THEORIES
*. Routine Activity Theory
- provides a simple and powerful insight into the causes of crime problems. As
its heart is the idea that in the absence of effective of controls, OFFENDERS WILL
PREY UPON ATTRACTIVE TARGETS. To have a crime, a motivated offender must
come to the same place an as ATTRACTIVE TARGET.
CONFLICT THEORY
- This theory holds that crime results from conflicts
in society among different social classes. The
fundamental causes of crime are the social
economic forces operating within the society. The
criminal justice system and criminal law are
thought to be operating in behalf of the rich and
powerful elites, with resulting policies aimed at
controlling the poor. The middle class would also
opt. to side with the elites thinking they
themselves rise to the top by supporting the status
quo.
- This by propounded by KARL MARX that claims
that society is in a state of perpetual conflict due
to competition for limited resources. It holds that
social order is maintained by DOMINATION and
POWER rather than CONSENSUS and
CONFORMITY.
BOURGEOISIE represents the members of society
which holds the majority of the wealth.
PROLETARIAT which includes the working class or
the poor.
CRITICAL THEORY
- This theory upholds the belief that a small few, the
elite of the society, decide laws and the definition
of crime; those who commit crimes disagree with
the laws that were created to keep control of
them.
- This sees crime as an oppression of workers
particularly the poor like women and ethnic
minorities.
- This theory seeks to “liberate human beings
from the circumstances that enslave them.”
BEHAVIORAL THEORY
- Human behavior is developed through learning
experiences, people alter or change their behavior
to the reactions this behavior elicits in other
people.
- Key concept: “The reward and punishment
principle”
Behavior is supported by reward and extinguished
by negative reactions or punishment.
- According to ALBERT BANDURA individuals are
not born with an innate ability to act violently, he
suggested that in contrast violence and aggression
are learned through behavior modeling ex.
Children learn violence through the observation of
others.
Aggressive acts are modeled after three primary
sources:
a.FAMILY INTERACTION
b.ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERIENCES – the
place/environment we grew up might have an
impact to our behavior.
c. MASS MEDIA – playing violent video games or
watching violent shows at an early age may lead to
aggressive behavior growing up.
INTELLIGENCE AND CRIME/LOW IQ THEORY
- Criminals have suggested for centuries that there
existed links between intelligence and crime. Some
beliefs are that criminals and delinquents possess
low intelligence and that this leads to criminal
activity
“THE NATURE AND NURTURE PRINCIPLE” this
is a debate that is related to whether the
environment or heredity impacts the psychological
development of an individual. Science recognizes
that we share our parent’s DNA to illustrate some
people have short fingers like their mother and
brown eyes like their father. However the question
remains: Where do individuals get their love of
sports, literature and humor?
RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
- This theory originated in the 18th century with the work
of Cesare Beccaria. The rational choice perspective has
been applied to a wide range of crimes such as robbery,
drug use, vandalism and white collar crimes.
- This theory simply states that a person will commit a
crime after determining if the pain or punishment is worth
pleasure or reward of the act, this comes from the
CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY.
LABELING THEORY
- falls under Psychological and Sociological Theories
- originated in “SUICIDE” a book by Emile Durkheim.
He was the first to suggest that deviant labeling satisfies
that function and satisfies the society’s needs to control
the behavior.
- The theory suggests that people are given labels based
on how others view their tendencies and behavior, each
individual is aware of how they are charged by others
because he/she adopted many different roles and
functions in the social interactions.
- People who are victims of these situation are considered
as weak-willed persons.
- Frank Tannenbaum is considered the grandfather of
labeling theory.
SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY
- This theory is developed by the Chicago School
under Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay
- One of the most important theories.
This theory directly links crime rates to neighborhood
ecological characteristics, a core principle of this theory is
that “PLACE MATTERS” (a person’s residential location
is a substantial factor shaping the likelihood that the
person will become involved in illegal activities)
- The determinants of a person’s later illegal
activities is residential location and is more
significant than individual characteristics ex. Age,
gender and etc.…
- The ecological factors that lead to high rates of
crime in the community: P-U-B-I-O-M-U
Poverty
Urbanization – urban places like cities have
huge populations, so individuals don’t really
have a deep bond with each other unlike rural
places ex. Bumping into an unknown person
while walking on the streets in Manila , and
the person maybe hot-headed or
something, it may lead to a fight or any
other circumstance
Broken Family
Industrialization – relate this to urbanization,
the City is well developed place so people flock
there to find jobs because there are less
opportunities in the province which may lead to
….
