Sociology-crime-control/punishment/victims Flashcards
(134 cards)
1
Q
How does Clarke describe situational crime prevention?
A
‘A pre-emptive approach that relies, not on improving society or its institutions, but simply on reducing opportunities for crime’
2
Q
What does Clarke identify?
A
Three features of measures aimed at situational crime prevention: They are directed at specific crimes. They involve managing or altering the immediate environment of crime. They aim at increasing the effort and risks of committing crime and reducing the rewards
3
Q
Why do situational crime prevention strategies work?
A
‘Target hardening’ measures such as locking doors/windows increase the effort a burglar needs to make, while increased surveillance in shops (CCTV/security guards) increase likelihood of shoplifters being caught. Also replacing coin-operated gas meters with pre-payment cards reduces the burglar’s rewards
4
Q
What is the underlying approach of situational crime prevention?
A
An ‘opportunity’ or rational choice theory of crime. The view that criminals act rationally, weighing up the costs and benefits of a crime opportunity before deciding to commit it
5
Q
What does a rational choice theory approach to crime contrast with?
A
Contrasts with theories of crime that stress ‘root causes’ such as criminals early socialisation or capitalist exploitation. In this view, to deal with crime, we would have to transform the socialisation of large numbers of children to carry out a revolution
6
Q
What does Clarke argue about most theories of crime?
A
Most theories offer no realistic solutions to crime, and argues the most obvious thing to do is to focus on the immediate crime situation, as this is where scope for prevention is greatest. Most crime is opportunistic, so we need to reduce the opportunities
7
Q
What example of situational crime prevention does Felson give?
A
The Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City was poorly designed and provided opportunities for deviant conduct. The bathrooms were a setting for luggage thefts, rough sleeping, drug dealing and homosexual liaisons. Re-shaping the physical environment to ‘design crime out’ greatly reduced such activity, eg large sinks, in which homeless people were bathing were replaced by small hand basins
8
Q
What is one criticism of situational crime prevention measures?
A
They do not reduce crime; they simply displace it. If criminals are acting rationally, presumably they will respond to target hardening by moving to where targets are softer. Chaiken et al found a crackdown on subway robberies in New York displaced them to the streets above
9
Q
What are some different forms of displacement?
A
Spatial-moving elsewhere to commit crime. Temporal-committing at a different time. Target-choosing a different victim. Tactical-using a different method. Functional-committing a different type of crime
10
Q
What is the most obvious example of the success of situational measures?
A
It is not about crime, but about suicide. In the early 1960s, half of all suicides in Britain were the result of gassing. At that time, Britain’s fas supply came from highly toxic coal gas. From the 1960s, coal was gradually replaced by less toxic natural gas, and by 1977 suicides had fallen to near zero. However, overall suicide rate declined, not just deaths from gassing-there was no displacement
11
Q
What are the evaluation points for situational crime prevention?
A
Works to some extent in reducing certain kinds of crime, however with most measures there is likely to be some displacement. Tends to focus on opportunistic petty street crime-ignores white collar, corporate and state crime, which are most costly and harmful. Assumes criminals make rational calculations-seems unlikely in many crimes of violence, and crimes committed under the influence of drugs/alcohol. Ignores the root causes of crime, such as poverty or poor socialisation-makes it difficult to develop long-term strategies for crime reduction
12
Q
What is environmental crime prevention based on?
A
Wilson and Kelling’s ‘Broken Windows’, which has been described as ‘perhaps the most influential single article on crime prevention ever written’
13
Q
What is the ‘Broken Windows’ article?
A
They use the phrase ‘broken windows’ to stand for all the various signs of disorder and lack of concern for others that are found in some neighbourhoods. Including undue noise, graffiti, begging, littering, vandalism etc. They argue leaving broken windows unrepaired, tolerating aggressive begging etc, sends out a signal that no one cares
14
Q
Why is crime more likely in areas such as those spoken about in the ‘Broken Windows’ article?
A
In such neighbourhoods, there is absence of formal social control (police) and informal control (community). Police are only concerned with serious crime and turn a blind eye to petty nuisance behaviour, while respectable members of the community feel intimidated and powerless. Without remedial action, the situation deteriorates, tipping the neighbourhood into a spiral of decline. Respectable people move out (if they can) and the area becomes a magnet for deviants
15
Q
What is Wilson and Kelling’s solution to crime?
