Lecture 11 20140425
Lecture 11
20140425
The Rise of the Punitive Theories Context: The United States of the 1980s and Early 1990s: The Economic Decline of the United States • By the close of WWII, the U.S.’s share of the world manufacturing was nearly 50% • With military commitments, the U.S.’s position in world manufacturing began to decline • During the 1980s, defense spending increased rapidly, as the national debt grew at a remarkable speed • The U.S. faced stiff international competition in many products Varieties of Conservative Theory • Five types of conservative theorizing: 1. Revitalize early positivist emphasis on ingrained individual differences 2. Rise of Rational Choice Theory: logical actors choosing crime when the benefit exceeds the cost. 3. Revitalize psychological approaches that offenders think differently rather than logically 4. Crime linked to the permissive culture or moral poverty—that they trace to developments in the American society of the 1960s. 5. Focus on public disorganization or incivility as cause of crime not because of enduring poverty and other social ills but because the police tolerate it. Crime is seen as conservative because crime is seen as a choice—a choice by individuals who are impulsive, stupid, psychopathic “super predators,” calculating, raised in moral—not economic—poverty, and/or allowed to “break windows” without fear of consequence. Logic of these theories • Theories deny economic inequality or concentrated disadvantage populations. • Rather, crime is considered a choice (a rational choice) by individuals • The policy response is to enhance deterrence and punishment through get tough policies Wilson and Herrnstein: Assessing Crime and Human Nature • Their work implied that certain biological predispositions found disproportionately among the poor and may be responsible for excessive criminal behavior
•
•
They claimed distinct body types that refer to muscular “mesomorphs” as more likely to be the body type of a criminal, which also means that their biological parents are more likely to be criminals themselves. (Bad families produce bad children) The solution to crime (harsher punishments by parents and government to teach morality) could not be backed with evidence, nor did they discuss the biases of the criminal justice system and how rehabilitation may be better than vindictiveness.
Choosing to be Criminal: Crime Pays • •
Rational choice theory: People commit crime because it pays– because the benefits outweigh the costs This popular explanation of crime has helped to justify numerous get tough policies
Choosing to be Criminal: Crime Pays: Morgan Reynolds • According to Reynolds, the reason we have so much crime is that the benefits outweigh the costs 1. Need to expand imprisonment 2. Helped legitimate get tough policies • Reynolds denied most sociological factors as root causes to crime • Examples of Texas: when crime does not pay, criminals commit fewer crimes because punishment deters crime. However, other sociological variables were not taken into consideration in his article such as unemployment, poverty and that makes his analysis argumentative or “misspecified” because he did not consider other methodological factors. There is also the question of whether criminal sanctions actually deter because there are many studies that state no difference with harsher sanctions or more stringent punishment/monitoring. Crime and Moral Poverty: Bennett, Duiulio and Walters. • Some of the most conservative theorists argue that crime is related to the permissive culture in U.S. society • Moral poverty is a cultural problem, not structural • The influence of rich and upper class are blamed for trumpeting a lifestyle of unfettered freedom mixed with moral relativism that eventually spread to the rest of society. • Theory is contradictory because it says to punish harsher but rehabilitation is the way to amend these criminals in the making. Broken Windows: The Tolerance of Public Disorganization • James Q. Wilson and George Kelling: Community disorganization is the failure to fix broken windows
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•
Community disorganization or “collective efficacy” was itself a byproduct of “root cause,” including the mass inmigration of ethnically and racially heterogeneous groups and the coalescence of conditions into “concentrated disadvantage.” The spiral of decline in a community begins when public signs of social disorganization are tolerated
Broken Window Thesis • A broken window left untended is a sign that nobody cares and this creates an environment for crime. • The spiral of a decline in a community begins when public signs of social disorganization sometimes called “incivilities”—are tolerated. “Disorderly people” are allowed to take over public spaces; these are not necessarily predatory criminals but rather disreputable or obstreperous or unpredictable people; panhandlers, drunks, addicts, rowdy teenagers, prostitutes, loiterers, and the mentally disturbed. • Wilson and Kelling believed disorder caused by disreputable people breakdown in informal control invasion of predatory criminals high crimes rates in the neighbourhood. o To attack this initial factor public disorganization must no be tolerated to continue this cycle. o They believed that formal control (police arresting these disorderly people) would allow informal control flourish again. Disorder would decline and prospective criminals would be cancelled.
Consequences of Conservative Theory: Policy Implications • Imprisonment and Incapacitation 1. U.S. has been on an imprisonment binge 1. 1 in 100 Americans are behind bars’ 2. For African Americans 1 in 11 are behind bars’ 2. Seen as a way to increase the costs of crime 3. Those beyond reform must be incapacitated 4. Little empirical support for the specific deterrent argument 5. Those who have nothing to lose will turn to crime, and thus policies should be developed to ensure that citizens have enough of a stake in conformity that they are afraid to risk it by criminal activity. Critical Theories • Examine how policies and politics have expanded the reach of the criminal justice system.
