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DB2.docx

Due 5/11/2026 350 word response 2 references/intext citations

Use APA style rules and support your responses with outside resources.

Use the attached ppts.

Should we revisit how juveniles are prosecuted? Explain your reasoning and address both prosecution in juvenile court and in adult court under the waiver system. Include the economic implications of juvenile prosecution and consider the individual, group, and community implications of juvenile prosecution in your response.

ch04.pptx

Chapter 4: Sociological Views of Delinquency

What are the social factors believed to cause or affect delinquent behaviors?

Interpersonal interactions

Social relationships with families, peers, schools, jobs

Social conditions

Political unrest/mistrust, economic stress, and family disintegration

Poverty

People on the lowest rung of the economic ladder have the greatest incentive to commit crime

Racial disparity

The consequences of racial disparity and poverty take a harsh toll on minority youths

Social Factors and Delinquency

LO1. Analyze the association between social conditions and crime.

Social problems can turn American youths toward antisocial behaviors

Three main sociological theoretical groups:

Social structure theories

Social process theories

Critical theories

Social Factors and Delinquency

LO1. Analyze the association between social conditions and crime.

Photo:

Minority group members have lower incomes and enjoy fewer social

benefits than whites. Their children go to inadequate schools

and many people are forced to accept government benefits.

Here, a monthly distribution of free food for low-income residents

by the Detroit Department of Human Services draws a crowd.

Jim West/Report Digital-Rea/Redux

Oscar Louis (1966) coined the phrase “culture of poverty”

The view that lower class people form a separate culture with their own values and norms

“Underclass”

Group of urban poor whose members have little chance of upward mobility or improvement

William Julius Wilson: the “truly disadvantaged”

The impoverished are deprived of a standard of living enjoyed by the other citizens

People who are left out of the economic mainstream and living in the deteriorated inner-city

Social Structure Theories

LO2. List the principles of social disorganization theory.

The theories tie delinquency rates to:

Socioeconomic conditions

e.g., poverty, neighborhood deterioration

Cultural values

e.g., gang culture

Three prominent views:

Social disorganization

Anomie/strain

Cultural deviance

Social Structure Theories

LO2. List the principles of social disorganization theory.

Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay-Chicago School

Transitional neighborhoods

Teenage gangs develop in areas undergoing decay

Cultural transmission

The process of passing on deviant traditions and delinquent values from one generation to the next

Social control

The ability of an organized community to regulate itself via formal/informal social control

Relative deprivation

Exists when people of wealth and poverty live in close proximity to one another

Social Disorganization

LO2. List the principles of social disorganization theory.

Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay-Chicago School

Community change

Impoverished areas “gentrified” to stabilize them

Community fear

As fear increases, quality of life deteriorates

Poverty concentration

Poverty becomes concentrated to specific area(s) as people flee

Collective efficacy

Process in which mutual trust and a willingness to intervene in the supervision of children and help maintain public order create a sense of well-being

Social Disorganization

LO2. List the principles of social disorganization theory.

The Cycle of Social Disorganization

LO2. List the principles of social disorganization theory.

Figure 4.2 - © Cengage Learning

Photo:

In 2014, Detroit turned 313 years old, a year after declaring bankruptcy. Once an industrial powerhouse,

the city now contains vast tracts of abandoned factories and homes, and its population

has sunk to 700,000. These municipal conditions are believed to produce the social conditions that

create high rates of crime and delinquency.

Robert Wallace/Corbis News/Corbis

Strain

A condition caused by the failure to achieve one’s social goals

Anomie

Robert Merton (1910-2003)

Without acceptable means for obtaining success, individuals feel social and psychological strain

Consequently, these youths may use deviant methods to achieve their goals or reject socially accepted goals and substitute deviant ones

Anomie/Strain TheOry

LO3. Apply the concepts of anomie and strain to explaining the onset of delinquency.

Robert Agnew

General strain

Links delinquency to the strain of being locked out of the economic mainstream, which leads to anger and frustration

Sources of strain

Failure to achieve positively valued goals

Removal of positively valued stimuli

Presentation of negative stimuli

Negative affective states

Anger, depression, disappointment, fear, and other adverse emotions that derive from strain

General Strain Theory

LO3. Apply the concepts of anomie and strain to explaining the onset of delinquency.

Links delinquency to the formation of independent subcultures with a unique set of values that clash with the mainstream culture

By joining gangs, lower-class youths are rejecting the culture that has already rejected them

They may be failures in conventional society, but they are the kings and queens in their own neighborhood

Cultural Deviance Theory

LO3. Apply the concepts of anomie and strain to explaining the onset of delinquency.

