Criminology

Social Process (medium level of analysis)

Focus on Interactions between people Life-Course Theories Learning Theories Control Theories

Social Structure (macro-level of analysis, economic structures etc)

Focus on the way society is organized - the distribution of social and economic resources. Social Disorganization Strain Theory

Sykes and Matza: Neutralization and Drift - Evaluation

Some serious offenders may not feel guilty and therefore not need to rationalize. Do rationalizations happen before (as theory suggests) or after? Some offenders do hold different values

Three broad types of stigma

- Physical deformities/'abnormalities' -Blemishes of individual character -Tribal stigma

DENUNCIATION

Expresses society's boundaries

Sovereign Power

Top-down, hierarchical power. Spectacles of punishment and terror. Power operated directly (and brutally) on the body.

Defiance Theory

"Disrespect begets disrespect" Howard Zehr (1995) Sanctions provoke future defiance of the law if offenders experience sanctioning as illegitimate. Sanctions produce future deterrence of law-breaking if offenders experience sanctioning as legitimate. Sanctions become irrelevant to future law-breaking if factors balanced. "if we want a world with less violence and less dominating abuse of others, we need to take seriously rituals that encourage approval of caring behavior so that citizens will acquire pride in being caring and non-dominating" (Braithwaite 2004). "Restorative justice is not simply a way of reforming the criminal justice system; it is a way of transforming the entire legal system, our family lives, our conduct in the workplace, our practice of politics. Its vision is of a holistic change in the way we do justice in the world." Braithwaite (2003) Principles of Restorative Justice, p.1

Variation in crime-age relationship

"Flatter age curves" - Older peak, slower decline. Associated with three circumstances: Cultures and historical periods in which youth have greater access to legitimate opportunities and integration into adult society; Population groups for whom legitimate opportunities and integration into adult society do not markedly increase with age and Types of crime for which illegitimate opportunities increase rather than diminish with age.

Graffii - mark making

"Graffii has, and conitnues to be, simultaneously interpreted, amongst other things, as an act of vandalism, a mode of resistance for young people, and a form of public art." (Light, Griffiths and Lincoln, p. 345)

Eg Mongrel mob

"In what can be seen as a classic case of labelling, the gang started a process of secondary deviation by embarking on 'mongrel' behavior.""...it was all about muscle. We hated bikers... We just developed utter strength. We built strength. .... And we specialized in going out and wiping pubs out. About eight of us. And we established such a strong name." Mongrelism came to mean "...any outrageous behavior that distinguishes a Mongrel Mob member's actions from those that are socially acceptable." (Gerbes in Patched, p. 41Bruno Isaac, a former Mongrel Mob member recounts: "Being a Mongrel mean being able to do anything your mind could conceive; any form of fantasy or debauchery you were able to dream up was acceptable." Patched, pp. 41-2 The Mob embraced the label Visually Attitudes Symbolically Language "To become a Mongrel was to join a subculture with a collective way of defining its existence." Patched, p. 43 Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Act 2013 A patch is just a patch - right? Denotation - what it literally is Connotation - it's symbolic meaning

THOMAS'S LAW

"Repetition of myths about sole parents makes them 'true' in the minds of many people. Myths often appear highly plausible,... but they far from represent reality and can cause lasting harm. They allow the government and its welfare policies to be shielded from proper scrutiny and helps explain why there is little public outcry as the safety net supporting many families and their children is progressively eroded."

1991 Mother of All Budgets

"Survival is the Crucial Word" Christine Dann and Rosemary du Plessis, After the Cuts: Surviving on the Domestic Purposes Benefit, Working Paper no. 12, University Of Canterbury, Department of Sociology, 1992.In tough economic times people receiving a benefit can be scapegoated "When you are on a benefit, people don't expect you to enjoy life - they think its criminal if you enjoy life. I still think that anyone on a benefit has the right to enjoy life - you can't take that away from them - yet they take away any money that you enjoy life with." Jane in After the Cuts, 1992 Questions to think about: Who gets labelled by whom? And Why? And: What are the consequences of labelling?

