Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Volume 49 | Issue 6 Article 2

1959

An Integrated Theory of Crime and CriminalBehaviorClarence Ray Jeffery

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Recommended CitationClarence Ray Jeffery, An Integrated Theory of Crime and Criminal Behavior, 49 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 533(1958-1959)

AN INTEGRATED THEORY OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

Dr. Jeffery is, for the year 1958-59, a member of the University of Chicago faculty where he is aSenior Fellow in the Law and the Behavioral Sciences program. He is on leave from Arizona StateUniversity where he is an Assistant Professor of Sociology.

He is interested in law and the social sciences, and is currently engaged in a program of researchin criminal law and criminology. Three articles of his have been published in earlier issues of thisJOURNAL.-EDITOR.

INTRODUCTION

Two major difficulties confront criminologicaltheory at the present time. First, there is the prob-lem of integrating the sociological approach tocriminal behavior, as symbolized by Sutherland'stheory of differential association, with the psycho-logical approach, as symbolized by Freud's theoryof neurosis. The second problem is that of inte-grating a legal theory of crime with a theory ofcriminal behavior. Crime is a three dimensionalproblem: legal, psychological, and sociological.

SOCIAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL COHESION

Social relationships in modern society are char-acterized as impersonal, formal, contractual, seg-mental, heterogeneous, and anonymous. Theserelationships are the product of population growth,urbanization, and specialization of political andeconomic functions. In the political sphere theshift has been from the local, kinship-centeredtype of government to the centralized, bureau-cratic government with headquarters in Washing-ton, D. C. In the economic sphere the shift hasbeen from an agricultural economy to an industrialeconomy. Education has been removed from thecontrol of the family and placed in the hands ofthe State. Professional educators who operatewithin a bureaucratic, impersonal structure nowadminister our educational system. The family haschanged from the kinship unit to the individualisticand atomistic family of today. Recreation is nolonger participant-oriented; rather, we have cometo be a nation of spectators. We depend upon theimpersonal media of mass communication and onprofessional entertainers for our recreation. Suchterms as "mass culture", "the organization man",and the "lonely crowd" are used to describemodern social organization. Mass conformityto a mass culture is seen in all aspects of socialliving.

533

Cooley expressed this change as a transitionfrom the primary to the secondary group. Spencerviewed the movement as one from homogeneousto heterogeneous units. Durkheim viewed it as achange from mechanical to organic solidarity.Tonnies expressed the change as from Geindnschaftto Gesellschafl, from community to society. Parkand Becker talk about sacred and secular societies.Redfield uses the terms "folk society" and "urbansociety." Maine discussed the transition in termsof status and contract. Weber viewed the changein social organization as being from traditionalauthority to legal-rational authority.

In his discussion of the human group GeorgeHomans traces the disintegration of the primarygroup in modern society. "At the level of the tribe,village, the small group, at the level of the socialunit each of whose members can have first-handknowledge of each other, human society.., hasbeen able to cohere."' According to Homans,civilization is characterized by a state of lessenedsocial cohesion, social isolation, and social imper-sonalization. 2 "In a small society, a tribe for ex-ample, conformity is relatively easily achieved."13

Because the group is less dependent upon singleindividuals, modern life is characterized by a coldimpersonalization and a sense of futility. Socialimpersonalization in which close human relation-ships are lacking is a result.4 Mass society leads tothe "atomization of social groups into mentallyisolated individuals." s

1 GEORGE C. HomAxs, THE HumAN GROUP, NewYork: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1950, p. 454.2 Ibid., p. 454 ff.3 SAXON GRiu m, THE AHmERcAN CULTURE, New

York: Harper and Brothers, 1957, p. 292.4 VERN.IE S. SWEEDLum et al., MAN IN SocrTY, New

York: American Book Co., 1956, Vol. I, pp. 194-204.5 ARNOLD M. RosE, THEORY AND METHOD IN THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES, Minneapolis: University of Minne-sota Press, 1954, pp. 25-26. For a more complete dis-cussion of social control in primary and secondarygroups see PAUL H. LANDIS, SOCIAL CONTROL, New

CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

As a result of these social and economic changesthere is a widespread feeling of insecurity amongindividuals. Labor unions and social securitybenefits are attempts to gain security in a newindustrial system. Business men create combina-tions and monopolies in an effort to replace theguild system. Insurance came into existence as away of reducing risk and insecurity in the insecureeconomic world. We depend upon atomic bombsto protect us from our foreign enemies, and biggerand better prisons to protect us from our domesticenemies. We look for psychological security inmaterial possessions. We dress our weak egos inmink coats and transport them about in Cadillacsin an attempt to compensate for our feelings ofinsecurity and loneliness. We pay hotel employeesand headwaiters to make us feel important, or wepatronize cocktail bars listening to songs of loneli-ness. We read the literary works of the "angryyoung men" of England in their rebellion againstcontemporary life without meaning. We talkabout "the lost generation" or the "beat genera-tion." There has occurred a psychological changein human behavior-from group-oriented behaviorto psychopathic behavior. We judge people, notin terms of their psychological worth, but in termsof the cars they drive or the homes they occupy.

As a result of these social changes, the tribalsystem has been replaced by specialized economic,educational, political, familial, and legal institu-tions. There has been a decline in the influence ofthe primary or intimate group, and with it a de-cline in social cohesion.

CRaE AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

The concept of crime must exist before the con-cept of the criminal is possible. Anti-social behavioris not criminal behavior until the time in historywhen a system of criminal law emerged. All of thetheories of crime now put forth in criminology aretheories of criminal behavior. They attempt toexplain the behavior of the criminal. Regardless ofthe adequacy of a theory of behavior, it does notexplain why the behavior is regarded as criminal.Criminologists need a theory of crime, a theorywhich explains the origin and development ofcriminal law in terms of the institutional structureof society. Criminologists need also a theory ofbehavior which explains the behavior that islabeled criminal. A theory of behavior explainscriminal and non-criminal behavior. The difference

York: J. P. Lippincott Co., revised edition, 1956, pp.147-185.

between criminal and non-criminal behavior is notto be found in the behavior, but in the label appliedto the behavior. Modem criminologists often at-tempt to separate criminology and criminal law.They do so on the basis of the assumption that anexplanation of behavior is an explanation ofcrime. This confusion of crime and criminal be-havior is characteristic of most American crimino-logical thinking. A theory of crime as is heresuggested is based on the assumption that criminol-ogy must include within its scope the study ofcriminal law. The study of sociological juris-prudence and the sociology of law would supple-ment the study of the criminal.

A LEGAL THEORY OF CRIME

PRIMITIVE LAW

The transition in society discussed above hasbeen responsible for a shift in the legal institutionfrom primitive law to State law. Whether or notprimitive social systems are characterized by law isa debatable point and one that has occupied theattention of legal and anthropological scholars.The term "primitive law" often is used to refer tocustoms associated with the violations of primitivesocial norms. Primitive law is described in terms ofthe blood-feud, collective responsibility, and theuse of compensation in lieu of the feud in selectcases. Except for the use of force, this type ofsocial control does not resemble our modem systemof criminal law. The State has replaced the kinshipunit as the prosecutor and punisher. The Statehas a monopoly on the use of force. The feud or theprivate settlement of a conflict is not permitted bythe State. Individual responsibility has replacedcollective responsibility. Punishment by the Statehas replaced compensation to the family of theinjured.

E. A. Hoebel defines law as "a social norm theinfraction of which is sanctioned in threat or infact by the application of physical force by a partypossessing the socially recognized privilege of soacting. ' 6 Hoebel notes that primitive law is privatelaw, an injury to a kinship unit. He makes thestatement that the greater the degree of civiliza-tion, the greater the need for law. The tribe doesnot need law because "social relations in the tribeare face-to-face and intimate." Legal power shiftsfrom the kinship group to the State as the complex-

6 E. ADAmSON HOEBEL, MAN IN THE PRIMITIVEWORLD, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 2nd ed.,1958, p. 471.

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ity of culture grows. A complex society is charac-terized by criminal law, or public law7

Franz Boas makes a similar distinction betweenprimitive custom and State law.

In the study of government among primitivetribes, we encounter the same difficulties ofterminology that we find in almost all questions ofprimitive law. This may be due to our persistentinclination to substitute our modem conceptionsof law for legal conditions of an entirely differentcharacter.8

Mischa Titiev regards the emergence of law as acharacteristic of an advanced society.

Responsibility for carrying out retributionseems to follow a definite trend when one comparesvarious social systems. WThere cultures are rela-tively simple the matter of inflicting punishmenton offenders is likely to be left to the kinfolk ofthose who were injured, but in societies and cul-tures of greater development and complexity theadministration of justice is left more and more toimpersonal agencies and nonrelatives.9

LAW AND MODERN SOCIETY

If we shift our attention from primitive law toState law we find most sociologists agreeing thatlaw is characteristic of complex, heterogeneous,urban societies.

Emile Durkheim traced the changes in the legalsystem from repressive law to restitutive law. Thepurpose of repressive law is to punish the offenderand to restore social solidarity to the group. Re-pressive law is a reflection of the collective feelingsof the group. The purpose of the law of restitutionis to repair damages done to individual rights. Theformer is characteristic of mechanical solidarity, asituation in which social interaction is based uponcommon feeling and social solidarity; the latter ischaracteristic of organic solidarity, a situation inwhich social interaction is based upon a complexdivision of labor and a system of mutual inter-dependence. Organic solidarity is not based on thecohesiveness of the group or on shared feelings .10

7 Ibid., p. 483 ff.8

FRANZ BOAs, GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY, NewYork: D. C. Heath and Co., 1938, p. 487.

9 MIscHA T[Tmv, THE SCTENcE or MAN, New York:Henry Holt and Co., 1954, p. 391. See also discussionof this problem in J. S. SLOTKIN, SocrAL A-rimo-POLOGY, New York, Macmillan Co., 1950, pp. 568-586.

1o Emr DuRxHELM, DmvIsioN or LABOR, Glencoe:Free Press, 1950, p. 104 ff. IVALTER A. LUNDEN, Pio-neers in Criminology, XVI: Emile Durkhein, JouR.OF CRIm. L., CRIMINOL., AND POL. ScL, May-June,1958, p. 5 ff.

Two difficulties are encountered in connectionwith Durkheim's analysis of law. The first is thathe saw the shift in law as from criminal law to tortlaw. Actually both fields of law developed in Eng-land after the eleventh century. The shift was notfrom criminal law to tort law, but rather fromtribal law to State law, or from custom to law.Much more reliance is placed on criminal law as ameans of social control in an urban society than ina rural society.

