After this week's readings, pick a crime to focus on in your discussion.

How do the theories you read

about this week apply to the crime you chose? Is the behavior underlying your crime deviant? Why or
why not? Which of the theories you read about best explains our choice to make this a crime?

The crime that I chose for this discussion is terrorism, with a focus on child soldiers. We have often
heard of children being recruited as soldiers in their quest of terror (AP News, 2021). Often, these
children were tasked with heinous acts, such as killing and torturing innocent people and destroying
cities and/or properties. These are acts that we would usually categorize as malum in se.

However, if we were to look at the reasons that these children became child soldiers, there are many
theories that we can apply. Some of the reasons that children become child soldiers are:
1) Reason: Lack of educational and employment opportunities.
Applicable Theory: The Strain Theory, where Crime occurs due to a lack of ways to reach socially
accepted goals by accepted methods (Lumen, 2021).
Explanation: These children usually come from poor families and impoverished states.
Sometimes, they are displaced due to war that ravaged the state that they are living in. Due to
these factors, they have little or no means to make a living and get themselves out of poverty.
This makes them vulnerable to terrorist recruitment.

2) Reason: Peer Pressure

Applicable Theory: A) Cultural Deviance Theory, where conformity to the prevailing cultural
norms of lower-class society causes crime & B) Social Disorganization Theory, where the
likelihood of someone turning to crime is dependent on his/her social environment, are
applicable to this point (Lumen, 2021).
Explanation: When they come from states where they encounter war and conflict daily and they
see that children makes a living by becoming child soldiers, they see this as a norm and they
would feel the societal pressure to volunteer themselves, especially when they see it as a means
to a “better way of life” (War Child, 2019).

3) Reason: Community and family expectations

Applicable Theory: The Differential Association Theory, where deviance is the result of learning
and modelling deviant behavior seen in other people close to the individual, are applicable to
this point (Lumen, 2021).
Explanation: In their search for child soldiers, Terrorists will also target young and
impressionable orphans, who has lost their family to war. They become the “guardian” or
parental figure for these children and imparted their beliefs to them. The children may also
come from a family where their parents are terrorists and they come from a society that
believed in a particular righteous cause. For example, martyrdom is glorified in that society.
They grew up with this belief. As such, they are more likely to volunteer to be child soldiers for
terrorist groups.

4) Reason: Inability to reintegrate into society & Disconnect from Society

Applicable Theory: Control Theory, where Individuals who have a sense of belonging within a
particular society is less likely to commit acts of deviance
Explanation: According to UNICEF, “Children who have been recruited or used by armed
actors may be viewed with suspicion, or outrightly rejected, by their families and communities”
(UNICEF, 2021). Although there are agencies that aids child soldier in reintegrating back into
society by providing reinsertion packages, which includes clothes, tools, money and equipping
 them with vocational and life skills, the child soldier’s ability to adapt and reintegrate into
society would determine the likelihood of him/her going back to being a child soldier (Wessells,
2004).

5) Reason: Labelling Child Soldiers as Innocent Victims

Applicable Theory: Labelling Theory, where Individuals become deviant when a deviant label is
applied to them
Explanation: According to Brons, these child soldiers are often labelled as innocent victims.
Whether they are innocent victims or not is debatable. However, it doesn’t change the
possibility that they have internalized the belief that they are just victims, and they are not
responsible for the acts that they have done. As a result, they continue to commit acts of
deviance (Brons, 2013). The is applicable to this.

References:
 AP News, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021, from https://apnews.com/article/africa-united-
nations-child-soldiers-burkina-faso-e28058b0ae92dfa44df9633bc6affcef
 Their World, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021, from https://theirworld.org/explainers/child-
soldiers#section-3
 Lumen, 2021, Retrieved September 18, 2021 , from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-
bmcc-criminaljustice/chapter/7-2-theoretical-perspectives-on-deviance/
 War Child, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2021 , From
https://www.warchildholland.org/news/red-hand-day/
 Brons, K. (2013). Assessing the innocence and victimization of child soldiers.
 Wessells, M. (2004). Psychosocial Issues in Reintegrating Child Soldiers. Cornell International
Law Journal, 37(3), 513–525.
 UNICEF, 2021, Retrieved September 18, 2021 , from
https://www.unicef.org/protection/children-recruited-by-armed-forces

