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Social Structural Theory

CHAPTER 6

CJ 450D

Learning Goal

Students will understand the basic premise of the social structural tradition and connect the major theorists with their contributions.

Performance Objectives

Define the term social structure as it pertains to criminology.

Explain the consensus perspective.

Describe the connection between human ecology and social disorganization theories.

Match terms and definitions associated with Durkheim’s anomie theory.

Performance Objectives

Explain Merton’s strain theory and list his five modes of adaptation.

Describe several of Agnew’s general strain theory contributions towards our understanding of criminal behaviors.

List Miller’s six focal concerns.

Discuss what crime prevention policies would be supported by social structural theories.

Introduction

Social structure is how society is organized by social institutions and stratified on the basis of various roles and statuses.

What institutions help provide social structure?

Structural theorists are more interested in seeking the social structural causes of crime rather than why particular individuals commit crimes.

The task is to discover why inherently good people commit antisocial acts.

Bullet #2 – What institutions help provide social structure? Family, schools (education), churches (religion), banks (economic), government (political).

Introduction

Social structural theory assumes that if human nature is socially constructed, then the presence of crime is a result of defective social practices such as…?

Structural theorists follow one of two perspectives on society: conflict or consensus.

The consensus perspective views society as a system of mutually sustaining parts and characterized by broad normative consensus.

Like how our bodies have specialized parts that function in unison to keep us healthy.

When one part malfunctions, the entire body is affected.

Bullet #1 – …poverty, competitiveness, inequality, and discrimination, rather than defective human characteristics such as impulsivity or lack of empathy.

Bullet #5 – Story of Mahatma Gahndi’s health issue. It is well known and documented that for about the last 30 years of his life, Gahndi walked everywhere without shoes which caused his feet to become very gnarled and hardened, and as you can imagine, this was very unsanitary considering he spent much of his time in the slums of India. The bacteria he was picking up on his feet was working its way throughout his entire body causing all kinds of health related issues, including bad breath which was so intense that people had a hard time speaking with him. That’s why he became known as the “super calloused, fagile mystic, cursed with halitosis.”

Chicago School of Ecology

The first criminological theory developed in the U.S. was human ecology in the 1920’s-30’s at the University of Chicago primarily by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay.

Human ecology describes interrelations of humans and the environments in which they live.

The city is like a super-organism containing areas (neighborhoods) that have adapted to different ethnic groups.

When these areas are invaded by outside ethnic groups, increases in deviant behavior occur.

Bullet #3 – Think of the various ethnic neighborhoods in large cities, like Chinatown, Little Italy, Germantown, etc…

Chicago School of Ecology

Research in social ecology revealed spatial patterns of U.S. cities as radiating outward from central business and industrial areas in a series of concentric circles, or ecological zones.

Transition zones are those areas where native and foreign immigrants reside due to cheap rent; however this is where most social changes leading to delinquency occur.

Bullet #1 – Think of the rings that appear when you drop a stone in a pond.

Bullet #2 – When thinking of Transition Zones, think of how Portland’s urban growth has expanded further and further out from downtown area over the past 20-30 years (south into Wilsonville, west into Hillsboro, north past Vancouver, and east into Troutdale).

Social Disorganization

Is a term used to explain the breakdown of the conduct regulating power of informal community norms.

Which leads to increased crime as you move inwards from suburbs to the inner city.

Explains how established neighborhoods lose their sense of community as they are invaded by members of different racial / ethnic groups that hold conflicting values and norms.

In Other Words…

Social Disorganization

Impacts crime in two ways:

Lack of informal social controls fails to inhibit crime.

In the absence of pro-social values, antisocial behavior will develop.

Sampson’s concept of collective efficacy (2004) –

The shared power of a group of connected and engaged individuals to influence the maintenance of public order.

What programs utilize this concept?

The things that erode collective efficacy are the same things that predict social disorganization. Such as…?

