The Two-Path-Theory is based, among other things, on a longitudinal study on the crime prevalence of 1,000 New Zealand youths (“The Thousand Children of Dunedin” or “Dunedin Study”). The first and larger group of adolescents showed the usual degree of behavioural abnormalities in adolescence. The deviant behaviour of the subjects
control
Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) (Messner & Rosenfeld)
According to Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT), crime is an indirect consequence of the dominance of the economy over other sectors of society. If a society is primarily shaped by economic interests, economic logic permeates other social institutions and areas (such as education). This results in utilitarian behaviour on the part
Control
In contrast to most other crime theories, control theories do not try to explain deviant behaviour, but conformal behaviour. So the question asked here is: Why do some people not become criminals? Control theories assume that basically everyone would be motivated to behave differently. Different forms of control prevent them
Social disorganization theory (Shaw & McKay)
Social disorganization theory assumes that crime rates are constant in areas with certain environmental conditions, such as high unemployment, population fluctuation or material decay. Such conditions prevent social organization and cohesion in the neighbourhood and thus informal social control of delinquency. Once crime is widespread, criminal norms and values that