Overpopulation
Migration – also leads to overpopulation
Unemployment
STRAIN THEORY
- Developed in 1938 by Robert King Merton
This theory states that most people have similar
aspirations, but they don’t all have the same
opportunities or abilities. When people fail to achieve
society’s expectations through approved means such as
hard work and delayed gratification they may attempt to
achieve success through crime.
(Society puts pressure on individuals to achieve
socially accepted goals this may lead to strain
which may lead to an individual committing a
crime)
Ex. Prostitution and Selling Drugs
Merton continued on to say that when individuals are
faced with a gap between their goals (finances/money
related matters) and their current status, strain occurs
when faced with this people have 5 ways to adapt:
1.Conformity –pursuing cultural goals through
approved means
- to align your attitudes, beliefs and behaviors with
those around you
“Positive goal and you made it in a Positive
way which leads to a Positive Result”
EX. Preparing for the board exam = the result
passing the board exam
2.Innovation – using socially unapproved means to
obtain culturally approved goals.
“Positive goal but you made it in a wrong way
(Negative)”
Ex. You like your friend’s phone and you gladly want
to have one, instead of saving money you steal from
your parent’s money.
3.Ritualism – using the same socially approved means
to achieve less elusive goals
“Negative to Positive”
Ex. Original goal to become a Police Officer since you
don’t have enough money you’re still working and
saving for it, later you have fun at your workplace
and forget your original goal.
You fail to achieve your goal (negative) but in
other words you still have a job wherein you
can earn (positive).
4.Retreatism – reject both the cultural goals and the
means to obtain it.
“NEGATIVE to NEGATIVE”
Ex. You failed on your job application many times, so
you will feel frustrated then you will withdraw from it
and do illegal activities.
5.Rebellion – to reject cultural goals and means then
work to replace them.
“POSITIVE-POSITIVE-NEGATIVE”
Ex. You like to change how a certain administration is
running because you find it unfair for other
employees so you blow up the entire institution.
(Positive = changing the system of the
institution, it may be advantageous to your co-
workers
Negative= you blew the whole place up)
GENERAL STRAIN THEORY
- Developed in 1992 by Robert Agnews
- The core idea of this theory is that people who
experience strain or stress become distressed or
upset which may lead them to commit crimes
(IMPULSIVITY LEADS TO AGGRESSIVE
BEHAVIOR WHICH LEADS TO CRIMINAL
BEHAVIOR)
- The key principle of this theory is that “Emotion as
the Motivator of Crime”
GST introduces 3 main sources of Strain such as:
Loss of positive stimuli (death of a family member
or a friend)
Presentation of negative stimuli (physical and
verbal assaults)
The inability to reach desired goals
These strains leads to negative emotions such as
Frustration and Anger, these emotions create pressure for
corrective action and crime is one possible response
wherein it may be used to reduce or escape the strain,
seek revenge against the source of the strain and etc.…
Ex. Chronic unemployment leads to theft or drug selling
to obtain money or take illicit drugs in an effort to feel
better.
SOCIAL CONTROL/SOCIAL BOND THEORY
- created by Travis Hirschi in 1969
- First introduced as Social Control and later
developed as Social Bond Theory.
- According to this theory socialization and the
forming of personal relationships are among the
significant aspects of human development that keeps us
from committing crimes or other acts of social deviances
These theory has 4 elements:
Attachment - if a person has weak attachment to
his parents, friends or emotionally not attached to
them, he might get out of control and engage in
bad activities, while on the other hand if you have
a strong attachment to your parents, friends and
etc.. You will have second thoughts when you are
going to engage in a criminal activity because your
reputation to your peers will be diminished or you
will feel shy, because of you are emotionally
connected to them.
Commitment – a promise of doing any particular
thing, when the commitment to yourself is weak
then you can easily be tempted to commit bad
activities, but If you’re commitment to yourself and
your dreams is strong then you can automatically
avoid bad activities.
Involvement – according to Hirschi, when you are
not involved in any kind of activity wherein whole
day you are free at home, then your involvement is
weak and you can easily be tempted to do bad
activities.
Hirschi explained that if you want to avoid bad
activities then you must engage yourself in any
particular activities such as sports, reading and
STUDYING! Then you won’t have the free time to
think about bad activities.
Belief – having faith of anything.
Hirschi explained that when you have a strong
belief particularly in religion then you can
automatically avoid committing crimes because
religion teaches us to spread peace everywhere