Bullet #6 – What programs utilize this concept? Neighborhood watch, neighborhood associations, gated entrances, private security companies, etc…

Bullet #7 – What erodes collective efficacy? Concentrated poverty, lack of home ownership, rundown buildings, family disruptions, etc.

Evaluation of Social Ecology & Social Disorganization

Establishing causation has been an issue.

Do neighborhoods make the people or do people make the neighborhoods?

Research concludes that neighborhoods do have and impact on people, but the individual differences of the people in the neighborhood matter more.

Osgood & Chambers (2003) found that high rates of female-headed households was the most important factor in explaining crime rates.

A 10% increase in matriarchal households was associated with a 73-100% higher rate of arrest for all offenses except homicide (which had a 33% increase).

Bullet #2 – Are neighborhoods crime ridden because people who are at highest risk for criminal and poverty live there? Or…Do neighborhoods “cause” crime despite the characteristics of people who live there?

Evaluation of Social Ecology & Social Disorganization

Ecological theory cannot account for why a majority of people in disorganized neighborhoods do not commit serious crimes.

Nor can it explain why among those who do commit serious crimes, why a very small number commits the majority of crime.

Anomie Theory

Conceptualized by French sociologist, Emile Durkheim.

Anomie means “lacking in norms.” In the case of criminological theory, it is the breakdown or weakening of existing community norms.

Durkheim was concerned with social solidarity –

Mechanical solidarity – individuals sharing common experiences, circumstances, values and connection.

Organic solidarity – high degree of occupational specialization with a diversity of experiences and circumstances.

Bullets #4 & #5 – Which form of solidarity would cause a community to have stronger informal social controls and less antisocial behaviors? (Mechanical)

Which community would have weaker common values, social bonds, and more antisocial behavior? (Organic)

Anomie Theory

Durkheim asserted the following…

That crime is socially useful because it identifies the limits of acceptable behavior.

Too much repression of deviant behavior leads to pathological conformity, stifling creativity, progress, and personal freedom.

Crime is one of the prices we pay for personal freedom and social progress.

When people get less than they expect, they are ripe for criminal behavior.

Bullet #5 – When people get less than they expect…onset of ethical violations is 7.2 years of experience. What happens at this point in a person’s career?

Strain Theory

Robert Merton built upon Durkheim’s anomie theory.

The inability to attain resources legitimately generates unhappiness (strain) and sometimes leads to efforts to obtain them illegitimately.

It is the acceptance of middle-class values that generates crime. What would those values be?

The “American Dream” is the predominant cultural goal that everyone should strive for, yet our social structure prevents certain segments of the population from legitimately attaining it.

Bullet #3 – Employment, financial success, home ownership, good credit,

Strain Theory

Merton’s 5 Modes of Adaptation -

Conformity – accepting the success goals of American society and the prescribed means of attaining them (hard work, education, persistence, dedication).

Ritualism – the adaptation of the 9-to-5 slugger who has given up on every achieving material success, but continues to work within legitimate boundaries.

Retreatism – dropping out of society (often taking refuge in drugs, alcohol, and transience) and are frequently in trouble with the law.

Innovation – the adaptation most associated with crime as it is an innovative avenue to success wherein deprived people get what they have been taught by their culture to want.

Rebellion – rejecting the goals and means of American society and seeking to replace them with alternative legitimate goals and means, often through an alternative political system (socialism or communism).

Anomie / Strain Differences

Durkheim –

Society prevents natural greedy criminal impulses of individuals.

Anomie is an occasional condition rising out of rapid social changes.

Crime is a deviation from values due to weak social bonds.

Greed, deviance, and crime are consequences of anomie.

Merton –

Society is a negative force that motivates criminal behavior.

Anomie is a permanent societal condition caused by the gap between goals and opportunities.

Crime arises from conformity to American values.

Greed, deviance, and crime are causes of anomie.

General Strain Theory

Robert Agnew fine-tuned Merton’s Strain Theory with the following improvements.