The second difficulty encountered in Durkheim'sDivision of Labor is the belief that organic solidar-ity forms the basis for social interaction in an urbansociety. Talcott Parsons has pointed out thatDurkheim never did locate the source of solidarityin an urban society. The division of labor whichfurnishes the basis for organic solidarity in such asociety is a form of economic interdependence, butin such a society there is lacking a feeling of identi-fication of the various members of the group withone another. In his later work on suicide Durkheimposits the idea of anomie or'normlessness. He notesthat the decline in intimate, personal relationshipsin an urban society produces this state of anomie.Charles H. Cooley also challenged Durkheim'snotion of organic solidarity. Cooley suggested thatthe socialization process occurred in the primarygroup and not in the larger institutional structureof society. The primary group is the source of socialsolidarity.

Max Weber traced the principal forms of legiti-macy from the traditional to the charismatic to thelegal-rational. Within the traditional systemauthority is held by a patriarch by virtue of thetraditions surrounding his status position. Thecharismatic leader is a leader by virtue of hispersonal qualities of leadership. The authorityvested in a judge is based on the impersonal bondto the duties of the office, and the rights of theoffice are limited by rationally established normsof conduct. The legal norms are formal and imper-sonal. The military saying that we salute the officeand not the officer exemplifies Weber's legal typeof authority.

Sir Henry Maine traced the transition of lawfrom status to contract. By status Maine meantthe position one occupies as a result of his member-ship in a tribe or kinship group; by contract hemeant the voluntary agreement of individualsto certain mutual obligations.

" TACOTT PARsONs, STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL ACTION.Glencoe: Free Press, 1949, 2nd ed., p. 323 ff.

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Roscoe Pound states that "in the modern world,law has become the paramount agency of socialcontrol. Our main reliance in the society of todayis upon force of politically organized societies." 12

Pound traces the development of laws from thetribal period through the medieval period, whenthe Church acted as the agent of social control, tothe modern period when the State assumed amonopoly over the use of force and physical coer-cion.13

Blaine Mercer writes, "American society hasbecome increasingly secular, that is, cohesion isincreasingly based on contractual relations. Tradi-tions and customs become weaker, and controlstend to become more formal, institutionalized, andrational. Law takes the place of myth.' 4 FrancisMerrill states, "The massive shift from primary(family) to secondary (governmental) control ispart of a fundamental change in the structure ofsociety."15

SUMMARY

A summary of the anthropological and sociologi-cal literature pertaining to society and law indi-cates that law came into existence at a time whenthe tribal system was disintegrating, and socialcohesion was no longer available as a means ofsocial control. Primitive law is custom enforced bythe kinship group and based on the cohesiveness ofthe group. It is private and personal in nature andin operation.

Law is a product of impersonalization and thedecline in social cohesion. It is a product of urbani-zation. Law emerges in a society whenever inti-mate, personal relationships no longer exist to suchan extent as to control human interaction. Customis a powerful form of social control in a societywhere intimate relationships exist; custom is notadequate as a means of social control in a societydominated by impersonal and anonymous socialrelationships. Law replaces custom in such asociety.

A THEORY OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

The criminologist has sought the answer tocriminal behavior in physical type, mental defec-tiveness, poor heredity, psychopathology, broken

12 ROSCOE POUND, SOCIAL CONTROL THROUGH LAW,New Haven: Yale University Press, 1943, p. 20.13 Ibid., p. 20 ff.14 BLAIN MERCER, THE STUDY OF SOCIETY, New

York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1957, p. 588.15 FRANCIS E. MERRILL, SOCIETY AND CULTURE,

New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1957, p. 396.

homes, poverty, and differential association. Thetwo schools most often discussed today are thepsychological, symbolized by Freud, and thesociological, symbolized by Sutherland. A funda-mental assumption of this paper is that an integra-tion of psychological and sociological concepts willhave to be made if an adequate theory of criminalbehavior is to be formulated.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

The psychological school is based on the proposi-tion that criminals differ from non-criminals interms of personality traits which are expressed insome form of anti-social behavior. Criminal -be-havior is caused by emotional or mental conflict.There is no agreement as to what personalitytraits lead to criminality. Estimates as to thenumber of criminals who are neurotic or psychoticvaries from 5 to 98 percent.16 The psychologicaltheory does not explain the differential crime ratefor different age and sex groups, for urban areas,and for minority groups. Crime is concentratedamong young adult males who are members ofminority groups and who live in the interstitialareas of the city.

The most damaging criticism raised against thepsychological school is the observation that fewneurotics and psychotics are criminals, and mostcriminals are neither neurotic nor psychotic. Astudy of 10,000 prisoners at Sing Sing Prison re-vealed that 31 percent were dyssocial personalitiesor cultural deviates, 35 percent were anti-socialpersonalities, 20 percent were neurotics, 13 percentwere mental defectives, and 1 percent were psy-chotics." Raymond Corsini, a psychologist in theCalifornia penal system, states that 50 to 75 per-cent of the inmates fall into the so-called psycho-pathic or sociopathic group. The neurotic indi-vidual is relatively rare in prison. 8 According toSheldon Glueck, the neurotic is less criminalisticthan the non-neurotic. This observation has ledMarshall Clinard to conclude that the Glueck

11 EDWIN H. SUTHERLAND, PRINCIPLES OF CRIMIN-OLOGY, New York: J. P. Lippincott Co., 5th ed., revisedby DONALD R. CREssEY, p. 125. See also MARSHALLCLINARD, Research Frontiers in Criminology, BRITISHJOUR. or DELIN., October, 1956, pp. 110-122; MICIAEr.HAKEEM, A Critique of the Psychiatric A pproach to thePrevention of Juvenile Delinquency, SOCIAL PROB-LEMS, Winter, 1958, pp. 194-205.

1 JAMES C. COLEMAN, ABNORMAL PSYCIHOLOGY ANDMODERN LIFE, New York: Scott Foresman and Co.,2nd ed., 1956, p. 349.

'8 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CRIMINOLOGY, ed. by VERNONC. BRANHAM AND SAMUEL B. KuTAsu, New York:Philosophical Library, 1949, p. 407.

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study refutes rather than supports the thesisthat criminals are mentally disturbed individu-als.1" One of the major characteristics of neu-rotic behavior is overconformity and overcontrolof the ego by the super ego. The neurotic feels tookeenly the demands of society upon him. He wantsto please those about him in order to gain loveand affection. Coleman states that neurotic be-havior is rarely dangerous or injurious to society.20

The psychotic is defined as one who has lostcontact with reality, who suffers from emotionaldistortions, hallucinations, and delusions. Fromhis study of schizophrenia and crime H. WarrenDunham concludes that few schizophrenics com-mit crimes, and when they do they are usuallycrimes against the person.Y Since 95 percent of thecrimes reported in the Uniform Crime Reports arecrimes against property, and since only 1 percentof the Sing Sing population was classified as psy-chotic, we cannot take too seriously the notion thatpsychotics commit more than a negligible numberof crimes. The psychotic suffers from a disturbanceof reality relationships and his concepts of time,place, and persons are disorganized; thus, from thelegal point of view he is insane when judged bythe McNaghten rule. We can conclude that psy-chotic or neurotic symptoms more often than notdo not lead to ciminality. It might even be arguedthat serious psychotic or neurotic symptoms makeanti-social behavior less rather than more likely.

This leaves us with the category now referred toin abnormal psychology textbooks as character dis-orders. The essential characteristic of this group ofbehavior disturbances is the fact that the indi-vidual is acting out his anxiety and hostility. Theacting-out disorders will be discussed under thegeneral title of sociopathic personalities.

THE THEORY OF DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION

Sutherland's theory of differential association isessentially a theory of learning. It states thatcriminal behavior is learned from contact withthose who maintain criminal attitudes and prac-tices. "The process of learning criminal behavior isby association with criminal and anti-criminal

19HERBERT A. BLOCH AND FRANN T. FLYNN.DELINQUENCY, New York: Random House, 1956, p,156.

20 COLE.AN, op. cit., p. 253.21 H. WARREN DUNHAM, THE SCHIZOPHRENE AND

CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR, reprinted in CRIMINOLOGY: A13ooK OF READINGS, ed. by CLYDE B. VEDDER et al.,-New York: Dryden Press, 1953, p. 201 ff.

patterns. ,' 2 "Systematic criminal behavior is de-termined by the process of associating with thosewho commit crimes.. ."2 Sutherland's theory is anoutgrowth of the work of G. H. Mead and CharlesH. Cooley in social psychology, and the work ofRobert Park and E. W. Burgess in human ecology.The Park and Burgess theory of city growth wasdeveloped by Shaw and McKay in their studies ofthe ecological distribution of delinquency inChicago.

The following criticisms can be made of thetheory of differential association: 1. The theorydoes not explain the origin of criminality, sincecriminality has to exist before it can be learned bysomeone else. Why the first criminal act?N 2. Thetheory does not explain crimes of passion or acci-dent. 3. The theory does not explain crimes bythose with no prior contact with criminals orcriminal attitudes. 4. It does not explain the caseof the non-criminal living in a criminal environ-ment. 5. The theory does not differentiate betweencriminal and non-criminal behavior, since bothtypes of behavior can be learned. A person canbecome a dentist or a Catholic as a result of differ-ential association. 6. It does not take into accountthe psychological factor referred to as motivationor "differential response pattern." Clinard andothers have emphasized the differential responsepattern of different individuals to similar situa-tions.25 7. The theory does not account for thedifferential rate of crime associated with age, sex,urban areas, and minority groups. Why do malescommit more crimes than females, or why doNegroes commit more crimes than non-Negroes?Why are criminal patterns concentrated in certaingroups and not in others? It is no answer to saythat these groups are criminalistic because theyassociate with criminal patterns, since what we aretrying to explain in the first place is the existenceof criminal patterns in these groups. What is thereabout being a male, or a member of a minoritygroup, or living in a slum area that produces ahigh crime rate? Sutherland's theory does not ex-plain the origin of crime rates; rather it explainshow a person comes into contact with criminality

2SUTHERLs."m, op. cit., p. 79.23

ROBERT G. CALDWELL, CRIMINOLOGY, New York:Ronald Press Co., 1956, p. 181.

21 See a discussion of this problem in JAMEs A. Qunx,HUmAN ECOLOGY, New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1950, p. 511.25 MARSHALI B. CLINARD, CRIMINOLOGY AS A FIELD

IN AMEICAN SOCIOLOGY, reprinted in CRIMIOLOGY:A BooK OF READINGS, ed. by CLYDE B. VEDDER et aL,op. cit., p. 15.

