CJ 406
Fall 2004
Questions for readings
ANDERSON "Code of the Street"?
What is the "code of the street"? [Pay close attention as you read Anderson to the definitions he provides.] Be specific. Does Anderson at times offer competing definitions?
What are the code's positive impacts? Give a specific example. At what levels do these/do this take place? What are it's negative impacts? Give a specific example. At what level do these occur? {When asking about level, you can think across psychological, social psychological, and community levels.)
What are the causes of the code of the street? (Be specific about levels of analysis and time frames, but be succinct as well.)
What is the decency code? Who represents that?
Explain the connection between the rise of the code of the street and: police behavior and shifting confidence in the criminal justice system. Give one specific example of police or criminal justice system actions that is/are relevant to this point.
Is the code of the street a theory? Explain your answer.
How many codes does Anderson talk about?
The analysis of the "code of the street" relies on several different underlying theoretical perspectives at different points including: dramaturgical (See E. Goffman "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life"), social capital, strain, cultural/subcultural, and game theory. Can you give examples of how each of these link to his analysis?
The "code of the street" is space and age graded. Explain this, and give an example of each.
What are staging areas and why are they important?
What is "code switching", why do people do it, and what are the short and long term advantages and disadvantages of code switching, both for those within and outside the community? (Note the last part of this question sets up a 2 X 2 X 2 table for you to fill out.)
Does Anderson's "Code of the street" present us with an integrated model for delinquency and violence? Answer yes or no, being sure to explain what you mean by "integrated."
Does the "code of the street" cause more violence? Less violence? Or Both? Different types of violence? Explain, with at least one specific example.
How does Anderson connect macro-level economic shifts with changes in household composition and street life in lower income, African-American Philadelphia neighborhoods. If you can give a specific example, that's great.
Do you think the code of the street is specific to African-American, lower income neighborhoods? Would it / does it also apply to lower income Hispanic neighborhoods? Explain.
For Anderson, do gangs "cause" violence or crime, or lead to these outcomes, and if so, in what ways?
MESSNER AND ROSENFELD - In addition to the questions/points below, you want to be sure you understand Figure 4-2 on p. 85 (first edition)
What is their level of analysis? More generally, what are their scope conditions?
What is "The American Dream?" (TAD) What does it mean that it has both a cognitive and evaluative component? Comment on the adequacy of the evidence M&R introduce to support their claim about both the pervasiveness of TAD in the US and the derived over-emphasis of economic goals and anything goes, relative to other societies. What is the "dark side" ["Search your heart Luke. You know it is true. I am your father."] of TAD? What are the "specific value commitments" of TAD?
M&R make the case that much crime is "self help" - this then fits their argument about how crime is "driven" by TAD. In light of this, do you think their theory is a "general theory" of crime? Compare and contrast how "general" their theory is in relation to Wilcox et al. or G&H.
Do M&R think the gun culture is to blame for current high violent crime rates? In what ways does the presence of the gun culture underscore their analysis of American society?
Do M&R think economic inequality is a big/the biggest part of the problem in terms of social structural antecedent causes? How does this contrast with LaFree?
How do M&R get to the conclusion that "Crime ... can be viewed as an ordinary and predictable response to prevailing sociocultural conditions"? [This is really a very tough question and answering it would require fully explicating not only TAD but even more importantly issues of institutional imbalance and how those are connected to anomie, with the latter, of course, being very clearly defined.]
How does the US compare to other "western" or "first world" countries on violent crime rates? What implications do M&R draw from this? Do they think ethnic heterogeneity explains our comparatively higher rates (can focus specifically on homicide)? why?
What is the process of "institutional engulfment"?
According to M&R, is crime a social fact? Explain. How is their view different from the authors we have read so far?
What is culture? What is social structure? Why must they be kept distinct? In what ways is it "wrong" to keep them distinct?
You want to understand the basic ideas behind social learning theory, social control theory, and strain theory; and why each of them is social psychological in nature; and why cultural deviance theories, social disorganization theory, and anomie theory are, respectively, the macro counterparts of each. What do M&R mean when they say the "dominant theoretical perspectives" have become "'hybrid'" theories?
What is Sutherland's definition of "differential association"? (commit to memory)
What do they mean when they say cultural "'deviance' theories are not theories of deviance at all"?
What are their criticisms of the cultural-social learning perspective? (important)
What are their criticisms of the social disorganization-control perspective? (important)
What does it mean to say Shaw and McKay's model is a "mixed" model?
What does it mean to say that "any explanation of crime that fully exploits the sociological paradigm will be, to one degree or another, a mixed model explanation"?
In what ways according to M&R is the anomie-strain theory less "deficient" than the cultural learning or social disorganization-control perspectives?
According to Merton (who was a Temple grad), in what two ways does "social organization" "produce" crime?
What are the criticisms of Merton's anomie theory, and how do M&R respond?
How is it that anomie indicates absence of culture, but is also a product of culture?
For M&R, what is the "basic shortcoming" in Merton's explanation of crime, and how do they fix it?
What is the "distinctive institutional balance of power" in American society, and why is it important?
M&R talk about some of same 3 institutions as does LaFree (M&R actually have 4). In what way is their treatment of education and family different from his? The same? Both M&R and LaFree talk about "weak institutions." How, for M&R, do the consequences of weak institutions differ from the consequences LaFree talks about? (this is perhaps too subtle a point for us to get to....)
According to M&R, how have the liberal and conservative crime control agendas BOTH missed the boat? What are their solutions? Can you see how specific components of their solution tie to their general model? Take one example and talk us through the connection. Give one example from both the conservative and liberal control perspective of initiatives that have made matters worse.
What does it mean to say crime control in this country is "without limits?" What are the impacts of this?
LAFREE - in addition to thinking about the questions below, you want to be sure that you understand each and every one of the charts that he includes, and how those relate to the general model he is proposing.
What is the outcome to be explained; i.e., what is the focus?
On what bases does he select UCR" On what bases does he say we should take it seriously?
What, descriptively, are the characteristics of the changes in serious crime from the 50s to the early 90s (what are the three periods)?
Why are biological or psychological theories inadequate to explaining his outcome?
In what ways is anomie theory perhaps inadequate?
How does he define institutions?
For each of his three key institutions, describe the specific processes linking changes in the legitimacy of that institution to changes in crime rates.
How does he define legitimacy?
What kinds of political changes do we see in this period?
What kinds of economic changes?
WHen looking at economic changes, is absolute or relative inequality more important and why? Can you see how this connects to the legitimacy issues?
What kinds of political changes?
What kinds of family changes?
Describe the institutional responses to changes in crime rates? Can you see how these may have "stabilized" crime rates or helped them decline?
For what reasons might the effects of the criminal justice system responses to crime be especially ineffective among African-American populations?
Which of the policy recommendations he makes, based on his model, do you find most closely connected with his argument and his evidence?
WILCOX ET AL. (Note. Depending on how time goes, we may de-emphasize the discussion of Chapter 5. But you still want to work on this.)
GOTTFREDSON AND HIRSCHI