WW1
...ted and disconnected to the social consensus. Deviance can follow because individuals become unaware of the consensus and the rules, or they find that the consensus no longer benefits them. The pathology theory can be used to offer an explanation for the current problem of high rates of offenses among youth. This perspective would oppose both the ecology and classical school, by suggesting that the deviant youth are sick. They would commit crimes because of biological or sociological defects within themselves. This defect would suggest that they are not responsible for their criminal behavior, however these youth would still be a threat to the consensus of society. When a solution is recommended by the pathology school, they would not see punishment or the use of the criminal justice system as effective means of control. C. R. Jeffery explains that punishment only rewards the punished, increasing anxiety and anger, and develops a learned helplessness within the offender. The school also believes that the criminal justice system is only effective if early intervention can occur for the purposes of prediction and prevention. What pathology theory does advocate is the use of medical experts to identify the defect within the youth, and then prescribe a treatment. This treatment is used as a form of sentencing, and may be indeterminate in length, until the youth is cured from their defect. The ecology theory offers a different explanation to the problem of high crime rates among youth. It shifts the focus away from the youth, to their broader social situation. The theory explains that the youth’s thinking process which lead to the criminal act was affected by their social environment. The youth have fallen victim to their environment, causing them to become morally isolated and disconnected from the social consensus. This explanation involves soft determinism, where the youth are left to make their own choices, but they are not bound by society’s common morals. The solution for ecology theorists would be aimed at the social environment rather than at the individual youth. The ecologists would implement programs aimed at reducing the amount of time youth’s spent in their environment, such as after school programs of organized basketball. Most importantly t...