TERRORISM / Child Soldiers

https://apnews.com/article/africa-united-nations-child-soldiers-burkina-faso-
e28058b0ae92dfa44df9633bc6affcef
https://www.warchild.org.uk/whats-happening/features/why-do-children-become-child-soldiers-
armed-groups
https://theirworld.org/explainers/child-soldiers#section-3
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-child-soldiers
https://www.warchildholland.org/news/red-hand-day/
https://www.unicef.org/protection/children-recruited-by-armed-forces
https://www.wvi.org/stories/child-protection/child-soldiers-facts-and-foundations
https://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/1847
https://ir.ua.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/1847/file_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y - labeling
theory
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/216743523.pdf - control theory

Functionalism Associated Theorist Deviance arises from:

Strain Theory Robert Merton A lack of ways to reach socially accepted goals by accepted
 methods

Social Disorganization University of Chicago Weak social ties and a lack of social control; society has lost
Theory researchers the ability to enforce norms with some groups

Cultural Deviance Clifford Shaw and Conformity to the cultural norms of lower-class society
Theory Henry McKay

Conflict Theory Associated Theorist Deviance arises from:

Unequal System Karl Marx Inequalities in wealth and power that arise from the
economic system

Power Elite C. Wright Mills Ability of those in power to define deviance in ways that
maintain the status quo

Symbolic Interactionism Associated Theorist Deviance arises from:

Labeling Theory Edwin Lemert The reactions of others, particularly those in power who are
able to determine labels

Differential Association Edwin Sutherlin Learning and modeling deviant behavior seen in other people
Theory close to the individual

Control Theory Travis Hirschi Feelings of disconnection from society

 They have a lack of ways to reach their goals - turn to deviance to make ends meet [strain
theory]
 Poor, need means to support family [cultural deviance theory]
 Parents / guardians are terrorists, shaped beliefs --> children who are orphans [differential
association theory]
 Children who have been recruited or used by armed actors may be viewed with suspicion, or
outright rejected, by their families and communities. [control theory]
 Join the military because they seek social bonds? [control theory]
 Child soldiers are labelled as innocent victims, therefore perpetuate crime [labeling theory]
o However, child soldiers are not labeled deviant; they are labeled as innocent victims.
Because many people label all child soldiers as innocent victims, the children themselves
can use that label to further their deviance while still remaining responsibility-free. They
have internalized the innocent victim label, but are still able to remain stigma-free and
continue to commit deviant acts.
 The inability to reintergrate into society; unable to earn a livelihood; vicious cycle
 Child who grows up in a neighborhood that normalize being a child soldier; peer pressure [Social
Disorganization Theory]

Discussion 1:
In nature, animals all around steal from one another, typically taking food literally out of
each other’s mouths, so it should come to no surprise that humans have been stealing since
we adapted thumbs. Thievery today can be weighted in our justice system depending on
what and how much you stole to if you stole properly violently with a weapon or not.
Regardless of its someone embezzling money from their corporate job or stealing a bike
outside a store, theft is socially unaccepted, and society wants deviants in that such to be
punished according so.

Thanks to modern era research on deviant behavior, it can be concluded that theft can have
multiple reasons on to why someone who commit it. I personally do not believe people or
things in nature are born bad but are trying to survive by one mean than the next. As a
society, especially in America, we expect people to get jobs and make money, and anyone
who doesn't conform to that is essentially a deviant bum, not as someone trying to survive.
Deviant behavior isn't born but it is taught, created, and cycled through generations.

My point on theft is that can be corresponsive to the Strain theory which has socially
acceptable goals (such as getting money) but not achieving those goals through acceptable
means and to the Social Disorganization Theory which states that youths that are raised in
toxic environments will one day themselves be a part of the toxicity in society. Theft overall
can relate to most theories on deviant behaviors and why people would resort to stealing as
a means to survival or for personal ambitions.

Hi Damion,

I agree that the Strain Theory and Social Disorganization theory can be applied to the crime of
theft. The lack of acceptable ways to attain a socially prescribed goal as well as the environment
that they lived in are contributing factors of deviance. I would also add on that in some cases,
Differential Association Theory, where act of deviance is a learned from people who are close to
the individual, is also applicable. Theft might be a learned behavior from the parents or anyone
the individual looks up to as a role model. Coincidentally, I came across an article where a
couple, while having a child with them, were seen stealing groceries from a supermarket. In this
case, the supermarket decides not to press charges, despite the couple’s numerous shoplifting
history, as he understands that the adults might be facing some financial difficulties. Since the
couple isn’t sanctioned, formally nor informally, the couple kept on shoplifting. (Mothership,
2021)

Reference:

Mothership, 2021. Yishun mini-mart shames couple for allegedly stealing groceries when they
had a child with them. Retrieved on 21 Sep 2021 from https://mothership.sg/2021/09/yishun-
mini-mart-couple/