Module 6: Types of Crime and Victimization

Question 1

What is the most and least common type of violent crime in Canada?

Answer 1

• most: common assault

- least: homicide (only 0.2% of all violent crimes that occur between 2+ individuals)

Question 2

Who commits homicides in Canada? Gender, SES etc.

Answer 2

• 90% are males, this percentage is the same for more than 50 years, even after feminist movement
• lower socioeconomic classes
• most victims are killed by family members or someone they know (85%) only 15% are killed by strangers
• relatively young 18-30

Question 3

Explain: two types of personalities of people who commit violent crimes

Answer 3

1. Overcontrolled
   - introverted, quiet, rigid
   - lets aggression build up and snaps, ex. allows abuse to build up over years and months
2. Undercontrolled
   - lacks inhibition of aggressive impulses

Question 4

Who are victims of violent crime in Canada?

Answer 4

• Aboriginal peoples are 3x more likely to be victims of spousal violence than those who are non-Aboriginals and victims are more likely to experience serious forms of violence (beaten, chopped, threatened with a knife or gun, or sexually assaulted)
• 66% of homicide victims are males, male victims are more likely to be killed by a stranger, only 5% of female victims are killed by a stranger
• men tend to kill both men and women, women tend to kill men and are less likely to kill other women
• high rates of violence between same-sex partners, 2x more likely to report intimate partner violence, bisexuals are 4x more likely than heterosexuals to report intimate-partner violence
• in heterosexual marriages, younger wives are at greater risk for violence
• 20% of American women have been abused by a partner

Question 5

Why Aboriginal peoples are 3x more likely to be victims of spousal violence than those who are non-Aboriginals?

Answer 5

1. Alcohol abuse interacting with individual who are predisposed to violence
2. The high rates of common-law marital relationships, common-law marriages are 2.5x riskier than legal registered marriages
3. Cindy Baskin: loss of traditional values as a result of colonization, values that contributed to a strong family system have been lost with the coming of the Whites in North America, prior to colonization Aboriginal women were viewed as equal to men

Question 6

Most common cause of spousal violence (including spousal homicide)?

Answer 6

• infidelity and suspicion of infidelity
• male jealousy
• sexual ownership

Question 7

Socio-Psychological Profile of Abusive Husbands

Answer 7

1. They tend to be under-achiever in their occupational roles, lower educated, less income, sometimes wife is more educated and has more income or has better social skills than the partners
2. Have experienced abusive childhood
3. They tend to be extremely possessive and unreasonably jealous
4. They tend to have an obsession with the wife’s behaviour
5. They tend to have the tendency to isolate the wife from her family and friends
6. They tend to have fewer resources than their wives
7. They lack communication skills which makes them more vulnerable to aggression
8. They are characterized by sexual proprietariness and coercive control of the wife’s behaviour

Question 8

Who is most likely to commit breaking and entering?

Answer 8

• more likely to be committed by young people under 22 years of age
• people from lower socioeconomic classes

Question 9

Theft of a motor vehicle, rates of occurence?

Answer 9

there are over 93000 incidents of stolen cars in Canada a year

Question 10

Most common reasons for car theft in Canada?

Answer 10

-most common reasons for theft include joy riding, to obtain car parts/accessories, used for committing other crimes, selling the car in other countries, 25% of car thefts are linked to organized crime,

Question 11

Most common cars to be stolen include :

Answer 11

• luxury cars
• utility vehicles
• Japanese models, ex. HONDA CIVIC, AVURA RSX, TOYOTA CAMRY

Question 12

Most crimes reported to police agencies are:

Answer 12

crimes against property, ex. theft under $5000, possession of stolen goods, breaking and entering

Question 13

Most serious of all property crimes in Canada? Maximum penalty? Rates of occurrence?

Answer 13

• breaking and entering
• maximum penalty of life imprisonment, and 14 years for other premises than homes
• 10-15% of all reported offenses but not considered a violent crime

Question 14

Define/explain: Corporate Crime

Answer 14

• illegal acts by big business
• corporate crime does more harm to society and ruins more lives, and causes more deaths per month than predatory crime and homicides in a decade
• the main goals of corporations are profit and to expand their markets, no matter the social consequences
• when corporations appear in courts for deviant acts the penalty is always a fine, because you cannot jail a “corporation”, even though the act was committed by a real person
• corporations are reluctant to prosecute their employees who commit crimes against them, due to fear of a bad image or that they won’t get the money back

Question 15

Examples of corporate/upper world crime:

Answer 15

• false advertising by food and medical companies
• industries that produce defective products, ex. tires
• fixing prices
• stealing manufacturing techniques from other industries
• expose workers to chemicals etc. that cause cancer and damage to the nervous system
• funding wars for the benefit of MNCs, ex. Vietnam, Persian Gulf, War in Iraq/Syria/Afghanistan

Question 16

Define/explain: Crimes of War (violations of international law)

Answer 16

• crimes against humanity committed by governments or political organizations
• the majority of killings in the 20thC were committed by governments at war and they should be listed in the criminal code of Canada because they are not listed there now
• the more powerful those who commit the crimes, the more difficult the prosecution

Question 17

Examples of crimes of war:

Answer 17

• destruction of nonmilitary buildings, ex. churches, schools, hospitals
• use of poisonous gasses against civilians
• killing of civilians
• murder, torture, and ill treatment of POWs
• genocide; the act of destroying ethnic, racial and religious groups, ex. Rwanda, Nazis, Dutch in Africa
• torture/execution of prisoners

