CRIM 4400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Social Psychology, Travis Hirschi, White-Collar Crime
14 Sep 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
People commit crime when there are no legitimate ways to achieve socially dictated goals. Society has specific goals and ideals for citizens that is shared by most people. Different people have different resources available to them that make them more or less likely to achieve these societal goals. Discrepancy between goals and means --> causes strain --> crime. Crimes of passion don"t fit with this model. Not everyone who experiences strain actually commit crimes. People in different subcultures have different socially defined goals. Doesn"t fit white (cid:272)ollar (cid:272)ri(cid:373)e (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause these people should(cid:374)"t (cid:271)e e(cid:454)perie(cid:374)(cid:272)i(cid:374)g strai(cid:374), they are already rich and powerful and fitting the societal goals, so they should have no reason to commit crimes. Strain need not be tied to real circumstances but can also be psychological. Perceived negative experiences --> frustration --> adjustment or crime. Research: most strain relates to financial concerns. Strain has minor positive effects on white collar crimes.
