Midterm Flashcards
(25 cards)
Define the term criminology
the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes the processes of …
-Making laws, Breaking laws and what happens when laws are broken
Its goal is scientific which is to develop a body of general and verified principles and knowledge regarding the law, crime, and treatment.
Understand the different ways of define crime
- Media definitions which are not always accurate
- Society defines what it believes are crimes and what goes against the norms of society
- Legal definition as of the codifications of law
Explain how crime is socially defined and how it changes overtime
Crimes are socially defined since there is not universally condemned acts because it depends on what society believes if a harm
Understand the 2 main theoretical perspectives (Conflict and Perspective) and how some acts get definended as a criminal and others do not.
Consensus theory: Criminal laws represent a consensus within a society about what acts should be prohibited (maintain order through
- These laws are codified by Values shared by most members of society
- This theory is supported by polls indicating there is a broad agreement about many laws and the seriousness of various criminal offences.
- The main problem is that not everyone agrees on the social contract.
Conflict Approach
conflict theorists reject the idea that laws reflect a consensus in society
Class conflict theory: views laws as a tool used by the ruling class maintain their privileged position by keeping “common people” under control.
Explain the role of the family, the school, and the church in the causation of delinquency and crime
- Family relations are a deterrent to crime since it involves kids with an attachment to you
- School also plays an important role in socialization and will be an important determinant in delinquency
- The church is important because it may instill fear of deviance
Understand early social disorganization theories that sought to explain why crime rates were highest in neighborhoods characterized by poverty, physical deterioration, and conflict
Durkheim emphasized the importance of social bonds to understanding the deviance
Ecological suicide: when there were weak social bonds to the point that people were acting in self-interest
Anomic suicide: occurs when a lack of social integration leaves a society without a clear system of moral beliefs
Shaw and McKay thought that deviance came from the social disorganization of communities
Deviance was blamed on the failure of neighbourhood institutions and organizations that did not provide adequate social control
I.e family, school
Hirscho thought that individuals turn to illegitimate means if their bonds to society are weak or broken
4 aspects of social bonds containing our behaviour
Attachment: affective ties with others
Commitment: the degree to which an individual pursues conventional goals
Involvement: the degree to which an individual is active in conventional activities
Belief: in conventional values and the legitimacy of the law
Examine Sutherland’s differential association theory
- People learn how to engage in crime
- This learning comes about through interaction with others who have already learned criminal ways
- The learning occurs in small, face to face groups
- What is learned is criminal technique, motives, attitude, and rationalizations
- Among criminals, one important learned attitude is a disregard for the community’s legal code
- One acquires this attitude by associating with those who hold it and not associating with those who don’t
- Learning criminal behaviour rests on the same principles as learning any other kind of behaviour
- Criminal behaviour is a response to the same cultural needs and values as a non-criminal behaviour
Problems: Deviant motives and meanings are often gradually learned and tentatively applied. They are also modified over time in interactions with both deviants and non-deviants
Expressive reasons for committing a crime (thrill and enjoyment) are ignored
Explain how moral entrepreneurs create and enforce the law
Moral entrepreneurs are individuals who define or advocate new rules and laws or the different enforcement of the existing laws
Describe primary and secondary deviation and explain how primary deviation leads to secondary deviation
Deviant career: Refers to stages of personal involvement in criminal activity, like stages in an occupational career
Primary deviation: Early in the career, the offender commits deviant acts infrequently but does not self-identify as a deviant
Secondary deviation: deviance becomes a way of life
- Primary can be turned into secondary through a perception of increase opportunities
Master status: when society considers someone’s criminality as their defining characteristics
Understand the difference between instrumental Marxism and structural marxism
Instrumental Marxism: The state and the legal system are instruments that can be directly manipulated by the capitalist class. the capitalist class can thus directly influence law and law formation
Structural Marxism: The relative autonomy of the state functions to reserve the long-term interests of the capitalist system. This helps explain why many laws are enacted that do not represent the immediate interests of the capitalist class
Understand Durkheim’s conception of Anomie or Normlessness
Anomie and Normlessness:
is in the absence of social norms and values. As more individuals become more seperates therefore making them less bound by social control mechanism therefore more crime
Describe how Merton modified Durkheim so that anomie theory became a theory relative to deprivation, rather than a theory of a lack of social regulation
Crime is the result of the gap between culturally prescribed aspirations and the socially structured means of realizing them
Everyone wants to reach the american dream but lack of access to education and good jobs for the poor and minority children cause a strain from the gap between goals and the means to achieve them may result in some innovation, usually deviance
