Chapter 6: Crime and Criminal Justice

saints

"promising young men, children of good, stable, White, upper-middle-class families, active in school affairs, good pre-college students" - some of the most delinquent boys in the school ("constantly occupied with truancy, drinking, wild driving, petty theft, and vandalism") - never arrested

condemnation of the condemners

(offensive approach) call those who condemn them hypocrites - police are brutal, dishonest, or pick on people

objective conditions of crime

- 20,000 Americans are murdered each year - between 100,000 and 400,000 Americans are raped a year - 1 million Americans are robbed or have their cars stolen

How has the Mafia weakened?

- FBI's use of undercover agents to infiltrate the organization - powerful surveillance devices - grand jury indictments - witness protection program that elicits cooperation by providing new identities

What influences police discretion?

- an order from their chief - a crackdown on crime in a certain neighborhood - stereotypes the police hold about who is likely to be a criminal

What does the power elite use law enforcement for?

- control workers - mask injustice - prevent revolt

crime is a social problem

- large numbers of people are upset about it - when people feel that crime threatens their safety, peace, or quality of life

Zimbardo experiment illustrates fundamental sociological principles

- our ideas about the self and other people arise from where we are in the social structure and the groups to which we belong - from these orientations come the ways we act toward one another

subjective concerns center primarily on other crimes that juveniles commit (not status crimes)

- robberies - burglaries - rape - murder

symbols that affect our perception

- social class - reputation - demeanor

forms of employee theft

- stealing company secrets (formulas, manufacturing processes, marketing plans) - physical theft (stealing steaks out the back door)

subjective concerns of crime

- stoked by sensationalized news or by something that happened in their neighborhood - fear/sense of danger (women are more fearful/careful about where they go)

2 principles that separated group members from outsiders

1. Omerta: vow of secrecy 2. family - encourages marriage among its members - fictive kinship

changes in crime

1. crimes by women will increase if more women take paid jobs - jobs outside the home expose women to more attractive illegitimate opporunities 2. we don't know if white-collar crimes will increase or decrease 3. organized crime will continue - takes different forms as social conditions change - greater involvement in computer crimes (such as identity theft)

types of techniques of neutralization

1. denial of responsibility 2. denial of injury 3. denial of a victim 4. condemnation of the condemners 5. appeal to higher loyalties

types of embezzlers

1. financial binds 2. impulsive embezzlers 3. revenge embezzler: someone who embezzles to get even with the boss (perhaps for some slight the employee feels) 4. daring embezzler: someone who embezzles for the thrill of the act 5. upwardly mobile embezzlers: those who steal in order to "better" themselves and gain a more prominent place in the community

2 basic principles to help us build a more just society

1. for criminal justice, laws fairly administered: the enforcement of laws should be evenhanded throughout society, regardless of people's race-ethnicity, gender, social class, or any other characteristic 2. for crime, reducing poverty: because street crimes bothers Americans the most, and street crime is linked to poverty, the best policy would be to reduce poverty

4 primary ways people react to strain

1. innovation 2. ritualism 3. retreatism 4. rebellion

3 principles that are essential to understand crime

1. law defines crime - no activity is criminal in and of itself 2. crime is relative - laws differ from one society to another, so does crime - behavior that is criminal at one time can later be encouraged as a virtue 3. crime is the outcome of a political process

clear goals and principles to reform our criminal justice system

1. laws based on the broadest possible consensus, rather than on the interests or moral concerns of small groups 2. swift justice based on evidence presented in adversarial proceedings 3. more rehabilitation and reintegration programs, including diversion for most first offenders who did not commit violent crimes 4. removing the constraints of uniform sentencing and allowing judges to determine sentences based on a crime's severity and harm to others 5. task forces to investigate organized crime and white-collar crime (these groups must have the power to subpoena) 6. prison reform 7. unbiased research to determine what prevents crime and the ways that are the most effective to reintegrate lawbreakers

the fraud triangle (embezzlement)

1. opportunity: access to other people's money 2. need: motivates the individuals to embezzle 3. rationalization: the techniques of neutralization to justify their embezzlement

4 reasons the Mafia continues to exist

1. organized crime is organized - the Mafia has a bureaucracy with individuals specializing in different criminal activities 2. organized crime offers illegal services in high demand (prostitution, gambling, and loan-sharking) with customers who participate willingly and do not complain to the police 3. organized crime wields influence through political corruption 4. organized crime uses violence and intimidation to control victims and its own members

How can the criminal justice system be "more criminal than just"?

