Compare and contrast the five types of conservative theorizing that emerged in the last two decades of the 20th century.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

First, efforts were made to revitalize the early positivist school’s emphasis on ingrained individual differences, with a special emphasis on defects in human nature or in intelligence as the master predictor of criminal involvement (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994; Wilson & Herrnstein, 1985). Second, by revitalizing the classical school principles, other scholars developed models that conceive of individuals as logical actors choosing crime when the benefit exceeds the cost. Third, others attempted to revitalize the psychological approach by suggesting that offenders persist in crime because they think differently rather than logically. They are held to have distinct “criminal minds” that make them pathological, if not psychopathic and beyond redemption (Samenow, 1984). Fourth, still others of a conservative bent went beyond an individualistic approach, but only to the point of linking crime to a distinctive type of social influence: the allegedly permissive culture--or “moral poverty”--that they trace to developments in the American society of the 1960s, such as those discussed in earlier chapters (Bennett, DiIulio, & Walters, 1996). Finally, there was the claim that public disorganization or incivility leads to crime not because of enduring poverty and other social ills but because the police tolerate it (Kelling & Coles, 1996; Wilson & Kelling, 1982).