A
Their key idea is that disorder and the absence of controls leads to crime. Their solution is to crack down on any disorder, using a twofold strategy
16
Q
What is the first part of Wilson and Kelling’s solution to crime?
A
First, an environmental improvement strategy-any broken window must be repaired immediately, abandoned cars towed without delay etc, otherwise more will follow and the neighbourhood will be on the slide
17
Q
What is the second part of Wilson and Kelling’s solution to crime?
A
Secondly, the police must adopt a zero tolerance policing strategy-instead of merely reacting to crime they must proactively tackle even the slightest sign of disorder, even if it is not criminal as this will halt neighbourhood decline and prevent serious crime taking root
18
Q
What is an example of success for zero tolerance policing?
A
Large success especially in New York (where Kelling was an adviser to the police). Eg a ‘Clean Car Program’ was instituted on the subway, in which cars were taken out of service immediately if they had any graffiti on them, only returning once clean. As a result, graffiti was largely removed from the subway. Other successful programs to tackle fare dodging, drug dealing and begging followed
19
Q
What happened after the first big success of zero tolerance policing?
A
Later, the same approach was extended to the city’s police precincts. Eg a crackdown on ‘squeegee merchants’ discovered that many had outstanding warrants for violent and property crimes. Between 1993 and 1996, there was a significant fall in crime in the city, including a 50% drop in the homicide rate-from 1,927 to 986
20
Q
What is a problem with zero tolerance?
A
Not clear how far zero tolerance was the cause of the improvements: NYPD benefited from 7,000 extra officers. Was general decline in crime rate in major US cities at the time-including ones where police didn’t adopt zero tolerance. Early 1990s had seen major recession and high unemployment, but from 1994 many new jobs were created. Was decline in availability of crack cocaine. While deaths from homicides fell sharply, attempted homicides remained high-has been suggested the fall in murder rate owed more to improved emergency services than policing
21
Q
What is a strength of zero tolerance?
A
Nonetheless, zero tolerance has been very influential globally, including the UK, where it has influenced anti-social behaviour policies
22
Q
What do Wilson and Kelling also recognise about crime prevention?
A
Show some recognition of the role of the community and informal controls in preventing crime, but the main emphasis of policies based on their ideas has been in terms of policing
23
Q
What contrasts with Wilson and Kelling’s view on crime prevention?
A
By contrast, social and community prevention strategies place the emphasis firmly on the potential offender and their social context. The aim of these strategies if to remove the conditions that predispose individuals to crime in the first place. These are longer-term strategies as they attempt to tackle the root causes of offending, rather than simply removing opportunities for crime
24
Q
How can general social reform programmes also be successful in reducing crime?
A
Because the causes of crime are often rooted in social conditions such as poverty, unemployment and poor housing, more general social reform programmes addressing these issues may not have a crime prevention role, even if this is not their main focus. Eg policies to promote full employment are likely to reduce crime as a ‘side effect’
25
What is one of the best-known community programmes aimed at reducing criminality
The experimental Perry pre-school project for disadvantaged black children in Ypsilanti, Michigan. An experimental group of 3-4 year olds was offered a two year intellectual enrichment programme, during which time the children received weekly home visits. A longitudinal study followed the children’s subsequent progress, showing striking differences with the control group who had not undergone the programme. By age 40, they had significantly fewer lifetime arrests for violent crime, property crime and drugs, while more had graduated high school and were in employment
26
What is evidence of how successful the Perry pre-school project was?
It was calculated that for ever dollar spent on the programme, $17 were saved on welfare, prison and other costs
27
What is missing from the crime prevention approaches?
The approaches take for granted the nature and definition of crime. They generally focus on fairly low-level crimes and/or interpersonal crimes of violence. This disregards the crimes of the powerful and environmental crimes
This definition of the ‘crime problem’ reflects the priorities of politicians and agencies tasked with crime prevention. Eg Whyte conducted a survey of 26 crime and disorder area partnerships in the North West of England to discover what crimes their strategies were targeting-mainly property, violence or drug crimes
28
Why is the crime prevention approach's definition of the 'crime problem' a major problem?
Environment Agency instituted 98 prosecutions in 2001-02 in the North West, including 62 for waste offences, 32 for water quality offences, and two for radioactive substance offences. The North West also has one of the most heavily concentrated sites of chemical production in Europe, where just two plants between them release into the air about 40% of all factory-produced cancer causing-chemicals into the UK every year
29
What does Whyte point out about what is missing from crime prevention strategies?