When society encourages people to want things but makes it difficult for certain groups to get them, members of this society are more likely to turn towards deviance
Critiseized becuase not everyone has connections to illegitimate means
Understand the difference between sell’s cultural group conflict theory and Vold’s interest group conflict theory
Sellin’s conflict theory: in complex societies, diverse cultural groups maintain distinct conduct norms or cultural rules governing appropriate conduct
When an immigrant culture comes into conflict with a dominant culture norms, this is called Cultural conflict
George Vold Group conflict theory: focuses on crime that occurs due to conflict between competing “interest groups”
Law making is a political process involving conflict between interest groups
2 classes of group conflict can result in criminal behaviour
- Crime occurs when there is a conflict between the behaviour of a minority group and the laws of the dominant majority
- Crime occurs from conflict between competing interest groups vying for power
Describe how Quinney’s group conflict theory differs from both Vold’s and Sellin’s conflict theories
Crime is a definition of human conduct that is created by authorized agents in a politically organized society
Criminal definitions describe behaviour that conflict with the interests of segments of society that have the power to shape public policy
Criminal definitions are applied by the segments of society that have power to shape the enforcement and administration of criminal law
Behavioural patterns are structured in segmentally organized society in relation to criminal definitions, and within this context persons engage in actions that have relative probabilities of being defined as criminal
Conceptions of crime are constructed and diffused in the segments of society by various means of communication (the mass media)
The social reality of crime is constructed by the formulation and application of criminal definitions
More so saying that certain powerful groups are making the rules for the rest so simulare to group conflict theory
Discuss the routine activities approach to crime and understand the roles of motivated offender, suitable target, and ineffective guardianship in any criminal event
Routine activity Theory:
This theory developed from research on patterns of crime and victimization
Lifestyle/exposure theory
Some people put themselves in social settings with a high risk of victimization
Three factors must be present for the crime to occur
- Motivated offender
- Suitable target
- Lack of guardianship of the target
Discuss how offenders make choices whether or not to commit offences and understand the assumption of rational choice theory
Rational Choice theory:
Crime is the result of deliberate choices made by offenders based on their calculations of risk and reward
Research shows that the short term costs and benefits are more important than the long-term considerations
Understand the role of the law as a deterrent to crime and recognize the limits of deterrence
Certain factors influences an individual’s decision to commit a crime and the legal system can be used to affect that decision
Punishment should be severe enough to deter people from doing it but proportional enough to the nature of the crime
Do mandatory minimum sentences deter crime?
Insufficient credible evidence to conclude that mandatory penalties have a significant deterrent effects
Why don’t severe penalties deter crime?
Some offenders are unaware of them
The rate of incarceration for crimes is so low that harsh sentences only affect a small minority
Describe the current theories linking crime and mental illness
It was assumed that all crime was a symptom of mental illness but this thinking is rejected in modern day thinking but it is worth noting that there is a prevalence of mental disorders in prisons
Institutionalization and deinstitutionalization
Between 1800 and 1900’s it was decided that people with mental illness should not be in prison but this caused overcrowding in the asylums
In 1960’s they started doing more out-patient care because medication was advancing, asylums were expensive and patients weren’t treated well by staff
Describe and critique different psychological theories used to explain criminal behaviour.
Psychological theories of crime:
Crime results when the ego (Directs the impulses of the id and acts as a reality tester) and superego (conscious) are unable to control the primitive, aggressive, antisocial instincts of the ID (biological drives)
Criminality is caused by a person’s failure to progress satisfactorily through the early stages of development
Superego is adequately developed or deficient, and the individual is susceptible to antisocial behaviour
Warren and Hindeland identify oher application of psychoanalytic theory to criminality
Criminals suffer from compulsive need for punishment to alleviate guilt or anxiety from unconscious strivings
Criminals activity is a substitute gratification for desires not met in the family
Delinquent behaviour is the result of the traumatic events whose memory has been repressed
-Problem not all criminals feel guilty about committing crimes
Moral Development Theory
Each individual must go through a sequence of moral development. Those with high levels of moral development will have high levels of responsible choices when it comes to getting involved in criminal activity
Personality theory
Law abiding people must develop a conditional fear of deviance. Those who become criminals do not develop this fear
Social Learning theory:
Deviant behaviour such as aggression can be learned through direct experience or through modelling the actions of others
Operant Conditioning theory
Individual behaviour is shaped though both reinforcement and punishment. Behaviour that is both reward will tend to continue.
