Social-psychological theories of crime aim to bridge the gap between which perspectives?

• A. The environmentalism of sociology and the individualism of psychology or biology
• B. Religious doctrine and secular law
• C. Economic theory and political ideology
• D. Media influence and educational policy

Answer: (A)

They aim to bridge environmental influences with individual psychological or biological processes. Social-psychological theories of crime recognize that behavior results from the interaction between the social context—neighborhood, peers, norms, opportunities—and how a person processes information, regulates impulses, and makes decisions. This integrated view explains why two people in the same environment might diverge in their behavior because of differing individual traits and cognitive processes. For example, exposure to deviant peers may increase risk, but the extent of that influence depends on a person’s self-control, moral reasoning, and other internal factors.

The other options pair domains that aren’t the core aim of social-psychological crime theories: religious doctrine vs secular law are about normative systems and enforcement, economic theory vs political ideology are macro-level analyses of economies and beliefs, and media influence vs educational policy are policy domains rather than the integration of social context with individual-level mechanisms.