Psychology Essay: Criminology, Delinquency, and Justice

This psychology essay explores several key theories related to crime, delinquency, and justice. It begins with an overview of social learning theory, emphasizing its focus on societal influences on identity formation and learned responses. The essay then delves into cultural transmission theory within criminology, examining how community environments impact crime rates. It further discusses delinquent subcultures, analyzing how group values and norms contribute to criminal behavior. The Anomie theory, as explained by Durkheim, is then presented, focusing on the societal breakdown of norms and its impact on individual behavior. The essay also examines the study of delinquency, particularly during late adolescence, and the risk factors associated with early offending, while also touching on the 'get tough on crime' movement and its consequences. Additionally, the essay addresses landmark legal cases such as Kent v. United States, In re Gault, and Breed v. Jones, and concludes with a personal viewpoint against the death penalty, considering the offender's age and the potential for rehabilitation.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
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Answer 1: On one hand, the social learning theory takes into consideration the formation of
one’s own identity in order to become a learned response to social stimuli (Akers & Jensen,
2017). It focuses on the societal aspect of socialisation instead of individualist one. On the
other hand, social learning theory is rooted in the subject of psychology and it was shaped by
Albert Bandura.
Answer 2: The cultural transmission theory falls under the subject of criminology. Unlike the
many theories of crime, the cultural transmission theory or social disorganisation theory is
focused upon place and it tries to explain about why there are some communities that
experience high number of crimes than others (Erkens, Bettinger & Richerson, 2014). It
attends to the various ecologies of communities where the social institutions either fail or
success in the process of maintenance order in the public places. It is to mention that the
success of a specific community is dependent on the efficient usage of skills, energy, focus
and resources for solving the different issues and improvement in the quality of life for
deterring the criminal activity. It claims that due to failure in skills and other networking
abilities of the community companies including educational business, health care, religious
organisations etc., a particular community can experience high rates of crime through a
breakdown in the social order and because of shortage of compliance with the society rules.
Answer 3: A delinquent subculture refers to the subculture in which delinquency has become
a tradition (Nwalozie, 2015). Some of the delinquent individuals grow up for being law-
abiding citizens and the others merely get graduation in a more adult and professional forms
of criminality. The level to which the delinquent behaviour is attributable to the group values,
norms or any special interests is problematic. The observations of the street gangs
demonstrate that even among some of the most delinquent groups, the little of the group life
is involved in the delinquent behaviours and when groups like such take participation in the
delinquent episodes, majority of them do not become completely involved. The subcultures

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comprise of “the collections of different types of normative orders” (the set of practices and
rules in relation to a common value) instead of the norms related to a single value like “cool”
or “macho”. The people who belong to more than one subculture often are decent (Blackman,
2014).
Answer 4: The Anomie theory is about the explanation of concentration of crime that
depends highly on the work that was done by Durkheim. According to Durkheim, Anomie
refers to lack of norm for which society fails in regulating the behaviour of its members. In
good societies, the ambitions are restrained and also the needs of human beings are regulated
in collective manner. The strain theories claim that the concept of social order is rooted to a
cohesive set of norms and that the norms are shared by the members of community.
Conformity is the most common mode of adaptation in the theory of anomie. Apart from this,
the other modes of adaptation include innovation, retreatism, rebellion and ritualism.
Answer 5: The studies on delinquency have long been focused on the later adolescence as it
is widely assumed that it is the time when the delinquency actually peaks. It was identified
that there are many risk factors that are when combined together can be related to the starting
of early offending. It is suggested that with a review of the remedial and preventive
interventions to the child delinquency, it can be reduced. The OJJDP encourages the
educators, parents and the community of juvenile justice to make use of the information for
addressing the requirements of the young offenders by means of planning and
implementation of some more effective intervention.
Answer 5: The “get tough on crime” movement developed in the late sixties and early
seventies and this resulted in high level of increase in the drug arrests along with longer
prison sentences with some mandatory minimums, increased incarceration and low income
individuals as well as the people of colour. There was always a tension among the social

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contract and the social welfare, which is, focused on the best interests of a child versus the
incapacitation, punishment and protection of the societies from different offenses. The
tension has changed with the passage of time and has diverse notably from one jurisdiction to
other.
Answer 7- The Kent v. United States of 1966 has claimed that the hearing needs to measure
the important elements of the fair treatment and the due process. This viewpoint is reiterated,
here in relation with the juvenile court adjudication of the delinquency as a significant
requirement that is a part of the “Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of our
Constitution”. In the In re Gault (1967), the 387 U.S. 1(1967) was a landmark United States
Supreme Court decision in which the Primary Holding was that the “Due Process Clause of
14th Amendment” applies to the defendants of juvenile and the adult defendants (Williams,
2017).
Answer 8- The case of Breed b. Jones (1975) was decision of Supreme Court regarding the
application of the “Double jeopardy clause” in the junevile court proceedings (Sutton &
Jones, 2017). Gary Jones of 17 years old was found guilty of the action that would be claimed
to as robbery if he was an adult. The Supreme Court of Appeals of U.S for the Ninth Circuit
got reversed. The court also reasoned that the application of the double jeopardy will not
impede the juvenile courts.
Answer 9- To my opinion, death penalty is morally wrong and is unjust. When a person
murders someone else, the true punishment is not to kill him, but to try assist him in being a
better person and help him out. After all, we do not steal from a thief or rape the rapist. The
death penalty seems to be taking away the focus from the victims and focus the entire
attention on the criminal. I am against the death penalty and whatever it stands for. Also, the
court must take into consideration the age of the offender.

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References:
Akers, R.L. and Jensen, G.F., 2017. The empirical status of social learning theory of crime
and deviance: The past, present, and future. In Taking stock (pp. 37-76). Routledge.
Blackman, S. (2014). Subculture theory: An historical and contemporary assessment of the
concept for understanding deviance. Deviant behavior, 35(6), 496-512.
Eerkens, J.W., Bettinger, R.L. and Richerson, P.J., 2014. Cultural transmission theory and
hunter-gatherer archaeology. The Oxford handbook of the archaeology and
anthropology of hunter–gatherers, pp.1127-1142.
Nwalozie, C. J. (2015). Rethinking subculture and subcultural theory in the study of youth
crime–A theoretical discourse.
Sutton, J. S., & Jones, B. (2017). The Certiorari Process and State Court Decisions. Harv. L.
Rev. F., 131, 167.
Williams, L. M. (2017). In re Gault. The Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency and Justice,
1-4.