Chapter 2

National Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS)

-self-reported measure of criminal behavior -asks people whether they have been victims of crime -attempts to capture "dark figure of crime" -conducted twice a year

Uniform Telephone Reports (UTR)

calls to the police -high geographic correlation between call data and reported crimes -bystander may call even if victim doesn't want to file a report -can result in overreporting (multiple calls for the same event) -can result in underreporting if reporters have personal stake in location (i.e. not wanting to lose a license to do business)

costs of crime (murder)

found that the direct cost associated with a murder increased from 2.8 million in 1988 to 9.3 million in 2008

life course theories

identify factors that shape criminal careers in order to identify when and why offenders begin to commit crimes and see what factors lead individuals to stop their participation in crimes

downstream changes in policy

improving competitiveness of applications with records, reintegration programs for people with records to prepare them for the application process

criticisms of UCR

incomplete picture of crime, "dark figure of crime" (only shows those which were reported to police), falsification of crime statistics (police failing to record crimes that were reported to them)

low resting heart rate

low arousal levels, lack of fear or anxiety, reduces effectiveness of punishment and impedes in socialization process

What is the strongest and most consistent predictor of crime?

low resting heart rate

Citizen contact

when officers are more involved in finding out problems of local people, people have more confidence in police and have less fear of victimization

upstream changes in movement

"ban-the-box", forcing employers to stop asking about criminal record

classical criminology

-Cesare Beccaria: devised first design for comprehensive, enlightened criminal justice system based on law, punishment should be prompt and effective, all people should be treated equally, punishment should be based on act not actor, capital punishment should be abolished -Jeremy Bentham: developed utilitarian principles of punishment, assumes all human actions calculated in accordance with their likelihood of bringing happiness or unhappiness, people weighted probability of current and future pleasures with current and future pains, comparison of expected utility from criminal activities to utility from not committing crimes

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

-FBI response to criticism of UCR, requires all crimes (not just major ones) to be recorded -info is disaggregated (not just police report counts, many jurisdictions also report) -data on 46 offenses in 22 crime categories

costs of crime (WTP and WTA)

-WTP: willingness to pay, what someone would be willing to pay to reduce their risk of victimization -WTA: willingness to accept, measures amount of compensation necessary to return an individual to their original level of utility, estimates cost of harm from victimization

labeling theory statistics

-black former felons more likely to get their job applications rejected than white former felons -black kids with high and low crime rates less likely to get accepted by colleges than white kids -effect of a criminal record is about 40% larger for blacks than for whites -whites get more positive responses than blacks

self control theory in terms of abortion

-crime is due to individual differences in propensity to resist easy, immediate gratification offered by crime -involvement in antisocial behavior appears to be stable across life course -children with conduct problems tend to grow into juvenile delinquents and adult offenders -effectiveness of parental management also helped shape self control (monitoring child, recognizing deviant behavior when it occurs, and punishing of correcting the misconduct) -abortion legalization decreased homicides much later on because children who would have had antisocial behaviors and maybe not the most responsible parents in inconvenient conditions were never born

classical criminology main principles

-criminal behavior is rational, and most people have potential to engage in such behavior -people may choose to commit a crime after weighing costs and benefits of their actions -fear of punishment is what keeps most people in check (severity, certainty, and speed of punishment affect level of crime) -punishment should fit crime rather than person who committed it -criminal justice system must be predictable with laws and punishments known to public

current biological explanations

-frontal lob dysfunction (frontal lobe associated with executive cognition functions of brain that are implicated in planning, inhibition, and ability to learn from experience) -reduced glucose metabolism in lobes of murderers -less fronto-temporal gray matter associated with lack of fear and antisocial behavior -poor skin conductance fear conditioning associated with aggressive and antisocial behavior

labeling theory

-publicly sanctioning individuals for committing crime can have opposite effect, resulting in more, rather than less, criminal behavior -treatment of a person as a "criminal" results in internalization of criminal self-concept -self-fulfilling prophecy -particularly bad for young black men

How many states reported NIBRS data for all of their jurisdictions?

17

self control theory

argued that crime is due to individual differences in propensity to resist easy, immediate gratification offered by crime, lower the level of self-control, the higher the level of crime

Hirschi's 4 social bonds

attachment (relationships and connections), commitment (support and participation in social activity), involvement (ex. involvement in school activity/homework), belief

What is fear of crime negatively related to?

confidence in the police (when quality of life in a community improved and fear of crime declined, increase in public confidence in local police was to be expected)

_________________ ________________ policies may exacerbate the conditions that lead to crime in the first place

crime control

there is no "true" count of ______________ ______________, only different socially organized ways of counting them, each with different flaws and biases

crime events

Weakness in any of Hirschi's four bonds found to be associated with ______________________ behavior

delinquent

victimology

examines role victim plays in precipitating a criminal incident and also examines impact of crimes on victims

turning points in life course theories that lead individuals away from criminal careers

getting a job, marriage, serving in the military

general strain theory

higher the dose of strain that a person experiences, the greater the likelihood of a person being engaged in crime or another form of deviance -strain caused by failure to achieve positively valued goals -strain caused by removal of positively valued stimuli from individual -strain caused by presentation of negative stimuli

NCVS limitations

issues with reliability and validity (based on their perception of event, recall bias, over and under reporting of certain crimes)

prison sentence is a scar on an individual that impedes offenders from getting employed once released and puts them back in the prison cycle in support of the predictions of ____________________ _____________

labeling theory

routine activity explanations of crime posits that what 3 factors increase the likelihood of criminal behavior?

likely offenders, suitable targets, the absence of capable guardians

stigma of being labeled a criminal has profound effects on ______________________ ___________ and _______________ _____________________

obtaining work, college acceptance

challenges with utilitarianism

people growing up in harsh and unpredictable environments develop more focus on the present to capitalize on possibly fleeting opportunities, may seek immediate payoff versus future rewards that are less likely to be cashed in, "here and now" mentality that increases risk-taking -will the expected utility hold -prospect theory -short-term mindedness -myopic -instant gratification

Atavistic form

proposed that criminals are a subspecies of genetic throwbacks that cannot conform to rules of modern society, "homo delinquens"

Cesare Lombroso

proposed that criminals had physical traits that were distinct and set them apart from law-abiding citizens, some people at a more primitive state of evolution, causing them to be born criminals (criminogenic) -ex. huge jaws, strong teeth, arm span greater than height

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)

statistical summary of crimes reported to the police -Part I: 8 index offenses -Part II: 21 other crimes

What is one of the strongest predictors of deterrence from crime?

steady employment

IQ debate

strong correlation between low IQ and delinquency, independent of social class

Lifestyle-exposure model

those with lifestyles that leave them more often exposed to the 3 elements of crime are more likely to be victims (i.e. someone who lives in a city is more likely to fall victim to crime than someone who lives in the countryside)