There is no logical reason why such activities should not be included in the crime and disorder partnership agendas-yet despite their potential and actual effect on the health of local communities, they are not
30
How can surveillance be defined?
As “the monitoring of public behaviour for the purposes of population or crime control. It therefore involves observing people’s behaviour to gather data about it, and typically, using the data to regulate, manage or ‘correct’ their behaviour”
31
What was surveillance like in the 14th century?
During the 14th century plague, communities had to nominate an individual to monitor and record spread of plague, and the information was being used to stop people moving to uninfected areas
32
What is surveillance like today?
In today’s late modern society, surveillance often involves use of sophisticated technology, including CCTV cameras, biometric scanning, automated number plate recognition, electronic tagging, and databases that collate information from different sources to produce profiles of groups and individuals. In turn, this data may be used for crime and disorder control, and to control the behaviour of workers and consumers
33
What does Foucault contribute to the concept of surveillance?
Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison” opens with striking contrast between two different forms of punishment: sovereign power, and disciplinary power
34
What is sovereign power?
Typical of period before the 19th century when monarch had absolute power over people. Control asserted by inflicting disfiguring, visible punishment on the body such as amputations/branding. Punishment was brutal, emotional spectacle, such as public execution
35
What is disciplinary power?
Becomes dominant from the 19th century. In this form of control, a new system of discipline seeks to govern not just the body, but the mind or ‘soul’. It does so through surveillance
36
What is one view of why the type of punishment changed?
One view is that brutal bodily punishment disappeared from Western societies as they became more civilised or humane-however Foucault rejects this liberal view
37
Why does Foucault reject the liberal view of why the type of punishment changed?
Claims that disciplinary power replaced sovereign power simply because surveillance is a more efficient ‘technology of power’-a more effective way of controlling people
38
How does Foucault illustrate disciplinary power?
With the Panopticon
39
What is the Panopticon?
This was a design for a prison in which each prisoner in his own cell is visible to the guards from a central watchtower, but the guards are not visible to the prisoners. Prisoners don’t know if they are being watched, but do know they might be. As a result, they have to behave at all times as if they are being watched, so the surveillance turns into self-surveillance, and discipline becomes self-discipline. Instead of being a public spectacle that marks the outside of the body, control takes place ‘inside’ the prisoner
40
How does disciplinary power differ from sovereign power?
Unlike sovereign power, which seeks to crush or violently repress offenders, disciplinary power involves intensively monitoring the individual with a view to rehabilitating them. For this reason, Foucault sees experts as having an important role to play in applying specialised knowledge to correcting individual’s deviant behaviour. Foucault argues social sciences, and professions such as psychologists, were born at the same time as the modern prison
41
What does Foucault argue about prisons?
prison is just one of a range of institutions that, from the 19th century, increasingly began to subject individuals to disciplinary power to induce conformity through self-surveillance. These include mental asylums, barracks, factories, workhouses and schools
42
What is dispersal of discipline?
non-prison-based social control practices, such as community service orders, form part of a ‘carceral archipelago’. A series of ‘prison islands’ spreading into other institutions and wider society, where professionals such as teachers, social workers and psychiatrists exercise surveillance over the population. In Foucault’s view, disciplinary power has now dispersed throughout society, penetrating every social institution to reach every individual. The form of surveillance in the Panopticon is now a model of how power operates in society as a whole
43
What is a strength of Foucault's work?
Foucault’s work has stimulated considerable research into surveillance and disciplinary power-especially into the idea of an ‘electronic Panopticon’. However, Foucault has been criticised on several grounds
44
What are the criticisms of Foucault?
The shift from sovereign power and corporal punishment to disciplinary power and imprisonment is less clear than he suggests. Also, he is accused of wrongly assuming that the expressive (emotional) aspects of punishment disappear in modern society. Foucault exaggerates the extent of control. Eg, Goffman shows how some inmates of prison and mental hospitals are able to resist controls. He also overestimates the power of surveillance to change behaviour
45
How are CCTV cameras a form of panopticism?
We are aware of their presence but unsure whether they are recording us, however they are not necessarily effective in preventing crime. Norris’s review of dozens of studies worldwide found that while CCTV reduced crimes in car parks, it had little/no effect on other crime, and can cause displacement . Gill and Loveday found few robbers/ burglars/shoplifters/fraudsters were put off by CCTV-it’s real function is ideological, falsely reassuring the public about security even though it makes no difference to risk of victimisation
46
How do feminists criticise Foucault/CCTV?
