This chapter examines the implications of theories of crime and deviance for public policy and practice. It first considers why criminologists devote few of their resources to political activity in general and the making of public policy in particular, with emphasis on the issues of role-definition, translatability, and salience. It then turns to some theoretical perspectives about the relationship between deviance and social policy, focusing on the work of the Chicago School of Sociology as well as functionalist theories, anomie theory, and the projects that put forward a theory based on a detailed analysis of the links between crime, delinquency, and social structure. It also looks at the work of Thomas Mathiesen in the field of a critical criminological penal reform project that advocates abolitionism. The chapter concludes with a discussion of public criminology.
Chapter
13. Public Criminology:
Theory and Policy
Chapter
3. The Chicago School
This chapter focuses on the University of Chicago’s sociology department and the work done by its sociologists on crime and deviance during the 1920s and 1930s. The chapter first provides a background on the University of Chicago, its sociology department, and the city. It then considers the Chicago sociologists’ use of ecology in their research, the apparent contradictions in their explanation of criminality and deviance, and their emphasis on moral diversity rather than discord, pathology, or disorganization. It examines the approach used by Chicago sociologists to launch an intellectual assault on the study of the city, focusing on social problems and offering explanations of crime and delinquency based on the peculiar conditions of the so-called zone in transition. What the University of Chicago sociology department accomplished was a decisive break with the haphazard, solitary, and ill-maintained studies associated with proto-criminology. The result was a model of an urban criminology.
Chapter
6. Culture and Subculture
This chapter examines the cultural and subcultural theories of crime and delinquency, beginning with Albert Cohen’s 1955 analysis of ‘subculture’ in relation to delinquent behaviour by gangs and how his approach to subculture as a ‘way of life’ evolved to resolve problems facing lower-class youth in a highly competitive society. It then looks at the work of other scholars who challenged Cohen’s theory but retained much of his analytic framework, including Richard Cloward, Lloyd Ohlin, and David Matza. In particular, it discusses various theoretical perspectives linking culture and subculture to delinquency, from strain theories to Matza’s drift theory, labelling theory, and culture conflict theories. It also explores the relationship between crime and the labour market, particularly unemployment. The chapter concludes by reviewing the criticisms against subcultural theory.
Chapter
9. Control Theories
This chapter explores control theories of the sociology of deviance, crime, and delinquency. It first considers two types of control theories: social control theories, which originate from the work of Émile Durkheim and the concept of social bond, and situational control theories, which stem from Jeremy Bentham’s conception of offending and focus on variations in opportunities to commit crime and on the defensibility of targets. After discussing the place of control theories in sociological theorizing on deviance and control, the chapter examines its role in criminology, citing the work of scholars such as Travis Hirschi, David Matza, and Ron Clarke. It also describes the ‘routine activity theory’ of L. Cohen and M. Felson before concluding with a review of criticisms against control theories
Chapter
9. Youth offending and youth justice
This chapter describes youth offending and youth justice: that is, offending behaviour committed by children and young people and how they are treated in the Youth Justice System. Society’s assumptions about what it means to be a child and what should be expected of children and young people in terms of their development and behaviour shape its views on and responses to youth offending. The chapter then looks at how the concepts of ‘childhood’ and ‘youth’ have been seen, theorised, and socially constructed over time, before moving on to consider explanations for youth offending and ‘delinquency’. Youth offending has tended to be explained in individualised terms, through developmental and psychological explanations. The chapter also evaluates the main formal responses to youth offending and assesses more progressive, contemporary approaches to youth offending and delivering youth justice.
