Juvenile Delinquency Theory, Practice, and Law 12th Edition by Larry J. Siegel - Test Bank

Falsely accused

Secret deviant

Conformist

Minority youth

Reintegrative

• Symbolic interaction theory holds that people communicate via symbols—gestures signs, words, or images—that stand for or represent something else.
  • For example, when you see a person with a gold ring on the fourth finger of his left hand you know he is married. The ring is not merely a piece of jewelry but a representation or symbol of the wearer’s status. It tells you that he lives a conventional lifestyle, is most likely emotionally stable, ready for commitment, and so on.
  • Wearing an expensive watch such as a Rolex symbolizes that the owner is successful, wealthy, and confident; this is referred to as a status symbol. A Rolex may keep no better time than a Timex, yet one conveys an image of wealth and success and the other of thrift and frugality.
  • Sometimes symbols take the form of a gesture. If a guy asks a girl out on a date and she rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and turns her back, he quickly gets the message: This is not going to work.  Body language is open to interpretation and can be easily misread.
• People often interpret symbolic gestures from others and incorporate them in their self-image. When a teacher puts an A on your paper, it tells you that you are an excellent student, and the symbol pumps up your self-image.
• Symbols are also used by people to let others know how well they are doing and whether they are liked or appreciated.
• How people view reality depends on the content of the messages and situations they encounter, their subjective interpretation of these interactions, and how this shapes future behavior.
• There is no objective reality; people interpret the reactions of others, and this interpretation assigns meaning. Because interpretation changes over time, so do the meanings of concepts and symbols.
• Student views will vary.

• Young people who perceive that they have been negatively labeled by significant others such as peers and teachers are also more likely to self-report delinquent behavior and to adopt a deviant self-concept.
• They are likely to seek out deviant friends and join gangs, associations that escalate their involvement in criminal activities.
• Parental labeling is extremely damaging because it may cause adolescents to seek deviant peers whose behavior amplifies the effect of the labeling.
• Children negatively labeled by their parents routinely suffer a variety of problems, including antisocial behavior and school failure.
• This process has been observed in the United States and abroad, indicating that the labeling process is universal.
• In addition to these informal labels, official labels from the juvenile justice system can also have a devastating effect.
• An official label increases the risk of adolescents later dropping out of high school; rather than deterring crime, court intervention increases the likelihood of future criminality.
• The younger the adolescent, the more powerful the influence of the negative label on their self-image.
• Student views will vary.​

​

• Primary deviance involves norm violations or crimes that have very little influence on the actor and can be quickly forgotten.
  • For example, a college student takes a “five-finger discount” at the campus bookstore. He successfully steals a textbook, uses it to get an A in a course, goes on to graduate, is admitted into law school, and later becomes a famous judge. Because his shoplifting goes unnoticed, it is a relatively unimportant event that has little bearing on his future life.
• Secondary deviance occurs when a deviant event comes to the attention of significant others or social control agents who apply a negative label.

o   The newly labeled offender then reorganizes his or her behavior and personality around the consequences of the deviant act.

o   The shoplifting student is caught by a security guard and expelled from college. With his law school dreams dashed and his future cloudy, his options are limited; people who know him say he “lacks character,” and he begins to share their opinion. He eventually becomes a drug dealer and winds up in prison.

• Secondary deviance involves resocialization into a deviant role as it produces a deviance amplification effect.
• Offenders feel isolated from the mainstream of society and become firmly locked within their deviant role. They may seek out others similarly labeled to form deviant subcultures or groups.
• Ever more firmly enmeshed in their deviant role, they are locked into an escalating cycle of deviance, apprehension, more powerful labels, and identity transformation.
• The concept of secondary deviance expresses the core of social reaction theory: Deviance is a process in which a person’s identity is transformed.
• Efforts to control the offenders, whether by treatment or punishment, simply help lock them in their deviant role.
• Student views will vary.

​

• Youth who engage in delinquency and also get caught and labeled are called pure deviants.
• Conformists are both rule-abiding and free of negative labels.
• Some youth are falsely accused or blamed for something they did not do, while others who continually break rules are able to avoid labeling; these are called secret deviants.
• Pure deviants are the youths most likely to repeat their antisocial activities, while conformists are the ones most likely to stay straight and never engage in antisocial behaviors.
• If labeling theory is valid, then the falsely accused will be more likely to become secondary deviants (i.e., chronic offenders) than the secret deviants.
• While the latter may be more troubled, because they have escaped the labeling process they are not affected by negative stigma.
• According to social reaction theory, negative labels, even false ones, are the critical element that create secondary deviance and result in a delinquent career.
• Student views will vary.​

​

• An important principle of social reaction theory is that the law is differentially applied, benefiting those who hold economic and social power and penalizing the powerless.
• The probability of being brought under the control of legal authority is a function of a person’s race, wealth, gender, and social standing. While wealthy white-collar criminals are most often punished by a relatively small fine, poor youths who get involved in street crimes, such as burglary or car theft, most often face incarceration and other harsh punishments.
• While substantive and procedural laws govern almost every aspect of the American justice system, discretionary decision making controls its operation at every level.
• From the police officer’s decision on whom to arrest, to the prosecutor’s decisions on whom to charge and how many and what kind of charges to bring or whether to treat the offender as a juvenile or prosecute in adult court, to the judge’s decision on the length of the sentence, discretion works to the detriment of minorities, including African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.
• While differential labeling may be the norm, some juvenile court judges may sympathize with White defendants and help them avoid delinquent labels, especially if they seem to come from “good families,” whereas minority youths are not afforded that luxury.
• A major premise of social reaction theory is that racial, age, income, and gender differences in the delinquency rate reflect the fact that the law is differentially constructed and applied.
• It favors the powerful members of society who direct its content and penalizes people whose actions represent a threat to those in control, such as minority group members and the poor who demand equal rights.
• If the law were totally unbiased, official data would reflect self-report studies, which show that delinquency is spread equally among racial and class groups.
• Student views will vary.