•
Explore the net widening and how increasingly more and more individuals are brought into the criminal justice system
Conclusion • However, seeing a change in current policies • States faced with severe financial crisis no longer can afford the price tag of mass incarceration • The realization that America cannot imprison itself out of the crime problem • Now a willingness among political leaders to question the wisdom of continued “get tough” policies
20140425
The Rise of the Punitive Theories Context: The United States of the 1980s and Early 1990s: The Economic Decline of the United States • By the close of WWII, the U.S.’s share of the world manufacturing was nearly 50% • With military commitments, the U.S.’s position in world manufacturing began to decline • During the 1980s, defense spending increased rapidly, as the national debt grew at a remarkable speed • The U.S. faced stiff international competition in many products Varieties of Conservative Theory • Five types of conservative theorizing: 1. Revitalize early positivist emphasis on ingrained individual differences 2. Rise of Rational Choice Theory: logical actors choosing crime when the benefit exceeds the cost. 3. Revitalize psychological approaches that offenders think differently rather than logically 4. Crime linked to the permissive culture or moral poverty—that they trace to developments in the American society of the 1960s. 5. Focus on public disorganization or incivility as cause of crime not because of enduring poverty and other social ills but because the police tolerate it. Crime is seen as conservative because crime is seen as a choice—a choice by individuals who are impulsive, stupid, psychopathic “super predators,” calculating, raised in moral—not economic—poverty, and/or allowed to “break windows” without fear of consequence. Logic of these theories • Theories deny economic inequality or concentrated disadvantage populations. • Rather, crime is considered a choice (a rational choice) by individuals • The policy response is to enhance deterrence and punishment through get tough policies Wilson and Herrnstein: Assessing Crime and Human Nature • Their work implied that certain biological predispositions found disproportionately among the poor and may be responsible for excessive criminal behavior
•
•
They claimed distinct body types that refer to muscular “mesomorphs” as more likely to be the body type of a criminal, which also means that their biological parents are more likely to be criminals themselves. (Bad families produce bad children) The solution to crime (harsher punishments by parents and government to teach morality) could not be backed with evidence, nor did they discuss the biases of the criminal justice system and how rehabilitation may be better than vindictiveness.
Choosing to be Criminal: Crime Pays • •
Rational choice theory: People commit crime because it pays– because the benefits outweigh the costs This popular explanation of crime has helped to justify numerous get tough policies
Choosing to be Criminal: Crime Pays: Morgan Reynolds • According to Reynolds, the reason we have so much crime is that the benefits outweigh the costs 1. Need to expand imprisonment 2. Helped legitimate get tough policies • Reynolds denied most sociological factors as root causes to crime • Examples of Texas: when crime does not pay, criminals commit fewer crimes because punishment deters crime. However, other sociological variables were not taken into consideration in his article such as unemployment, poverty and that makes his analysis argumentative or “misspecified” because he did not consider other methodological factors. There is also the question of whether criminal sanctions actually deter because there are many studies that state no difference with harsher sanctions or more stringent punishment/monitoring. Crime and Moral Poverty: Bennett, Duiulio and Walters. • Some of the most conservative theorists argue that crime is related to the permissive culture in U.S. society • Moral poverty is a cultural problem, not structural • The influence of rich and upper class are blamed for trumpeting a lifestyle of unfettered freedom mixed with moral relativism that eventually spread to the rest of society. • Theory is contradictory because it says to punish harsher but rehabilitation is the way to amend these criminals in the making. Broken Windows: The Tolerance of Public Disorganization • James Q. Wilson and George Kelling: Community disorganization is the failure to fix broken windows
•
•
Community disorganization or “collective efficacy” was itself a byproduct of “root cause,” including the mass inmigration of ethnically and racially heterogeneous groups and the coalescence of conditions into “concentrated disadvantage.” The spiral of decline in a community begins when public signs of social disorganization are tolerated
Broken Window Thesis • A broken window left untended is a sign that nobody cares and this creates an environment for crime. • The spiral of a decline in a community begins when public signs of social disorganization sometimes called “incivilities”—are tolerated. “Disorderly people” are allowed to take over public spaces; these are not necessarily predatory criminals but rather disreputable or obstreperous or unpredictable people; panhandlers, drunks, addicts, rowdy teenagers, prostitutes, loiterers, and the mentally disturbed. • Wilson and Kelling believed disorder caused by disreputable people breakdown in informal control invasion of predatory criminals high crimes rates in the neighbourhood. o To attack this initial factor public disorganization must no be tolerated to continue this cycle. o They believed that formal control (police arresting these disorderly people) would allow informal control flourish again. Disorder would decline and prospective criminals would be cancelled.
Consequences of Conservative Theory: Policy Implications • Imprisonment and Incapacitation 1. U.S. has been on an imprisonment binge 1. 1 in 100 Americans are behind bars’ 2. For African Americans 1 in 11 are behind bars’ 2. Seen as a way to increase the costs of crime 3. Those beyond reform must be incapacitated 4. Little empirical support for the specific deterrent argument 5. Those who have nothing to lose will turn to crime, and thus policies should be developed to ensure that citizens have enough of a stake in conformity that they are afraid to risk it by criminal activity. Critical Theories • Examine how policies and politics have expanded the reach of the criminal justice system.
•
Explore the net widening and how increasingly more and more individuals are brought into the criminal justice system
Conclusion • However, seeing a change in current policies • States faced with severe financial crisis no longer can afford the price tag of mass incarceration • The realization that America cannot imprison itself out of the crime problem • Now a willingness among political leaders to question the wisdom of continued “get tough” policies
