Travis Hirschi: Causes of Delinquency
Hirschi evaluated the relative validity of the three thoeries by administering a large questionnaire to junior and senior high school students, Hirschi also obtained school records and information from the police about which of the students had gotten into trouble. Hirshi preferred control theory, which he defined as the view “that delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken”, that bond has four parts: 1) attachment to people (close relationship with parents) which makes a person sensitive to the wishes of others. 2) commitment, which means investing time and energy in a conventional line of activity(such as getting a good education) where the investment would be endangered by delinquent behavior. 3) involvement, having no opportunity to deviate because all one’s time and energy is monopolized by conventional activities(extracurricular activities). 4) belief, the conviction that the norms of society are just and should be obeyed.
Hirschi helps provide a solution for deterrence applied in his research towards the youth. His research evaluates, not just one but all the three theories discussed by previous sociologists. Hirschi’s work showed that teenagers who shared much time with their parents and were more involved in school were less likely than other youngsters to commit delinquent acts. More students would react positively to this model, and thus it could be used as a deterrence to criminal behavior of the youth of America.
New York Times Article (Policing Students)
Deterrence is not only found in death penalty cases, it is also found and used in less severe cases such as young adults. An example of this is found in a New York Times article entitled, Schools Are Moving To Police Students’ Off-Campus Lives written by Tamar Lewin. This article is about school’s who wanted to police their students’ off-campus lives. Lewin goes into the problems of today’s young people, such as drugs, gangs and today’s families. He states that “Schools are, by default, what people look to. And when the Supreme Court O.K.’d drug testing of student athletes in 1995, which is really testing for drugs that were taken outside of school, that was seen in some places as a green light for getting involved in behavior that takes place out of school”.(Lewin p.A4) The ruling of the Supreme Court was a law that was based on deterrence. The Court wants to deter kids from doing drugs, by giving permission to the schools to tests its students. Some schools are wondering, if the drug rates in the schools that were being testing went down because of a fear of a drug test, why not try to deter kids from joining gangs and monitor their family life. Policing students off campus would make students act in accordance to the police and other authoritative figures. The schools would be using the police as a deterrent, so the kids would act in accordance with the law and the not fear the police. It would also deter students that have already committed crimes and prevent future ones from happening. The rates of drug activity and crime in the schools that have chosen this method have gone down dramatically, and so has the amount of detention and suspension.
Conclusion
The philosophy of deterrence is used all over the world, to instill fear into those who have thought about committing crimes and to prevent those criminals from continuing to commit crimes. Deterrence should be used in all kinds of cases but it only works when it is applied. If the Criminal Justice System refuses to apply deterrence to criminals in their cases, society will suffer. Society will suffer in the light that it will give a green light to pre-offenders who might be thinking about committing a crime. If the justice system is being light on offenders, people will get the mindset that you can pretty much get away scot-free with a crime. Our justice system is letting us down, by giving those who kill and slay our loved ones, the opportunity to get out of jail. However, this all can be prevented if we will apply deterrence to all of our problems. Therefore, the philosophy of Deterrence is the answer to many of societies problems.
Bibliography
1.) Bianchi, Herman H. 1924. Justice as Sanctuary . Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
2.) Cole, George F., and Smith E. Christopher. 1996. Criminal Justice in America. Boston, Mass.: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
3.) Cramer, James A. 1978. Preventing Crime. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
4.) Fried, Joseph. 1998. “191/2-Year Term Given in Killing In Racial Clash.” New York Times, February 17. sec.A4.
5.) Hanley, Robert. 1998. “Three Men Are Jailed in New Jersey Sexual-Assault Case.” July 1.sec.3:3-4.
6.) Joyce, Jon. “Police see Motorcycles asDeterrent”http://www.ocolly.okstate.edu/issues/1996_Fall/960926/stories/harley.html. September 26, 1996.
7.) Lewin, Tamar. 1998. “Schools are Moving to Police Students’ Off-Campus Lives.” The New York Times, March 17. Sec.3:2-3.
8.) McNeil, Donald. 1998. “For Rising Crime Rate, High-Rise Jail to Match.” The New York Times, February 27, sec A:4.
9.) Navarro, Mireya. 1998. “Execution Without All the Attention.” The New York Times, February 9. sec. A:3.
10.) Roth, David. 1996. “Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior.” New York Times, January 13. sec. A: 2.
11) Weatley, Kevin. 1997. “Deterrence Helping Our Future.” New York Times, March 23. sec. A: 5.
12.) “Prosecuting adolescents as adults ineffective deterrent.” http://www.oir.ucf.edu/pubrel/UCFReport7.19.96/adolescents.html [Yahoo.com.]. July 19,1998.
13.) Berger, L. Peter 1963 Invitation to Sociology. New York, New York, Double Day Publishing.
14.) Bainbridge, William. 1997 Sociology. Hauppauge, New York. Barron’s Educational Series.
15.) Erikson, Kia 1997 Sociological Visions. Lanham, Marryland. Rowman & Littlefeild Publishers inc.
Research Paper
The Vital Tension
Deterrence
Dr. Dunn
Brian C. Herbert
Table Of Contents
IntroductionPage 1
ThesisPage 2
Definition of DeterrencePage 2
Sociology of DeterrencePage 3Robert Merton “Social Structure and Anomie”Pages 3-4Introduction to Sociological Studies:Pages 4-6
Thrasher, Sutherland
Deterrence Online ArticlePage 7
Psychology and DeterrencePages 8-9
New York Times Article (Johannesburg)Pages 9-10
New York Times Article (Nichols)Pages 10-11
New York Times Article (Tucker)Page 11
Travis Hirschi : Causes of Delinquency Page 12
New York Times Article (Policing Students)Page 13
ConclusionPage 14
Bibliography Pages 15-16