​

• Stigmatized as “troublemakers,” adolescents may begin to incorporate the label into their own self-image: “If everyone says I am a troublemaker, it must be true.”
• Although labels may not have caused adolescents to initiate delinquent behaviors, once applied, they increase the likelihood of persistent offending because the adolescent now has a “damaged identity.”
• Damaged identities follow adolescents around and may never go away.
• Their bad behavior can even be captured by cell phone cameras and be on the Internet almost instantly. A damaged identity provokes some adolescents into repeating their antisocial behaviors, creating new labels and amplifying old ones; this creates what is called a cumulative disadvantage.
• Bearing a negative label limits conventional opportunities, such as educational attainment and employment.
• Delinquents who were labeled in adolescence are much more likely to engage in crime in early adulthood unless they are able to overcome labels and do well in school and obtain meaningful employment.
• Student views will vary.

​

• Technological advances such as efficient and widespread commercial airline traffic, improvements in telecommunications (ranging from global cell phone connectivity to the Internet), and the growth of international trade, have all aided the growth in illicit transnational activities.
• These changes have facilitated the cross-border movement of goods and people, conditions exploited by criminals who now use Internet chat rooms to plan their activities.
• Gangs can now cross unpatrolled borders to expand their activities to new regions of the world.
• Transnational crime groups freely exploit this new freedom to travel to regions where they cannot be extradited, base their operations in countries with ineffective or corrupt law enforcement, and launder their money in countries with bank secrecy or few effective controls.
• Globalization has allowed both individual offenders and criminal gangs to gain tremendous operational benefits while reducing risks of apprehension and punishment.
• Student views will vary.

​

• In the lowest classes, youths form gangs, which can be found in the most desolated ghetto areas.
• These gangs serve as a means of survival in a system that offers no reasonable alternative.
• Lower-class youths who live in more stable areas are on the fringe of delinquent activity because the economic system excludes them from meaningful opportunity.
• In regard to middle-class delinquency, the alienation of individuals from one another, the competitive struggle, and the absence of human feeling—all qualities of capitalism—contribute to middle-class delinquency.
• Because capitalism is dehumanizing, it is not surprising that even middle-class youths turn to drugs, gambling, and illicit sex to find escape.
• Student views will vary.

​

• Community. Communities that isolate people and have few mechanisms for interpersonal interaction encourage and sustain delinquency. Those that implement forms of community, engage in dialogue to identify problems, and plan tactics for their elimination guided by restorative justice practices and principles may create a climate in which violent crime is less likely to occur.
• Schools. Some schools have embraced restorative justice practices to deal with students involved in drug and alcohol abuse without resorting to more punitive measures such as expulsion. Schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and elsewhere are now trying to involve students in “relational rehabilitation” programs that strive to improve individuals’ relationships with key figures in the community who may have been harmed by their actions.
• Police. Restorative justice has also been implemented by police when crime is first encountered. The new community policing models are an attempt to bring restorative concepts into law enforcement. Restorative justice relies on the fact that policy makers need to listen and respond to the needs of those who will be affected by their actions, and community policing relies on policies established with input and exchanges between officers and citizens.
• Courts. Restorative programs in the courts typically involve diverting the formal court process. These programs encourage meeting and reconciling the conflicts between offenders and victims via victim advocacy, mediation programs, and sentencing circles, in which crime victims and their families are brought together with offenders and their families in an effort to formulate a sanction that addresses the needs of each party. Victims are given a chance to voice their stories, and offenders can help compensate them financially or provide some service (such as fixing damaged property). The goal is to enable offenders to appreciate the damage they have caused, to make amends, and to be reintegrated into society.
• Student answers will vary.

​

• According to the balanced approach, the juvenile justice system should give equal weight to offender accountability, competency development, and community protection.
• Holding offenders accountable to victims. Offender accountability refers specifically to the requirement that offenders make amends for the harm resulting from their crimes by repaying or restoring losses to victims and the community.
• Providing competency development for offenders in the system so they can pursue legitimate endeavors after release. Competency development, the rehabilitative goal for intervention, requires that people who enter the justice system should exit the system more capable of being productive and responsible in the community.
• Ensuring community safety. The community protection goal explicitly acknowledges and endorses a long-time public expectation—a safe and secure community.
• The balanced approach means that justice policies and priorities should seek to address each of the three goals in each case and that system balance should be pursued.
• The goal of achieving balance suggests that no one objective can take precedence over any other without creating a system that is “out of balance” and implies that efforts to achieve one goal (e.g., offender accountability) should not hinder efforts to achieve other goals.
• Student views will vary.

​