Whereas it remains true that African-Americans and other racial minorities continue to be overrepresented in the American prison population, both common sense and the general consensus of the criminal justice community and sociological experts suggest that this hardly a direct function of race. Rather, it merely reflects the unfortunate correlation between poverty, comparative lack of educational and employment opportunities in the American urban centers where many minorities reside, as well as of the social values that tend to prevail in many of those impoverished communities (Schmalleger 1997).
First, the quality of public school facilities and programs is directly related to the economic realities of their surrounding areas; second, within many segments of minority urban social culture, education is not valued the way it is in middle class and upper class communities and students who make the effort to apply themselves academically are more likely to be targeted for ridicule by other students than admired; and third, the urban environment is often dominated by street gangs and a criminal culture that elevates criminals to positions of perceived status on the streets (Pinizzotto 2007).
To make matters worse, urban gangs tend to recruit prospects for membership among middle school aged children who are both easily impressed by criminal role models and equally susceptible to intimidation and predatory victimization when they resist associating with neighborhood gang "sets" (Pinizzotto 2007). As a result, even exemplary parents who provide appropriate messages and parenting styles encounter difficulty when their efforts at home are contradicted by attitudes and values prevailing within the community to which their children are continually exposed.
Genetic Predisposition to Criminality:
As is the case with regard to every other conceivable aspect of human behavior, genetics contributes various components of predisposition to criminal activity.
Generally, children whose parents are athletic are more likely to be athletic; children whose parents value education are more likely to pursue advanced education; and children whose parents tend toward violence or who lack self-control are more likely than children of pacifists to have criminal records. However, the difficulty ascribing differences in human behavior to genes or environmental influence is in distinguishing inherent genetic tendencies...
(Nofziger, 2001, p. 10) All sociological (subculture) theories do not blame the parents of deviant children for bad parenting, some in fact say it isn't an abundance of bad parenting but a lack or limitation of positive parenting in a subculture that has peers training individual children, regardless of risk status to be deviant. (Brendtro, Mitchell & Mccall, 2007, p. 200) Most stress the need for parents to reassert focus on
Self-Control Theory and ADHD Self-Control Theory Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) General Crime Theory, now referred to as the theory of self-control, remains one of the most well-known theories (Tibbetts & Gibson, 2002). Low self-control remains the main component of their theory. The time-stable individual difference that regulates behavior is low self-control. From what I learnt, individuals who have low self-control are mainly due to poor or ineffective parenting techniques during the early
A third would prove less immediately apparent. One respondent remembered with mild embarrassment a time when he was caught shoplifting a candy bar. He was 7 years old and was in a convenience mart with his mother. He asked her if she would buy him a Snickers Bar and she refused. She told him she didn't have the money for it right then. Therefore, when she turned her back, he
Low Self -Control Theory This theory deviates from the emphasis on informal relational controls and concentrates instead on individual controls. Through effective parenting practices of discipline and monitoring, some kids develop the ability to appropriately react to situations requiring deferred gratification planning. Delinquency is observed more frequently among males than females. One explanation for this is the divergent etiologies of delinquency for females and males. Males might be relatively more susceptible
Criminal Behavior Approaches to Understand Criminal Behavior Psychological Approaches Sociological Approaches Biological Approaches Psychosurgery Chemical Methods of Control Imagine yourself having a walk in the premises of your house and a stone come flying through the boundary wall and hits you. As a layman, one might face difficulty in defining this incident. It can be termed as an assault, an act of violence or a criminal offence. This is a layman's term to define this act but
" These authors purport that although mood and behaviour may constitute a vital part in disorderly outcomes of drinking scenarios, other social factors can equally contribute influences. These factors, according to these authors, can be categorized by the following factors: the attitude and motivations that young binge drinkers bring to drinking, the social and peer group norms under which they operate, and features relating to the drinking environment. Reasonable Investigations In the journal
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