1. some of the poor spend months of even years behind bars awaiting trial, while those with money use the bond system to buy their release 2. defense attorneys encourage plea bargaining, *whether or not the individual is guilty* 3. prosecutors use threats of longer sentences to get guilty pleas 4. judges dislike "unnecessary trials" and impose harsher sentences on those who insist on them 5. age, employment, and the number of priors affects sentencing (even when offenses are the same, those who have better employment histories are given more lenient sentences) 6. the number of arrests influences a sentence. Judges often discount the type of charge because they know that plea bargaining changes what people are officially charged with

3 groups of the Mafia

1. the Cosa Nostra 2. Camorra 3. 'Ndrangheta

2 principles of deterrence

1. the longer the time between a crime and its punishment, the less the deterrence, or fear of the punishment 2. the more uncertain the penalty, the less deterrence works

3 major groups of the working class

1. the upper-level managers and professionals: hold secure positions that pay well 2. the stable working class: white-collar and blue-collar workers whose jobs are less secure and who are paid less, although their pay is adequate for survival 3. the marginal working class: have little jobs security and whose labor is in low demand - includes -- most of the unemployed and welfare - produces -- burlgars -- muggers -- armed robbers -- car thieves

no society or nation is free of crime (nor can it ever be)

Emile Durkheim: the very nature of crime makes it universal - each society passes laws against behaviors that it considers a threat to its well-being - passing a law does not eliminate the behavior, it just marks it as illegal - where there are laws/rules, there will always be criminals/rule breakers

restitution

a form of retribution by which offenders compensate their victims

delinquent subcultures

a group whose members are oriented toward illegal acts

labeling

a process that can set people on different paths of life - influences people's perceptions and channel behavior in different directions

diversion

a response to crime that diverts offenders away from the criminal justice system to keep them out of the courts and jails includes: - counseling - administrative hearings - community organizations: where they become responsible to people in their community

incapacitation

a response to crime that focuses on removing offenders from circulation takes the form of: - putting people in jail/prison - electronic monitoring (ankle monitoring)

rehabilitation

a response to crime that s designated to resocialize or reform offenders, so that they can become law-abiding citizens

innovation

accept the cultural goals, but they substitute other means of reaching them ex: someone who pursues wealth through fraud instead of hard work

denial of a victim

admit that they have done harm, they claim that the injury was not wrong under the circumstances - the person they hurt was not really a victim

denial of injury

admit their acts are illegal, but they deny that they hurt anyone - mischief - pranks - just having a little fun

roughnecks

also white boys of the same age who went to the same high school - were delinquent, but committed fewer criminal acts than the saints - teachers considered these boys "roughnecks headed for serious trouble" - police often dealt with them

the Mafia

an organized crime group; the Sicilian-American version is bureaucratized with specialized personnel and departmentalization

fictive kinship

assigning obligations to people who are not related - a godfather unites two families

status crimes

behavior that is illegal only because of individual's age, such as drinking alcohol, running away from home, or violating curfew

power

being able to get what you want despite resistance

rebellion

convinced that society is corrupt and reject both societal goals and means to achieve them - seek to replace the current social order with a new one

white-collar crimes

crimes committed by executives and others in the corporate world as part of their job; for instance, knowingly producing dangerous vehicles, altering drug test data, and creating false advertising crimes committed by people of higher social status in the course of their occupation examples: - lawyers who rob people not by guns but by pens - executives who authorize defective products that they know will harm people - corporations that gain sales by false advertising

ritualism

have given up on achieving success, but still work in culturally approved ways ex: a worker who no longer hopes to get ahead but does just enough to avoid getting fired

reintegration

helping former prisoners fit into the society they are re-entering; break criminal ties and motivations and to set people on a law-abiding course includes: - probation - parole - halfway houses

criminal justice system is a social problem

if people are upset about it - how if fails to prevent crime - how it discriminates against some citizens

uniform sentencing

imposing the same sentence on everyone who is convicted of the same crime

How do functionalists view property crime?

