CRIM 2650 Lecture Notes - Crack Cocaine, United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Labeling Theory
Document Summary
Social process theories come in different forms like: Social learning: differential association theory, neutralization theory (techniques that allow you to drift into criminal behaviour) Socialization and creating social bonds: social control theory people with strong attachments with social institutions are more likely to hold conventional moral beliefs and abide by the law. Societal reaction to crime and deviance durkheim also argues that it"s a societal reaction that determined whether an act was criminal or not. Durkheim would say the state was the brain of society and embodies the collective conscience. And the state would punish those who acted in ways that violated the collective conscience. He was also a functionalist we need crime and it served the function of maintaining social solidarity and social cohesion. Functionalists assume societal consensus is a given and naturally exists but there is so societal consensus in labelling theory. In society, there is disagreement within different groups in which moral groups should govern society.