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if and when criminality is a part of his culturalsystem.

Sheldon Glueck argues that Sutherland placesthe cart before the horse when he assumes that adelinquent is not a delinquent until he has asso-ciated with other delinquents. Glueck notes thatthere are many examples of anti-social behaviorwhere no history of delinquent associations exists.Delinquent associations are often formed after adelinquent pattern has been established in order togain acceptance for the already-existing pattern ofanti-social behavior.

26

The problem of the non-delinquent living in thedelinquent environment has caused the sociologistmore concern than some of the other criticismsmade of the differential association theory. Solo-mon Korbin points out that the delinquent is sub-jected to both delinquent and non-delinquentvalues. ". .. high rates of delinquents are charac-terized by a duality of conduct norms, rather thanby the dominance of either a conventional or acriminal culture. ' ' 7 The problem is why an indi-vidual identifies with a particular cultural systemwhen several systems exist as a part of his culturalexperience.

One of the most ambitious attempts at anempirical verification of the theory of differentialassociation has been made by James Short. Shortconcluded that the major difficulty in such an at-tempt is the fact that many delinquents have noprior history of association with delinquent friendsor patterns.m

Walter Reckless and his associates have beenworking on a research project designed to get atthe factors which insulate the good boy who livesin a highly delinquent area. The results of this re-search will be discussed below.

These various criticisms of Sutherland's theoryare a result of the way in which the theory isformulated. The error in the theory of differentialassociation is in regarding social interaction withcriminals or with criminal patterns as essential tocriminality. Sutherland was right in emphasizingthe importance of social interactional processes incriminality; however, social interaction can lead tocriminality whether it is with criminals or non-

26 SHELDON GLUEcI, Theory and Fact in Criminology,BRIT. Jorm. OF DELIN., October, 1956, p. 95 ff.

SOLOMON KORBIN, The Conflict of Values in Ddin-quency Areas, AMER. SOCIOL. REv., October, 1951, p.661.2

3 JAms F. SHORT, JR., Differential Association withDelinquent Friends and Delinquent Behavior, THEPACIFIC SocorL. REv., Spring, 1958, pp. 20-25.

criminals. The importance of social interaction inthe process of personality development is wellrecognized. We behave the way we do because ofthe way in which we interact with others. Theimportant element in criminal behavior is notwhether the social interaction is with criminals ornon-criminals, as Sutherland's theory states, butwhether the social interaction is intimate and ofthe type that brings the individual into a primarygroup, or whether it is impersonal and non-inte-grative in effect. A man may commit murderbecause his wife has committed adultery. Thesocial interaction of husband and wife is crucial inunderstanding his act, much more important thanwhether or not the husband had a prior history ofassociations with criminal attitudes. The elementof criminality does not enter into the situationuntil after he has killed his wife, not before hekilled her. The social relationships one has withnon-criminals, such as husbands, wives, fathers,mothers, and so forth, may be far more importantin determining one's behavior than the associationone has with criminals. A man kills his wife afteryears of marital strife and tension. The murder isdue to the type of social interaction that has oc-curred between husband and wife, and yet untilthe time the murder takes place the interaction isnot criminalistic in any sense of the word.

THEORY OF SOCIAL ALIENATION

A person cannot become a criminal withoutassociating with other human beings; he can be-come a criminal without associating with othercriminals. An alternative theory of criminal be-havior, a theory which attempts to integrate thepsychological and sociological concepts of crimi-nality, states that crime rates are high in groupswhere social interaction is characterized by isola-tion, anonymity, impersonalization, and anomie.Such areas are interstitial areas or areas of transi-tion, marked by a minimum of personal, intimatesocial interaction. From the point of view of theindividual offender the theory states that thecriminal is one who lacks interpersonal relation-ships. He suffers from interpersonal failure. Thetypical criminal has failed to achieve satisfactoryinterpersonal relations with others; he is lonely,isolated emotionally, lacks membership in lawfulprimary groups, is insecure, hostile, aggressive,feels he is not loved or wanted, and has an inade-

2See the case reported in M.ARSHALL B. CLINARD,SOCIOLOGY OF DEVLANT BE~rAVIOR, New York: Rine-hart and Co., 1957, pp. 211-212.

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quate sense of belonging. He is the product ofsocial impersonalization.

This theory is in agreement with Sutherland'stheory in that both emphasize the importance ofsocial interaction that occurs in the primary group.It differs from the theory of differential associationin that it emphasizes the impersonality of socialinteraction rather than the criminality of socialinteraction which an individual experiences ingroup living. Criminal behavior is an attempt toestablish interpersonal xelationships that have notbeen established in a socially acceptable way. Tobe a member of a group means to conform to theexpectations of the group. A person will conformto group demands only if he identifies with thegroup and feels he is accepted by the group. Thecriminal has been alienated from society.

This theory of social alienation is in essentialagreement with the current trend in psychologicalthinking which places emphasis on such conceptsas feelings of rejection, emotional starvation,psychological isolation from others, feelings ofinsecurity and hostility, and so forth. The theoryis in opposition to any theory of criminal behaviorwhich states that criminality is due to physicalbuild, glands, poor heredity, or some other bio-logical concept of personality development. How-ever, it should be noted that physical build, glands,heredity, and so forth do influence the pattern ofsocial interaction which a person maintains withthose about him. A feebleminded child cannotinteract with his environment in the same waythat a normal child can. This does not mean thatfeeblemindedness causes delinquency; it doesmean that feeblemindedness is a factor in socialinteraction.

The theory of social alienation differs from thetheory of differential association in the followingrespects: 1. It explains sudden crimes of passion.Aggression against one's self or others is a resultof a breakdown in a person's system of interper-sonal security. A man who depends upon his wifefor love and affection finds this security destroyedby an act of unfaithfulness. 2. It explains why anindividual can live in a delinquent sub-culture andyet isolate himself from delinquent patterns. If hehas adequate interpersonal interaction he will notfeel the need to join a gang or to commit anti-socialacts. 3. It explains why a person with no history ofassociation with criminals will commit criminalacts. A person who has not established satisfactoryinterpersonal relationships will adjust to his feel-ings of loneliness and insecurity. One form of ad-

justment is aggression and hostility. It is in thissense that Glueck's observation that the emotionalpattern necessary for delinquent acts may existprior to and independent of associations withcriminals is correct. 4. It explains the origin ofcriminal behavior in the first place. High crimerates exist in areas characterized by anonymous,impersonal relationships. The association of crimi-nality with age, sex, urbanization, and minoritygroups will be discussed in detail below. 5. Thetheory of social alienation integrates the sociologi-cal and psychological schools. It retains emphasison social interaction, while emphasizing the emo-tional content of human interaction.

Sutherland was an outspoken critic of the psy-chological school, and though he offered somevaluable criticisms of its obvious shortcomings, hefailed to integrate the psychological material inhis work. The same thing can be said of the psy-chologist who criticizes Sutherland's theory. Atpresent a criminologist is either an advocate of thesociological position or the psychological position.Obviously what criminology needs is not eitherone or the other, but both. Psychological theoryas it is now stated is inadequate because not allemotionally disturbed individuals are criminals,and not all criminals are emotionally disturbed.The sociological theory is inadequate because notall criminals associate with criminals, and not allwho associate with criminals are criminals. Objec-tion to the theory of social alienation on thegrounds that not all social isolates are criminals isnot valid. Sociologists often argue that if neurosisor feeblemindedness were a cause of criminality,then all neurotics or mental defectives would becriminals. This is defective logic. To say that allmen are animals is not the same as saying that allanimals are men. To say that all crimirals aresocial isolates is not the same as saying that allsocial isolates are criminals. The class "criminal"is a class of objects included within a larger class"social isolates." Social isolation may lead to neu-rosis, schizophrenia, suicide, alcoholism, drug ad-diction, and many other reaction patterns. Crimi-nality is one of several ways in which a person canadjust to social impersonalization.

The theory of social alienation is based on andsupported by psychological theories of personalitydevelopment, the interpersonal school of psychi-atry, the theory of anomie, the concept 6f socio-pathic personalities, recent studies in group dy-namics, and the relation of criminality to age, sex,race, social class, and urbanization.

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CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

SOCIAL ISOLATION AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

The basic thesis of social psychology is thatgroup membership is vital to the development ofhuman nature. G. H. Mead and C. H. Cooleyemphasized the importance of the primary groupas the agent of socialization. Intimate social rela-tionships are essential to personality development"The isolated individual is sick. He is sick inmind, he will exhibit disorders of behavior, emo-tion, and thought ... To escape isolation a personmust be able to become a member of a group." 30

Psychiatry has shown that membership in a groupsustains a man and helps him to meet the shocksof life.3'

Children without love and affection become ag-gressive, hostile, and hateful. Infants without lovedevelop marasmus, a withering away of the humanorganism. Rene Spitz, in a study of the effects ofhospitalization on children, made the same obser-vations. The studies of isolated or semi-isolatedchildren are used to illustrate the importance ofhuman contact for personality development.n

Franz Alexander tells the story of a neurotic pigthat lost its neurotic symptoms when it saw anattendant towards whom it had positive trans-ference. Alexander concludes, "Trust and confi-dence instead of fear are the basic therapeuticfactors."' 3 A five-year old girl recently came to theattention of authorities because of her anti-socialaggressive acts. The only object which had evershown her any love and towards which she couldshow love was a dog. Karl Menninger states thatsocial belonging is an essential factor in goodmental health. The fear of not belonging is a basicfactor in emotional problems of any types. Thepsychiatrist has emphasized the role of love inmental health, and the role of hate in emotionalconflict." Studies of military neurosis reveal thatthe less cohesive the combat group, the greaterthe rate of neurosis. The neurotic soldier is the"frightened, lonely, helpless person whose inter-personal relationships have been disrupted. 3'"

Anthropological studies reveal that the rate of30 HorANs, op. cit., pp. 313-314.3Ibid., p. 457.3 ASHTY MONTAGUE, DIRECTION OF HUMAN DE-

VELOPMENT, New York: Harper and Bros., 1955, p.180 ff.

33 SATURDAY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, July 6, 1957,p. 18.

"KARL MENNINGER, LOVE AGAINST HATE, NewYork: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942, p. 267 ff.

