Criminal Justice Theories
Drift theory suggests that people drift from one extreme to another during the course of their lifetimes. When applied in the context of criminal justice, it reflects the idea that people drift between conventional and criminal behaviors. After a crime is committed, the individual may balance that criminality by drifting back towards conventional behavior. In this way, criminality is partly chosen, but also partly determined, because the willingness to commit a crime comes with preparation and desperation. Preparation does not imply that the person has actively prepared to engage in criminal behavior but that the person has placed himself in a position where it is possible to commit a crime. Fatalism contributes to drift, with people being more likely to commit crimes when they feel as if their options have been limited and that they lack control. Furthermore, with drift comes an underlying sense of injustice, so that offenders are more likely to drift towards criminal behavior when they feel as if an injustice has occurred
The containment theory is...
Containment theory is a social control theory "in which the inner and outer pushes and pulls on an individual will produce delinquency unless they are constrained or counteracted by inner and outer containment measures" (Sees, 2004). When both the internal and external controls become sufficiently weak, the person may engage in that deviant behavior. In that way, containment theory is a social control theory. A person's criminality is, therefore, largely dependent on how he has been socialized to view crime. This socialization will help the internal buffer. Furthermore, when the internal buffer fails the outer buffer of family and friends will attempt to dissuade them from committing criminal behavior.
The developmental life course theory suggests that crime causation if a developmental process. This process starts before birth and continuous over the entire course of an individual's life. The developmental life course theory…
