Criminological Theories of Deviance Kristie Barela American Intercontinental University Criminological Theories of Deviance What are criminological theories? It is understood that criminology is the study of crime, but criminological theories provide us with an explanation of criminal behavior. These theories help one to understand why people commit crime. Social control theory, strain theory, differential association theory, and neutralization theory are just a few examples of sociological theories of crime that will be examined within this paper. Along with a brief description of the criminological theories, an attempt to show how they differ from one another and discussion of one strength and one weakness unique to each theory will be made.
An example of replication is law enforcement replicating a crime to see how the crime was committed. Verification is confirming or validating something. A lie detector test verifies whether someone is telling the truth or not. Theory is in criminal justice represents an attempt to develop plausible explanations of reality, which in this case are crime and the criminal justice system. In addition to one of the most intriguing aspects is the Hypothesis of the Criminal Justice system when referring to a crime being committed.
pictures, autopsy, witness reports etc. crime scene classification is the second stage and is where evidence is used to put the crime into a typology. There are two types of murders; organised and disorganised and four types of rape which are power-reassurance, power-assertive, anger-retaliatory and anger-excitement. Crime reconstruction is where hypotheses are developed about what the offender and victim did and the sequence of events based on the reconstruction. Profile generation is the final stage and is where the offenders profile is developed, usually including an age range, ethnicity and social class, type of work, habits and personality.
Is rationale to assume that parental and family risk factors played a vital part in the life of a criminal, because they are a product of their surroundings. Understanding the mental process of a criminal behavior can assist on identify the problems such as antisocial behaviors. It identifies the individuals with their parents and other family members of the family. Taking a look at the parents and siblings will give researcher a different spectrum that can or may not voucher for the actions of the criminal, it brings all the issues about their past to surface. Parental and family risk factors effects and shapes the individual into the person that they are today.
During the sentencing phase there are four objectives that are considered such as deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation, and retribution. What is the purpose of these objectives and are they effective? The purpose of deterrence is to convince the public that committing crimes would result in certain punishments. The use of deterrence is implementing the use of harsher punishments that will deter those citizens whom are intending to commit a crime, will think twice before they do so. If criminals have to think about the potential consequences they may just deter away from the criminal act (Valerie Wright, 2010).
Finally, the paper will conclude with a discussion on how the programs work to reduce juvenile crime based on an analysis of the relationship between program premise and goals, and one or more major causes of juvenile delinquent behavior. To examine juvenile crime causation one must consider the various reasons behind the delinquent acts. The ideological schools of thought present various motivations. Classical, psychological, and biological theories attempt to explain the core reasons juveniles commit status or violent crimes. A juvenile status offense refers to illegal conduct committed by a minor.
Organized Crime Prevention and Control As one author put it, “organized crime has been defined in the relative absence of Knowledge” about its true dimensions (Castle, 2008, p. 139). Albanese (1996) explains crime and possible organized crime in terms of the typologies of positivism, classicism, structural, and ethical explanations. The positive approach explains organized crime as caused by social and economic factors that include: poor neighborhoods and role models, lack of opportunity to achieve the “American Dream,” dysfunctional families, and even genetics. The positivist sees change in the conditions as a means to prevent criminal behavior. Walter Miller’s classic article “Ideology and Criminal Justice Policy” concluded with the observation, “when assertions are made about what measures best serve the purposes of securing order, justice, and the public welfare, one should ask, ‘How do we know this?’” (1973, p. 150).
Gene Zeagle University of Phoenix CJS/220 Facilitator: Jen Morris 10/10/2011 PUNISHMENT PHILOSOPHY IN AMERICA Punishment philosophy is different thoughts on figuring out how the criminal justice system can deal with criminals and what they can do about them for the hope of a better America. A judge has a lot of thinking to do when it comes to using these philosophies when an accused person went through a trial and time for sentencing. There are four recognized punishment philosophies; deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and retribution and these philosophies are
Offender profiling is the establishing of a hypothesis to identify a criminal via examining the evidence accumulated from a crime scene, this helps authorities narrow down searches for individuals with traits that correlate with signatures of the crime, one such noted profiler was Robert Ressler. In discussing the FBI approach to offender profiling, it is essential to draw focus on the methodology developed by Ressler and how it is utilised by authorities in addition to its strengths and limitations. In this context offender profiling is used when examining crimes involving serial murders of a sexual nature. The FBI profile emerges from stages, the process begins with what is termed the Assimilation Stage. Evidence of the crime scene is obtained, this would include photographs or an in person examining of the scene, a profile of the victim (including their pathology reports), witness statements and DNA analyses of the victim and the offender.
The second stage is crime scene classification which is when the profilers decide whether the crime scene represents an organised or disorganised offender. The third stage is crime reconstruction where hypotheses are generated about what happened during the crime e.g. victim behaviour and crime sequence. The final stage is profile generation and this is when