3.3 Sociological Theories

Society's account (the mainstream — the seven rivers): Social disorganization — the neighbourhood's failure of control (the unwatched streets); Strain / anomie — Merton's blocked-goals gap; Cohen's delinquent subculture as the working-class boy's status-solution; Differential association — delinquency is learned in intimate groups: the peer group as the delinquency's classroom; Control theory — Hirschi's bonds (attachment, commitment, involvement, belief): the delinquent is the unbonded youth; Labeling — the system's first intervention can FIX the identity ("delinquent" the self-fulfilling label) — the diversion doctrine's root; Subculture theories — the gang's own status system (reputation, loyalty, the focal concerns); Conflict — the age-and-class power's shadow: the young-and-poor policed more, defined more. The recent trends (the modern completions — the bonus layer): Developmental-and-life-course criminology — the age-crime curve's science; Moffitt's typology: adolescence-limited (the majority) vs. life-course-persistent (the minority) — most delinquents stop by themselves; Biosocial interactionism — the gene-environment interplay (the risk pile-up); The desistance research — the exit's science (work, marriage, identity-change) — the evidence for records' sealing; The restorative-and-community turn — the harm-and-repair frame. The interaction verdict (the closing paragraph — the exam's synthesis): no single-cause delinquency — the biology (vulnerability) × the psychology (risk) × the society (opportunity) — and each theory pays a different policy: the biological → the health-and-development intervention; the psychological → the school-and-counselling window; the sociological…