35 S. KIsON WEINBERG, SOCIETY AND PERSONALITYDISORDERS, New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1952, p.132.

mental illness is very low in those societies thatare homogeneous and highly integrated, wheresecurity is provided to nearly all persons. The rateof mental illness is high in those societies wherecontact with European societies has occurred, andwhere the system is more heterogeneous and lessintegrated. 36 O'Kelly states, "the more complexand loosely integrated the culture, the more diffi-cult is adequate personality adjustment. ' ' 7

LeShan, reporting on a study of hostility, con-ludes that a child who is psychologically isolatedfrom his parents will show signs of hostility in aneffort to gain affection. Punishment is a means ofestablishing social contact. Hostility often binds agroup together because of a common enemy. Theapplication of this observation to delinquent gangsis obvious. "Interpersonal hostility can thus servean individual who is psychologically isolated andperceives no personally acceptable way of achiev-ing non-hostile relationships. He can reduce theself-destructive forces operating within himself byestablishing and maintaining hostile relationshipsto others. On the other hand, non-destructiveindividuals are characterized by very warm andmeaningful interpersonal relationships.

Experiments by Hebb and his associates, inwhich subjects are placed in a stimulus-free envi-ronment and isolated from stimuli as far as ispossible, reveal that without external stimulationthe human organism reacts with acute personalitydisturbances, apathy, hallucinations, visual dis-turbances, and other disorders. Hebb concludesthat social isolation, loneliness, and a lack of inter-personal interaction are symptoms of mentalilness.M

The social isolation thesis was developed byFaris and Dunham in their study of the ecologicaldistribution of mental illness in Chicago. Sincethat time many studies have been made support-ing the thesis that schizophrenia is a product ofsocial and psychological isolation. Kohn andClausen modified the Faris-Dunham thesis. Theyfound that schizophrenic patients were not isolatedfrom parents or peer groups. They concluded thatsocial isolation was a result of interpersonal diffi-

36 CLINARD, SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOR, op.

cit., p. 330 if; WEINBERG, op. cit., p. 228 ff.17 LAWRENCE I. O'KELLY, INTRODUCTION TO PSY-

CHOPATHOLOGY, New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1949,p. 629.

Is LAWRENCE LESnAN, A Study of Hosility, AMER.PSYCHOLOGIST, March, 1958, p. 118 ff.

3D. 0. HEBB, The Motivating Effects of ExteroceptiveStiudation, AMER. PSYCHOLOGIST, March, 1958, pp.109-113.

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19591 THEORY OF CRIME AN

culties so great that the individual was no longercapable of functioning in the situation. Interper-sonal failure leads to a withdrawal reaction, andthus to social isolation. Interpersonal failure canalso lead to compulsive social interaction in anattempt to gain acceptance in a group.40

From his study, Jaco notes that schizophrenicshave the following characteristics: great anonym-ity, few personal friends, a higher rate of rentingthan owning homes, few memberships in lodges,greater unemployment, few visits to the businessdistrict, and few friends in remote areas.4'

Hollingshead and Redlich report that lower classindividuals have nine times the incidence ofschizophrenia than do members of the upper class,whereas upper class patients are more likely to beneurotic.42 The isolation of the lower class fromcommunity activities and voluntary group mem-bership is a factor in this differential reactionpattern. The implications of this study for crimi-nology are interesting and worthy of further con-sideration, since the lower class also has the highrate of delinquency and crime. The upper class hasthe high rate of neurosis with a low rate of crime.Criminal behavior and neuroses appear to benegatively correlated.

One textbook in abnormal psychology statesthat psychological adjustment depends upon asense of identity---clarification in adolescence ofwho one is and what one's role is; and a sense ofintimacy-ability to establish close personal rela-tionships with members of both sexes. A hazard tosuch adjustment is found in the failure of societyto provide clearly defined roles and standards; inthe formation of cliques which provide clear butnot always desirable roles and standards; and incultural and personal factors which lead to psy-chological isolation or to formal rather thanintimate, personal relations. 3

According to Ernest R. Hilgard, a major threatto mental health is "isolation from one's fellows,with feelings of loneliness and rejection."" "Manis a social animal, and he suffers when isolatedfrom his fellows. The circumstances of modern lifetend to produce loneliness for many people...

40 MELVIN L. KQHN AND JoNi A. CLAusEN, SocialIsolation and Schizophrenia, AmiRg. SOCIOL. REv.'June, 1955, pp. 265-273.

41 E. GARTLxy JAco, The Social Isolation Hypothesisand Schizophrenia, A mER. SocioL. REv., October, 1954,pp. 567-577.

2AUGusT B. HOLLINGSHEAD AND FREDERICK C.REDLICH, SOCIAL CLASS AND MENTAL ILLNESS, NewVrork: John Wiley and Sons, 1958, p. 230.

J9 CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR 541

Modern apartment dwellers often do not knowthose who live across the hall."' 5

INTERPERSONAL THEORY OF PSYCHIATRY

There has emerged in the writings of ErichFromm, Karen Homey, and Harry S. Sullivan aschool of psychiatry known as the interpersonalschool, so called because of the emphasis placedupon interpersonal relations in emotional dis-turbances.

In his "Escape from Freedom" Fromm arguesthat during the medieval period man felt he had aplace in society. Due to the decline of feudalismand the emergence of capitalism, the individualgained freedom but lost his security. He gainedfreedom only to be isolated in a hostile world."To feel completely alone and isolated leads tomental disintegration just as physical starvationleads to death... He may live among people andyet be overcome with an utter feeling of isolation,an outcome of which is a state of insanity whichschizophrenic disturbances represent. This lack ofrelatedness to values, symbols, patterns, we maycall moral aloneness. 4 6

Along with industrialization and urbanizationProtestantism destroyed man's sense of belongingand left him insecure and anxious. Luther andCalvin left man on his own to gain his salvation ina hostile world. Man submitted to God in aneffort to gain security. Fromm refers to this as asurrender in return for love and security, which isbasic to the development of modern totalitarian-ism .

Max Weber made the same observation concern-ing Protestantism. "In its extreme inhumanitythis doctrine must above all have had the onemagnificent consistency. That was the feeling ofunprecendented inner loneliness of the singleindividual." Protestantism left the individual withno priest, no Church, no sacraments, and no God,since Christ had died only for the elect. 4"

Fromm discusses the mechanisms of escape fromloneliness and anxiety: authoritarianism, destruc-tion, and automatic or complete conformity togroup demands.

4COLEMAN, op. cit., p. 70.4 ERNEST R. HILGARD, INTRODUCTION TO PsY-

CHOLOGY, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 2nded., 1957, p. 213.45 Ibid., p. 227.46 ERcH FROmm, ESCAPE IFROM FREEDOM, New

York: Rinehart and Co., 1941, p. 19.7Ibid., p. 63 ff.48 MAX WEBER, THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE

SPIRIT OF CAPrITAISM, New York: Charles Scribnerand Sons, 5th ed., 1956, p. 104.

CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

Karen Horney regards basic neurotic anxiety as"the feeling a child has of being isolated and help-less in a hostile world." From such insecurity theindividual develops various techniques in an effortto gain security. The compulsive need for love, theneed to be dependent and independent at the sametime, the need for power over others, and the needto exploit others are neurotic adjustment mech-anisms. Homey classifies these mechanisms as(a) moving toward people or dependency, (b) mov-ing away from people or withdrawal, and (c) mov-ing against people or hostility.49

Harry Stack Sullivan also regards anxiety as aresult of a threat to one's security in a system ofdisturbed interpersonal relationships. The indi-vidual's need for intimacy, when not satisfied, leadsto apathy, isolation, amnesia, and other mentaldisturbances."0

ANOMIE

The original statement concerning social isola-tion was Durkheim's thesis concerning anomie.By anomie he meant a lack of social norms orvalues which led to a sense of isolation and ano-nymity. In his study of suicide Durkheim foundthat people who lacked intimate group ties com-mitted suicide more frequently than those withgroup affiliations. Durkheim concluded that sui-cide varies "inversely with the degree of integra-tion of the social groups of which the individualsform a part."5' Walter Lunden writes that Durk-heim was l'avant garde for the "age of loneliness,""cutoffness," and "rootlessness." 52

Leo Srole regards anomie as a measure of self-to-other alienation. Using the concept as a measureof interpersonal alienation Srole devised a scale formeasuring anomie. He discovered a positive corre-lation between anomie, authoritarianism, and raceprejudice.-' His study supports the thesis thatauthoritarianism is a product of social isolationand insecurity.

Harold Lasswell writes: "Modern man appearsto be suffering from psychic isolation. He feelsalone, cut off, unwanted, unloved, unvalued...

4' CALVIN S. HALL AND GARDNER LmnzEY, THEORESOF PERSONALITY, New York: John Wiley and Sons,1957, p. 130 ff.

50 Ibid., p. 134 ff.s1LEwIs A. COSNER AND BERNARD ROSENBERG,

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY, New York: Macmillan Co.,1957, p. 177.

2 LUNDEN, op. cit., p. 5.-1 LEO SROLE, Social Integration and Certain Corol-

laries: An Exploratory Study, AmER. SOCIOL. REV.,Vol. 21, December, 1956, p. 709 ff.

When other persons are conceived as means ratherthan ends in themselves an act of withdrawal hasoccurred. The thinking and feeling ego transformsother human beings into manipulable dummieswho are to be sold a bill of goods or a candidate orsome other line. Hence the ego ends by deprivingthe surrounding world of its humanity, and, as aresult, suffers from the dehumanizing effects ofsplendid isolation." 5'

Robert Maclver defines anomie as "a state ofmind in which the individual's sense of social co-hesion is broken or fatally weakened. In this de-tachment of the atomic person from social obliga-tion his whole personality is injured." 5 Maclverregards anomie as the disease of urban society.

SOCIOPATHIC PERSONALITIES

The concept of the sociopath or psychopath isone of the most controversial in the literature ofcriminology and psychology. Since the basic reac-tion pattern of the sociopath is anti-social behavior,the concept bears a closer relationship to crimi-nality than do neuroses and psychoses. However,it would be an error to equate sociopathy andcriminality. ". . . criminality is not a psychologicalconcept; criminality is action contrary to the penalcode. Acts of this kind may be committed by everyconceivable psychological type, normal as well aspathological."'' McCord states that the psycholo-gist often confuses deviant behavior and socio-pathic behavior.Y The formula often used is"sociopathic behavior is deviant behavior; criminalbehavior is deviant behavior; therefore, criminalbehavior must be sociopathic behavior." This isdefective logic. Some sociopathic behavior iscriminalistic, but not all sociopathic behavior is so.

