SOCIOL 1Z03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Erving Goffman, Symbolic Interactionism, Cesare Lombroso

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCIOL 1Z03
• Professor: Dr. Lina Samuel

Document Summary

11:11 pm: what is criminology, "the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. Informal and formal social control: classic criminology, rational choice theory, behaviour is not the result of supernatural forces, but rather purposeful, beccaria (1764) and bentham (1838) Intelligence - low intelligence leads to crime: the xxy theory, body type, further inquiry have ruled out/dismissed the above explanations (henslin and. Imagine a society of saints, a perfect cloister of exemplary individuals. Illegitimate opportunity theory: cloward and ohlin extend strain theory by considering specific environments, people are constrained by available opportunities. Labelling matters: symbolic interactionism, criminal behaviour learned through interaction with others, differential association theory (sutherland), people learn criminal behaviour through social interactions. "excess of definitions" lead us to conform or deviant. Law is neutral framework for maintaining social cohesion: definition of crime is a function of norms and morality, applied fairly and uniformly.