Lithwick:Teens, Nude Photos and the Law In this article, published in Newsweek, the author explains the harsh possible outcomes from teenagers sending at the own free will nude photos of themselves to their mates or lovers. Something that the author defines as “sexting” epidemic and analyses how the law is treating offenders and victims. The author makes an obvious claim that the criminal-justice system is too harsh to solve any issues that deal with teens and technology because this issue is becoming more common and although he doesn’t examine different or alternative ways to solve the problem, personally I agree with him that the law should not interfere with such juvenile cases because being exposed to others instead of the person it was intended for is punishment enough. In the article, the author brings personal stories which highlight three
I think it is clear that young people are not deterred from bad behavior by just the fear of punishment. Kids know then a person's “bark is bigger than their bite.” At the same time,if a young person sees someone else get punished for problem behavior, this might deter them by proxy. The idea of general deterrence is that just one punishment is enough todeter other people if the situation is taken care of quickly enough. General deterrencerelies on the idea that, if young people believe that society both intends to punish criminalacts and that they are able to, they will be deterred from committing a crime by thesefactors and this awareness. One example of this is that more police officers can go onto the police force, so that the young person sees them everywhere and believes that they mightcatch them.
Control Theory Sherrie R. Muasau Department of Criminal Justice April 25, 2011 Introduction Control theories take the opposite approach from other theories in criminology. As their starting point, instead of asking “What drives people to commit crime?” they ask “Why do most people not commit crime?” Social control theories tend to demonstrate a view of human nature that reflects the beliefs of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), a seventeenth-century English philosopher who was convinced that humans are basically evil. In Hobbes best-known work, Leviathan (1651), he argued that the desire for money and fame was part of human nature. The scholars who developed control theories see delinquency as a somewhat normal behavior emerging from unmet wants and needs (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990). Their focus is on the control factors that prevent people from committing criminal or delinquent acts (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990; Hirschi, 1969; Nye, 1958; Reckless, 1967; Reiss, 1951; and Sykes & Matza, 1957).
Explaining Car Theft and Delinquency Using Hirschi’s Social Control Theory Introduction Hirschi’s (1969) social control theory suggests that the relationship with people, personal values, and beliefs as well as how busy people are discourages them from breaking the law. Consequently, the emergence and occurrence of juvenile acts as crime is triggered by the absence of strong social bonds (White, 1992). Hirschi’s Social Control theory has a weakness when applied in establishing the motif behind a crime. This essay establishes the application and discusses the influence of Hirschi’s theory with regards to juvenile car theft. The essay also discusses the four variables of Hirschi’s Social Control Theory namely: attachment, commitment, involvement and belief.
Differential Association Theory Edwin Sutherland first projected his theory of differential association in 1939 in his book "The Principles of Criminology" to clarify why some people in society’s communities become criminals and some don’t (Scarpitti, 2009). The theory uses a sociological methodology to explain how criminals learn the practices and reasoning of criminal behavior, however it is entrenched in the Chicago School of criminology. Before this theory was created, crime was almost always explained by multiple factors, such as social class, race, location and age (Gomme, 2007). Differential association was one of the first theories to steer away from earlier classical theories that fixated on the individual and believe that that the criminal was born and not influenced. Sutherland believed the propensity for criminality is neither genetic nor fated.
In his famous book, Principles of criminology Sutherland came up with nine principles of criminology on Differential Association (Schmalleger, 2011). “He emphasized the role of social learning as an explanation for crime because he believed that many concepts popular in the field at the time- including social pathology, genetic inheritance, biological characteristics, and personality flaws-were inadequate to explain the process by which an otherwise normal individual turns to crime” (Schmalleger, 2011). Sutherland was the first well known criminologists to emphasize that all important human behavior is learned and that crime is not substantively different from any other form of behavior (Schmalleger, 2011). An example of Differential Association would be a young boy growing up in the wrong part of town learning from the older gangbangers the lifestyle of a criminal (Schmalleger, 2011). “According to Charles R. Tittle, a prominent sociologist at Washington State University with a specialty in crime and deviance, a Social
Opportunity theorists reject the notion that criminals are pushed and pulled into criminal behavior. Rather, these theorists assert that criminal offenders are consciously thinking individuals who actively choose to partake in criminal activities in their everyday normal lives. Opportunity theorists seek to explain why criminals choose to commit a crime in one situation and not another. This perspective is what they call an “opportunity theory” Opportunity theories wager that no crime would be committed unless there was an open and present opportunity to commit the criminal act. One approach that opportunity theorists seek in preventing crime is what is known as the routine activity theory.
He changed the way criminology is viewed today. He believed that criminal behaviour came into effect from learning and communicating with others and not something inherited. He placed no emphasis on the media involvement. Definition Differential association studies the acts of a criminal as learned behaviour. It maintains that crime is the product of environmental influences on individuals who are otherwise psychologically as well as biologically normal (Joubert, S. J., Joubert, E., Ovens, M. 2009).
Edwin H. Sutherland, a criminologist, theorized that criminal behavior is a learning mechanism; he first publicizes his theory called Differential Association, also known as Social Learning theory in 1939. Sutherland believes that criminal behavior is learned by the interaction with other individuals, such as the crowd with which they may associate in, who believes criminal behavior to be acceptable. He also says that whether or not a person will imitate the behavior of another is based on the amount of respect they have for them. He also says that this learning of criminal behavior includes learning how to commit crimes. For example, if that individual whom a person holds high regard for deems criminal behavior as favorable, than that person will imitate the same behavior.
This proposition explains how and why juveniles learn criminal behaviour within group activities. The fact that individuals may come from a good home where social norms and values are accepted and followed are irrelevant, as the emphasis is on the individuals behaviour that is learnt from deviant friends. Proposition 2: Criminal behaviour is learned through interaction with other people by means of a process of communication Proposition 3: The learning process takes place mainly within intimate personal groups * The point of departure with regards to proposition 2 and 3 is that criminal/deviant behaviour is learnt through active involvement with others in a process of communication. As an individual grows there are many influencing factors around him/her. (ie, parents influence in a process of