Overview

This week we will focus on the last crop of theories. We will begin by focusing on labeling theory. Then, we will proceed in identifying the difference between mainstream and critical criminology. Finally, we will discuss feminist criminology.

The labeling theory will be the first focus of the week. Originating in the mid-to-late-1960s in the United States at a moment of tremendous political and cultural conflict, labeling theorists brought to center stage the role of government agencies, and social processes in general, in the creation of deviance and crime. We will also learn about ideas proposed by John Braithwaite on reintegrative shaming.

The critical perspectives, including conflict criminology, new critical criminology, postmodernism, and radical—Marxist—criminology are discussed. Multiple theories describe the role of the state, political actors, and/or capitalism in creating a culture of conflict.  New critical criminology describes left realism, peacemaking, and postmodernism. Discussion of the critical theories ends with a description of radical or Marxist criminology, which emphasizes the role of capitalism in creating opportunities for crime. Consequently, those of lower socioeconomic status are criminalized to a much greater extent than others.

In this last week of the semester, we will finally focus on feminist theories in criminology. Feminist theories in criminology insist that women’s deviance was worthy of academic inquiry and contributes to our understanding of women as victims, offenders, and practitioners of the criminal justice system. The theories underscore gender differences in crime and present distinct perspectives on feminist criminology including liberal and critical/radical.

Labeling Theories

Learning Objectives

By the end of the week, you will be able to:

• Discuss primary and secondary deviance.
• Summarize the foundational ideas of labeling theory.
• Describe the basic assumptions of labeling theory.
• Describe reintegrative shaming according to John Braithwaite.
• Evaluate the research and criticism s of labeling theory.

Workflow

Reading

Chapter 10: Labeling Theory. In Tierney, John. Key Perspectives in Criminology, McGraw-Hill Education, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bmcc/reader.action?docID=480635&ppg=101

Download the chapter here:

Videos

PowerPoint

Welcome to Week 12th!

Overview

This week we will focus on social control theories.  These theories assume everyone has the desire to commit criminal and deviant acts and seeks to answer why some people refrain from doing so.  Control theories assume that all people would naturally commit crimes if not for restraints on the selfish tendencies that exist in every individual. The theories are concerned with explaining why individuals don’t commit crimes or deviant behaviors. Others claim that there are internal mechanisms (such as self-control or self-conscious emotions, such as shame, guilt, etc.), but even those are likely a product of the type of environment in which one is raised.

Lesson Objectives

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• Identify the central question of the social control theories.
• Discuss early models of social control theories.
• Identify the four bonds proposed by Travis Hirschi.
• Describe how a low level of self-control leads to delinquency and criminality, based on the General Theory of Crime.

Workflow

Readings

Chapter 10 in Piquero, Alex R. The Handbook of Criminological Theory, edited by Melissa L. Rorie, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bmcc/reader.action?docID=4035968&ppg=205

Access the chapter here.

Sage Publications (2010). Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory: Hirschi, Travis: Social Control Theory. 

Access the chapter here.

Videos

PowerPoint Presentation

The Social Learning Theories

Overview

This week we will also focus on social learning theories of crime. We will discuss what distinguishes learning theories of crime from other perspectives. We will discuss Sutherland’s differential association theory. We will also explore Akers’s differential reinforcement theory and his social learning theory. Finally, we will examine the theory of neutralization, including the five original techniques of neutralization presented by Sykes and Matza.  In addition to the two readings, I gathered a number of videos that elucidate the material in the readings. The PowerPoint is attached as well.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• Explain what distinguishes learning theories of crime from other perspectives.
• Explain Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory.
• Distinguish differential association theory from differential reinforcement theory.
• Discuss the main positions of Akers’s Social Learning Theory.
• Discuss different techniques of neutralization, according to Matza and Sykes.

Workflow

Readings

Chapter 12 in Piquero, Alex R. The Handbook of Criminological Theory, edited by Melissa L. Rorie, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bmcc/reader.action?docID=4035968&ppg=254

Read Chapter 12 here:

Ontario Ministry of Children. Review of the Roots of Youth Violence: Literature Reviews
Volume 5, Chapter 8: Social Learning Theories – http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/professionals/oyap/roots/volume5/chapter08_social_learning.aspx

Videos

PowerPoint: Social Learning Theories

Week 10 Lecture Overview

This week we will focus on the Chicago School of Criminology. This theoretical branch focuses on understanding how neighborhood-level variables are connected to crime rates. We will review the work of Burgess and Park and their concentric zones map, as well as the seminal work of Shaw and McKay. We will also review more contemporary approaches to studying social disorganization.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• Describe how the model presented by Chicago theorists explains the development of cities and the causes of crime in varying regions of a city.
• Discuss Shaw and McKay’s theory of social disorganization.
• Evaluate policies that have come from the Chicago/social-disorganization theories of crime.

