Sociological Theories of crime causation
SOCIAL PROCESS THEORIES
Drift Theory/Neutralization theory
Neutralization theory is identified with the writings of David Matza and his associate Gresham
Sykes.
They viewed the process of becoming a criminal as a learning experience in which potential
delinquents master techniques that enable them to counterbalance or neutralize conventional
values back and forth between illegitimate and conventional behavior.
Matza further argued that even the most committed criminals and delinquents are not involved in
criminality all the time; they also attend schools, family functions and religious services. Their
behavior can be conceived as falling along a continuum between total freedom and total restraint.
Drift – refers to the movement from one extreme of behavior to another, resulting in behavior that
is sometimes unconventional, free, or deviant, and at other times constraint and sober.
A person may learn to learn techniques of neutralization in order to temporarily “drift away” from
conventional behavior and get involved in more subterranean values and behaviors including crime
and drug abuse.
Techniques of neutralization for a person to justify his law violating behavior and drift away from the
rules of the normative society and participate in subterranean behaviors.
❖Denial of Responsibility – offenders sometimes claims their unlawful acts were simply not their
fault. ( They made me do it )
❖Denial or Injury – criminals are able to neutralize their behavior by denying the wrongfulness of
their act. (They have insurance)
❖Denial of Victim – criminal would neutralize their acts by maintaining that the victim. In this case
the criminal would blame his victim.
❖Condemnation of Condemners – a criminal would view the world as a corrupt place. ( Teachers
show Favoritism )
❖Appeal to higher loyalties – novice criminals often argue that they are caught in the dilemma of
being loyal to their own peer group while at the same time attempting to abide the rules the larger
society.
Differential association theory
Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are; Birds of the same feathers flock together, and when they flock they fly so high.
This theory was created by Edwin Sutherland in his text, Principles of Criminology.
He suggests that people commit crime by learning in a social context through their interactions with others and communication with them.
he believed that criminal behavior is learned by interaction with others, and this include learning the techniques of committing the crime, and the motives, drives, rationalizations,
and attitudes for committing it.
Differential association theory
The theory has 9 principles:
1. Criminal behavior is learned; it is not inherited.
2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of
communication.
3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal
groups.
4. If criminal behavior is learned, then learning techniques of committing the crime.
5. The specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes is learned from legal
codes as being favorable or unfavorable.
6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess definition favorable to violation of law
over definition unfavorable to violation of law.
7. Differential association may vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity.
8. Learning delinquent behavior involves the same mechanism involves in any other learning.
9. Criminal behavior and non-criminal behavior are expression of the same needs and values.
Containment theory
It was presented by Walter C. Reckless
He assumes that for every individual, there exist a containing external structure and a protective
internal structure,
Both of which provides defense, protection, or insulation against delinquency or crime commission.
Containment theory
Outer Containment can be found in the following components;
▪ A role that provides a guide for a person’s activities.
▪ A set of reasonable limits and responsibilities
▪ An opportunity for the individual to achieve status
▪ A sense of belonging
▪ Identification with one or more persons within the group.
Inner Containment or the personal control
▪ A good self-concept
▪ Self-control
▪ A strong ego
▪ A well developed conscience
A high sense of responsibility.
Social Bond theory
It is also called as the social control theory, it is articulated by Travis W. Hirschi.
He links the onset of criminality to the weakening of the ties that bind people to society. He
assumes that all individuals are potential law violators, but they are kept under control because
they fear that illegal behavior will damage their relationships with friends, parents, neighbors,
teachers, and employers.
Without these social ties or bonds, and in the absence of sensitivity to and interest in others, a
person is free to commit a crime.
Social Bond theory
Hirschi identified 4 elements of social bond:
Attachment – Refers to a person’s sensitivity to and interest in others. Attachment to the
parents is the most important. Parents, Peers and schools are the most important social
institution with which a person should maintain ties.
Commitment – involves the time, energy and effort expended in conventional lines of action,
such as getting an education and saving money for the future. Lack of this, an individual may
commit risk-taking behavior, such as crime, becomes a reasonable behavior alternative.
Involvement – heavy involvement in conventional activities on school, recreation and family
leaves a little time for illegal behavior.
Belief – people who live in the same social setting often share common moral beliefs; they may
adhere to such values as sharing, sensitivity to the rights of the others and admiration of the
legal code. If these beliefs are absent or weakened, individuals are more likely to participate in
an antisocial or illegal acts.
Social reaction: Labeling theory
Labeling theory was created by Howard S. Becker. He explains that society creates deviance
through a system of social control agencies that designate (label) certain individuals as delinquent,
thereby stigmatizing a person and encouraging them to accept this negative personal identity.
Consequences of labeling:
(two effect of labeling: the creation of stigma and the effect of self-image.)
➢ Stigmatization – labels are believed to produce stigma. People who have been labeled because of
their participation or alleged participation in deviant or outlawed behaviors maybe socially out
casted who may be prevented from enjoying higher education, well paying jobs, and other social
benefits.
Social reaction: Labeling theory
➢ Self-labeling – it refers to the process by which a person who has been negatively labeled accepts
the label as a personal role or identity.
➢ Self-fulfilling Prophecy – deviant behavior pattern are in response to an earlier labeling experience,
a person act out these social roles even if they were falsely bestowed.
➢ Dramatization of Evil – Frank Tannenbaum suggest that social typing, which he called dramatization
of Evil, transforms the offender’s identity from a doer of evil to an evil person.