Feminists such as Koskela also criticise CCTV as an extension of the ‘male gaze’. While it renders women more visible to the male camera operator, it does not make them more secure
47
What are some surveillance theories since Foucault?
Synoptic surveillance, surveillant assemblages, and actuarial justice and risk management (+labelling and surveillance?)
48
What does Mathiesen talk about?
Argues that Foucault’s account of surveillance only tells half the story when applied to today’s society. In his view, while the Panopticon allows the few to monitor the many, today the media also enable the many to see the few. In late modernity, he argues, there is an increase in the top-down, centralised surveillance that Foucault discusses, but also in surveillance from below
49
What does Mathiesen call this surveillance from below?
Mathiesen calls this the ‘Synopticon’-where everybody watches everybody
50
What example does Thompson give of synoptic surveillance?
Thompson argues that powerful groups such as politicians fear the media’s surveillance of them may uncover damaging information about them, and this acts as a form of social control over their activities
51
What are other examples of synoptic surveillance?
Another example of synoptic surveillance is where the public monitor each other, as with video cameras mounted on cycle helmets or dashboards to collect evidence in the event of accidents. This may warn other road users that their behaviour is being monitored and result in them exercising self-discipline. Similarly, widespread camera ownership means ordinary citizens may now be able to ‘control the controllers’, eg by filming police wrongdoing
52
What does Mann et al call this widespread camera ownership?
Mann et al calls this ‘sousveillance’ (from the French sous meaning ‘under’). Foucault’s panopticism cannot account for this surveillance from below
53
However, what does McCahill argue?
Occasional bottom-up scrutiny may be unable to reverse established ‘hierarchies of surveillance’. Eg under anti-terrorism laws, police have powers to confiscate the cameras and mobile phones of ‘citizen journalists’
54
What is Foucault's panoptic approach based on?
The idea that surveillance involves the manipulation of physical bodies in confined spaces such as prison
55
How is surveillance different today to what Foucault talks about?
Haggerty and Ericson argue, surveillance technologies now involve the manipulation of virtual objects (digital data) in cyberspace rather than physical bodies in physical space
56
How are surveillance technologies used differently today?
Until recently, surveillance technologies tended to be stand-alone and unable to ‘talk’ to one another, however, there is now an important trend towards combining different technologies. Eg CCTV footage can be analysed using facial recognition software
57
What do Haggerty and Ericson call the combinations of surveillance technologies?
‘surveillant assemblages’. They suggest we are moving towards a world in which data from different technologies can be combined to create a ‘data double’ of the individual
58
What do Feeley and Simon argue?
A new ‘technology of power’ is emerging throughout the justice system
59
How does Feeley and Simon's new 'technology of power' differ from Foucault's disciplinary power?
It focuses on groups rather than individuals. It is not interested in rehabilitating offenders, but simply preventing them from offending. It uses calculations of risk, or ‘actuarial analysis’, which is a concept derived from the insurance industry, which calculates the statistical risk of particular events happening to particular groups, eg young drivers’ risk of having an accident
60
How to Feeley and Simon apply their idea to surveillance and crime control?
Eg, airport security screening checks are based on known offender ‘risk factors’. Using information gathered about passengers (eg age, sex, religion, ethnicity etc) they can be profiled and given a risk score (eg young males may be scored higher than old females)-anyone scoring above a given level is then stopped, questioned and searched etc
61
What is the aim of the type of surveillance Feeley and Simon talk about?
Unlike disciplinary power, the aim of this surveillance is not to correct, treat or rehabilitate, instead it seeks to predict and prevent future offending. According to Feeley and Simon it does so by applying surveillance techniques ‘to identify, classify and manage groups sorted by levels of dangerousness’. As Young notes, actuarial justice is basically a damage limitation strategy to reduce crime by using statistical information to pick out likely offenders
62
What does Lyon discuss?
According to Lyon, the purpose of ‘social sorting’ is to be able to categorise people so they can be treated differently depending on the level of risk they pose
63
What is one effect of social sorting?
To place entire social groups under what Gary T. Marx calls ‘categorical suspicion’-where people are placed under suspicion of wrongdoing simply because they belong to a particular category or group. Eg in 2010 the West Midlands police sought to introduce a counter-terrorism scheme to surround two mainly Muslim suburbs of Birmingham with about 150 ANPR cameras, some of them covert, thereby placing whole communities under suspicion (Lewis)
64
What is a problem with actuarial justice?
