A Comparison of Strain, Social Learning, Control, and Trauma Theories of Crime

The field of criminology has been dominated by Strain, Control and Social Learning Theories, among others. More recently, research and theory has focused on the role of trauma as a predictor of criminal behavior, especially for women. However, little research has empirically compared these theories to one another. The current study examined these four major theories to determine which best explains non-violent and violent criminal behaviors. Race and sex differences were examined. The data is from a large prospective cohort design study of individuals with documented histories of physical and sexual abuse and neglect and a control group of children matched on the basis of age, sex, race, and approximate family social class who were followed up into adulthood. Information from two interviews (mean age 29 and 39) is organized into theoretical blocks based on the extent to which they are implicated in the four theoretical models. Violent and non-violent crime data are based on official arrest data. Multiple regressions were run to determine the amount of variance in criminal behavior explained by each theoretical model. General Strain Theory best predicted arrest for both crime in general and violence more specifically. There were differences by sex and race for which specific factors predicted crime. The implications of the findings in relation to theory and practice are discussed

Producción de cemento en 1950

No disponibl

Education and the Attribution of Emotion to Facial Expressions

Certain facial expressions have been proposed to be signals evolved to communicate a single specific emotion. Evidence to support this view is based primarily on university-educated Western adults. In the current study (N=96), university-educated and non-university-educated Americans were asked to label purported facial expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. Participants with no university education were significantly less likely to label the "fear face" as scared or the "disgust face" as disgusted, but more likely to label the "anger face" as angry and the "sad face" as sad. Education was also related to overall use of disgusted and angry – an effect that might help explain differences in labeling faces