Amphetamine use in NZ

"The overall indication is that the prevalence of past-year amphetamine use has declined from 2003 to 2015/16 for adults (see Table 1)"

CJS - Authority

"The state of nature is a 'war of all against all' and, thus, individuals give up their liberty to aggress against others in return for safety; the contract is between society, which promises protection, and the individual, who promises to abide by the law" (Pollock 2007, p.64). Law is a contract - each individual gives up some liberties and, in return, is protected from others who have their liberties restricted as well See Social Contract Theory (cf Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau)

Parsimony

"in the area of criminal justice (...) the presumption is that the state should do nothing, unless the burden of proof clearly favours intervention" ( Braithwaite 1994: 64).

Postmodern and Cultural Criminology

"the methods of postmodern criminology, in particular the idea of de-constructing meaning by closely examining how 'texts' are socially, politically and linguistically constructed, has continued to hold an attraction for many criminologists... its legacy is evident in perspectives such as cultural criminology" (Course textbook p. 241) "Ferrell (1997) describes the liberating feelings and sense of power and resistance associated with writing graffiti:."

Questions that will never be asked at a Resource Consent hearing in the 21st Century...

'Could I please purchase and burn 200 acres of native bush so I can establish a farm?' • 'Can we situate our abattoir on the banks of a world-famous trout river?' • 'I'd like to set up an industrial chicken farm using the old standard for cages (300 cm2 per bird)'? Answer: Anyone who applied would be refused resource consent and if they went ahead and did it anyway they would be subject to criminal prosecution.

Policing and Democracy

'Policing for democracy is policing that does not damage, but actively supports, the development of the core elements of democracy and democratic consolidation. In terms of practical implications, policing for democracy calls for a combination of restraint and positive obligations rooted in protecting the exercise of political freedoms.'

ROLE & FUNCTION OF SENTENCING

'The courts, when sentencing, discharge a significant function of the criminal justice system. They represent the whole public and invoke the "common conscience" when pronouncing sentence. Hence, sentencing constitutes a highly symbolic and public declaration of how society regards the offence, the offender, and society's formal reaction to them'

Donkey Jobs - Tollbooth Operators

(not organised into groups eg checkout)Mars' recounts one revealing 'fiddle' in the US in the 70s: Tollbooth operators would give out less tokens than motorists paid for and pocket the extra money. Management found out and increased surveillance to stop it happening. Then six months later stopped, because it was costing the company money training workers because they didn't stay with the job for long. The fiddle kept them interested in a boring job!

Positivism the social sciences and criminology (biological and psychological explanations for crime)

(testing of hypothesis can tell us the truth about social world) - why do some people and not others commit crime (abnormalities etc) Indivual pathology rise of doctors etc Research is neutral Social world can be studied in scientific way Deterministic 'Normal' vs 'Deviant' Rise of 'experts' Individual pathology Treatment over punishment

Now farming activities are a constant target of political activism.

- Intensive feeding regimes for dairying using Palm Kernel Extract (implicated in rainforest destruction in SE Asia). - Factory farming of chickens and pigs.

Note

- The criminalization of drugs does not reflect the level of risk or harm related to that drug. - Empirical evidence clearly demonstrates that most people who use drugs regularly do not meet the criteria for addiction

Broken Window Thesis

-Graffiti -neighbourhood graffiti = decline and decay of neighbourhood Social Disorganisation Theory Graffiti control programmes = local authorities attempts to maintain control over social problems in the neighbourhood. Classical Theory - Idea that if something is already ruined it is okay to tagg

Equality

...citizens cannot enjoy freedom as non-domination in conditions of poverty. The slum-dwellers of our cities live under the tyranny of slum landlords; they suffer discriminatory treatment by the legal system because they cannot afford to pay for legal advice. In such a condition, freedom is impossible, all choice is subject to the daily dominations poverty engenders...(Braithwaite 2000: 90) We need a strong welfare state, but beyond that, we need to continually work towards diminishing wealth inequality. Republican criminological praxis involves active support for progressive social movements (including feminism, environmental, consumer movements etc.)

