in society and suggests that people resort to criminal
activity in response to division and competition
 rooted in teachings of Karl Marx
o Peacemaking Theory is a humanistic approach to crime control that emphasizes
reconciliation through mediation, and dispute settlement, rather than
punishment and retribution
o Feminist Perspective a general term for any of a variety of sociological
approaches to the study of crime that focus on female offenders and victims,
emphasize the patriarchal bias in society, and call for greater equality between
the genders both in the criminal justice system and in theory construction
o Left-realism is a theoretical approach that focuses on crime prevention
strategies and the implications of rime control policies rather than the causes of
crime
 Suggest that conflict theorists have ignored the poor and the working
class, focusing instead on crimes of the ruling upper class
 The material, political and ideological impact of crime on the
maintenance of capitalism makes crime a real problem
 We must look at the reality behind the outward appearance that crime
has on society
 We should focus on crime control by encouraging community
involvement
 We must come to understand the relationship between victim and
offender
 Police need to be integrated in the community
 Victimization surveys provide a more realistic picture of crime that official
statistics do
 Four central elements
 A commitment to detailed empirical investigation; left realists rely
heavily on victimization data
 The independence and objectivity of criminal activity
 The disorganizing effect of crime: all crimes are serious

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 The possibility and desirability of developing measures to reduce


crime
- More Recent Theories
o Rational-Choice Theories
 Lifestyle Theory
 Rational-choice theory
 Variation of deterrence theory
 Life course theory
 Behaviour can be affected by major events, experience or
awareness or a “turning point” that occur at stages of life
 Routine conflict theory
 Argues that behaviour of both offenders and victims in a product
of rational choice based on learned repertoires for responding for
responding to conflict
- Cultural Criminology
o Explores the many ways in which cultural dynamics intertwine with the practices
of crime and crime control in contemporary society. Emphasizes the centrality of
meaning and representation in the construction of crime
o Criticisms of cultural criminology:
 It is more political than analytical
 Overemphasizes subcultures and “outlaws”
 Methodology is subjective and/or narrow in its cultural focus

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