NCJ Number
140542
Editor(s)
F P Williams III,
M D McShane
Date Published
1993
Length
326 pages
Annotation
This anthology of core materials on criminological theory presents papers under sections that address the foundations of modern criminology, the Chicago School and derivatives, strain and subculture theories, labeling theory, conflict theories, social control theories, and contemporary perspectives.
Abstract
Two papers on the foundations of modern criminology deal with representative schools of criminological thought that originated in the 18th and 19th Centuries: the Classical School represented in the writings of Cesare Beccaria and the Positive School represented in the writings of Cesare Lombroso respectively. Four papers present theories derived from a group of social scientists employed at the University of Chicago. This group pioneered sociological theories of crime. The theories discussed in these papers are ecological theory, culture conflict, symbolic interactionism, and differential association. An alternative and competing position to the Chicago School was posed in a theory developed by Robert Merton in 1938. Commonly called anomie theory, Merton postulated that the characteristics of social structure affect rates of deviance in a society. The papers presented under this focus on social structure address anomie theory, subculture theory, differential opportunity theory, and focal concern theory. Labeling theory, the subject of two papers in this anthology, emerged from symbolic interactionism, as it focused on the impact of societal responses to deviance as a factor in the continuance and intensification of problem behaviors. Regarding other distinct types of crime-cause theories, two papers discuss conflict theories, and three papers consider social control theories. Two papers on contemporary perspectives focus on routine activity theory and female criminality. Each section contains a bibliography, and individual papers contain references. Author and subject indexes