Mass Incarceration

...mass incarceration in New Zealand is Māori incarceration, and the impact on families and communities creates the conditions for cumulative and inter-generational disadvantage Prisons are normalized, seen as the only solution and a metaphor for society gone wrong... But remain largely unproblematized.

A Normative Theory of Crime

...one cannot be serious about normative theory without rejecting both a moral relativism that might find rape and murder okay and a legal positivism that finds high imprisonment rates morally acceptable Ordered set of propositions about the way the world ought to be: Freedom Equality Parsimony Checking of power Reprobation Reintegration

Summary of a radical approach

1) A few people in capitalist societies have most of the wealth and power and the mass of people have little; 2) The wealthy use their power and the legal system to protect their dominance and to keep the poor and people of colour in their place; 3) The criminal law reflects the interests of the powerful and not those of the general public; 4) Criminals are normal people who commit crime because of their circumstances (they are not 'evil' or somehow fundamentally 'different'); 5) A harsh criminal justice system will not reduce crime because it does not address the causes of crime; instead it will only worsen the lives of the marginalized; 6) The CJS must become fairer, and social and ecomonic reform must occur.

The 'Great Burning' - 1880s

1,2000 ach of woodsNorth Island soil profile - the 'carbon strip' from the great burn-off... for farming and seeds were planting (big job)

Official View of Addiction (Alexander 2014)

1. Addiction is fundamentally a problem of drug and alcohol consumption. 2. Drugs can transform people into addicts. 3. Vulnerability to addiction comes from inherited predispositions 4. People who become addicted suffer from a chronic/relapsing disease. 5. Although people can't be cured, their symptoms can be managed by professional treatment/self-help groups. If they refuse treatment they will continue to damage themselves/others. 6. Addiction is the problem of certain dysfunctional individuals within an otherwise well-functioning society. The Rise and Fall of the Official View of Addiction

Social Disorganization Theory

1. Central business district, 2.transitional zone (most crime poor area where immigrants lived), 3. working class zone, 4. residential zone, 5. commuter zone

we have passed through a major transition in how crime is defined around workplace conflicts:

1. From a world in which workers had real powers and management accommodated 'fiddles' to keep skilled workers happy, to... 2. A world of much stricter management control and surveillance, but in which individual workers have the potential to unleash significant harms.

Labour Process Theory and how you define 'criminality'

1. When workers have developed strong control over their workplaces (and societies), attempts to control workers have been labeled as exploitative or (in some countries) criminal. 2. When management gains the upper hand, often worker behaviour that once was considered acceptable, is redefined as negligent, lazy, entitled, or illegal.

SENTENCING AND JUSTICE 1

2 main criteria by which the community will determine whether justice is being achieved: The sentence must be of a severity appropriate to the offence; and The criterion of consistency requires similar offenders who commit similar offences in like circumstances to be punished in a similar way.

Pollution Havens

2013 report into corporate disposal of e-waste in Ghana. Growing amount of toxic e-waste that is illegally 'exported' to poor countries. Unable to be legally disposed of in countries with strong environmental regulations. E.g. Agbogbloshie dumping site in Ghana, Africa. 1000s of slum-dwellers comb the site for recyclable metals. Highly contaminated with Lead, Arsenic, Cadmium Mercury, Lithium and flame retardants. Global e-waste is growing by over 11% annually....

Wait Staff and Bartending

A 'dynamic' area of interaction between staff and customers. Particularly prevalent in countries where wait staff rely on gratuities for pay. Strategic use of spilling, letting food go cold, or (rumours of) deployment of body fluids.