The danger of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Eg profiles of typical offenders are often compiled using official crime statistics. If these show eg that young black inner-city males are the group most likely to carry a weapon, then police using this data will be more likely to stop them tan members of other groups. Consequently, even if in reality all social groups have exactly the same likelihood of carrying a weapon, young black male offenders will still be more likely than others to be caught, convicted and en up in the crime statistics thereby seeming to confirm the validity of the profiling
65
What do Ditton et al talk about?
In one major city centre CCTV system, the cameras were capable of zooming in on vehicles tax discs from hundreds of metres away to see whether the tax had expired. However, the system’s manager did not think this was a suitable use of the technology and so the offences of the motorists were left unchecked
66
What has research shown about CCTV operators?
CCTV operators make discriminatory judgements about who among the thousands of potential ‘suspects’ appearing on their screens they should focus on. Eg Norris and Armstrong found that there is a ‘massively disproportionate targeting’ membership of that particular social group
67
What are the judgements made by CCTV operators based on?
The ‘typifications’ or stereotypical beliefs held by those operating surveillance systems about who are likely offenders. One result of these beliefs is a self fulfilling prophecy in which the criminalisation of some groups (such as young black males) is increased as they are targeted and their offences are revealed, while the criminalisation of others (such as motorists) is lessened because their offences are ignored
68
What are two main justifications for punishment?
Reduction and retribution
69
How is reduction a justification for punishment?
punishing offenders is that it prevents future crime, which can be done through: deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation
70
What is deterrence?
Punishing the individual discourages the from future offending. ‘Making an example’ of them may also serve as a deterrent to the public. Deterrence policies include Mrs Thatcher’s conservative government’s ‘short, sharp shock’ regime in young offenders’ institutions in the 1980s
71
What is rehabilitation?
The idea that punishment can be used to reform or change offenders so they no loner offend. These policies include providing education and training for prisoners so they are able to ‘earn an honest living’ on release, and anger management courses for violent offenders
72
What is incapacitation?
The use of punishment to remove the offender’s capacity to offend again. Policies in different societies have included imprisonment, execution, the cutting off of hands, and chemical castration. Incapacitation has proved increasingly popular with politicians, with the American ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy and the view that ‘prison works’ because it removes offenders from society
73
What type of justification is reduction?
This justification is an instrumental one- punishment is a means to an end (crime reduction)
74
What is retribution?
Retribution means ‘paying back’. It is a justification for punishing crimes that have already been committed, rather than preventing future crimes. It is based on the idea that offenders deserve to be punished, and that society is entitled to take its revenge on the offender for having breached its moral code
75
What type of justification is retribution?
This is an expressive view of punishment- it expresses society’s outrage
76
What are sociological perspectives on punishment?
Sociologists are interested in the relationship between punishment and society. They ask questions about its function, why its form varies over time, and how it relates to the society in which it is found
77
What is the functionalist view on punishment?
Functionalists such as Durkheim argue the function of punishment is to uphold social solidarity and reinforce shared values. Punishment is primarily expressive-it expresses society’s emotions of moral outrage at the offence. Through rituals of order, such as public trial and punishment, society’s shared values are reaffirmed and its members come to feel a sense of moral unity
78
What does Durkheim discuss about punishment?
While punishment functions to uphold social solidarity, it does so differently in different types of society
Durkheim identifies two types of justice, corresponding to two types of society: retributive justice and restitutive justice
79
What is retributive justice?
In traditional society, there is little specialisation, and solidarity between individuals is based on their similarity to another. This produces a strong collective conscience, which, when offended, responds with vengeful passion to repress the wrongdoer. Punishment is severe and cruel, and its motivation is purely expressive
80
What is restitutive justice?
In modern society, there is extensive specialisation, and solidarity is based on the resulting interdependence between individuals. Crime damages this interdependence, so it is necessary to repair the damage, for example through compensation. Durkheim calls this restitutive justice because it aims to make restitution-to restore things to how they were before the offence. Its motivation is instrumental, to restore society’s equilibrium. Nevertheless, even in modern society, punishment still has an expressive element, because it still expresses collective emotions
81
In reality, how does justice differ from what Durkheim originally thought?
In reality, however, traditional societies often have restitutive rather than retributive justice as Durkheim thought. Eg, blood feuds (where a member of one clan is killed by a member of another) are often settled by payment of compensation rather than execution
82
How do marxists see society?
