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Family in Context: (Re)entry Narratives of Formerly Incarcerated Individuals
Jennifer Cossyleon
2012
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What Have We Learned from Five Decades of Neutralization Research?
shadd maruna
Crime and Justice, 2005
Sykes and Matza's neutralization theory, though a popular framework for understanding deviant behavior, remains badly underdeveloped in the criminological literature. In particular, few attempts have been made to connect it to narrative and sociocognitive research in psychology and related fields. From the perspective of this wider context, it appears that one reason neutralization theory has received only mixed empirical support is that it has been understood as a theory of criminal etiology. This makes little sense (how can one neutralize something before they have done it?). It also makes the theory difficult to test. Neutralization should instead be seen as playing a role in persistence in or desistance from criminal behavior. Additionally, the theory's central premises need to be substantially complicated. The notions that all excuses or justifications are ''bad'' and that reform involves ''accepting complete responsibility'' for one's actions are not tenable. Sykes and Matza were right to draw attention to self-understandings and attributions, but criminology was wrong in seeing neutralization theory as the last word on cognition in criminal behavior. And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse. (Shakespeare, King John)
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Excuses, Excuses: What Have We Learned From Five Decades of Neutralization Research?
Shadd Maruna, Heith Copes
Crime and justice: A review of research, 2005
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Discipline, Shaming and Antisocial Attitude in Philadelphia Middle Schools
Philip Kavanaugh, Jonathan Lee
Sociological Spectrum, 2015
The U.S. school system has changed fundamentally in its basic approach to social control in recent decades, with harsh approaches to student discipline having increased in popularity despite data showing pronounced and steady declines in incidents of both school violence and juvenile delinquency. This study revisits a sample of students in the Philadelphia School District to examine how perceptions of school rules and administration are associated with antisocial attitudes among students who were recently disciplined. The analysis included measures of interdependency, shaming, and peer association derived from reintegrative shaming theory. Findings from multiple regression analysis show that students who perceived their sanction as reintegrative in the school context were less likely to hold antisocial attitudes. Implications of the findings are discussed.
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Crime, shame, and reintegration
John Braithwaite
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK hup: //www.cup.cam.ac.uV 40 West ...
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A Test of a Micro-Level Application of Sharing Theory
Social Problems
Using self-projected measures of criminal behavior obtained from a telephone survey, we investigate the predictive ability of four variables central to individual-level application of Braithwaite's shaming theory: participation in gossip, having been reintegratively shamed, having been the object of gossip, and having been stigmatically shamed. The results are partially supportive of the theory. Contrary to expectations, the theoretical inhibitory shaming variables (participation in gossip and being reintegratively shamed) do not reduce projected misbehavior. Consistent with predictions, however, theorized crime-generative shaming variables (having been the object of gossip and having been stigmatically shamed) do appear to increase the chances of several forms of misbehavior. In addition, individuals' interdependency does not enhance the effects of the inhibitory shaming variables and has only limited and contradictory effects in enhancing the effects of crime-generative shaming variables. Results suggest that the theory needs clarification and that it may need further refinement to specify more carefully the conditions under which shaming processes inhibit or enhance criminal probabilities.
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Delinquency
Christopher J Schreck, Joanna D Frazier
Encyclopedia of Adolescence, 2024
Juvenile delinquency is an enduring social phenomenon that continues to draw scholarly interest. In this encyclopedia chapter, we provide an overview of the historical development of the concept of juvenile delinquency. We also review the different data sources that researchers, policymakers, and the public can use to assess patterns and trends in juvenile delinquency. For example, we show how both administrative and self-report data show a long-standing decline in violent, property, and drug offenses perpetrated by youth. In the remainder of the chapter, we summarize the major theoretical explanations of crime committed by juveniles.
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Assessing Jail Inmates' Proneness To Shame and Guilt: Feeling Bad About the Behavior or the Self?
Mark Hastings, June Tangney
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2011
This study of 550 jail inmates (379 male and 171 female) held on felony charges examines the reliability and validity of the Test of Self Conscious Affect -Socially Deviant Version (TOSCA-SD; as a measure of offenders' proneness to shame and proneness to guilt. Discriminant validity (e.g., vis-à-vis self-esteem, negative affect, social desirability/ impression management) and convergent validity (e.g., vis-à-vis correlations with empathy, externalization of blame, anger, psychological symptoms, and substance use problems) was supported, paralleling results from community samples. Further, proneness to shame and guilt were differentially related to widely used risk measures from the field of criminal justice (e.g., criminal history, psychopathy, violence risk, antisocial personality). Guilt-proneness appears to be a protective factor, whereas there was no evidence that shame-proneness serves an inhibitory function. Subsequent analyses indicate these findings generalize quite well across gender and race. Implications for intervention and sentencing practices are discussed.
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BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: ROMANTIC DISSOLUTION, OFFENDING, AND SUBSTANCE USE DURING THE TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD*
Matthew Larson
Criminology, 2012
Recent studies have directed attention to the nature of romantic involvement and its implications for offending over the life course. However, this body of research has overlooked a defining aspect of nonmarital romantic relationships: Most come to an end. By drawing on insights from general strain theory, the age-graded theory of informal social control, and research on delinquent peer exposure, we explore the impact of romantic dissolution on offending and substance use during late adolescence and emerging adulthood. Using data from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we arrive at three general conclusions: 1) Experiencing a breakup is directly related to a range of antisocial outcomes; 2) the effect of a breakup is dependent on postbreakup relationship transitions; and 3) a breakup is associated with increases in offending and substance use among males and in substance use among females. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for the future of research on romantic involvement and crime over the life course.
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Chapter 29 Social Inequality , Crime , and Deviance
Ross Matsueda
2013
This chapter examines the role of social inequality in crime and deviance by specifying a social psychological theory of the causal mechanisms by which inequality is associated with crime. We begin by noting that the powerful have more input into the content of criminal law, a point illustrated by the relatively soft penalties for white collar and corporate crimes compared to the harsh penalties for street crimes typically committed by the less powerful. We then draw on pragmatist social thought and criminological theory to provide an integrated social psychological explanation that helps explain how social inequality may produce high rates of crime. We apply this perspective to explain crime rates across neighborhoods and communities, as well as crime across the life course. We end with a discussion of the consequences of mass incarceration for reproducing social inequality in the United States.
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