Theories of crime & Delinq

Question 1

What is enviromental crime NOT

Answer 1

Illegal pollution dumping

Question 2

What is enviromental crime

Answer 2

A family of theories that share common interest in
criminal events and the immediate circumstances in which they occur.

• Makes the argument that criminal events need to be
  understood based on the intersection of offenders,
  victims/targets, and law in place and time

Question 3

Taditional theorists look at

Answer 3

Criminality

• How social forces, biological factors, development
  experiences create criminal offenders
• Distant causes, history, dispositions

Question 4

3 Main Premises of enviromental crime

Answer 4

1. Nature of the immediate environment
2. Distribution of crime in time and space

3.Investigation, control and prevention of crime.

Question 4

Enviromental criminlogy focuses on the

Answer 4

Criminal event

The who, what, where, when, why
* Immediate causes, situational factors

Question 5

Premise of enviromental crime 1: Influence of immediate enviroment

Answer 5

• All crime results from a person-situation interaction.
• Places are not passive environments.
• There are certain features of place that may make it criminogenic.

Question 6

Premise of enviromental crime 3: Crime,Control and Prevention

Answer 6

• Knowing crime patterns can help police concentrate resources.
• Police can focus on certain crimes and/or certain
  places

Question 6

Premise of enviromental crime 2: Crime Distribution

Answer 6

• Crime is patterned according to the location of criminogenic environments.
• Crime is concentrated around crime opportunities and criminogenic places.
• Rates of crime vary over place and time.

Question 7

5 contemporary enviromental ppraoches

Answer 7

1. Design Built environment.
2. Focusing on Specific Offenses in Specific Settings.
3. Examining Wider Social Trends.

4.Exploring Spatial Crime Patterns.

5. Working through the Police

Question 8

• Ron Clarke – Situational Crime Prevention (1970s and 1980s)

Answer 8

• Focus on specific crimes or categories of
  crimes
• Examining the specific situational dynamics
  of those crimes
• Unlike Jeffery and Newman, Clarke’s approach is very concrete

Question 9

Focusing on specific offenses and settings

Answer 9

Situational Crime Prevention is
highly based on rationality and
choice.

Clarke and Cornish (1979) – Rational Choice Theory

Developed after situational crime prevention to explain how opportunity and decision making play a role in crime

Question 10

Exploring crime patterns

Answer 10

The Bratinghams- crime pattern theory:
* Crime clusters non-randomly
*Across place and time

Crime mapping and Hotspots:
* Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping>
*Hotspots over time, place, and even people?
* Very practical application of environmental criminology Crime

Question 11

EXAMINING WIDER SOCIAL TRENDS
* Cohen & Felson (1979) – Routine Activities Theory

Answer 11

• Attempt to explain why crime
  rates raised after WWII, even
  in a time of great prosperity
  in the US.
• When a motivated offender,
  suitable target, the lack of a
  capable guardian come
  together in space and time,
  crime is likely to occur

Question 12

working through the police

Answer 12

Problem-Oriented Policing (POP)
* Herman Goldstein – 1979
* Framework for police to use in dealing with specific crime
problems in specific places
* The goal is to decrease severe or growing crime problems

Eck & Spelman
* Took Goldstein’s general ideas and came up with specific
model – SARA
* Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment

Intelligence-led Policing
* Uses crime data in a strategic, focused manner
* While POP is a model for analyzing crime events used by
police, intelligence-led policing is a model for police
practice (constant collection of data, and looking for
patterns).

Question 13

What is Critical
Criminology?

Answer 13

• Challenges traditional criminology by focusing on power imbalances and social inequalities.

Core Tenets:
Crime is shaped by social structures.
The law is a tool of the powerful.
The criminal justice system perpetuates inequality.

Question 14

Crime Shaped by Social
Structures.

Answer 14

• Crime is not simply the result of individual choices or biological factors, but is
  influenced by the way society is organized. Social structures include things like:
• Economic systems (e.g., capitalism, socialism)
• Social hierarchies (e.g., class, race, gender)
• Institutions (e.g., education, the legal system)
• Example: In a society with high levels of economic inequality, there may be higher
  rates of property crime (e.g., theft) as people struggle to access resources. The social
  structure creates the conditions that make this type of crime more likely.

Question 15

This Law is to powerful

Answer 15

Those with power and influence in society use the legal
system to maintain their privileged position and control
those with less power.
*Laws may be written or applied in ways that benefit the
interests of the wealthy and powerful, while disadvantaging
or oppressing marginalized groups.
*Example: Drug laws in many countries have historically
been enforced more harshly against minority groups and
low-income individuals, even though drug use rates may be
similar across different groups. This can be seen as an
example of how the law is used to control and oppress
certain populations.

Question 16

Criticims of conflicts and critical criminology

Answer 16

Can be seen as overly ideological or politically
biased.

May not adequately explain all
types of crime.

May be difficult to translate into
practical policy solutions.

Question 17

Social Conflict
Theory

Answer 17

*Rooted in the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels.

*Focus on class struggle and economic inequality.

Key Concepts
* Power: The ability to control resources
and define norms.
* Inequality: Unequal distribution of wealth,
power, and social status.
* Conflict: The struggle between groups
with competing interests.
* Class Struggle: Conflict between the
bourgeoisie (owners) and the proletariat
(workers).

Question 18

Early Conflict Theorists

Answer 18

George Vold (1958)
*Theoretical Criminology
*Group Conflict Theory: Lawmaking and crime
are seen as a result of conflict between groups
struggling to maintain and increase their power.

Austin Turk (1931-2018)
*Criminality and the Legal Order
*Focused on the role of power and authority in
the criminalization process. Crime is a result of
the conflict between authorities and subjects

Question 19

Modern Critical Criminology

Answer 19

Incorporates insights from:
* Labeling theory
* Feminist criminology
* Social conflict theory

Question 20

Key Themes of Critical
Criminology

Answer 20

*Crimes of the powerful (e.g., corporate
crime, state crime).
*The social construction of crime.
*The role of media in shaping
perceptions of crime.
*Intersectionality: How race, gender, and
class intersect to create unique
experiences of oppression and
victimization.

Question 21

Chambliss and
Social
Stratification and
the Law
1. The conditions of one’s life affect one’s values and
norms
2. Complex societies are composed of groups with
widely different life conditions
3. Complex societies, therefore, are composed of
highly disparate and conflicting sets of norms
4. The probability of a given group having its
particular normative system embodied in law is not
distributed equally, but rather is closely related to
the political and economic position of that group
5. The higher a group’s political or economic position,
the greater is the probability that its views will be
reflected in the laws