Marxists see society as divided into two classes, in which the ruling class exploits the labour of the subordinate class
83
Why are marxists interested in punishment?
They are interested in how punishment is related to the nature of class society and how it serves ruling class interests
84
For marxists, what is the function of punishment?
To maintain the existing social order. As part of the ‘repressive state apparatus’, it is a means of defending ruling class property against the lower classes. Eg, Thompson describes how in the 18th century punishments such as hanging and transportation to the colonies for theft and poaching were part of a ‘rule of terror’ by the landed aristocracy over the poor
85
What does the form of punishment reflect?
The economic base of society. As Rusche and Kirchheimer argue, each type of economy has its own corresponding penal system. Eg, money fines are impossible without a money economy. They argue that under capitalism, imprisonment becomes the dominant form of punishment
86
What do Melossi and Pavarini discuss?
They see imprisonment as reflecting capitalist relations of production, for example: Capitalism put a price on the worker’s time; so prisoners ‘do time’ to ‘pay’ for their crime (or ‘repay a debt to society’). The prison and the capitalist factory both have a similar strict disciplinary style, involving subordination and loss of liberty
87
How has the role of prisons changed?
Pre-industrial Europe had a wide range of punishments, including warnings, banishment, transportation, corporal punishment and execution. Until the 18th century, prison was used mainly for holding offenders prior to their punishment. It was only following the Enlightenment that imprisonment began to be seen as a form of punishment in itself, where offenders would be ‘reformed’ through hard labour, religious instruction and surveillance
88
How is imprisonment seen today?
In liberal democracies that do not have the death penalty, imprisonment is regarded as the most severe form of punishment. However, it had not proved an effective method of rehabilitation-about two-thirds of prisoners reoffend. Many critics regard prisons as simply an expensive way of making bad people worse
89
What has there been a move towards, in terms of punishment?
Since the 1980s there has been a move towards ‘populist punitiveness’, where politicians have sought electoral popularity by calling for tougher sentences. Eg New Labour governments after 1997 took the view that prison should be used not just for serious offenders, but also as a deterrent for persistent petty offenders
90
What happened as a result of a move towards 'populist punitiveness'?
As a result, the prison population has grown to record size between 1993 and 2016, the number of prisoners in England and Wales has doubled to reach a total of 85,000
91
What has happened as a consequence of the growing prison population?
One consequence has been overcrowding, adding to existing problems of poor sanitation, barely edible food, clothing shortages, lack of educational and work opportunities, and inadequate family visits (Carrabine et al)
92
What is imprisonment like today in the UK?
This country imprisons a higher proportion of people than amongst any other in Western Europe. Eg, In England and Wales, 147 out of every 100,000 people are in prison. Corresponding figures for some other countries are France 100, Germany 75, Ireland 80, Sweden 55 and Iceland 45
93
What is imprisonment like in the rest of the world?
The world leaders are Russia 447 and the USA 698. The Prison population is largely male (5%=female), young and poorly educated. Black and ethnic minorities are over-represented
94
What does Garland argue?
The USA, and to a lesser extent the UK, is moving to an era of mass incarceration. For most of the last century, the American prison population was stable at around 100-120 per 100,000. In 1972 there were about 200,000 inmates in state/federal prisons. However, from the 1970s, the numbers began to rise rapidly, and there are now 1.5 million state and federal prisoners in prisons like Rikers Island, plus 700,000 in local jails. A further 5 million are under supervision of the criminal justice system (on parole, probation etc)-in total, over 3% of the adult population
95
What does Garland say about the era of mass incarceration?
“It ceases to be the incarceration of individual offenders and becomes the systematic imprisonment of whole groups of the population. In the case of the USA, the group concerned is, of course, young black males”. Eg, while black Americans are only 13% of the US population, they make up 37% of the prison population. Compared with white males, black males are six times more likely to be in prison, and Hispanic and Native American males are twice as likely
96
What sort of function does this selective mass incarceration have?
This may have an ideological function. As Downes argues, the US prison system soaks up about 30-40% of the unemployed, thereby making capitalism look more successful. Garland argues that the reason for mass incarceration is the growing politicisation of crime control
97
What is 'penal welfarism'
For most of the last century, there was a consensus, which Garland calls ‘penal welfarism’-the idea that punishment should reintegrate offenders into society
98
How did punishment change from the 1970s?
since the 1970s, there has been a move towards, a new consensus based on more punitive and exclusionary ‘tough on crimes’ policies, and this has led to rising numbers in prisons. This has led, for example, to a rise in the number of females convicted of violent crime, despite a lack of evidence that they are actually committing more offences.
