SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Tony Platt, Urban Decay, Class Conflict
Document Summary
The ideas of social control theories are based on the idea that deviance is everywhere possible if it is allowed. Instead of inquiring into the causes of deviance, it assumes that it will occur, and simply asks how deviance can be controlled. Bentham: rational calculation, more pleasure and less pain: householders who lock their doors at night are expressing one aspect of such theories, the belief the opportunity in itself is a cause of crime. Haggerty: rather than attending to questions of social causation or individual pathology, situational criminology (control theory) concentrates on reducing crime through loss prevention, target hardening and enhanced visibility. A lack of conformity and presence of opportunities creates deviance. Discussion: deviance and culture crime and the full moon. The authors could find no relationship between total violence and aggression or level of violence and aggression and any phase of the moon despite the belief in among health workers of the lunar effect.