Under the title "sociopathic personality" JamesColeman discusses the anti-social reaction, thedyssocial reaction, the sexual deviate, alcoholism,and drug addiction.5 The term "sociopath" isblurred when it is used to refer to the dyssocialreaction, or what the sociologist would call thecultural deviate. The dyssocial person identifieswith the sub-culture to which he belongs, which

M CONFLICT OF LOYALTIES, ROBERT MAcIVER, edi-tor, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1952, p. 132 ff.

55 ROBERT M. MACIVER, THE RAMPARTS WE GUARD,New York: Macmillan Co., 1950, p. 85.

56 OTo FENICHEL, PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OFNEUROsIS, New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1945,p. 505.

7 WILLIAM[ AND JOAN McCoRD, PSYCHOPATHY ANDDELINQUENCY, New York: Grune and Stratton,1956, p. 7.

-1 COLEMAN, op. cit., p. 337 ff.

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THEORY OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL BEHA VIOR

has norms and values in conflict with the normsof the larger society. The dyssocial person is at theopposite end of the continuum from the sociopath,although both Weinberg and Coleman use thesame general classification for both. In the lan-guage of the psychiatrist, the sociopath is onewho has no superego; the dyssocial person has asuperego but his identification is with the "wrongobjects." 0

Otto Fenichel distinguishes between "auto-plastic" and "alloplastic" reaction patterns. Theautoplastic reaction is one in which anxiety andhostility are turned inward against one's self; thealloplastic reaction is one in which anxiety andhostility are turned outward against others.w Thetypical neurotic is autoplastic in his response pat-tern, however; the "acting-out neurotic" exhibitssociopathic behavior but with guilt feelings andneurotic anxiety.62 The alloplastic disorders includethe true sociopath and the acting-out neurotic.The dyssocial person or cultural deviate is viewedby the sociologist in terms of differential associa-tion, social disorganization, or cultural conflict.Since the dyssocial reaction is not psychologicallyabnormal, it does not belong in the category ofcharacter disorders. The cultural deviate is not asociopath. This paper considers the dyssocial reac-tion within the context of Sutherland's theory ofdifferential association.

Interest in the sociopath began with Pritchard'slabeling of certain cases as moral insanity. Theterm "moral insanity" was used because theseindividuals exhibited none of the characteristics ofabnormality, except that they lacked a sense ofsocial conscience and social awareness. Koch usedthe term "constitutional psychopathic inferior,"implying thereby a physical basis for the condi-tion. The constitutional explanation has beenrefuted by many who have dealt with the term.Y

August Aichhorn in his "Wayward Youth"describes his pioneering work with anti-socialchildren, children who suffer from "cutoffness"and "rootlessness." He made no attempt to differ-entiate between the delinquent child, the anti-social child, and the problem child." The outstand-

69 Ibid., p. 346; WEINBERG, op. cit., p. 288.60 FENIcHEL, op. cit., p. 505.C1Ibid., p. 217.2 WEINBERG, op. cit., p. 281.

6 McCoRD AND McCoRD, op. cit., p. 48 ff.6AUGUST AicHHoR,, WAYVARD YounT, New York-

Viking Press, 1935. See also KURT EIssIER, SEARCH-LIGHTS ON DELINQUENCY, New York: InternationalUniversities Press, 1949.

ing works of Fritz Redl and Bruno Bettleheimhave added to the literature on children who hate.'-

A sociopathic person is characterized by impul-sive behavior, irresponsibility, shallowness ofemotional development, and the inability to takethe role of the other fellow. His lack of a conscienceor a concern for social regulations has led to theterm "sociopath." He is often a very charmingperson with a great deal of role playing ability. Hefeels no sense of guilt. MacIver, in describing theeffects of anomie on personality development, de-scribes these individuals as sadistic, domineering,ruthless, vain, inherently destructive, and selfcentered, who profess values if it is to their ad-vantage to do so.66 This list of traits is identicalwith the list used to describe the sociopath. Per-haps this is a clue as to the etiology of sociopathy.The sociopath appears to be a product of anomie,social alienation in modern society.

Studies of the sociopath support the thesis thatsociopathy is related to social alienation. Weinbergwrites that "the psychopath develops within thematrix of distant and impersonal parent-child rela-tionships."6' McCord's study indicates that thepsychopath is emotionally starved, a person whohas been rejected or unwanted as a child. 6s Harri-son Gough explains sociopathy in terms of a defectin the role-taking ability of the individual. Histheory is based on the Mead-Cooley system ofsocial psychology which places great emphasis uponinterpersonal interaction in the primary group.6Bettelheim notes that sociopathic reactions inchildren are related to the difficulties involved inrearing children in urban areas where there areill-defined values and moresJ ° He relates thesedisorders to disturbed interpersonal relations be-tween parents and children. Bettelheim states that"personal relations are the essence of our work."'These children have experienced no satisfyinghuman relationships and they do not know how torelate themselves to others. 72

The late Robert Lindner devoted a great deal of65

FiTz REDL AN) DAviD WINEmAN, Cn.DrE

Who HATE, Glencoe: Free Press, 1951; BRUNO BETTEL-nE n, LovE IS NOT ENOUGH, Glencoe: Free Press, 1950.

66 MACIvER, THE RAmPARTS WE GUARD, op. cit.,p. 86.

67 WEINBERG, op. cit., p. 279.68 McCoRD AiN McCoRD. op. Cit., p. 59 ff.69 HARRISON G. GOUGH, A Sociological Theory of

Psychopathy, AmiR. JoUR. OF SocboL., March, 1948,pp. 359-366.70 BETELHEIMT, op. cit., pp. 3-5.

71 Ibid-, p. 23.72Ibid., p. 29.

1959]

CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

attention to the sociopath, or what he called the"rebel without a cause." The modern rebel differsfrom the rebel of the past in that he has no goal orcause. He turns his anxiety and suffering outwardagainst society rather than inward against himself.In his "Rebel Without a Cause" Lindner regardsthe cause of sociopathy as residing in the unre-solved Oedipus complex. Harold has witnessed theprimal scene as a child. 3 In his later writingsLindner is less Freudian and more sociological inhis interpretation. He relates the development ofsociopathic personalities to the development ofmass society and the pressure for conformity. Animpersonal society produces personalities charac-terized by hatred, aggression, lack of love, and alack of identification with others. Lindner regardsFascism and Nazism as problems in sociopathy.74

In this respect his work parallels that of Fromm'ssince Fromm also emphasized mass conformity andthe need for power as characteristics of the lonely,modern man.

Though not directly concerned with the socio-path, David Riesman develops the idea that, associety changes from integrated to segregated,personality types change from tradition-directedto inner-directed to other-directed.7 5 The other-directed person has no value system of his own;he must conform to the wishes of the crowd. Helacks inner direction or a conscience. Approval andacceptance in mass society comes from doing whatone is expected to do. Riesman's other-directedperson bears a striking resemblance to the con-formist described by Fromm, Lindner, and Homey.The fact that Riesman entitled his book "TheLonely Crowd" suggests the impersonality andanonymity of modern group living.

This discussion of the sociopath is not to beregarded as a clinician's attempt to categorizepatients, but rather as an attempt by a sociologistto characterize a personality type produced by anurban society. The reason the term "sociopath" isregarded by many as a wastebasket term is becauseit is not amenable to psychiatric classification andexplanation. Certainly the unresolved Oedipuscomplex explanation is weak. The sociopath is aproduct of social alienation and social impersonali-zation. He is the product of disturbed interper-sonal relations. Taken together, the sociopath and

7 3 ROBERT M. LINDNER, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE,

New York: Grune and Stratton, 1944.74 ROBERT M. LINDNER, MUST YOU CONFORM, New

York: Rinehart and Co., 1956, p. 89 ff.7-DAviD RiEMaN, LONELY CROWD, New York:

Doubleday Anchor Book, 1953.

the cultural deviate constitute around 85 percentof the prison population.

SMALL GROUP DYNAMtCS

Recent studies of small groups or primary groupsreveal that the more cohesive the group, the greaterthe control the group has over the behavior of itsmembers. An individual who is not integrated intothe group will not conform to the demands of thegroup. "The greater the cohesivensss of the group,the greater the ability of the group to influence itsmembers."76 The intimate group provides the co-hesive element in society. With the decline of theinfluence of the primary group, there has been adecline in the influence of the group on individualbehavior. The behavior of the individual is nolonger controlled by the group. Studies of smallgroups support the thesis here being considered;namely, nonconformity is a product of socialalienation due to the decline of the intimate, smallgroup.

Festinger writes that compliance to group normswhich is created by force and coercion rather thanconviction does not create group feeling.7 Theessential element in law is force and coercion,which is obeyed because of the threat of coercionrather than conviction.

In the field of industrial relations, Mayo dis-covered that a feeling of belonging, of being im-portant, is crucial in the productivity and satis-faction of workers. The display of an airplane usedin combat to a group of workers who had helpedproduce the plane resulted in an immediate increasein motivation and a decrease in absenteeism. Theworkers now felt that they were a part of the wareffort.78 Robert Angell, from his study of the effectof the depression on families, concluded thatfamilies which were integrated by means of inti-mate, personal ties suffered little or no social dis-organization, whereas families not characterized byintimate social interaction did exhibit symptoms ofdisorganization.79

Bettelheim notes that the more cohesive thegroup, the more secure the individual feels in the

76 LEONARD BROOM AND PHILIP SELZNICK, SOCI-OLOGY, Evanston: Row, Peterson and Co., 1955, p.532. See also HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, ed.by GARDNER LNDzEY, Cambridge: Addison-WesleyPublishing Co., 1954, Vol. II, p. 817.

7 GROUP RELATIONS AT THE CROSSROADS, ed. byMUZAFER SHERIF AND M. C. WILSON, New York:Harper and Brothers, 1953, p. 233 ff.

78uARNOLD M. ROSE, SOCIOLOGY, New York: AlfredA. Knopf, 1956, p. 288 ff.

7 Ibid., p. 293.

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THEORY OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

group. Cohesive groups are able to allow theindividual self-expression, and thus the weak egofinds support from the group. The ego is allowedto develop and to discover itself in such a group.At the same time, the group controls aggressiveand hostile acts of the child, since a cohesive groupis not threatened by an attack of aggression in thesame way that the non-cohesive group is. The lesscohesive the group, the greater violence the groupwill show in reacting to aggression. A strong, co-hesive group acts as an incentive to the individualto change his behavior if he wants to live withthe group. He will give up his hallucinations anddelusions once he has group support and feelssecure, since the delusion is only needed so long asthe individual feels insecure.80 These principles arebasic to group therapy. It is often argued that thesociopath is not amenable to treatment. Somesuccess in treatment has been made through themedium of group psychotherapy.8M

From studies in other areas of sociology weknow that the disintegration of the primary groupleads to an increase in mental illness, suicide,family disorganization, labor-management troubles,and military neurosis. Crime appears to be theresult of similar disintegration.