99
What is another reason for the era of mass incarceration?
Another reason is the use of prison to wage America’s ‘war on drugs’. As Simon argues, because drug use is so widespread, this has produced ‘an almost limitless supply of arrestable and imprisonable offenders’
100
What is another trend in punishment as well as mass incarceration?
There is a trend towards transcarceration-the idea that individuals become locked into a cycle of control, shifting between carceral agencies during their lives. Eg someone might be brought up in care, then sent to a young offenders’ institution, then adult prion, with bouts in mental hospital in between
101
What do some sociologists see transcarcertation as the product of?
As a product of the blurring of boundaries between criminal justice and welfare agencies. Eg, health, housing and social services are increasingly being given a crime control role, and they often engage in multi-agency working with the police, sharing data on the same individuals
102
In the past, what was a major goal in dealing with young offenders?
‘Diversion’-diverting the away from contact with the criminal justice system to avoid the risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy turning them into serious criminals. The focus was on welfare treatment, using non-custodial, community-based controls such as probation
103
In recent years, how has the goal in dealing with offenders changed?
In recent years there has been a growth in the range of community-based controls, such as curfews, community service orders, treatment orders and electronic tagging. However, at the same time, the numbers in custody have been rising steadily, especially among the young
104
What have the alternatives to prison led Cohen to argue?
This has led Cohen to argue that the growth of community controls has simply cast the net of control over more people. Following Foucault’s ideas, Cohen argues that the increased range of sanctions available simply enables control to penetrate even deeper into society. Far from diverting young people from the criminal justice system, community controls may divert them into it. Eg some people argue that the police have used ASBOs as a way of fast-tracking young offenders into custodial sentences
105
How does the United Nations define victim?
Those who have suffered harm (including mental, physical or emotional suffering, economic loss and impairment of their basic rights) through acts or omissions that violate the laws of the state
106
How does Christie define victims?
Christie takes a different approach, highlighting the notion that ‘victim’ is socially constructed. The stereotype of the ‘ideal victim’ favoured by the media, public and criminal justice system is a weak, innocent and blameless individual-such as a small child or old women-who is the target of a stranger’s attack
107
Why is it important to study victims?
Not least because they play an essential role in the criminal justice process. For example, they provide much of the evidence used in the detection of offenders and they act as witnesses at trials
108
What is the study of victims known as?
‘Victimology’. There are two broad perspectives: positivist victimology and critical victimology
109
How does Miers define positivist victimology?
Defines positivist victimology as having three features: It aims to identify the factors that produce patterns in victimisation-especially those that make some individuals or groups more likely to be victims. It focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence. It aims to identify victims who have contributed to their own victimisation
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What do the earliest positivist studies focus on?
The idea of victim proneness. They sought to identify the social and psychological characteristics of victims that make them different from, and more vulnerable than, non-victims. For example, Hans Von Hentig identified 13 characteristics of victims, such as they are likely to be females, elderly, or ‘mentally subnormal’. The implication is that the victims in some sense ‘invite’ victimisation by being the kind of person that they are. This can also include lifestyle factors such as victims who ostentatiously display their wealth
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What is an example of positivist victimology?
Wolfgang’s study of 588 homicides in Philadelphia. He found that 26% involved victim precipitation-the victim triggered the events leading to the homicide, eg by being the fist to use violence. For example, this was often the case where the victim was male and the perpetrator was female
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What does Brookman note about Wolfgang?
Wolfgang shows the importance of the victim-offender relationship and the fact that in many homicides, it is a matter of chance which party becomes the victim
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How might marxists or feminists criticise positivist victimology?
This approach identifies certain patterns of interpersonal victimisation, but ignores wider structural factors affecting victimisation such as poverty and patriarchy
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How can positivist victimology become dangerous?
It can easily tip over into victim blaming-eg Amir’s claim that one in five rapes are victim precipitated is not very different from saying the victims ‘asked for it’
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What does positivist victimology ignore?
Situations where victims are unaware of their victimisation, as with some crimes against the environment, and where harm is done but no law broken
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What is critical victimology based on?
Conflict theories such as Marxism and feminism, and shares the same approach as critical criminology
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What two elements does critical victimology focus on?
Structural factors, and the state's power to apply or deny the label of victim
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What are structural factors?
