soc chap 14-16 Flashcards
(113 cards)
What is Crime
Whereas deviance is a violation of norms that draws a negative reaction, crime is a kind of deviance where the norm being violated is one that is enacted and enforced by the state.
Definition - A violation of the law that is punishable by sanctions. It must involve a criminal act or omission, and criminal intent.
What is Law
a system of rules to regulate behavior that is enforced through state and social institutions
Sanctions
the penalty for disobeying or breaking a law
Street crime vs white collar crime
Street crime is what people often call to mind when they think about crime, for example, robbery, burglary, and drug trafficking. We often associate street crime with those in the lower socio-economic strata. - true with burglary and armed robbery but not of drug crimes
White-collar crime is less often called to mind and includes crimes like fraud, embezzlement, and insider trading. We often associate white-collar crime with social elites and those in the upper socioeconomic strata. This is certainly true for some crimes like securities fraud, but many crimes we define as white-collar crime, like identity theft and credit card fraud, are committed by the middle class, lower class, or even street gangs
The harms of property crimes
While many crimes can cause harm, we often consider street crimes, especially violent street crimes, to be the most dangerous
→ But many white-collar crimes are also harmful in significant ways. Offshore tax evasion has cost Canadians nearly $5 billion in lost tax revenue that could have been used to pay for social services or programs
Ponzi scheme
–> An investment fraud where the fraudster pays returns to older investors by acquiring new investors.
- As these cases make clear, the effects of white-collar crime can be just as ruinous and far-reaching as street crime.
- Just because sometimes they’re without a clear victim does not mean they’re victimless
Public law
A set of rules between individuals and society
- Criminal law is a type of public law. Crimes are considered wrongs against society rather than wrongs against individual people because crime represents the violation of some of society’s most sacred rules, such as killing
- The crime represents a threat to social order and not only a threat to a single person
Private law
Where the harm is not between a person and society but between private individuals or groups.
- If you file a lawsuit and seek damages or monetary compensation against a company that makes a product that causes you harm, or you sue someone for compensation to pay for medical expenses because they caused a car accident in which you were injured, you are engaging in private law.
Law on the books
- The formal, official written legal statutes, legislation, acts, court decisions, and regulations, as well as rules for their enforcement
- Law on the books is very different than in action as there are many interpretations of the law that affect the outcome of trials
Law in action
- The decisions, actions, or experiences individuals or organizations have that involve the law. These can influence whether the law or legal consequences might be important for how decisions are made. Decisions are the action part of “law in action”
- From a sociological point of view, how laws are applied and how people understand and engage with the law are important sociological considerations, perhaps even more important than what is written in our legal codes.
Delinquency
minor crimes committed by young people
Criminogenic
A system, place, or situation producing or leading to a crime
Crime as a social construction
- Like other norms, deviance is socially constructed: it is the product of a particular place, time, and culture.
- Sociologists, especially conflict and critical perspectives, have shown the importance of power when it comes to the social construction of crime. Scholars have argued that laws and the legal system represent the interests of the ruling class, and that law enforcement is selectively practised.
- Crimes of the upper class, by contrast, are less likely to be considered illegal or be policed.
→ A classic example of the interconnection between class, power, and crime is the development and application of vagrancy laws. Enforced on homeless populations. Vagrancy laws were also applied for moral reasons like alcoholism or social reasons like fear of crime or to preserve ways of life. Uniformly, these laws were used to target those in the lower classes.
Behavior and norms over times
A second important sociological point is that, just as norms are subject to change, so too are our definitions of criminal and problematic behavior.
What is UCR + current crime trends
This data comes from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) survey, which includes criminal incidents solved by police and information about people charged with committing a crime. When you hear about homicide rates or rates of gun crime in the news, they are referring to UCR crime rates
→ You can see a several decades decline in crime rates, with a slight recent increase driven mostly by non-violent crimes.
–> crime severity has increased due to sexual assault cases. could be more crime or more reporting
- Sociologists are skeptical of official measures of crime because they might reflect biases rather than present an accurate picture of criminal behaviour.
Crime funnel
An image representing the amount of crime detected or undetected or reported to the justice system
- Victimization data show that only about 31% of crime is reported to the police
Dark figure of crime –> crime detected by people –> crime reported to police –> recorded crime –> cleared crime
Dark figure of crime
The amount of crime that is unreported or undiscovered
Victimization surveys
- A survey where respondents are asked whether or not they’ve been victims of crime
- Asking Canadians about victimization experiences documents the crimes that are not reported to the police and therefore not included in the UCR
- A method developed by sociologists to help understand the dark figure of crime
Self report surveys
Measures crime by asking people to report their criminal behavior on anonymous surveys or questionnaires
Social scientists have discovered that people are quite willing to self-report their criminal behavior on surveys and questionnaires, making this a useful approach for uncovering information about crime that may be missed by official statistics
The strongest predictor of crime
Genetics together with social and environmental factors are strong predictors of crime
Strain theory and anomie - functionalist
Structural strain: society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially acceptable goals and those without the means to achieve those goals experience strain, leading to crime.
Social inequality prevents equal access to the socially acceptable means for achieving those goals. When there is a disjunction between societal goals and the acceptable means to achieve those goals, the social structure is said to be characterized by anomie.
Anomie: Merton’s anomie refers to the lack of fit between cultural goals and the means to achieve those goals. Anomie causes crime by creating strain.
Routine activities theory - Functionalist
RAT shows that crime occurs when three things come together: a motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian
Criminologists have long known that leisure is connected to crime—young people with “nothing to do” will often get into trouble, hence why criminologist Ken Pease theorized the decrease in crime had to do with more youth staying indoors and passing their free time by playing video games
Concentric zone theory + disorganization
Organized by commuter zone, residential zone, working class zone, transition zone, central business zone (in order largest to smallest)
Rates of delinquency are highest in the inner city, decreasing as one moves outward toward more affluent areas → Crime is tied to the transition zone, which is characterized by people coming and going. Even though populations fluctuate, crime does not decrease.
Socially disorganized neighborhoods
→ Street robbers choose these neighbourhoods based on the routine activities taking place there and because these neighbourhoods are known to robbers through their everyday routines.
Social learning theory - Interactionalist
One example is social learning theory. People learn the techniques, motivations, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes favorable to crime by interacting with other people who support and engage in criminal behavior
But crime is not just learned from association with “bad companions”; it is also caused by exposure to people’s definition of crime as desirable behavior