Theories Exam 3 study guide

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Bakersfield College *

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3170

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Sociology

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Feb 20, 2024

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CRJU 3170 Final Exam Study Guide 1) Know Conflict, Marx, and Feminist theories (chapters 10, 11, and 13 in the Akers et al. text). 2) Know each perspective overall (not the individual theories, just the perspective ). Know what they assume about human behavior (where does it come from?) and know how they differ from one another:  Classical  Biological  Psychological  Learning  Control  Labeling  Chicago school  Anomie/Strain 3) Life-Course theory, especially a. Sampson & Laub (social bonds throughout life; trajectories & transitions – changes in social bonds represent transitions ) b. Moffitt (dual taxonomy, or two group, theory) 4) What is different about these Life-Course theories? 5) Criminal justice system-level theories: a. Herbert Packer’s theory of the criminal justice system (article on Bb). b. Broken windows, a theory of policing (article on Bb). c. The new penology, a theory of corrections (article on Bb). 6) What is different about these CJ-system theories? 7) Why is the existence of these theories important? This section of the class is unique in that we largely focused on: A. Life course theories B. Theories of the CJ system and how the system should operate or behave (as opposed to focusing on why individuals commit crime and why some neighborhoods have higher crime rates than others). For the articles (not Moffitt or Sampson & Laub, though), think about what each theory says regarding how the system should operate, and why the system should operate that way (to accomplish what?). Sampson & Laub: The theorists that applied the social bonds theory across all stages of someone’s life. They were the first life course theorists . Terrie Moffitt : She conducted a four-decade long study, collecting data on the 1,037 people in her sample every other year from the time they were 2 or 3 years old, through to the time when these 1,037 people were coming up on 50 years old!! Her study design was very rare and very difficult to stay caught up on. Ultimately, she found that about 6% of the sample committed half of all the crimes committed by the whole 1,037 person sample , AND, she also found that those same 6% also were responsible for 75% of all the violent crime committed by the sample . WOW! Moffitt then, from her findings, noticed a pattern in the data. Essentially, she thought she could literally see two types of offenders in her data . Hence, her dual taxonomy (or two group ) theory of offending that identifies AL & LCP offenders. Then, we transitioned into the systems level theories : 1

Due Process vs Crime Control. Herbert Packer (1968)  Due Process vs Crime Control . This is the first criminal justice specific theory . Packer says that the CJ system operates differently according to whichever political philosophy seems to dominate at the time or, more specifically, Packer identifies an ongoing battle in the criminal justice system – that battle is fought between the system being fair to everyone (packer calls this extreme due process ) and the system being really efficient at processing and convicting crime, at the expense of trampling on some people’s rights. Note that under due process , a few guilty people avoiding conviction due to some type of technicality is considered a small price to pay for, ultimately, not running the risk of violating someone’s civil rights. Under the crime control model, the inverse is true in that if a few innocent are wrongfully convicted, it is seen as because the view under that model is that “they are all guilty anyway.” The Broken Windows theory Wilson & Kelling (1982)  Broken Windows theory . Ironically, not a theory about crime or windows at all. The theory, in its simplest form, is about the police maintaining order (independent variable) (rules, boundaries, etc.) in an attempt to make the residents feel safe/to influence their perceptions of safety (dependent variable). The New Penology Feeley & Simon (1992)  The New Penology . This theory is a cautionary theory warning us that they think the correctional system is so overburdened and overcrowded that corrections system literally can’t even make an attempt at reducing recidivism anymore. So, instead of continuing to fail every year, chasing something that can’t be achieved within the current way the correctional system operates (in a way that fills prisons to the point of being over crowded). This extensive & persistent overcrowding causes the profession of Corrections to essentially change its goal (similar to a jedi mind trick!). Feeley & Simon are theorizing in The New Penology that Corrections has changed its original goal of trying to reduce recidivism (get it….“corrections”, like correcting crime?), to a new (more achievable and realistic) goal of just processing and managing inmates. Corrections gave up on the goal of reducing recidivism because there’s just no way to even try to reduce recidivism when average prison populations throughout the US are at more than 120% of maximum. Of importance here is to understand that the new (vs old) penology isn’t about rehabilitation versus punishment. The Old penology was about both of those in that they both were different attempts at reducing crime. By contrast, the new penology is not concerned with reducing crime at all (that’s why it’s a new penology – because it’s not at all concerned with correcting ) . Instead, the new penology is concerned with acknowledging that corrections doesn’t have a proud history of correcting criminals. Corrections does have a long history of failing to reduce recidivism though. Accordingly, the new penology is relevant because it is a new goal (or strategy) for corrections that involves managing and processing inmates so that the day-to-day operations of the prison go smoothly (although this new goal is definitely not very ambitious). When any system gets overburdened (again, think about how severe the crowding problem in our prisons is – all 33 prisons combined in California have a designed maximum capacity of about 89,000 inmates. After running at 160,000 + through the late 2000s, the state set out to reduce the prison population to 123,000. Realignment (AB 109) has achieved this but, remember the designed maximum capacity of 89,000? And, don’t forget that maximum capacity isn’t very good…in fact it’s the maximum. So, while AB 109 has reduced the prison population by roughly 40,000 inmates, from 160,000+ down to 123,000, that’s still almost 40,000 above maximum, which is probably 20,000-30,000 too many still! – how well do you think 2

