Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In criminology, differential association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. The differential association theory is the most talked about of the learning theories of deviance.
Victimology is the study of victimization, including the psychological effects on victims, the relationship between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system—that is, the police and courts, and corrections officials—and the connections between victims and other social groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses, and social movements.
Routine activity theory, developed by Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen, draws upon control theories and explains crime in terms of crime opportunities that occur in everyday life. [62] A crime opportunity requires that elements converge in time and place including a motivated offender, suitable target or victim, and lack of a capable guardian. [63]
The correlates of crime explore the associations of specific non-criminal factors with specific crimes.. The field of criminology studies the dynamics of crime. Most of these studies use correlational data; that is, they attempt to identify various factors are associated with specific categories of criminal behavior.
Various theories of victimology exist, each to explain why certain people become victims of crimes, and why others do not. Some people view some theories in a negative light, believing that to conjecture as to the causes of victimization is tantamount to blaming the victim for crime, at least partly.
The reliance on what has been seen as the oppositional paradigm, administrational criminology, which tends to focus on the criminological categories that governments wish to highlight (mugging and other street crime, violence, burglary, and, as many critical criminologists would contend, predominantly the crimes of the poor) can be questioned.
Anomie, a theory proposed by Robert K. Merton explores the idea of social disintegration leading to crime. This theory focuses on individuals who are incapable of achieving their desired goals in society through legal and socially accepted means. In order to attain financial support or material goods, crime will emerge in time of desperation.
In the fields of sociology and criminology, strain theory is a theoretical perspective that aims to explain the relationship between social structure, social values or goals, and crime. Strain theory was originally introduced by Robert King Merton (1938), and argues that society's dominant cultural values and social structure causes strain ...