CRIMINALITY AND SOCIAL ALIENATION

If the theory of social alienation is valid, we canexpect to find a high crime rate in those areasmarked by social isolation, impersonalization, andanonymity. Criminal statistics indicate that crimerates are high for young adult males who live inurban slum areas, who are from lower socio-economic groups, and who are members of minoritygroups.

URBAN-RURAL CRIME RATES

The higher crime rate for urban than for ruralareas supports the theory of social alienation. Ur-ban areas are characterized by anonymous, imper-

0 BETTELHEIm, op. cit., p. 47 if; p. 262 ff.81 See Bettelheim, op. cit.,; REDL, op. cit.; LLOYD W.

McCoRYLE, ALBERT ELIAS, AND F. LOVELL BIXBY,THE HIGHIEiL's STORY, New York: Henry Holt andCo., 1958; LLOYD MCCORKLE AND RICHARD KORN,Resocialization Within Walls, ANNALS, 1954, Vol. 293,pp. 288-298; SEYmOUR PARxER, Role Theory andTreatment of Anti-Social Acting Out Disorders, BRaIT.JOUR. op DEUiN., Vol. 7, 1957, pp. 285-300. THEBIENNIAL REPORT FOR THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DE-PARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, 1955-56, states thatgroup psychotherapy is "the most effective type oftherapy known today." (p. 18.)

sonal relationships.u Marshall Clinard has pointedout the importance of urbanization as a factor incriminality. He also notes that as the rural com-munity assumes the characteristics of the urbancommunity, the rural crime increases in the direc-tion of the urban rate.83

It has also been noted by Shaw, McKay, andothers that the high crime rate areas of a city arethe interstitial areas, areas characterized by astate of anomie. Shaw found that the high delin-quency areas were (a) areas of little or no homeownership, (b) areas of poor educational and recre-ational facilities, (c) areas inhabited by the mostrecent immigrants, (d) areas that were socially andoften geographically isolated from the larger com-munity, and (e) areas that were in a state oftransition from a residential to an industrial use.They were interstitial areas. The term "inter-stitial" is taken from biology, where it is used torefer to the coming together of two different typesof tissues. These interstitial areas are often moresusceptible to infections than other tissue areas.8

A committee for the Chicago Area Project re-ported that the neighborhoods from which de-linquents came are marked by a lack of intimacy,an attitude of indifference, and personal isola-tionism. The committee concluded that the de-linquent was socially but not emotionally malad-justed. The delinquent needs to develop a feelingof belongingness85

Bernard Lander, in a study of delinquency inBaltimore, found that delinquency and crime arenot related to poverty, racial background, or slumconditions. Rather, the high crime rate areas arethe areas of anomie. Where the Negro populationwas over 50 percent of the general population ofan area, the crime rate was much lower than wherethe Negro population was less than 50 per cent ofthe population. 6 The cohesiveness of groups in apredominately Negro neighborhood is greater thanin the interstitial area.

82 E. GORDON ERIcKsEN, URBAN BEHAVIOR, New

York: Macmillan Co., 1954, p. 290 ft.M CLINARD, SOCIOLOGY Or DEVIANT BEHAVIOR, op.

cit., p. 54 ff.1 CLIORD R. SHAW AND HENRY D. MCKAY,

DELINQUENT AREAS, Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1929.

85 HELEN L. WrrmER AND EDITH TUFTS, The Eff c-tireness of Delinquency Prevention Programs, Washing-ton, D. C.: United States Department of Health, Edu-cation, and Welfare, 1954, pp. 14-15.

86 BERNARD LANDNER, TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDINGOF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. New York, ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1954.

CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

AGE AND SEX

Adolescents suffer from group alienation morethan other age groups. This is also a transitionalperiod, a period when the adolescent is movingfrom the family group to the adult community.The adolescent has no well-defined role or statusin our society. A great deal of delinquency is anadolescent protest against parental control and anattempt to find a place in the adult community.The high crime rate of the young adult is due tothe lessening of the influence of the family groupwhile at the same time the individual does not gainmembership in other status groups.

Why males commit more crimes than do femalesis more difficult to explain. Both are obviouslylonely and isolated. Bromberg takes the positionthat the female is more protected by the law, iseconomically dependent on the male, and has anemotional outlet in sexual misconduct rather thanaggressive behavior. Females use sex as a way ofgaining status and approval, as a substitute forother types of interpersonal relations. The femaleis allowed to be dependent in our society, whereasthe male is not. It is not unusual in our society tohear a mother tell a four or five year old malechild, "Why don't you behave like a man?" Themale is expected to protect the female. Due todifferent sex roles the female reaction to isolationand insecurity differs from that of the male.

SOCIAL CLASS

The high crime rate of the lower socio-economicgroup is due to (a) their isolation from the generalcommunity, and (b) the differential treatment ac-corded them by the police and the courts. Hol-lingshead states that "class V persons are almosttotally isolated from organized community ac-tivities."8H "In conclusion we shall point out thatthe withdrawee from school is trying to matureand take his or her place in adult society. He isdoing it as an individual, largely without help orguidance of adults, even without his own family.His approach to the problem is along the road ofwithdrawal from all types of institutional guidance,such as that which the school or the church mighthave given him." ' The class V person is lower-lower class according to Hollingshead's classifica-tion system.

87 WALTER BROMIBERG, CRIME AND THE MIND, Phila-delphia: J. P. Lippincott Co., 1948, p. 167 ff.8 A. B. HOLLINGSHEAD, Er.rTowN's YOUTH, NewYork: John Wiley and Sons, 1949, p. 119.

89 Ibid., p. 412.

Robert Merton describes a type of anomie thatoperates within the lower class. The lower classadolescent has no legal means of gaining the goalsof his society. His lower class and educationalposition prevents him from adjusting to these goalsin the same manner in which the middle classadolescent does.90 A. K. Cohen presents a similarthesis when he notes that the lower class boy isunable to identify with middle class values. Hethus engages in delinquent behavior as a reactionto middle class values which he cannot obtain. Heseeks status and approval in other than legalways.

9'

MIGRATION AND CRIME

The crime rate of migrants tends to increase ascultural contact with native-born groups occurs.The second generation immigrant has a highercrime rate than the foreign-born if contact withthe American culture is involved.9 Cultural groupsthat maintain their cultural identity, such as theJapanese or Chinese, have a very low crime rate.Pauline Young's study of the Molokans in LosAngeles indicated that the first generation grouphad a low crime rate, whereas the second genera-tion group had a very high crime rate. In the heartof the Japanese colony in Honolulu few delin-quents were found, whereas in the mixed ethnicareas the Japanese had a high delinquency rate.3Very few children from Jewish families are handledin court. Very few children from Latter Day Saintfamilies are handled in court, since the churchmaintains its own welfare program and handlessuch cases when they do occur. These studies sup-port the Lander study quoted above concerningthe crime rate in Baltimore.

Spindler found that the use of peyote among anAmerican Indian tribe had its greatest attractionfor a transitional group who seemed unable toidentify with either the old tribalways or with thewhite man's society. The drug addict seems to bean inadequate personality. 4

These studies support the thesis of social aliena-

90 TE F. ery: ITS FUNCTION AND DESTINY, ed. byRUTH N. ANSHEN, New York: Harper and Brothers,1949, p. 226 ff.

9" ALBERT K. COHEN, DELINQUENT Boys, Glencoe;Free Press, 1955.

92 MARTIN H. NEUMEYER, JUVENILE DELINQUENCYIN MODERN SOCIETY, New York: VanNostrand Co.,1955, p. 251 ff.

n EDWIN H. SUTHERLAND, PRINCIPLES OF CRIM-INOLOGY, New York: J. P. Lippincott Co., 4th ed.,1947, p. 143.

94 COLEMAN, op. cit., p. 420; CLINARD, SOCIOLOGY OFDEVIANT BEHAVIOR, op. cit., p. 269.

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THEORY OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

tion. The high crime rate is not in the heart of theslum or cultural area, but in the transitional andinterstitial areas. Social cohesion and integrationare at a minimum in such areas. In these tradi-tional areas old group ties have been broken andnew group ties have not been formed.

PERSONALITY TRAITS AND CRIMINALITY

Gough and Peterson found that delinquentsscored high in such characteristics as being affected,sensitive, anxious, defensive, dissatisfied, emo-tional, headstrong, rebellious, and tense.95

Reckless and his associates have been workingon the problem of what isolates the good boy in adelinquent area. They found that the good boyhas a sense of social responsibility, a sense ofmorality, is sensitive to the wishes of others, andhas a stable family relationship with parental loveand interest being shown and felt. The non-de-linquent boy thinks of himself as a good boy."There exists a great deal of solidarity and co-hesiveness in the family situation of insulatedboys." These boys had experienced intimate, per-sonal relationships. They were not isolated orlonely.96 This study confirms what we stated earlierwhen it was noted that the factor which probablyisolates the non-delinquent in a delinquent area isthe feeling of belonging and the presence of satis-fying interpersonal relationships.

Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck conclude that thecohesiveness of the family of the delinquent is muchlower than that of the non-delinquent. The de-linquent has fewer intimate family ties. Delinquentboys were deprived of affection. As a group thedelinquents resolved their problems by acting themout rather than turning them inward. Delinquentsand non-delinquents resemble each other in mat-ters of feeling anxiety, insecurity, and feelingunloved. Delinquents are less dependent thannon-delinquents, less conforming, less conventional,and more confident of their ability to handle theirproblems.Y

95 HARRsoN G. GOUGH AND DONALD R. PETERSON,The Identification and Measurement of PredispositionalFactors in Crime and Delinquency, JouR. OF CONSULT-ING PSYCHOL., Vol. 16, 1952, pp. 207-212.

96 WALTER C. REcKEss, SIMoN DNITz, AND ELLENMURRAY, Self Concept as Insulator Against Delin-quency, AmER. JouR. OF SOcIOL., Vol. 21, 1956, pp.744-746; WALTER C. REcKLEss, SimoN DINITz, ANDELLEN MURRAY, The Good Boy in a High DelinquencyArea, JouR. OF CRinm. L., CRIMINOL., AND POL. SCL.,May-June, 1957, pp. 18-25.