NEW RIGHT CRIMINOLOGY

A combination of conservative moralizing and a free-market competitive ethos. Get tough on crime approach includes both right wing libertarians (drawing from classical theory) and traditional conservatives.Focus on opportunity reduction (security including privatization of security). Also on underclass explanations - i.e.: the problem of crime and deviancy is seen to lie within marginalized populations themselves (the poor, homeless, single mothers, and ethnic groups).

Why such a failure to respond?

A historical lack of capability within the criminal justice sector to develop Māori policy An over-zealous commitment to Eurocentric theories on the causes of, and responses to, crime,. Sector's reluctance to allow scrutiny A paternalistic attitude to Māori organisations and Māori communities in particular, and the community sector overall.

James Hardie Industries: Asbestos Poisoning

A large Australian manufacturer of building materials. The company knew of the health dangers of asbestos - a basic building material. It was eventually prosecuted for failing to protect workers manufacturing and cutting asbestos sheets - but only with great difficulty. But has escaped punishment for effects on aboriginal children whose school was situated in an asbestos waste dumping site.

Risk Society, Factor 4: New ecological risks...

A series of disturbing ecological crises had direct implications for human health and survival: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962). DDT bio-accumulates in ecosystems killing the species at the top. Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (1986). Food Scares: Mad Cow Disease in hamburgers (1986)... 21st Century pandemics: Avian Flu, Swine Flu, COVID-19...

Reprobation Example: Drink Driving

A social movement that emphasizes role of citizen Direct appeals through TV to change drinking practices.

MAO-A: The "Warrior Gene"

A variant of the monoamine oxidase-A gene has been popularly referred to as the warrior gene.[44] Several different versions of the gene are found in different individuals, although a functional gene is present in most humans (with the exception of a few individuals with Brunner syndrome).A connection between the MAO-A gene 3R version and several types of anti-social behaviour has been found: Maltreated children with genes causing high levels of MAO-A were less likely to develop antisocial behavior.[37] Low MAO-A activity alleles which are overwhelmingly the 3R allele in combination with abuse experienced during childhood resulted in an increased risk of aggressive behaviour as an adult,[38] and men with the low activity MAOA allele were more genetically vulnerable even to punitive discipline as a predictor of antisocial behaviour.

Does Prison Work?

According to Foucault: The aim of prison, and of the carceral system, is to produce delinquency as a means of structuring and controlling crime. The ruling class benefit from the construction of a criminal class.

Intelligence-Led Policing

Addressing repeat offending and victimization and crime 'hotspots'. Leads to certain areas, certain individuals, certain neighbourhoods being targeted and surveilled (even before a crime is committed). Concerns around a surveillance state and about civil liberties. Assumes data is 'neutral'

Due to this shift =umeployment etc

Alienation and marginalization of young people = Rebellion. Proliferation of social problems, such as poverty, youth suicide and higher crime rates.

Conclusion: Two laws for two economies...

All are equal under the law, but... There is a clear class-based bias in how laws are enacted and socially performed. (don't for one moment think that this doesn't also apply to gender, ethnicity/race, etc...). Our formal economy - particularly including its wealthier participants - seems to exhibit strong legal protection and weak legal sanction. The economy of the poor - the Black Economy - experiences the opposite of this.

Left Realism

An approach that is left-leaning but realistic in its appraisal of crime and its causes. Crime is seen as class conflict in an advanced industrial society.

What is restorative justice?

An approach to corrective justice that focuses on meeting the needs of all concerned.a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large.At a restorative justice conference, you will have the chance to: take responsibility for your offending apologise to your victim decide how to put right the harm you've caused find ways to make sure you don't reoffend A trained facilitator will be at the conference to keep everyone safe and supported. They will also make sure the discussion stays on track. Restorative justice takes place before you are sentenced in court. The judge will consider any agreements made during the restorative justice conference at the time you are sentenced.

Risk Society, Factor 2: New Social Practice

An increasingly urban, sedentary society starts to change its recreational activities. More 'nature visits': sightseeing, hiking, biking, skiing, fishing, camping. People become more concerned about environmental impacts on their personal health.