The impact of strain differs according to its magnitude, recency, duration, and clustering.

Strain can result from the removal of positive stimuli.

Strain can result from the introduction of negative stimuli.

Strain can result from the development of a generally negative attitude about other people.

Strain can result from the negative emotions resulting from all these experiences.

Bullet #3 – Such as the loss of a significant other in life (boyfriend/girlfriend), loss of employment/income, etc.

Bullet #4 – Such as child abuse/neglect, negative school experiences, witnessing domestic violence, etc.

Bullet #5 – This negative attitude can cause / impact negative relationships with others.

Bullet #6 – The negative emotion most involved in crime is anger, which is the primary emotion experienced when people blame their situation, circumstances, and relationship problems on others.

General Strain Theory

Gender differences in experiencing strain.

Females experience more strain, but commit much less crime.

Males are concerned more with material success, while females focus on maintaining close relationships with others.

Males are more likely to respond to strain with anger, while females respond with both depression and anger.

Male anger has moral outrage, blaming, and less concern about hurting others.

Female anger is accompanied by fear, guilt, and shame and more likely to blame themselves for their anger.

Bullet #3 – To fill the need for material success, males may turn to committing property crimes. Female concerns about relationships cannot be fulfilled by crime.

General Strain Theory

Agnew’s greatest contribution was to remind us that the most important factor is not strain per se, but how we cope with it.

How we cope with strain depends on:

The number, frequency, duration, and intensity of the strain-inducing circumstances we face

Our level of social support

The personal traits / skills we possess that help us tolerate strain.

Bullet #5 – Agnew found that individual traits we possess help us tolerate strain better than those who do not have such traits.

These traits include: temperament, intelligence, creativity, problem-solving skills, interpersonal communication skills, self-efficacy, and self-esteem.

Those lacking in these traits are less likely to tolerate strain, which puts them at risk to engage in criminal behaviors.

Miller’s Focal Concerns

Walter Miller conducted a very large study to look into why people join gangs.

There are six (6) focal concerns as part of a lower-class value system and lifestyle that make middle-class values unappealing:

Trouble is something to stay out of most of the time, but life is trouble and you must be able to handle your business.

Toughness is not taking any shit and is made up of being macho, sexually aggressive, unsentimental.

Bullet #1 – This study was sponsored by the National Institute of Health. Miller was joined by 7 other trained social workers who maintained daily contact with the subjects for a total time period of about 13 worker years. This theory was first posted in 1962, so it is dated and may not apply so much to the gangs we know about today, but much of it does still seem to apply.

Miller’s Focal Concerns

Focal concerns continued:

Smartness is the ability to survive on the streets using your wits…street smarts.

Excitement is the search for fun, often defined in terms of fighting, sexual encounters, gambling, getting drunk/stoned.

Fate is a belief that the locus of control is external to oneself; taking no personal responsibility and blaming outside forces for what happens.

Autonomy means personal freedom, being outside the control of authority figures, being able to do your own thing.

Policy & Prevention

If socially disorganized slum areas are the “root cause” of crime, then developing / strengthening a sense of community in neighborhoods would help prevent crime.

Athletic leagues

Summer camps

Youth-oriented activities

Neighborhood groups

For the next three (3) slides on Policy & Prevention - Crime prevention strategies will differ based on what you think is “causing” crime in the first place.

Policy & Prevention

If crime is perceived as a result of activity engaged in mostly by the poor, then fewer poor people would mean less crime.

Billions of U.S. taxpayer money was spent between 1963-1993 on antipoverty programs.

During this 30 year span, the poverty rate decreased by about 23%, the crime rate increased approximately 350%!

Policy & Prevention

If crime is caused by the disjunction between cultural values emphasizing success and the social structures that deny access to legitimate means of achieving success, then crime prevention would involve increasing opportunities.

Head Start

Job Corps

Comprehensive Employment & Training Act (CETA)

Affirmative action

NEXT…

Chapter 7 – Social Process Theory