 | Term | Definition |
| |
socialization |
Process of human development and enculturation. Socialization is influenced by key social processes and institutions. |
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social process theory |
The view that criminality is a function of people's interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society. |
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parental efficacy |
Parents who are supportive and effectively control their children in a noncoercive fashion. |
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social learning theory |
The view that people learn to be aggressive by observing others acting aggressively to achieve some goal or being rewarded for violent crimes. |
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social control theory |
The view that people commit crime when the forces binding them to society are weakened or broken. |
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social reaction (labeling) theory |
The view that people become criminals when labeled as such and when they accept the label as a personal idenity. |
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differential association theory |
The view that people commit crime when social learning leads them to perceive more definitions favoring crime than favoring conventional behavior. |
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culture conflict |
Result of exposure to opposing norms, attitudes, and definitions of right and wrong, moral and immoral. |
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neutralization theory |
The view that law violators learn to neutralize conventional values and attitudes, enabling them to drift back and forth between criminal and conventional behavior. |
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drift |
Movement in and out of delinquency, shifting between conventional and deviant values. |
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neutralization techniques |
Methods of rationalizing deviant behavior, such as denying responsibility or blaming the victim. |
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self control |
A strong sense that renders a person incapable of hurting others or violating social norms. |
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commitment to conformity |
A strong personal investment in conventional institutions, individuals, and processses that prevent people from engaging in behavior that might jeopardize their reputation and achievements. |
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stigmatize |
To apply negative labeling with enduring effects on a person's self-image and social interactions. |
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moral entrepreneur |
A person who creates moral values that reflect the values of those in power rather than objective, universal standards of right and wrong. |
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retrospective reading |
The reassessment of a person's past to fit a current generalized label. |
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primary deviance |
A norm violation or crime with little or no long-term influence on the violator. |
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secondary deviance |
A norm violation or crime that comes to the attention of significant others or social control agents, who apply a negative label with long-term consequences for the violator's self-idenity and social interactions. |
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deviance amplication |
Process whereby secondary deviance pushes offenders out of the mainstream of society and locks them into an escalating cycle of deviance, apprehension, labeling, and criminal self-idenity. |
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reflected appraisal |
When parents are alienated from their children, their negative labeling reduces their children's self-image and increases delinquency. |
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