97SHELDON AND ELEANOR GLUECK, DELINQUENTSIN THE MAXING, New York: Harper and Brothers,1952.

The Glueck's study supports the theory of socialalienation in respect to their findings concerningfamily cohesiveness, feelings of isolation, and feel-ings of being unloved. However, it must be notedthat both groups felt unloved and isolated. Thedifferential response pattern of the delinquent andnon-delinquent to these emotional problems re-mains a basic problem in this connection. Why dosome people act out their hostilities rather thaninternalizing them? Homey, Fromm, and othershave pointed out that a person can meet feelingsof insecurity by becoming dependent, withdrawing,or by becoming aggressive. The pattern of theresponse must be partially culturally determinedsince middle class individuals are more prone tobecome neurotic while lower class individuals aremore prone to act out their aggression.

Many theories of criminality are based onassumptions which either minimize or exclude theimportance of social interaction in crime causation.Theories that explain criminality in terms of bodybuild, glands, or feeblemindedness are of this type.Ernest Hooton states that the Nordic type is aleader in forgery and fraud, while last in crimesagainst the person, whereas the Alpine type is aleader in robbery but last in forgery and fraud.HThe Nordic type is from Northern Europe and assuch he was the earliest settler in the UnitedStates. His descendants are now in the middle andupper social classes, in positions of trust where onewould expect to find fraud and forgery. On theother hand, the Alpine type migrated to the UnitedStates in the latter part of the nineteenth centuryfrom Southern and Eastern Europe. Isolated fromthe Northern European by physical, cultural,linguistic, and religious differences, they becamemembers of the lower class, living in the slumareas. Not being in positions of trust, they cannotcommit crimes of forgery and fraud. Hooton'smaterial does not need to be explained in terms ofphysical type. The Alpine group is the same groupstudied by Sutherland, Shaw and others as theinhabitants of the high crime rate areas in Chicago.

William Sheldon observes that the typical de-linquent is the mesomorphic type with a somato-tonic temperament.H The Gluecks have relatedthese constitutional types to such factors as disci-pline by father, supervision by mother, affection ofmother, and family cohesiveness 100 Such factors

H HERBERT A. BLocH AND FRANK T. FLYNN, DE-LINQUENcY, New York: Random House, 1956, p. 131.

99 COLEmAN, op. cit., p. 112.100 ELEANOR T. GLUECK, Body Build in the Predic-

CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

represent measures of interpersonal alienation.Body build is a factor in criminality only if it is afactor in social interaction. Similarly, intelligenceis a factor in criminality as it enters into socialinteraction. Physical and mental traits do notcause crime, but they may act as barriers to socialinteraction and thus help to foster social aliena-tion. These comments on the physical traits ofcriminals have been introduced only to illustratethe fact that an alternative interpretation of thematerial is possible.

Healy and Bronner write that in evaluating thepsychological factors in delinquency we must con-sider the desire of the individual for feeling securein family and other social relationships, for feelingaccepted by some person or group, for recognitionas having some standing as a personality, and forfeeling adequate somehow or somewhere.' 0' Theyconclude that the non-delinquent has more satis-factory human relationships than the delinquent.The delinquent joins the gang in order to gainacceptance and recognition which he otherwiselacks. "The importance of building up standardsthrough personal relationships can hardly be over-stated."'n 2 "The deeper, essential causes are to befound in the special relationships of the delinquentwith those in his immediate environment."' u3

Banay states that "aloneness, depression, andresentment over the fact of having been unlovedor abused in childhood, is of course common amongprisoners."1 04 The criminal is unable to identifywith his victim, shows no pity or signs of sym-pathy. 05 Banay notes that there is little evidenceof any sense of relationship between the inmateand his family, or the inmate and society ingeneral. 06

The Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study reportindicates that the boys with whom the counselorsworked unsuccessfully were not neurotic but thosewho shunned close relations with adults, hadparents who disliked them or were indifferent tothem, and boys who never established close rela-tionships with their counselors.""

Fredric Wertham, in his "Circle of Guilt,"

tion of Delinquency, JouR. or C im. L., CRIMINOL., ANDPOL. Sci., March-April, 1958, pp. 577-579.

101 WILLIAm HEALY AND AUGUSTA F. BRONNER, NEW

LIGHT ON DElInQUENcY, New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1936, pp. 6-7.

102 Ibid., p. 11.103 Ibid., p. 213.104 RALPH S. BANAY, WE CALL THEM CRIMINALS,

New York- Appleton-Century-Croft, Inc., 1957, p. 7.105 Ibid., p. 8.10 Ibid., p. 263.107 WITMER AND TUFTs, op. cit., p. 30.

combines a psychiatric report with a sociologicalstudy of the background of a Puerto Rican. Heconcludes that this boy "... acted in isolation.Aloofness was his way of getting along in life.""'Santana thought of himself as a member of agroup that was unwanted, unloved, weak and in-ferior. "Essentially he is not a rebel, but a con-formist-a confused conformist.'0 9 "He belongsto a category which I call the unplaced.""n0 Thesocial alienation of the young minority member isseen in dramatic form in Wertham's account ofthe case. The point Wertham makes-that Santanais attempting to conform-is excellent, since allhuman behavior is in one way or another anattempt to conform to the demands of those aboutus. In some cases rebellion and hostility representthe only ways the person knows to meet the de-mands of society. Every criminologist who believesin the psychiatric interpretation of criminalitywould profit from reading this book, since sociologyand psychiatry join hands here without conflict.However, Wertham interprets the material with-out mentioning such concepts as the Oedipuscomplex or the id.

George Gardner states that 90 percent of thedelinquent cases represent overt acts of hostilityand aggression. The delinquent lives in an aggres-sive and hostile world, and he adjusts in the samemanner. Delinquents lack experiences of beinggenuinely wanted and loved.' This bears out thecomment above concerning the observation that

all people want to conform, but some must conformto society's demands in a hostile manner.

From these studies we can conclude that thecriminal or delinquent is lonely, isolated, lackingin interpersonal relations, and trying desperatelyto conform in the only way he knows to the de-mands of the society which has no place for him.

THE FAMILY

The broken home, the criminal home, the devi-ant home, and the disorganized home are regardedas important factors in delinquency and crime.'12

Both the sociologist and the Freudian psychologistplace emphasis on the family as an agent of social-ization. Any disruption in the intimate, personalrelationships in the family group is going to be animportant factor in later interpersonal adjustment.It is not surprising to find that many criminals

"O'FREDERIC WERTHAM, CIRCLE OF GUILT, NewYork: Rinehart and Co., 1956, p. 54.

"'I1bid.,. p 191.'id., pp. 191-192.

"' BLOCH AND FLYNN, op. cit., p. 442.11 Ibid., p. 181 ff.

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THEORY OF CRIME AND CRJMINAL BEHA VIOR

have a social history of disturbed family relation-ships. The Gluecks found that 97 percent of thedelinquent families were non-cohesive. The NewYork City Board report describes the delinquentas presenting "behavior one would expect to find

when the family as a competent, strong cohesiveunit does not exist, where the provision of food,clothing, and a roof over the head are a dailygamble, and where the influence of the church and

religion are negligible."'"" The need for stablefamily relationships is illustrated by the fact thata delinquent group will often form its own artificialfamily, calling one another by such familial names

as father, mother, son, brother, sister, and soforth.1

The first experience a child has in interpersonalinteraction is in the family. Social alienation oftenstarts in the family. If intimate, personal relation-ships are lacking there, they are often not foundby the individual in other groups either.

DELINQUENT GANGS

Shaw discovered that 81 percent of thosebrought into court had one or more companions;however, only 5.9 percent had more than fourcompanions. Healy and Bronner reported that 70percent of the delinquents with whom they dealthad delinquent companions. The Gluecks reportedthat 98 percent of their sample had delinquentcompanions, whereas 7.3 belonged to gangs t 5

From these figures we can conclude that thoughdelinquent companions are common, gang member-ship is not.

Thrasher, Shaw, and others have observed thatgangs usually exist in the interstitial area of acity." ' W. F. Whyte, in his study of street cornersociety, emphasized that there is organization inthe slum area. There is a code of conduct. How-ever, the relationship within the group does notextend to those outside the group. "Within thein-group personal relations are of the intimateGenzeinschaft type. Relations of an individual withan outgroup are of the impersonal Gesellschafttype.' 17 This helps to clarify a troublesome point.The social alienation suffered by the gang is notfrom within but from without. The gang is or-

11 WITMER AND TuFts, op. cit., pp. 45-46.II This observation was made by Mas. -MARY JANE

URUSTON, a case worker in the San Diego, California,Department of Probation.

"5 CLINARD, SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANr BEiIAVIOR, op.cit., p. 180 if.

'I, NEUmEYER, op. cit., p. 200 ff.117RONALD FREEMAx et al., PRINCIPLES OF SOCI-

OLOGY, New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1952, p. 552.

ganized because the individuals who are in thegang have been rejected by other elements of thesociety.

The crucial issue is why delinquents associatewith one another. Delinquents often associate withother delinquents because these are the onlyinterpersonal relations available to them. Sherifwrites, "Whenever individuals cannot consistentlyrelate themselves to a scale of values of the groupwithin which they move and function, there is atendency for these individuals to gravitate to-wards one another and to form informal referencegroups from which they derive their major portionof self-identity, aspirations, and values.""' De-linquent associations serve as a substitute for othertypes of interpersonal relations.

PATTERNS OF CRIHIAL BEHAVIOR

Crimes against the person are usually committedagainst those with whom we have interactedpersonally. In a study of murder Sutherland dis-covered that 60 percent of the murdered femaleswere murdered by friends or relatives.n9 A NewJersey study revealed that 67 percent of the vic-tims of murder were murdered by friends or rela-tives during an altercation, and 11 percent werepremeditated murders by friends or relatives.uoMurder is essentially a reaction to a threat to one'spersonal security such as occurs during a fight,when adultery is committed, or when jealousy isinvolved.

Short and Henry hypothesize that homiciderates vary positively with the strength of the ex-ternal restraint over behavior.ul External restraintis related negatively to status and positively to thestrength of the interpersonal relational system ofthe individual involved; in other words, lower classpeople have less status than upper class people andtherefore have more restraints placed againstthem. Likewise, persons involved in social inter-action with others have more restraints placed onthem than do those who are not so involved.