Sociologists argue that the root cause of delinquency may be traced to learning delinquent attitudes from peers, experiencing conflict in the home, etc.

Socialization is the process of learning the values and norms of the society or subculture to which the individual belongs

Early socialization experiences have a lifelong influence on self-image, values, and behaviors

Major influences on a child’s socialization:

Family relations, school, and peers

Social Process Theories: Socialization/Delinquency

LO4. Synthesize the elements of socialization into an explanation of delinquent behavior.

Delinquency is learned through close relationship with others

Children are born “good” and learn to be “bad”

Differential association theory:

Edwin Sutherland

Children are socialized, exposed to, and learn pro-social and antisocial attitudes and behaviors from peers, parents, and so on

Social Learning Theories: Differential Association

LO4. Synthesize the elements of socialization into an explanation of delinquent behavior.

Posits that delinquency results from a weakened commitment to the major social institutions

The social bond and delinquency

Travis Hirschi

Four main elements

Attachment

Commitment

Belief

Involvement

Social Learning Theories: Social Control

LO4. Synthesize the elements of socialization into an explanation of delinquent behavior.

Photo:

Improving socialization can help improve delinquency rates, and

some programs are designed to do just that. Here, children are getting

off a bus in front of what was formerly Kenilworth Elementary

School and is now the headquarters for the DC Promise Neighborhood

Initiative (DCPNI), which provides after-school programming

in the Kenilworth-Parkside neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Backed by a multi-year, $28 million U.S. Education Department grant,

DCPNI vows to tackle generational poverty with a fresh approach—if

a parent’s level of education improves, so does a child’s

prospects. In Kenilworth-Parkside, helping children get a good education

is a primary focus, but it’s the adults they must first engage.

AP Images/Charles Dharapak

Delinquency is caused by “stigma” applied by agents of social control, including official and unofficial institutions

Labeling theory

Society creates deviance through a system of social control agencies that designate certain individuals as delinquent, thereby stigmatizing them and encourage them to accept this negative personal identity

Self-fulfilling prophecy

The process by which a person who has been negatively labeled accepts the label as a personal role or identity

Social Reaction/Labeling Theories

LO5. Explain how the labeling process is related to delinquent careers

Society is in a constant state of internal conflict

Those in power use the justice system to maintain their status while keeping others subservient

The poor may or may not commit more crimes than the rich, but they are certainly arrested more often

Views delinquent behavior as a function of the capitalist system’s inherent inequity

Critical Theory

LO5. Explain how the labeling process is related to delinquent careers

Social programs have been designed to reduce or eliminate delinquency

Strengthen the socialization process

Prevention programs have also been aimed at strengthening families in crisis

Reduce stigma and labeling

THEORY AND DELINQUENCY PREVENTION

Photo:

According to the social structure approach, a community that can support its residents reduces

the lure of delinquency. Here, kids are preparing to row at the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse on the

Harlem River. The idea for a recreational community boathouse first came from singer Bette Midler,

who saw local college and university rowing teams practicing on the river. Not long after, she also

learned that many academic and athletic scholarships being made available to Upper Manhattan

high school students who participated in rowing programs were being unused due to the lack

of such local programs. As a result, Midler’s New York Restoration Project engaged celebrated

architect Robert A.M. Stern to design the first community boathouse of its kind on the river in

over 100 years.

James Estrin/The New York Times

Social structure theories

Social programs have been designed to reduce/ eliminate delinquency

e.g., Operation Weed and Seed

Social process theories

Delinquency can be prevented by strengthening the socialization process

e.g., Boys and Girls Clubs

Theory and Delinquency Prevention

LO1 – LO5.

Intervention

Homeboy Industries

Helps kids leave gangs and become constructive and productive members of society

Provides employment services and counseling

Should certain offenders (e.g., sexual offenders) be banned from programs such as these?

Could participation in such programs label or stigmatize participants as deviants rather than help them integrate into a more conventional role in society?

LO1 – LO5.

Labeling theories

Limit the interface of youths with the juvenile justice system

Deinstitutionalization

Critical theories

Relies on non-punitive strategies for delinquency control

Restorative justice

Theory and Delinquency Prevention

LO1 – LO5.

Many delinquency theorists believe that elements of social life are responsible for kids getting involved in antisocial behaviors

Social disorganization

Anomie

Strain

Social process and socialization

Labeling

Summary

LO1-LO5.

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