Psychopathy and Sociological Theories of Crime
Psychopathy
Concept
Psychopathy is a concept reserved for individuals who exhibit behaviors that consistently bring them into conflict with society. These individuals struggle with socialization and display characteristics such as disloyalty, extreme selfishness, insensitivity, irresponsibility, and low frustration tolerance.
Two key characteristics define the psychopathic personality: an inability to experience emotional responses and an irresistible tendency to act impulsively. These traits often manifest as antisocial behavior, aggression, and lack of motivation.
While not considered a treatable mental illness in the traditional sense, as psychopathic individuals maintain their mental faculties and are generally in touch with reality, their condition can have legal ramifications. Depending on the country and the severity of their actions, they may face criminal charges.
Robert Hare’s PCL-R
Robert Hare’s PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist-Revised) is the most widely used method for assessing psychopathy. This 20-item scale comprises two factors:
- Factor 1: Personality (e.g., glibness/superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, manipulativeness, lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, callousness/lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility for actions)
- Factor 2: Social Deviance (e.g., need for stimulation, parasitic lifestyle, poor behavioral controls, early behavior problems, lack of realistic long-term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility, juvenile delinquency, revocation of conditional release, criminal versatility, promiscuous sexual behavior, many short-term marital relationships)
Each item is scored, and a total score of 30 or higher indicates psychopathy. Scores between 20 and 29 suggest moderate psychopathic traits, while scores below 20 indicate no psychopathy.
Chicago School
The Chicago School refers to a group of sociologists from the University of Chicago who significantly influenced modern criminal sociology. Their central thesis posits that the physical and social characteristics of certain urban areas contribute to crime and explain its geographical distribution.
Purpose
The Chicago School emerged from concerns about rapid urban growth, industrial expansion, and the impact of railroads.
Method
They employed empirical field research, statistics, and advanced technological tools for their time.
Conclusions
The Chicago School found that individuals who were not criminals in their home countries often engaged in criminal activity after immigrating to America. They attributed this to a decrease in social inhibition and increased opportunities for crime in the new environment.
Immigrant groups often formed enclaves, remaining separate from the broader American culture. Crime tended to concentrate in these border areas, suggesting a correlation between living environment and criminal behavior.
Drift Theory
David Matza’s drift theory agrees with the notion of learned criminal behavior but diverges by suggesting that most delinquents still generally adhere to societal values. They drift in and out of delinquency, committing offenses occasionally while otherwise living as conventional citizens.
Matza argues that individuals must neutralize the influence of societal norms to engage in criminal behavior. This neutralization occurs through a process of accommodation, which involves several elements:
Subterranean Traditions
These are values existing beneath the surface of mainstream culture, often unspoken but still influential.
Techniques of Neutralization
Individuals unconsciously adopt these techniques, drawing on societal values to justify their actions.
Examples of neutralization techniques include:
- Denial of responsibility: Shifting blame to external factors.
- Denial of injury: Downplaying the harm caused by the act.
- Denial of the victim: Justifying the act by portraying the victim as deserving.
- Condemnation of the condemners: Shifting focus to the hypocrisy or wrongdoing of those who disapprove of the act.
- Appeal to higher loyalties: Justifying the act as serving a greater good or a higher purpose.
Preparation and Desperation
Preparation involves developing the skills and rationalizations necessary to commit the crime. Desperation refers to the individual’s need to act to reaffirm their self-esteem, often driven by a sense of inadequacy or lack of control.
Three Stages of Drift
- Affinity: Influenced by the Chicago School’s ideas, this stage involves exposure to and adoption of delinquent beliefs and values.
- Affiliation: The individual joins a group or gang where they learn specific criminal techniques and behaviors.
- Signification: After committing the offense, the individual’s perception shifts, and they embrace a new reality that aligns with their delinquent identity. This stage connects with labeling theory.
Sociological Theories of Women Offenders
Otto Pollak’s Chivalry Theory (1950)
Pollak’s theory, presented in his book “The Criminality of Women,” explains female crime from a sociological perspective with psychobiological elements. He argued that official crime statistics underestimate female criminality due to women’s social roles, which allow them to conceal offenses more easily.
Pollak suggested that women’s traditional roles as homemakers and caregivers provide them with both opportunities and motivations for crime. He also pointed to a “chivalry factor,” where men in law enforcement and the justice system are more lenient towards women, leading to underreporting and less severe punishments.