inherent in societies that socialize people of all social classes to desire material success when the legitimate means to achieve success are limited

appeal to higher loyalties

law pulls them one way, loyalty to friends in another - loyalty to friends wins out

changes in the criminal justice system

no change in the ruling class of each society controlling its judicial system - the U.S. ruling elite will continue to make certain that the criminal justice system focuses on street crime and mostly overlooks the crimes of the powerful

Did the Sicilians/Italians introduce organized crime to the United States?

no; first Irish, then Jews, then Italians

the need for fundamental change

open the door to legitimate ways of achieving success for the poor to reduce crime/reduce the poor being recruited for criminal activities - access to quality education and training for good jobs

organized crime

organizations whose goal is to profit from criminal activities

those who don't feel the strain that leads to anomie

people (the conformists) have access to approved resources and they strive for success

professional criminals

people who earn their living from crime - organize their lives around their "work" - not troubled by their criminality (crime is a way to make a living) - ultra-successful at neutralizing societal norms (see themselves as businesspeople) - scorn the values of the straight world - pride themselves on their specialized skills - depend on in-group loyalty

deterrence

preventing an act by producing fear, often refers to crime or war

Zimbardo Experiment

prisoners: - felt a loss of power and personal identity guards: - felt an increase in social power and status - developed strong in-group loyalty

Why do our prisons fail to rehabilitate?

prisons are socializing agents for criminal behavior - people who have been declared unfit to live in normal society are housed together - crime is one of their favorite conversation topics - boasting about their crimes - older/more experienced prisoners teach the younger ones when prisoners are released, they go back to their old environment with no new skills to lead a straight life

denial of responsibility

propelling by forces beyond their control - unloving parents - bad companions - bad neighborhoods

basic idea of retribution

punish criminals to demonstrate to others that criminal behavior will not be tolerated

retreatism

reject both the societal goal and the means to achieve it ex: retreat to drugs or convents

William Chambliss (Saints & Roughnecks): Why did the community perceive these boys so differently?

social class: affects our perception and behavior Saints: came from respectable middle-class families - backgrounds: led teachers and authorities to expect good behavior - visibility: owned cars to drink and vandalize outside of town - styles of interaction: boys were apologetic when questioned Roughnecks: came from less respectable working-class families - backgrounds: led teachers and authorities to expect trouble - visibility: hung around their own street corners, where their rowdy behavior drew attention of police - styles of interaction: hostile when questioned

conflict theorists

stress that every society is marked by power and inequality

criminogenic subculture

subculture that encourages and supports committing crime

What is wrong with plea bargaining?

the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution: people accused to a crime are guaranteed to the right to be judged by their peers in a speedy and public trial to get people to plead guilty and avoid a trial, prosecutors charge them with more serious crimes and then offer to accept a guilty plea to lesser offenses

criminal justice system

the agencies that respond to crime, including the police, courts, jails, and prisons

recidivism

the commission of crimes by people who have been released from prison - women, those who are older, and Whites are less likely to get in trouble with the law again *those who have been in prison the most often have a higher chance of going back to prison*

capital punishment

the death penalty

police discretion

the decisions that the police make about whether to overlook or to enforce a law - police react more positively to those who show respect for them

juvenile delinquency

the legal term for the law-breaking behavior of children and adolescents (under 18 years of age)

crime rate

the number of crimes per some unit of population, most commonly the number of crimes per 100,000 people

illegitimate opportunity structures

the opportunity built into someone's social world to learn and participate in illegal activities - burglary - drug dealing - gambling - pimping - prostitution - robbery - income-producing crimes or hustles

Ponzi schemes

the payment of "investment profits" to clients, not from profits, but from the money that other clients invest

Cosa Nostra

the term by which East Coast members refer to the Mafia

crime

the violation of any act prohibited by law

the ruling class

those who own the means of production - controls the criminal justice system to maintain its own privileged position in society

the working class

those who sell their labor

techniques of neutralization

ways that people justify their norm-breaking activities, making their behaviors more acceptable to themselves and others

different illegitimate opportunities attract middle and upper classes, ones that make different forms of crime functional

white-collar crimes - bribery of public officials - price fixing - securities violations - tax evasion and fraud

What does strain theory help us understand?

why the poor commit so many burglaries and robberies