any agency, car dealership, subway sandwich restaurant, human services building, post office, clothing store (ANYTHING) can do when they are that overcrowded? Probably not very good. At all. So, in a sense, this new penology of just warehousing inmates is probably a function of how much we’ve overburdened corrections – to the extent that they can’t do anything with the inmates besides just keep track of them! Overall Study Guide for CRJU 3170 Below are test questions taken from exams I’ve used in the past and may or may not use again. I believe this will be very beneficial for you to study. 1. As a theory, The New Penology is actually not concerned with crime at all. Instead, it is concerned with: ? 2. Who are the authors of the new penology? What year was it published? 3. In short, the new penology as a theory just says that corrections is adopting a new goal . What was the goal of corrections? Under the new penology, what is that new goal according to the new penology theory? 4. Similar to the new penology, broken windows theory is actually not concerned with crime either. Instead, the broken windows theory is actually about ? ( Think: what’s the broken windows theory trying to explain?) 5. Who authored the broken windows theory? 6. In what year? 7. The broken windows theory is NOT simply saying that broken windows left broken in a neighborhood will send a message to people that crime is acceptable there and, in that way, cause further crime in that area. Actually, it’s about: how to improve citizen’s of . Further, broken windows theory says that the way to improve citizen’s of , is by the police achieving Oxxxx Mxxxxxxxxxx 8. Who were the first researchers to pose the life course theory? 9. What year was life course theory first posed? 10. Life-course theories are unique in that they value both stability (once an offender, always an offender) and change (aging out of crime) when it comes to offender behavior, this makes sense in that life course theories just view the chances of being involved in crime as a function of what stage of life you are in. What term is used to identify someone’s “life path” (the track or path that they are currently on)? Related, what term is used to identify a change to that life path? 11. Sampson & Laub are credited as being the first life-course theorists, but what theory did they essentially just apply across a lifetime? 12. Moffitt posed a dual-taxonomy theory ? a. What does that even mean? b. What are her dual taxons? c. What explains each taxon (what is the cause of crime for each group) d. Moffitt incorporates several theories into her life course theory of offending. What are they (think about the cause of AL offending and then think about the cause of LCP offending)? 13. Who was the only female criminologist we talked about this semester? 14. What is the “maturity Gap?” 15. Who experiences this maturity gap? 16. Why is it relevant to studying criminology? 3

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17. According to Moffitt’s data how many (what percentage) people in her sample had engaged in crime by the time they were 17or 18 years old? 18. Also understand the irony in Moffitt’s marriage (she’s a criminologist and she married a geneticist just a few years before she would ultimately develop a theory of offending that was immediately met with enthusiasm and offered wide appeal because her theory combined several disciplines including sociology and biology (for the LCP offenders) and social learning to explain the AL offenders. Her marriage is ironic in that she married someone who, by training, has an entirely different view of behavior (an almost contradictory view). But, Moffitt (the criminologist/sociologist – who views behavior as a function of what is individually learned, and as a product of one’s environment) married a biological geneticist (who views behavior as a function of our biological makeup or, our genetics) and thus, her theory marries those different theoretical perspectives in explaining criminality. 19. Also, when discussing crime control vs due process (as a part of Packer), know the characteristics of each (Due Process and Crime Control) and know how they differ and are similar (if they are) (this is explained clearly in Packer’s article as well as there are specific PowerPoint slides that cover this. 4

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