Psychopath
Psychopaths seem to lack empathy for their victims and do not feel guilty about their crimes. They neither learn for their experiences nor fear deviance
Identify the key principles and criticisms of the classic school neoclassical school and positive school.
Classical School:
Considered the first formal school of criminology
Associated with eighteenth and early nineteenth century reforms to the administration of justice and the prison system
The root of classical theory lie in the enlightenment
People voluntarily enter a social contract with the state
They would give up some freedom for safer society
People would break the law because they thought that by doing so it would advance their own interest
Reform: People were no longer executed for minor offences
Criminal matters should be dealt with in a public according to the dictates of the law
Laws should be accessible to all
Positive school:
Used the scientific method (controlled observation) to compare criminal and non-criminals
Crime was caused by biological factors beyond the individual’s control
Scientist named lombroso tried to identify characteristics that criminals had like robbers had fast moving eyes
These characteristics were called Stigmata
Discuss the context in which modern explanations of crime and criminality were developed
Theories of crime was inspired by religious beliefs and superstitions
There was a widespread belief of evil spirits and magic
This lead to the belief that any pathology (disease) in human behaviour must be due to evil spirit
Judeo-christain teachings have 2 explanations for the role of evil in sinful behaviour
- Temptation
- Possession
Blaming social problems on the devil and other evil spirits was a means of achieving 2 objectives
It diverted attention from the failing of elites and placed blame on the individuals who are ‘possessed’ by evil
Those in power made themselves seem irreplaceable by saying they are the only ones that could get rid of the devil.
Describe major correlates of criminal Behaviour
Age as a correlation to crime:
Criminal activities intensify in adolescence and young adulthood and decline thereafter
Gender as a correlation to crime:
Males are overrepresented among offenders
Conflicts of race and crime
Race is not as strongly related to crime as age and gender
Drug and alcohol misuse as a correlate to crime:
Use of illicit drugs strongly correlated with street crime
Socio-economic status and criminal behaviour
People with low SES are over represented in police reported statistics
Spatial Location as a correlation of Crime:
Studies show that different regions and cities in Canada have different levels of crime and violence
Crime is higher in northern territories and western provinces
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of victimization and self-reported criminality surveys, and understand how these two methods enhance our understanding of the problem of crime in Canada
Victimization Surveys: as a sample of people, via a questionnaire whether they have been a victim to a crime
Limitations: Not all crimes are captured (murder)
Consensual crimes are not captured by UCR or victimization surveys bc they don’t consider themselves victims
Crimes that keep victims unaware of being victimized can’t be captured
Lack of reliability
Self-report Studies: Ask people if they have ever committed a crime or behaved in criminal behaviour
Benefits
Self-report studies overcome some of the weaknesses of police data and victimization surveys
They contribute to research and theories on the causes of crime and delinquency, especially the relationship between social class and crime
Limitations:
Hard to find people that want to do it
Respondents tend to downplay their crimes
It is often difficult to survey serious, chronic offenders
Describe how the administrative records collected in the criminal justice system are turned into statistics about crime the characteristics of offenders and victims
Administrative records include Police reports Court decisions Records of prisons and penitentiaries The decision of parole and probation officials
CJS administrative records are not statistics because…
Records are concerned with individual cases whereas statistics are concerned with the common among individual cases
- Official (police- reported) statistics
- Victimization surveys
- self -report studies
Uniform Crime rate: provide uniform and comparable national statistics
- UCR Aggregate: collects summary data for 100 separate criminal offences
- UCR Incident based: survey collects more detailed information on each incident, victims, and accused.
The problem with the UCR is that is only the most serious crimes is scored in an incident involving several crimes which…
Deflated the total crime count
Inflates serious crimes as a percentage of the total
Not enough quantitative data about crimes are recorded to use a sophisticated scale of seriousness
Is also depends on policy activity and what charges they decided to pursue
Crime severity index
Assigned each offence a weight derived from the sentence given by the criminal courts, the more serious the average sentence, the greater the weight, thus, more serious offences have a greater impact on the severity index