Question 18

Define/explain: hate crime

Answer 18

• acts of violence/intimidation, designed to terrorize, frighten, assault or kill people considered undesirable based on their race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation
• most involve assault, intimidation, or damage to property (schools, businesses, graffiti with hate messages, vandalism of a house of worship or a cemetery)
• 77% of hate crimes are against a person and 64% of those were assaults
• 90% of these incidents happen in urban areas of Canada
• usually motivated by the victims walking, driving, socializing, shopping in areas the attacker believes they do not belong
• victim provocation does not seem to be a factor as it is in other types of interpersonal violence

Question 19

Profile of Hate Crime Offenders

Answer 19

1. Relatively young, alienated, ‘angry’, working class males
2. Some of them have links to white supremacist groups, including:
3. White supremacist groups share racist ideologies as well as sexism, homophobia, religious fanaticism, etc.
   - these groups flourish in democracy, with freedom of assembly
   - many of these individuals/groups are funded by corporations and private billionaires because they tend to be pro-business, anticommunist, and anti-union

Question 20

Define/explain: Learning Theory of Prejudice (Edwin Sutherland)

Answer 20

• views prejudice as a learned response
• we are not born with prejudiced attitudes but learn them from others, parents, teachers and peers around us, a culture of prejudice
• prejudice can be learned by association with or imitation of prejudice models and not necessarily by contact with members of minority groups
• can pass on from one generation to the next
• through the process of association people also learn excuses and justification for committing gate crimes, ex. it wasn’t my fault, the victim provoked the attack, the victim deserves what she/he got
• they use excuses and justifications to neutralize guilt and avoid legal responsibilities
• learning also includes the techniques involved in committing hate motivated violence, ex. how to use a gun/knife, how to destroy property, how to make explosives, how to lynch someone

Question 21

Define/explain: Scapegoat Theory of Prejudice

Answer 21

• offshoot of frustration/aggression theory
• hate motivated crimes can be displaced aggression, ex. when there is an economic recession people look for scapegoats, someone to blame/attack
• minorities are easy targets for racists, groups, and governments
• for a minority group to be a suitable scapegoat: 1. To possess highly visible racial/cultural traits, 2. Not being in a position to retaliate (we tend to discriminate against/assault members or powerless groups), 3. To personify some idea which is disliked, ex. Jews as anti-Christian/Communists, African-Americans as lazy/aggressive/not smart, Arabs as backwards/savages/terrorists, Mexicans as rapists (Trump)

Question 22

According to Authoritarian Personality Theory (Theodor Adorno) the authoritarian personality which is the highly prejudiced individual, look like:

Answer 22

• he/she is preoccupied with power relationships, submissive to authority but rules inferiors with threats
• has a tendency to view people as good/bad and views people as black and white
• conception of the world/society as a jungle
• characterized by mental rigidity
• low self-esteem, no self-insight, blames other for his trouble, very conservative, extreme moralism/self-righteousness, disclaims/renounces the weak/powerless, prefers strong leaders and an orderly society
• mentally disturbed, especially the leaders of hate groups, ex. paranoid tendencies, psychopath characteristics (lacks remorse, impulsive, lacks empathy)
• this personality comes about from rigid, oppressive childhood training, contributes to more intolerance and maladjustment later in life, ex. dominating fathers
• -authoritarian prejudiced tendencies decrease as intelligence/education level goes up, highly prejudiced people are more vulnerable to stress and there more likely to blame other people for their problems

Question 23

According to Authoritarian Personality Theory the least prejudiced people are:

Answer 23

• liberal
• open-minded/adaptable to social change
• come from homes where punishment is neither harsh nor capricious
• more tolerant of racial and cultural diversity in society
• permissive
• flexible in social relationships
• high level of self-insight

Question 24

Define/explain: Social Control Theory of Prejudice (Gottfredson and Hirschi)

Answer 24

• those who commit hate crimes are highly prejudiced individuals with low self-control
• they are socialized by their parents to lack self-control (lack supervision, discipline, teaching about empathy and need to obey in society)
• conditions that contribute to hate crimes: economic recessions/high unemployment, movement of minorities into an area (seen as a threat to a way of life), historical animosities that pass from one generation to another, feeling or resentment for the economic and social success of people of minority groups
• must be convenient and vulnerable targets who are powerless and unable to fight back

Question 25

What can be Done to Control Hate Crimes?

Answer 25

1. Apply the penal philosophy of deterrence to punish those who commit hate crimes
   - severe penalties, harsher penalties than for crimes not motivated by hate
2. View hate crimes as violations of human rights
   - human rights; people have the right to be themselves, their own religion, race, gender, right to a home, work, education, leisure activity shouldn’t be hindered by race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc.
3. Education
   - in the media, religious centers, schools and the home
   - our schools should design curriculum programs that inform students about the nature of prejudice/discrimination and its consequences, and the social history/contributions to Canadian society of all racial/cultural groups, and the similarities between all groups (values, customs, traditions, lifestyles), partially due to globalization ethno cultural groups are more similar than dissimilar in background
4. Adequate socialization of children by parents and guardian
   - the family is a primary determinant of whether someone will grow up prejudiced and lacking self-control

Question 26

2 Problems Often Faced by Police Officers Investigating Hate Motivated Crimes:

Answer 26

1. How to Prove Motivation in a Hate Crime
2. How to Determine Whether Provocation and Mutual Conflict Preceded the Crime
   - usually witnesses are absent

Question 27

Prejudice Satisfies Certain these Psychological Needs:

Answer 27

• to dominate and control others
• to feel superiors to others
• to increase one’s self-image