Workflow

Reading

Chapter 4 in Tierney, John. Key Perspectives in Criminology, McGraw-Hill Education, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bmcc/detail.action?docID=480635.

Get the chapter here.

Videos

A longer documentary on one of the largest housing projects in the U.S. – The Pruitt-Igoe Project (use BMCC email credentials to sign up for this free video service): https://bmcccuny.kanopy.com/video/pruitt-igoe-myth-0

PowerPoint

Lesson Overview

This week we are introduced to the mainstream sociological approaches to understanding crime. We start with Durkheim’s anomie theory, which postulated that social changes and the feeling of normlessness in society were linked to crime. Merton expanded on this concept through the strain theory, which stated crime was a result of discrepancies between societal goals and the means to achieve those goals. Agnew expanded the theory further in developing the General Strain Theory, stating that the anger or frustration that resulted from negative relationships or experiences led to criminality.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify Émile Durkheim’s contributions to understanding social changes and anomie.
• Explain why Robert K. Merton’s theory of strain become popular when it did, as well as how his conceptualization of “anomie” differed from Durkheim’s.
• Discuss how Robert Agnew’s proposed model of general strain added more sources of strain to Merton’s original framework.
• Identify some ways the various models of strain theory have informed the making of policies intended to reduce criminality.

Workflow

Readings:

1. Anomie. Brittanica – https://www.britannica.com/topic/anomie

2. Chapter 3: Anomie. In Tierney, John. Key Perspectives in Criminology, McGraw-Hill Education, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bmcc/detail.action?docID= 480635

Download the chapter here.

Videos

PowerPoint

Welcome to Week 8!

Lesson Overview

This week we will focus on the contributions of W.E.B. Du Bois in criminology. While he is not customarily identified as a criminologist, many of his writings included discussions about crime. In the Philadelphia Negro he related the migration of former slaves to unfamiliar cities as a cause of crime and suggested that Emancipation was another cause. He wrote of the disproportionate number of black persons represented in the criminal statistics and discussed how penitentiaries serve as breeding grounds for intelligent criminals. His writings also focused on solutions for crimes.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• Recognize the contributions of W.E.B. Du Bois in the discipline of criminology.
• Discuss how W.E.B. Du Bois saw the problems of African American criminality at the beginning of the 20th century.
• Discuss the solutions to crime pioneered by W.E.B. Du Bois.

Workflow

Readings

Gabbidon, S. L. (2001). W.E.B. Du Bois: Pioneering American Criminologist. Journal of Black Studies, 31(5), 581–599. Download this article here.

The Negro Criminal in W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Philadelphia Negro (1899). Download the article here.

Videos

PowerPoint

Welcome to Week 7!

Lesson Overview

This week we will focus on psychological theories. Freudian theory accompanies this perspective as does the theories of Hans Eysenck, B.F. Skinner, Albert Bandura, Samuel Yochelson, and Stanton Samenow. We will also review important theory–policy connections.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe how the early psychological theories explained criminal behavior
• Summarize the modern psychological perspectives of criminality.
• Explain the relationship between mental health and the criminal justice system.
• Describe the policy implications associated with psychological explanations of criminal behavior.

Workflow

Readings

Chapter 2: Psychology and the Criminological Subject in Gadd, D., & Jefferson, T. (2007). Psychosocial criminology. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Access the chapter here:

Review of the Roots of Youth Violence: Literature Reviews
Volume 5, Chapter 2: Psychological Theories. Ontario Ministry of
Children, Community and Social Services http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/professionals/oyap/roots/volume5/chapter02_psychological_theories.aspx

Videos

PowerPoint

Welcome to Week 6!

Overview

This week we are looking into biological explanations for criminal behavior. We will look into the positivist theory. In essence, the positivist approach to understanding crime begins with the application of the scientific method, discovery and diagnosis of pathology, and appropriate treatment. We will continue with a discussion of the key biological theories, including important names associated with early theories, as well as relevant terms associated with the perspective. A critique of early biological positivism follows as more recent theories are identified.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the week, you will be able to:

• Describe how positivists seek to uncover the basic causes of crime.
• Identify several early biological theories and the issues related to these theories.
• Identify the key assumptions, propositions, and weaknesses of Lombroso’s theory of atavism and the born criminal.
• Discuss the development of more recent biological theories.
• Identify the connection between biological and psychological theories and crime policy.

Workflow

Readings

*Chapter 3 in The Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Criminology, edited by Ruth Ann Triplett, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bmcc/reader.action?docID=5144712&ppg=78

Read the chapter here:

*Introduction. In The Nurture Versus Biosocial Debate in Criminology: On the Origins of Criminal Behavior and Criminality, edited by Kevin M. Beaver, et al., SAGE Publications, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bmcc/detail.action?docID=1680058.

Read the chapter here:

Videos

PowerPoint