Statistics on murder show that the Negro has ahigher homicide rate than the white, the rural rateis higher than the urban rate, the male commits

"1M UZAFER AND CAROLYN SHERIT, OUTLINE OF

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, New York: Harper and Brothers,2nd ed., 1956, p. 643. See also a comment in ROSE,ThEORY AND METHOD IN T SOCIAL SCIENCES, op. Cit.,p. 21, in which he discusses the emergence of delin-quent gangs in areas of anomie.

119 CLINARD, SOCIOLOGY OF DEVAcNT BEHAVIOR,Op. Cit, pp. 214-215.

120 Ibid., pp. 214-215.*1

ADREw F. HENRY AND JAMES F. SHORT, SUICIDE

AND HomcmE, Glencoe: Free Press, 1954, p. 16.

15491959]

CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

more homicides than the female, the young adultcommits more homicides than the older adult,married people commit more homicides than singlepeople, and that the homicide rate is higher in theslum area of a city than in other sections of thecity. As Short and Henry point out, it is a contra-diction to their hypothesis to find more malescommitting homicide than females, more youngadults committing suicide than older adults, andmore homicides in slum areas than in the betterresidential areas. According to the hypothesis thehomicide rate should be high in low status groups,however the male has higher status than the fe-male, and the young adult has higher status thanthe older person. Likewise, the relational system isweak in the urban slum areas, therefore the homi-cide rate should be lower rather than higher there.

A re-evaluation of the Short-Henry hypothesisis possible. A person in a low status position doesnot have more restraints placed on him than doesthe higher status person. His behavior is evaluatedby a high status person, but at the same time, hislow status position exempts him from many re-straints to which the upper status person is sub-jected. The Negro who commits assault or murderagainst another Negro is given a lighter sentencethan is the white defendant where a white victimis involved.ln A lower class girl who is pregnantout of wedlock is free of the social ostracism towhich the upper class girl is subjected. TheodoreDreiser wrote about "An American Tragedy" inthis connection. Premarital and extramarital sexualrelationships, fighting, drunkenness, and gamblingare accepted as a part of the behavior pattern ofthe lower class person. We use such phrases as"middle class morality and respectability." Theperson with the reputation to preserve in the com-munity has more external restraint on him thandoes the person with no reputation to protect.

In the second place, it is not true that youngadults have a higher degree of personal involve-ment, as Short and Henry state. As was notedabove when we discussed the age and sex factors insocial alienation, the young adult is alienated fromhis society in many respects.

The exceptions found by Short and Henry forhomicide can be explained if we revise their inter-esting hypothesis. Homicide is committed by thosewith a minimum amount of status and personalinvolvement, in other words, by those suffering

1 CRIMINOLOGY, A BOOK OF READINGS, ed. byVEDDER et al., op. cit., p. 256 ff.

from social alienation. The Negro is alienated be-cause of race. The male is alienated because of hissex role. The young adult is alienated because ofage. The lower class person is alienated because ofhis lack of social status. The homicide rate is highin the slum area because of the degree of anonym-ity and impersonality in such an area. In allrespects homicide follows the pattern of socialalienation. The greater the degree of alienation,the greater the rate of homicide. The observationthat married people commit more homicides thansingle persons is explained by the fact noted abovethat homicide usually involves a friend or relative.A married woman is more likely to be murderedthan a single woman because of the involvement ininterpersonal tension with her husband which thesingle woman does not experience. The higherhomicide rate for rural areas in the South isprobably due to the fact that the Negro has ahigher homicide rate than the white.

Crimes against property are usually committedagainst those with whom we have no personal re-lationships. Sutherland reported that such crimesare usually committed some distance from theresidence of the criminal.1M In a study of attitudestowards stealing, Erwin Smigel found that his sub-jects preferred to steal from big business, govern-ment, and small business in that order. Anonym-ity, impersonality, and bureaucratic inefficiencyare cited as reasons for preferring to steal from bigbusiness. When a person stated that he preferredto steal from small business, it was because he felthis personal relationship with the victim wouldprotect him from prosecutionY2 4 The attitude ofthe delinquent is that it is not right to steal fromone's friendsY.1 5 A person who would not steal fromhis friend's house would not hesitate to cheat onhis income tax. The point was recently made by acollege instructor that as class enrollments in-creased, so did the cheating. He observed "Thestudent is no longer loyal to his class-only to hisfraternity and friends."

TYPES OF ALIENATION

Three types of social alienation can be distin-guished. First, there is individual alienation. Theindividual is alienated and isolated from inter-

'23

SUTITERLAND, PRINCIPLES OF CRIMiINOLOGY, 4thed., op. cit., pp. 25-26; p. 44.

124 ERWIN 0. SMIGEL. Public .Alhlides Towcard Steal-ing. AMER. SOCIOL. REV., June. 1956, pp. 320-327.

125 GREsUAM1 M. SIKES AND DAVID MATZA, Tech-

niques of .Veutrali:aion: A Theory of Ddinqueucy,AMER. SOCIOL. REv., December, 1957. p. 665.

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THEORY OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

personal relations. This person is often character-ized as a sociopath. He does not accept the valuesof the society.

The second type is group alienation. The groupto which the person belongs is alienated and iso-lated from the larger community. The individualwho identifies with such a group is often charac-terized as a cultural deviate or a dyssocial person.Minority groups which are segregated from otheraspects of the culture and which lose their owncohesiveness experience high crime rates. TheNegro or Puerto Rican is an example. The secondgeneration immigrant during the 1920's and 1930'swas also in this category. The lower class personliving in a slum area suffers from social alienation,as Shaw and others have noted. A lack of integra-tion of the various segments of society producesalienation of the segments.

The isolation of the upper class from other seg-ments of society is also involved. White-collarcrime is of this type. The businessman who sellscontaminated meat or falsely advertizes his prod-uct has no feeling of identification with his custom-ers. In an impersonal society the buyer and sellerinteract on a formal basis, and the law of contractreplaces the feeling of obligation which dominatesbusiness matters in a more intimate situation."The public be damned" and "caveat emptor"express the impersonality of the market place.Embezzlement represents a breakdown in the feel-ing of trust which is based on intimate interaction.

The growth of syndicate crime in the UnitedStates in the latter part of the nineteenth centurywas related to the social situation which faced theimmigrant who came here from Southern Europe.The immigrant needed protection in an urbansociety, and the syndicate and the political ma-chine offered him this protection. The growth ofcorrupt political machines and ward bosses at thisperiod in American cultural and political develop-ment was a part of the process of urbanizing andAmericanizing the immigrant. Political corruptioninvolves the substitution of personal relationshipsfor impersonal ones in a situation which has beendefined as impersonal. "One of the more corrupt-ing influences in government is that of personalfriendships and primary group contacts."''2

The third type of alienation is legal. The differ-ential treatment of Negroes and whites, and of

'2-GROBERT E. PARK AND ERNEST W. BURGESS,INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF SOCIOLOGY, Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1924, pp. 330-331.

lower class and upper class individuals, in courtsof law, illustrate the fact that different socialgroups have differential access to justice. Thetreatment of white-collar criminals in a preferentialmanner is illustrative of this point. Many of ourlaws reflect the ethical and political values of theproperty-holding class. Legislation is often influ-enced by pressure groups who represent the eco-nomic interests of a very small segment of ourpopulation.

In a small, homogenous group it is possible tohave democracy in the sense that every citizenparticipates directly in the affairs of government,as is symbolized by the New England town meet-ing or the Swiss canton. In a large, complex society,government by representation replaces governmentby direct citizen participation. The function andprocesses of government are removed from thepeople and placed in the hands of a corps of pro-fessional politicians and lobbyists. The averagecitizen is ignorant of political issues and generallytoo apathetic to vote. Important governmentalfunctions have been transferred from the local andstate levels to the federal level. The Supreme Courtdecision concerning segregation in the publicschool system, or the issue of federal aid to publiceducation, are examples of policy decisions at thefederal level which conflict with local interests andvalues. There is complete confusion on the issue ofwhat social values we wish to express in our legalprocesses. A type of alienation exists between legalvalues and the values expressed in other institu-tional structures of our society.

CRIME AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

There are at least two reasons why social aliena-tion does not lead to crime in every case. In thefirst place, social alienation can lead to neurosis,psychosis, alcoholism, drug addiction, and so forth.The individual response pattern is still a crucialissue.

In the second place, alienation leads to anti-social behavior, not criminal behavior. Crime mustbe defined within the limits of the criminal law. Adistinction between criminal behavior and anti-social behavior must be maintained. Social aliena-tion leads to the rejection of group norms. As acommunity develops it creates and sustains manydifferent types of norms and regulations. If thenorms which are violated are non-legal in nature,then the individual involved is a norm violator butnot a criminal. Only a segment of the social norms

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CLARENCE RAY JEFFERY

are legal norms which can lead to arrest, prosecu-tion, conviction, and punishment. The category of"norm violators" is larger than the category "lawviolators." Many norm violators are not criminals.Both types of violations have a common basis insolical alienation, and the behavior which violatesthe norm and the law which defines the behaviorare both a result of social alienation.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper has attempted to integrate the con-cepts of "crime" and "criminal." Both are a prod-uct of social alienation. As society changed fromrural to urban, law replaced custom as a majormeans of social control. Law is formal and imper-sonal in nature and in operation.

Social cohesion, based on personal interaction,has diminished. Personality development is de-pendent upon the type of social interaction whichoccurs within the primary group. Social isolationand social alienation produce a variety of disturb-ances in personality formation, disturbances whichare reflected in such social problems as divorce,alcoholism, crime, poverty, drug addiction, andmental illness. Recent studies concerning thesociopathic personality and the dynamics of smallgroup interaction support the thesis that meaning-

ful interpersonal relationships are necessary forconformity to group norms.

High crime rates are found in areas exhibiting ahigh degree of social alienation. The criminal has adisturbed pattern of interpersonal relationships. Incurrent criminological literature it is customary toregard as separate processes the psychologicalprocess leading to criminality and the sociologicalprocess leading to criminality. This has been amajor obstacle to the development of a theory ofcriminal behavior, since any separation of theindividual from society is false.

Different types of disturbed interpersonal rela-tions are found in crimes against persons, crimesagainst property, white-collar crime, and syndicatecrime. Alienation may be viewed as individual,group, or legal. Whether the behavior resultingfrom social alienation is criminal or not dependsupon (a) the individual's reaction to the aliena-tion, and (b) the reaction of society to the be-havior in terms of legal control of such behavior.Social alienation is common to both the develop-ment of criminal law and the development ofdeviant behavior.

Modem urban society is characterized by a de-crease in social cohesion. Crime is a product of anysocial force which decreases the cohesiveness of agroup.

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