Freda Adler’s Role Theory (1975) and Rita Simon’s Opportunity Theory (1975)
Adler and Simon, writing in the 1970s during the women’s liberation movement, challenged traditional views of female criminality. They argued that as women gained more social and economic equality with men, their crime rates would converge with those of men, particularly in areas like white-collar crime. They attributed this to increased opportunities and the erosion of traditional gender roles that previously limited women’s involvement in certain types of crime.
Meda Chesley’s Feminist Criminology (1990s)
Chesley’s work emphasized the need to consider the unique experiences and perspectives of women in the criminal justice system. She argued that traditional criminological theories, developed primarily by men and based on male experiences, were inadequate for understanding female offending. Feminist criminology focuses on issues like the role of patriarchy, the impact of violence against women, and the specific pathways that lead women into crime.
Sally Simpson’s Gendered Pathways Approach (1990s)
Simpson’s approach emphasizes the different life experiences and social contexts of men and women and how these factors shape their involvement in crime. She argues that women’s pathways into crime are often linked to experiences of abuse, poverty, and limited opportunities. Her work highlights the need for gender-specific interventions and policies to address the underlying factors contributing to female offending.
Conclusion
S. k people in their country of origin were not criminals, to get to america offended. The change of country caused a decrease in inhibition as well as providing k is committing crimes.
Each group stays together and apart from the culture of the new country. in the border areas is where the crime occurs. feur the offense was committed where you live.
DRIFT THEORY.
David Matza agree that the process through which learning is criminal is, but there is a divergence poque matza says most of delincuentres assume the values of society. make inroads, fall into delinquency and then come out again. the offender would be a conventional citizen, but occasionally commits an offense.
the individual must learn to neutralize the force of the regulatory system. This neutralization is done through the mechanism of accommodation. have several elements.
TRADITIONS buried. are a set of values that are part of the mainstream culture of most people. these values are not said in public,
Neutralization techniques. takes the same values that gives the norm, sometimes unconsciously.
ke circumstances are accepted in the criminal code and are exmientes for vindication. these techniques are.
Disclaimers. denial that the conduct is unlawful. denial or disqualification of the victim
PREPARATION. the fact can be done technically and morally observation that can be carried out.
DESPAIR. the need to have the individual to do an act, an act that pocs can do to reaffirm the self-esteem.
the process moves to 3 different times.
affinity. is linked to the idea of the Chicago School. beliefs, values.
Membership. the individuals is joins a school to learn to commit crimes.
ignificacion. when the offense rushed the individual has a different perception of the same that is related to the Deltio. transforms it and makes you accept a new reality. This idea is linked with the theory of labeling.
sociological theories of women offenders.
Sociological theories: They are the most current.
Otto Pollak · Theory (Theory of chivalry): The established in 1950 in the book “Crime of women.” Explains female crime from a sociological standpoint, but with psychobiological elements. He said that crime figures are higher than female ones we know. In his social roles that allow them to carry easily conceal a number of violations. They are responsible for maintaining the house, the kitchen, to educate the child, and diseases that affect family members. They have plenty of temptations to commit crimes and plenty of opportunities to conceal them. The task of women preparing food has made him a poisoner par excellence and its role in healing the sick has had results pavantaged. The powerlessness of children, victims of crime has made them not to resort to law to bring charges. Another reason to hide their actions is the protective behavior, chivalrous attitude of men towards women, whether police or magistrates. The men avoided declaring the law enforcement criminal actions of women, of which they are victims mime. Women benefit, secondly, on the goodwill of the institutions responsible for prosecuting violations discovered or to be responsible for resolving them. Judges are more lenient in imposing the criminal type. The man was delivering the prison sentence, but women if there is an alternative measure is applied before the prison. In prison the proportion of the open is higher in women than in men.
· Theory or the role Weis (1982) is purely sociological. Distinguish between the theories of the reversal of roles and the convergence among them. In the early states that women delinquencyentity would be one that has separated from his usual role, so that it can be argued that in a sense would be an unusual woman, has virilific. In the latter argues that the idea of society such as ours and, increasingly, there is confusion, a mixture of roles that are attributed to either sex, implying the difficulty of finding large differences between men and women in any social issue. According to the convergence of roles he assumed the appropriate explanation. Role theory argues that female criminality as this equality occurs, also set equal to men and increasingly women commit more crimes involving violence. So far this has not been met. There is a law, the law of Black (1976) which states that the greater the less formal social control informal social control and vice versa.