Download Juvenile Justice Chapter 4

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Juvenile Justice
Policies, Programs & Practices
CJ3650
Professor James Drylie
Chapter 4
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Theories of Delinquency
• There are several theories related to the
causation of crime and delinquency
– A theory is a principle or an idea that
attempts to define and explain a
phenomenon.
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Classical & Positivistic Theory
• Two major schools of criminological
thought
– Classical
• People choose to commit crime
– Positive
• The environment influences behavior
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The Classical School
• Behavior is rational
• Product of free will
– Juveniles choose to commit delinquent
acts/crime
– Decisions in this regard are rational
• Based the pleasure/pain related to the act
• Strongly influenced early American
thought through the 1800s
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Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)
• Italian nobleman
• Believed that people
are hedonistic
– Maximize pleasure
– Minimize pain
– Often referred to as
the pleasure-pain
principle
• Focuses on the
offense committed
– Not the offender
• Concerned with how
punishment is applied
– Must fit the crime
• Pain vs. pleasure
Positive School
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• Influenced juvenile justice practices by the
late 1800s
• Grounded in the belief that behavior is
beyond individual control
– Factors other than free will influence behavior
• Emerging thought
– The emergence of the scientific method as a
means to study phenomenon
– The classical approach toward punishment
was proving ineffective
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Early positivist thought
• Cesare Lombroso
• Early criminologists looked to biological
factors as a cause of crime
– Over time there was more of an emphasis on
isolating psychological and social factors
• Family
• School
• Peer relationships
Choice Theory
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• In the 1970s the classical school of
thought reemerged as
– Rational Choice
– Choice Theory
• The renewed interest in the classical
school based on
– Questioning the premise of positivism
– An increased crime rate
– Questioning if rehabilitation was working
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Routine Activities
• Based on rational choice
• Contends that the motivation to commit
crime and the number of offenders are
constant
• Some would argue that the change in
crime rates are due to fluctuations in the
number of available offenders
• Cohen & Felson believe that there is a
steady stream of offenders willing and
capable of offending
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• Additionally, Cohen and Felson posit that
crime rates fluctuate due to the following:
– Motivated offender
– Suitable target (victim)
– Absence of capable guardian
•
•
•
•
Parent
Neighbors
Police
Teachers, etc.
– All three factors must be present for a crime to
occur
Deterrence Theory
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• Follows from choice theory
• Juveniles commit crime because they
choose to do so
• The choice is based in perceived risks and
benefits
• If the risk outweighs the benefit they will
most likely not commit the act
• Two types of deterrence:
– General
– Specific
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General deterrence
• Discourages would-be delinquents from
committing delinquent acts because the
threat of punishment is real
• The fear of punishment outweighs the
benefits of the acts
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Specific deterrence
• Is designed to impose a sanction on an
adjudicated delinquent to prevent them
from committing additional delinquent acts
• Imposing stiff sanctions on a juvenile for
committing an offense or delinquent act
– Do six months of community service every
weekend and you may think twice before you
do something to get in trouble again
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The Assumptions of Deterrence
• Individuals are rational actors
– Weigh potential risk against benefits
• Juveniles are aware of sanction/penalty
• The risks associated with punishment are
unpleasant
• The sanction is swift, certain, and severe
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Biological theory
• The oldest approach in the biological
theories of crime are morphological
– Criminals are viewed as biologically inferior
– Biological inferiority produces certain physical
characteristics that make the appearance of
criminals and noncriminals different
• Two particular theories are:
– Lombroso’s atavism theory
– Sheldon’s somatype theory
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Ativism
• Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) considered
the father of the positive school
• He identified several factors that he felt
influenced crime
– Population density
– Education
– Unemployment
– News coverage – Contagion
– The born criminal
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Atavistic anomalies
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Large skulls
Large protruding jaws
Canine teeth
High foreheads
Flattened noses
Deep, close-set eyes
Especially large or small ears
Very long arms or legs
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Somatotype
• Sheldon focused on body type
– Endomorph
• Soft, round, and fat body type
– Seeks comfort and are extroverted
– Ectomorph
• Thin, frail
– Introverted and strong ability for self-control
– Mesomorph
• Muscular, firm, and strong
– Assertive and aggressive
Refer to chart on page 101
Genetics
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• Criminal activity tends to run in families
– Agree or disagree?
• Twin studies (Denmark)
– Monzygotic – identical
• If one twin has a conviction, 35% of the cases the
other twin also has a conviction
– Concordance rate is 35%
– Dizygotic – fraternal
– Concordance rate was 12%
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Adoption studies
• Better than twin studies in that they can
isolate biological influences on
delinquency because the environmental
influence of the biological parent is absent
Chemical & Neurological
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• Biochemical explanations suggest that
chemical deficiencies or abnormalities in
the body can affect behavior
– Dietary
• Sugar, vitamins B/C
– Fetal alcohol syndrome & prenatal drug use
• One study of FAS found that 60% of males and
40% of females reported trouble with the law
• 45% of youth between 12 – 20 with FAS had
committed a violent offense
– Hormones
• Autonomic nervous system
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– Controls involuntary body functions
•
•
•
•
Blood pressure
Breathing
Heart rate
Produces the “fight or flight” response
– Adrenal glands
– Anxiety increases involuntary body functions
• These experiences are unpleasant and people
generally avoid anxiety producing behavior
– Psychopaths or sociopaths do not develop
adequate consciences and may be incapable
of feeling fear or anxiety
• Learning disabilities
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– School failure has been linked to drop out
rates and delinquency
– LDs are biologically determined factors that
impose difficulties to learning
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
– Symptoms are
» Inattention
» Impulsivity
» Hyperactivity
» ADHD children are more likely to have contact with
the system
Psychological theory
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• Freud believed that personality is formed early in
childhood and develops into a three-part
personality structure
– Id
• Collection of unconscious desires and instincts
– Sex and aggression
– Ego
• The identity and actual behavior
– Superego
• Conscience and moral character
• Freud argued that juveniles have
underdeveloped superegos that are unable to
regulate the Id
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Personality disorders
• Personality refers to the emotional and
behavioral attributes of an individual
• Delinquents characteristically are
– Extroverted
– Impulsive
– Lack self-control
– Hostility
– Resentment
– Destructiveness
– Ambivalence toward authority
Antisocial Personality Disorder
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• APD is pervasive pattern of disregard for
and the violation of rights of others that
begins in childhood or adolescence and
continues into adulthood. Diagnosis is for
adults, 18yoa.
– Deceitfulness
– Impulsivity
– Lack of remorse
– Consistent irresponsibility
– Reckless disregard for safety of self or others
• The juvenile version of APD
Conduct disorder
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Learning theory
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• Some believe that delinquency is learned
behavior
• Learning is both psychological as well as a
social process
• Classical conditioning
– We learn by connecting a stimulus with a
response
• Pavlov’s dogs
• Modeling
– We model or imitate behavior
• BF Skinner
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– Operant conditioning is controlled by the
consequences of the behavior
– Consequences that increase the behavior are
reinforcers
• Praise
• Money
– Consequences that decrease behavior are
punishers
• Parental or peer disapproval
• Arrest
• Punishment