The recent past has seen a keen attention given to street gangs with criminal justice officials and scholars striving to comprehend and counteract the results of gang membership. To explain why youths join street gangs Terrence P. Thornberry developed the Interactional theory in 1987. The interactional theory proposes that youths join gang streets due to the reciprocity of the relationship between the youth and the peer groups, social structures ( such as poor neighborhood, family and school environments) and weakened social bonds foster and solidify delinquency. This theory emphasizes that deviant behavior is encouraged by a weak bond in society(Thornberry, 1987).
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I agree with the interactional theory as suggested. This is because this theory offers a unique and indeed broad enough explanation for the cause and effect of involvement in deviant and antisocial behavior. Besides the theory suggests that learning, societal and delinquency factors contribute to individuals’ involvement in street gangs and organized crimes. Further, the theory proposes that persons with weak societal bonds form bonds with those of same poor or weak values which are indeed true since birds of the same feather flock together.
Unlike other criminology theories, such as the social control theory, the interactional theory emphasizes unless there exists an interactive setting for delinquency to be performed, learned and reinforced it will just remain a possibility. In Thornberry’s view, a necessary condition for involvement in delinquency is the weakening or absence of social control. However, this is not a sufficient condition. The basic premise of this theory that human behavior can be explained by interactive models since it takes place in social interaction (Thornberry, 1987). I am further persuaded by this theory given its bi-directional perspectives.
Work Cited
Thornberry, T. (1987). Toward an interactional theory of delinquency. In Criminology (pp. 863-891).
Thornberry, T. P. (1998). Membership in youth gangs and involvement in serious and violent offending. In Loeber, R. & Farrington, D. P. (Eds.). Serious and Violent Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interventions. (pp. 147-166). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
