1. Social Process Theories: Socialized to Crime
Chapter Seven:
Social Process Theories:
Socialized to Crime

2. Social Process Theory
The view that criminality is a function of people’s interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society
All people, regardless of their race, class, or gender, have the potential to become delinquents or criminals

3. Critical Elements of Socialization
Family relations
Peer group
School
Church

5. 3 Major Types of Social Process Theories
Social learning theory
Social control theory
Social reaction (labeling) theory

6. Social Learning Theories
The view that people learn to be aggressive by observing others acting aggressively to achieve some goal or being rewarded for violent acts
Types of social learning theories:
differential association theory
neutralization theory

7. Principles of Differential Association
Criminal behavior is learned
Learning occurs within intimate personal groups
Learning involves assimilating the techniques of committing crime
The specific direction of motives is learned from perceptions of various aspects of the legal code as favorable or unfavorable

8. Principles of Differential Association Continued
A person becomes a criminal when s/he perceives more favorable than unfavorable consequences to violating the law
Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity
The process of learning criminal behavior involves all of the mechanisms involved in any learning process

9. Criticisms of Differential Association Theory
Fails to account for the origin of criminal definitions
Assumes criminal and delinquent acts are rational and systematic
Tautological (circular in reasoning)

10. Neutralization Theory
The view that law violators learn to neutralize conventional values and attitudes, enabling them to drift back and forth between criminal and conventional behavior
The neutralization has to occur BEFORE the act.

11. 5 Techniques of Neutralization
Denial of responsibility
Denial of injury
Denial of the victim
Condemnation of the condemners
Appeal to higher loyalties

13. Social Control Theory
The view that people commit crime when the forces binding them to society are weakened or broken
Explains the onset of crime
Has been empirically tested

14. Contemporary Social Control Theory
Links the onset of criminality to the weakening of the ties that bind people to society
Hirschi’s four main elements:
attachment
commitment
involvement
belief

16. Social Reaction (Labeling) Theory
The view that people become criminals when labeled as such and when they accept the label as a personal identity
Explains society’s role in creating deviance

17. Primary vs. Secondary Deviance
Primary deviance is a norm violation or crime with little or no long-term influence on the violator
Secondary deviance is a norm violation or crime that comes to the attention of significant others or social control agents, who apply a negative label with long-term consequences for the violator’s self-identity and social interactions

18. Social Process Theories and Public Policy
Promote conventional lines of behavior
Focus on the family and schools to strengthen bonds
Reconfigure an offender’s self-image
Diversion and restitution programs