8. Sociological Theories of Crime
Summary and Review
Dr. Sean Ashley
✅ Summary
- Sociological theories understand crime as a product of social conditions and social relationships.
- Durkheim’s consensus view of crime suggests that it is society that determines what is criminal and that crime is normal as it establishes moral boundaries of a community.
- For Durkheim, anomie is seen as a state of deregulation and disorientation.
- For Merton, anomie is a condition whereby society exerts pressure on the individual to achieve culturally defined goals but does not provide the institutional means to achieve them. Merton’s macro-level theory was called strain theory.
- The Chicago School had a distinctly macro-level ecological approach to studying crime that involved concentric zones in cities, with certain zones marked by greater degrees of disorganisation.
- Cohen’s subcultural theory of delinquency views juvenile delinquency as a particular type of subculture, and offers an explanation for crimes committed by juveniles that do not have a rational goal.
- Social control theory states that behaviour is controlled and regulated by these social bonds: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.
- Labelling theory focuses on how criminality is created and how people come to be defined and understood as criminals through symbolic exchanges.
- There are overlaps between sociological theories and Indigenous principles, including the emphasis on social relationships & the connection to culture.
🖊️ Key Terms
anomie: a state in which the norms that regulate social life have broken down.
collective conscience: the shared set of beliefs and feelings that are commonly held by members of a group.
dramatisation of evil: the process through which a person is labeled as a criminal, particularly as they move through the justice system.
ecological approach: studying crime in terms of its environmental influences.
genocide: a coordinated effort intended to bring about the destruction of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.
institutional anomie: a condition where higher rates of criminal activity are attributed to the cultural pressure exerted by economic goals that are generalised throughout a society.
interstitial: in between spaces.
labelling theory: Mead’s micro-level theory that examines how definitions of bad behaviour are originally constructed, and how stigmatising labels can lead a person to commit more crimes.
macro-level theory: a category of sociological theories that examine large-scale social phenomena, systems, and structures, rather than individual actions, to explain behaviour.
maximisation: combining two strategies from strain theory-conformity and innovation-to increase one’s chances of acquiring wealth and privilege.
micro-level theory: a category of sociological theories that looks to the individual and personal relationships to explain crime.
morally relativistic: the idea that different societies hold different ideas about what is moral or ethical.
norms: the standard pattern of behaviours that is typical for a given group.
restitution: when an offender repays the victim for the financial losses they have incurred as a result of a crime.
retribution: involves inflicting punishment on an offender.
social control theory: Hirschi’s micro-level theory that states that behaviour is controlled and regulated by our social bonds. According to this theory, criminality and other deviant behaviour results when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken. The four bonds are: attachment, commitment, involvement and belief.
social disorganisation: an approach that links crime and delinquency to the disordered ecological characteristics of a neighbourhood.
social facts: values, norms, and other social forces that regulate the behaviour of individuals in a society.
social integration: the way people are incorporated into social groups.
strain theory: Merton’s macro-level theory that explains crime as a response to the strain people experience when they are not able to achieve culturally defined goals because they do not have the institutional means to achieve them.
subcultural theory: Cohen’s macro-level theory that seeks to explain juvenile delinquency, and mainly non-utilitarian crimes, by looking at subculture and class-specific values of middle class youth.
symbolic interactionism: a micro-level theory which studies the way social reality is constructed through communication (language and symbols).
🧠 Chapter Review
Crossword
Fill in the term in the right-hand column and it will display in the crossword puzzle. Be sure to include spaces where appropriate.
Discussion Questions
- Has the increase in gender equality in the workplace since the 1950s shifted the dynamics of youth delinquency in North America today?
- The term “genocide” has been used to describe the colonial state of Canada’s residential school system. Explain how this term relates to Durkheim’s concept of anomie and what might be done moving forward to address the harms done.
- Is there an interstitial zone in your city or town? Is this area considered a place of higher crime?
- Have you ever felt anomie? Does your experience fit better with Durkheim or Merton’s application of the concept?
