Compare And Contrast The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Criminal Justice Theory

For this paper I will critique several theories of criminal justice. This will include a brief overview of each theory by also including its strengths and weaknesses in order to show why each theory is necessary to explain crime. I will then share my thoughts on which theory I believe to be the strongest of the group. In criminal Justice, there are dozens of theories that have been created to explain why certain crimes occur. As a criminal justice major, we can begin to look at criminology from the early perspective known as the classical theory. According to the book, Criminological Theory: Past to present, the ideas of the classical theory are fairly simple. Beccaria, one of the founding fathers of classical theory suggests that individuals are rational thinkers who pursue their own interest in order to maximize their pleasure and minimize their pain when committing a crime (Cullen, Agnew, & Wilcox, pg.

This theory suggests that individuals who commit crime is based on their surrounding community. Shaw and McKay, who are two leading contributors to social disorganization feel that community disorganization is the main source of delinquency and believe that the solution to crime is to organize communities (Cullen, Agnew, & Wilcox, pg. 107). According to the reading, the strengths of social disorganization can be categorized into three. One, it explains the high crime rate in certain areas. Two, it accounts for the transmission of deviant values from one generation to the next and three, it predicts crime rates from neighborhood characteristics. Given the circumstances, these strengths can often lead to its weaknesses. The social disorganization theory uses too much of a macro-sociological approach by focusing on broad areas instead looking at the situation through an individual approach. Also, the classification of an area of being “disorganized” may actually be organized based on different