Crime

Accounting for Criminal Behavior

Some theories argue that criminals are different from law-abiding people. The nature of this difference depends on the dominant scientific models of the time. During criminology's long history, theorists from a great variety of disciplines have speculated that criminals have distinctive racial characteristics, body types, personality types, intelligence levels, or genetic predispositions. Although these theories have attracted some sociological interest, most sociologists have resisted interpretations rooted in the criminal's biology, in favor of explanations that focus on social experiences.

Sociological theories of criminality can be divided into two major schools. The approach now known as control theory had it roots in the classical criminology articulated by Cesare Beccaria in the eighteenth century. It argues that crime is an expression of natural, short-term self-interest. In this view, taking what one wants or striking out in anger, the sorts of acts that tend to be defined as crimes, are normal reactions of most organisms. What is remarkable is that most people, most of the time, do not give in to raw self-interest. Rather, socialization leads to self-control; at an early age, most children learn to reign in their self-interested impulses in order to gain adult approval. The contemporary version of this approach, control theory, argues that criminals have had ineffective, erratic socialization, and as a result, they lack self-control and therefore commit crimes.

Social networks play key roles in socializing individuals. During early childhood, the family is the central arena for teaching these limits; parents who love their children, pay attention to them, and offer firm, consistent discipline to instill self-control. Older children influence one another; Edwin H. Sutherland's theory of differential association suggested that individuals whose social contacts are mostly law abiding will become law abiding, but that those whose associates are involved in criminality will commit crimes themselves. The expectations of a partner in a stable, loving relationship, typically involving marriage and family formation, also can constrain criminality. In addition, other social institutions can foster self-control. School tends to reward students who display disciplined learning habits; later in life, the demands of steady work or military service discourage criminality. Thus, the conventional life course—childhood in a nurturing family, youth spent among peers in school, followed by an adulthood focused around work and a family of one's own—provides a web of social control. To the degree that individuals are deeply enmeshed in this web, they are unlikely to become criminals, but to the degree that individuals have only loose ties to conventional life, the lessons of self-control are less likely to be learned, and crime becomes more likely.

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