Theory in Criminology

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Theory in Criminology

• 1. What is theory?
• 2. Theory Construction
• 3. Theory Evaluation

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What is Theory?

• Theory is a set on interconnected statements or
  propositions that explain how two or more events
  or factors are related to one another

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Example

• Children who experienced harsh and inconsistent
  punishment are more likely to become deviant

Harsh Inconsistent Punishment
Violence
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Two ways to build a theory

• Deductive Approach (theory, hypothesis, research
  design, observations, empirical generalizations,
  new theory)
• Inductive Approach (research design,
  observations, empirical generalizations, new
  theory)

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Examples
Inductive approach
Deductive approach

• Physical abuse in childhood is associated with
  future violence
• Is child neglect also related to violence
  perpetration later in life?
• Survey of a group of incarcerated criminals about
  their childhood experiences
• Theory about how the impact of child neglect is
  similar/different from child abuse in terms of
  its criminogenic effect

• How do burglars select their targets? (research
  question)
• Field study of active burglars
• Face-to-face interviews with burglars about the
  ways they select the targets
• Theory about how a household can become a target
  for burglary

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A Model of the Research Process
THEORY
Deduction
HYPOTHESIS
FINDINGS
Operationalization
Induction
Analysis
DATA GATHERING
RESEARCH DESIGN
Measurement
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Criteria for Evaluating Theory

• Logical consistency
• The scope
• Parsimony
• Testability
• Empirical validity
• Usefulness and Policy implications

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Logical consistency

• Propositions of a theory have to be logically
  stated and internally consistent

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The Scope

• The Scope of a theory refers to the range of
  phenomena which it proposes to explain
• A theory that accounts only for the crime of
  check forgery may be accurate, but it is
  obviously very limited in scope
• Gottfredson and Hirschi posit that both imprudent
  and criminal behaviors can be predicted by a
  common characteristic lack of self-control

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Parsimony

• Parsimony (simplicity of theorys structure)
• The theory based on fewest assumptions and
  requiring the fewest propositions is considered
  the superior theory

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Differential Association Theory is based upon
these nine postulates

• 1. Criminal behavior is learned
• 2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction
  with others persons in a process of communication
• 3. The principal part of the learning of criminal
  behavior occurs within intimate personal groups
• 4. When criminal behavior is learned, the
  learning includes techniques of committing the
  crime, which are sometimes very complicated,
  sometimes simple and the specific direction of
  motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes
• 5. The specific direction of motives and drives
  is learned from definitions of the legal codes as
  favorable or unfavorable to committing deviant
  acts

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Differential Association is based upon these nine
postulates

• 6. A person becomes delinquent because of an
  excess of definitions favorable to violation of
  law over definitions unfavorable to violation of
  the law
• 7. Differential associations may vary in
  frequency, duration, priority, and intensity
• 8. The process of learning criminal behavior by
  association with criminal and anticriminal
  patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are
  involved in any other learning
• 9. While criminal behavior is an expression of
  general needs and values, it is not explained by
  those general needs and values, since non
  criminal behavior is an expression of the same
  needs and values

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Testability

• Testability by objective and repeatable evidence
  (theory which are untestable are not scientific)

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Untestable theories

• A theory may propose that males who rob banks are
  motivated by an unconscious impulse to resolve
  their guilt over their childhood sexual
  attraction toward their mothers

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Untestable theories

• If we find enough bank robbers who fit this
  description, then the theory is supported
• If research uncover that bank robbers claim their
  only motive is money then that does not mean that
  the theory is rejected
• Denial of these feeling by robbers supports the
  theory, because the same unconscious impulse that
  motivated them to rob also rendered them
  unconscious of their true motivation

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Empirical validity

• Empirical validity means that a theory has been
  supported by research evidence
• None of the theories is found to be entirely true
  or false
• The questions is, what degree of empirical
  support does the theory have (weak or strong)

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Usefulness and Policy implications

• Every criminological theory implies a therapy or
  policy
• The better the theory explain the problem, the
  better it is able to guide efforts to solve the
  problem

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Causation in criminology

• Causation is a relationship that holds between
  events, objects, variables, or states of affairs

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Can we observe causality?

• It is not possible to detect a cause empirically
• We can rarely directly sense a cause
• We merely induce their existence from our
  experience of the association of two or more
  events
• Can we observe how a hard blow to the arm causes
  a bruise?

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Causality

• How do we know if A causes B?
• Time
• Association
• No other factor causes both (spuriousness)

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Time

• It is usually presumed that the cause
  chronologically precedes the effect
• In a strict reading, if A causes B, then A must
  always be followed by B.
• Smoking and lung cancer (What goes first?)

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Association/correlation

• Changes in X cause changes in Y
• For example, football weekends cause heavier
  traffic, more food sales, etc.
• We must be very careful in interpreting
  correlation coefficients
• Just because two variables are highly correlated
  does not mean that one causes the other

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Examples

• Ice cream sales and the crime rate are correlated
  (both increase during summer)
• The number of cavities in elementary school
  children and vocabulary size have a strong
  positive correlation

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Spuriousness?
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Spuriousness?
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Spuriousness?
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Spuriousness?
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Controversy around causation

• Not all scholars agree that uncovering
  discovering the universal laws that underlie
  human behavior should be a focus of our research
  

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What is different about people?

• Human beings are qualitatively different from the
  objects of study in the natural sciences (rocks,
  stars, chemical compounds, etc)
• Humans think and learn, have an awareness of
  themselves and their past
• These unique human characteristics are the reason
  for the debate how criminology should look like

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Examples of subjective realities

• Elephant and four blind men

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More examples (four temperaments)

• The same situation
• evokes absolutely
• different reactions.
• How can we apply causation here?

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Thomass theorem (1928)

• Another argument against causality
• If people define situation as real, they are
  real in their consequences
• This theorem is related to the subjectivity of
  reality
• Examples?...
• What do you think of causality in sociology now?

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How to solve the problem of causality?

• Interpretative approach does not say that social
  behavior is chaotic
• There is some pattern in human behavior
• But this pattern is not due to the causal laws
• It is created out of the system of social
  conventions people generate during their
  interactions