Such as patriarchy and poverty, which place powerless groups such as women and the poor at greater risk of victimisation. As Mawby and Walklate argue, victimisation is a form of structural powerlessness
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What is the state’s power to apply or deny the label of victim?
‘Victim’ is a social construct in the same way as ‘crime’ and ‘criminal’. Through the criminal justice process, the state applies the label of victim to some but withholds it from others-eg when police decide not to press charges against a man for assaulting his wife, thereby denying her victim status
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What do Tombs and Whyte show?
That ‘safety crimes’, where employers’ violations of the law lead to death or injury of workers, are often explained away as the fault of ‘accident prone’ workers. As with many rape cases, this both denies the victim official ‘victim status’ and blames them for their fate
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What do Tombs and Whyte note about the function of denying official 'victim status'?
The ideological function of this ‘failure to label’ or ‘de-labelling’. By concealing the true extent of victimisation and its real causes, it hides the crimes of the powerful and denies the powerless victims any redress. In the hierarchy of victimisation, therefore, the powerless are most likely to be victimised, yet least likely to have this acknowledged by the state
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What are the evaluation points for critical victimology?
It disregards the role victims may play in bringing victimisation on themselves through their own choices (eg not making their home secure) or their own offending. Also it is valuable in drawing attention to the way that ‘victim status’ is constructed by power and how this benefits the powerful at the expense of the powerless
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How is the risk of being victim unevenly distributed?
It is unevenly distributed between social groups: class, age, ethnicity, gender, and repeat victimisation
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How is the risk of being a victim of crime unevenly distributed between classes?
The poorest groups are more likely to be victimised, eg crime rates are typically highest in areas of high unemployment and deprivation. The fact that marginalised groups are most likely to become bictims is borne out by a survey of 300 homeless people by Newburn and Rock, and found that they were 12 ties more likely to have experience violence than the general population
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How is the risk of being a victim of crime unevenly distributed between age's?
Younger people are at most risk of victimisation. Those most at risk of being murdered are infants under one, while teenagers are more vulnerable than adults to offences including assault, sexual harassment, theft and abuse at home. The old are also at risk of abuse, eg in nursing homes, where victimisation is less visible, but in general, the risk of victimisation declines with age
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How is the risk of being a victim of crime unevenly distributed between ethnicity's?
Minority ethnic groups are at greater risk than whites of being victims of crime in general, as well as of racially motivated crimes. In relation to the police, ethnic minorities, the young and the homeless are more likely to report feeling under-protected yet over-controlled
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How is the risk of being a victim of crime unevenly distributed between genders?
Males are at greater risk than females of becoming victims of violent attacks, especially by strangers. About 70% of homicide victims are male. However, women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking and harassment, people trafficking and-in times of armed conflict-mass rape as a weapon of war
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How is the risk of being a victim of crime unevenly distributed with repeat victimisation?
Refers to the fact that, if you have been a victim once, you are very likely to be one again. According to the British Crime Survey, about 60% of the population have not been victims of any kind of crime in a given year, whereas about 4% of the population are victims of 44% of all crimes in that period
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How can crime impact victims?
Crimes may have serious physical and emotional impacts on its victims. Eg research has found a variety of effects (depending on the crime), including disrupted sleep, feelings of helplessness, increased security-consciousness, and difficulties in social functioning
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How can crime also affect others, apart from just the victim?
Crimes may also create ‘indirect victims’ such as friends, relatives and witnesses to the crime. Eg, Pynoos et al found that child witnesses of a sniper attack continued to have grief-related dreams and altered behaviour a year after the event
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What can hate crimes against minorities create?
‘Waves of harm’ that radiate out to affect others. These are ‘message crimes’ aimed at intimidating whole communities, not just the primary victim. Even more widely, such crimes also challenge the value system of the whole society
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What is secondary victimisation?
This is the idea that in addition to the impact of the crime itself, individuals may suffer further victimisation at the hands of the criminal justice system
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What do feminists argue about secondary victimisation?
Feminists argue that rape victims are often so poorly treated by the police and the courts, it amounts to a double violation
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What is fear of victimisation?
Crime may create fear of becoming a victim. Some sociologists argue that surveys show this feat to be often irrational. Eg, women are often more afraid of going out for fear of attack, yet it is young men who are the main victims of violence from strangers. However, feminists have attacked the emphasis on ‘fear of crime’. They argue that it focuses on women’s passivity and their psychological state, when we should be focusing on their safety, eg on the structural threat of patriarchal violence that they face
