Deviance
A violation of social norms defining appropriate or proper behavior under a particular set of circumstances. Deviance often includes criminal acts.
Theory
A set of interrelated propositions that attempt to describe, explain, predict, and ultimately control some class of events. A theory is strengthened by its logical consistency and is "tested" by how well it describes and predicts reality.
Hypothesis
An explanation that accounts for a set of facts and that can be tested by further investigation. Also, something that is taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
Research
The use of standardized, systematic procedures in the search for knowledge.
Interdisciplinary Theory
An approach that integrates a variety of theoretical viewpoints in an attempt to explain something, such as crime and violence.
Classical School
An eighteenth-century approach to crime causation and criminal responsibility that grew out of the Enlightenment and that emphasized the role of free will and reasonable punishments. Classical thinkers believed that punishment, if it is to be an effective
Neoclassical Criminology
A contemporary version of classical criminology that emphasizes deterrence and retribution and that holds that human beings are essentially free to make choices in favor of crime and deviance or conformity to the law.
Rational Choice Theory
A perspective on crime causation that holds that criminality is the result of conscious choice. Rational choice theory predicts that individuals will choose to commit crime when the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs of disobeying the law.
Routine Activities Theory
A neoclassical perspective that suggests that liefestyles contribute significantly to both the amount and the type of crime found in any society.
Biological School
A perspective on criminological thought that holds that criminal behavior has a physiological basis.
Phrenology
The study of the shape of the head to determine anatomical correlates of human behavior.
Atavism
A condition characterized by the existence of features thought to be common in earlier stages of human evolution.
Positivist School
An approach to criminal justice theory that stresses the application of scientific techniques to the study of crime and criminals.
Somatotyping
The classification of human beings into types according to body build and other physical characteristics.
Supermale
A human male displaying the XYY chromosome structure.
Psychological School
A perspective on criminological thought that views offensive and deviant behavior as the product of dysfunctional personality. Psychological thinkers identify the conscious, and especially the subconscious, contents of the human psyche as major determinan
Behavioral Conditioning
A psychological principle that holds that the frequency of any behavior can be increased or decreased through reward, punishment, and association with other stimuli.
Psychoanalysis
A theory of human behavior, based on the writings of Sigmund Freud, that sees personality as a complex composite of interacting mental entities.
Psychopathology
The study of pathological mental conditions that is, mental illness.
Psychopath
A person with a personality disorder, especially one manifested in aggressively antisocial behavior, which is often said to be the result of a poorly developed superego.
Psychosis
A form of mental illness in which sufferers are said to be out of touch with reality.
Schizophrenic
A mentally ill individual who suffers from disjointed thinking and possibly from delusions and hallucinations.
Psychological Profiling
The attempt to categorize, understand, and predict the behavior of certain types of offenders based on behavioral clues they prove.
Dangerousness
The likelihood that a given individual will later harm society or others. Dangerousness is often measuresd in terms of recidivism, or the likelihood that an individual will commit another crime within five years following arrest or release from confinemen
Chicago School
A sociological approach that emphasizes demographics and geographics and that sees the social disorganization that characterizes delinquency areas as a major cause of criminality and victimization.
Social Disorganization
A condition said to exist when a group is faced with social change, uneven development of culture, maladaptiveness, disharmony, conflict, and lack of consensus.
Anomie
A socially pervasive condition of normlessness. Also, a disjunction between approved goals and means.
Reaction Formation
The process whereby a person openly rejects that which he or she wants or aspires to but cannot obtain or achieve.
Subculture of Violence
A cultural setting in which violence is a traditional and often accepted method of dispute resolution.
Defensible Space Theory
The belief that an area's physical features may be modified and structured so as to reduce crime rates in that area and to lower the fear of victimization that residents experience.
Broken Windows Thesis
A perspective on crime causation that holds that the physical deterioration of an area leads to higher crime rates and an increased concern for personal safety among residents.
Social Process Theory
A perspective on criminological thought that highlights the process of interaction between individuals and society. Most social process theories highlight the role of social learning.
Social Learnin Theory
A psychological perspective that says that people learn how to behave by modeling themselves after others whom they ahve the opportunity to observe.
Containment
The aspects of the social bond and of the personality that act to prevent individuals from committing crimes and engaging in deviance.
Labeling Theory
A social process perspective that sees continued crime as a consequence of the limited opportunities for acceptable behavior that follow from the negative responses of society to those defined as offenders.
Moral Enterprise
The process undertaken by an advocacy goup to have its values legitimated and embodied in law.
Social Development Theory
An integrated view of human development that points to the process of interaction among and between individuals and society as the root cause of criminal behavior.
Life Course Perspective
An approach to explaining crime and deviance that investigates developments and turning pons i the course of a person's life.
Conflict Perspective
A theoretical approach that holds that crime is the natural consequence of economic and other social inequities. Conflict theorists highlight the stresses that arise among and within social groups as the compete with one another for resources and for surv
Radical Criminology
A conflict perspective that sees crime as engendered by the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and other resources, which adherents believe is especially characteristics of capitalist societies
Peacemaking Criminology
A perspective that holds that crime control agencies and the citizens they serve should work together to alleviate social problems and human suffering and thus reduce crime.
Feminist Criminology
A developing intellectual approach that emphasizes gender issues in criminology.
Constitutive Criminology
The study of the process by which human beings create an ideology of crime that sustains the notion of crime as a concrete reality.
Postmodern nCriminology
A branch of criminology that developed after World War II and that builds on the tenets of postmodern social thought.
Deconstructionists Theory
One of the emerging approaches that challenges existing criminological perspectives to debunk them and that works toward replacing them with concepts more applicable to the postmodern era.