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Integrated Theories of Crime

Integrated Theories of Crime. Multifactor Theories – 1 st hint of interdisciplinary work Latent Trait Theories Developmental or Life Course Theories. INTEGRATED THEORIES Multiple factor theories that attempt to blend seemingly independent concepts into coherent

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Integrated Theories of Crime

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  1. Integrated Theories of Crime • Multifactor Theories – 1st hint of interdisciplinary work • Latent Trait Theories • Developmental or Life Course Theories

  2. INTEGRATED THEORIES Multiple factor theories that attempt to blend seemingly independent concepts into coherent explanations of criminality.

  3. MAJOR PREMISE Weak Social controls produce crime. A person’s place in the structure influences his or her bond to society. STRENGTHS Combines elements of social structural and social process theories. Accounts for variations in the crime rate. Multifactor TheoriesSocial Development Model (SDM)

  4. Multifactor Theories:Elliott’s Integrated Theory MAJOR PREMISE Strained and weak social bonds lead youths to associate with and learn from deviant groups. STRENGTHS Combines elements of learning, strain, and control theories.

  5. MAJOR PREMISEDelinquency is a function of family life, which is in turn controlled by the family’s place in the economic system. Multifactor Theories:Integrated Structural Theory STRENGTHSExplains the relationship between family problems and delinquency in terms of social and economic conditions.

  6. Latent Trait Theories Behavior An individuals level of self control (a latent trait) is established early in life and their behavioral trajectory will forever be stable (good or bad). Age

  7. Latent Trait Theories:General Theory MAJOR PREMISE People choose to commit crime when they lack self-control. People lacking in self-control will seize criminal opportunities. Merges Choice and Control Theories Together

  8. Impulsive personality Low self-control Crime and deviance Criminal Opportunity Weakening of social bonds The General Theory of Crime

  9. Questions That Are Important to Life-course Theorists • Why people begin committing antisocial acts? • Why do some stop or desist, while others continue or persist? • Why do some escalate the severity of their criminality - that is, go from shoplifting to drug dealing to armed robbery- while others deescalate and commit less serious crime as they mature? • If some terminate their criminal activity, what, if anything, causes them to begin again? • Why do some criminals specialize in certain types of crime, while others are generalists engaging in a garden variety of antisocial behavior?

  10. Developmental or Life Course Theories Behavior As individuals mature and develop over the lifecourse, different socializing and life experiences affect behavioral trajectories. So once deviant, not necessarily always deviant Age

  11. Problem Behavior Syndrome (PBS) A group of antisocial behaviors that cluster together and typically involve family dysfunction, substance abuse, smoking, precocious sexuality and early pregnancy, educational underachievement, suicide attempts, sensation seeking, and unemployment.

  12. Farrington’s theory of delinquent development Personal and social factors control the onset and stability of criminal careers. Makes use of data collected over a 20-year period to substantiate hypothesis MAJOR PREMISE Major Premise Life-Course Theories

  13. MAJOR PREMISE- Criminals go through lifestyle changes during their offending careers. Life-Course Theories:Interactional Theory STRENGTHS - Combines sociological and psychological theories.

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