Social Class and Criminal Behavior through a Biosocial Lens

Anthony Walsh, David G. Mueller

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

The relationship between social class (socioeconomic states--SES), and criminal behavior has been central to sociological criminology since its inception. Theories such as anomie, social disorganization, differential association, Marxist-conflict, labeling, and rational choice theories, make logical claims that we should expect to see a negative class-crime relationship (Tittle, 1983; Walsh, 2011). Careless reasoning even led some criminologists to posit that social class causes crime; at least if it is conceptualized as the poverty-non-poverty dichotomy that Hirschi (1969:71) maintains constitutes the true class-crime relationship implicit in most theories. Of course, SES per se does not directly cause crime or anything else; it is only a convenient label conceptualized and measured in different ways to categorize people in order to compare them on outcomes across various domains of interest.

Original languageAmerican English
Title of host publicationThe Ashgate Research Companion to Biosocial Theories of Crime
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2011

EGS Disciplines

  • Criminal Law

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