Integrating Theories in Criminology: A Comprehensive Overview
The Future of Criminology I: Integrating Theories
Criminology: Theoretical Diversity
Criminology explores various theoretical perspectives to understand crime. Traditionally, these theories have been categorized as:
Structural Theories
These theories focus on the characteristics of the environment or social group in which individuals live.
Individual Theories
These theories emphasize the characteristics of the individual, including psychological or biological factors.
However, contemporary criminology recognizes the importance of integrating both structural and individual theories to generate a more comprehensive understanding of crime.
The Basic Object of Criminological Theories
The fundamental goal of criminological theories is to identify the factors associated with crime. Before empirically analyzing any criminal phenomenon, it’s crucial to consider which factors, identified by various theories, contribute to the phenomenon in question.
Theoretical Integration
Theoretical integration acknowledges that exploring theories independently is insufficient to explain the plurifactorial nature of crime. Instead, it advocates for combining the most promising aspects of different theories to form a new, more comprehensive theory.
Theoretical Integration: 1. Elliott’s Integrated Theory
Elliott’s theory integrates social control, strain, and social learning theories. It proposes a natural sequential model:
- Inadequate Socialization: Weak social controls and problems with socialization within the family lead to frustration.
- Relationship with Delinquent Peer Groups: Weakened ties with conventional society increase the likelihood of associating with delinquent peer groups.
- Weakened Conventional Bonds & Strengthened Deviant Bonds: This association leads to weakened links with conventional groups and norms and strengthened ties to deviant groups and norms.
Theoretical Integration: 2. Agnew’s General Strain Theory
Agnew’s General Strain Theory suggests that a comprehensive criminological theory should:
- Identify all causes of crime.
- Explain how these causes increase the probability of committing a crime.
- Explain how these causes interact.
- Explain the time lag between the influence of these causes and their impact on crime.
- Explain the concentration of crime in young men.
While encompassing these variables, the theory should remain simple enough to be empirically verified.
Agnew argues that crime is likely to occur when motivation is high and constraints are low. Several variables influence both motivation and constraints.
Constraints
Constraints act as a social wall between the individual and crime.
- External Control: Family, friends, and social institutions that detect and punish criminal behavior.
- Internal Control: Individual morality and conscience.
Motivation
Motivation refers to the events that promote the commission of crimes.
- Pull: “Learning the offense” through exposure to beliefs favorable to crime and successful criminal models.
- Push: “Frustration” stemming from being prevented from achieving desired goals.
Five Groups of Relevant Variables
Agnew identifies five groups of variables that affect constraints and motivation:
- Personal Traits: Impulsivity, attention problems, low learning through punishment, irritability, insensitivity to others, poor social skills in conflict resolution, and beliefs favorable to crime.
- Family Variables: Negative relationships with parents, family conflict, child abuse, poor supervision, criminal family members, poor social support, single-parent households, and negative relationships within the couple.
- School Variables: Poor school performance, negative school relationships, limited time spent studying at home, negative treatment by teachers, and modest educational and employment goals.
- Peer Variables: Association with delinquent peers, membership in a gang, unsupervised time with peers, peer abuse, and victimization.
- Work Variables: Poor work performance and long-term unemployment.
- External Environmental Factors: Age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status influence individuals within their various life domains (family, work, school).
These variables influence crime by affecting constraints and motivations, both directly (e.g., low self-control) and indirectly (e.g., low intelligence affecting school performance).
Key Features of These Variables
- Varying Influence: Not all variables have the same impact on crime.
- Influence Varies Across Life Stages: The influence of variables changes throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, highlighting the importance of a life-course perspective in criminology.
- Interrelation: Variables are interconnected, creating a “spider web” of crime for chronic offenders with multiple negative variables.
Nonlinear Relationship Between Causes and Crime
The relationship between causes and crime is not always linear. An increase in the causes of crime may lead to a slight increase in the likelihood of committing a crime, but the magnitude of this increase can vary.
Implications for Crime Prevention
Agnew’s theory emphasizes the importance of comprehensive intervention programs that address multiple risk factors in an individual’s life, including family, work, peer relationships, and self-control.
Criminology Development: The Life-Course Perspective
Contemporary criminology emphasizes the importance of the life-course perspective, recognizing that the factors relevant to crime vary across different ages and life stages. This perspective highlights the dynamic nature of criminal behavior and the need for longitudinal studies to track individuals over time.
The life-course perspective also emphasizes the concept of risk factors, which are factors that statistically increase the risk of offending. It acknowledges that most offenders desist from crime as they transition out of adolescence.
Crime Prevention in the Life-Course Perspective
Life-course theories advocate for early intervention programs that target multiple risk factors in an individual’s life, starting in childhood.
Terrie Moffitt’s Dual Taxonomy Theory
Moffitt’s theory classifies offenders into two groups:
- Adolescence-Limited Offenders: Criminal activity is limited to adolescence.
- Life-Course-Persistent Offenders: Criminal activity persists throughout the lifespan.
Moffitt proposes different causes for each group:
- Adolescence-Limited Offenders: Primarily driven by mimicry or imitation of behaviors that provide access to adult resources and status.
- Life-Course-Persistent Offenders: Influenced by a combination of neuropsychological temperament, behavioral development, and environmental factors (neighborhood, family, school) that exacerbate negative consequences over time.
Evaluation
Moffitt’s research indicates that adolescence-limited offenders often resemble non-offenders by the age of 32, supporting the distinction between these two offender groups.