Black markets...

Are common throughout the world in less-wealthy countries... ...and prove vital in times when the formal market collapses. The survival of the people of the collapsing Soviet Union relied on the existence of a vibrant black market. The economic 'reform' programme after 1991 sold off state assets, privatised government companies, but left the black markets (and Russian Mafia who ran them) intact - otherwise people would have starved. Some recent commentators have suggested that the reason more Greek citizens haven't died of starvation during the austerity/debt crisis of the last few years is... that Greece has a highly developed Black Economy.

crime rates

As the population increases crime increases (number of offences per 10,000 population), allows for crime measurements over time and in different cities. Also, context is important

Disparities in Sentencing....

Assoc Prof Lisa Marriott (VUW - Wellington) made the following comparison... April, 2017: Husband and wife sentenced for one of NZ's 'highest ranking' benefit frauds" ran with a report of one of New Zealand's "very worst" cases of benefit fraud, in which a Nelson mother of four was sentenced to two years and five months in prison for defrauding the Ministry of Social Development of $244,768 over 12 years" "The judge in the case is quoted as reaching an outcome "that might be viewed as 'overly generous'". Repayment of $10,000 was ordered, at a rate of $40 per week. But, Marriot shows... April, 2017: "Tax agent fraudster loses name suppression". This case involved a Wellington tax agent given 10 months' home detention and 120 hours' community work for tax fraud of $768,538. The fraud had been ongoing since 2009. The agent's financial position was described as "hopeless" and there was "no way she could pay reparation" despite individually benefitting $210,465

Wolfpack Jobs

At the heart of many workplaces were groups of workers who collaborated to steal or cheat at the workplace: Dustmen in London (a third of their wages in salvage) Dockworkers in the US. Groups where identity and status are socially constructed around the fiddle. You are located socially as part of your wolfpack! (workers get control of their workplace and cheat etc- dustman and garbage collectors etc)- they would go through rubbish and newest recruit can get the worst stuff and the highest status worker can get copper pipeman etc worth a lot. Mars' study shows that wolfpacks can be effective for uniting groups of workers both upwards (against management) and downward (against bad customers): Bar and table waiting Food delivery services

Lincoln University Survey: 2016

Attitudes to the environment and harms to the environment... % of respondents who listed farming as a major cause of environmental harm: • Harm to wetlands: 42% of respondents • Harm to native land and freshwater plants and animals: 55% • Harm to fresh water: 59%

Marxist Feminism

Attributes women's oppression to their subordinate status within capitalist societies. Marxist feminists theorize that women's subordinate class status may compel them to commit crime as a means of supporting themselves economically. (inequality in a economic system and no money locked in childcare and housework puts women in a unreliable status can't leave their abuser) -survival crime

United Auto Workers: labour power in the US automobile industry

Auto workers conclude a successful strike in Flint, Michigan, 1937 The 'right to organise' into unions is granted during the Great Depression. Union power is greatest from WWII to the 1970s

...or interfere with demoncry

BUT policing does not necessary operate in this ideal way Policing can: Reduce equity by privileging some groups (or targeting some); Reduce community participation by preventing protest, inhibiting use of public space and freedom of speech and association; Fail to be accountable to the public. Policing can thus prevent the exercise of democracy

E-Stewards

Basel Action Network - 2003. Collective discussion involving 40 organisations providing recycling of E-waste. 2006 - conflict erupts between organisations that only wanted a certification service for companies that met basic standards and those who demanded a total ban on exporting of E-waste to Developing Countries. The E-Stewards certification standard is the result. They win a major prize in 2014 as 'Social Venture of the Year'. In collaboration with Greenpeace, they successfully lobbied the Chinese Govt to shut down the infamous 'E-waste city' of Guiyu. In 2019/20, they are lobbying the US Congress to ban exporting of E-Waste. Thus far, without success....

Self-identity is influenced by how we are described and classified

Being labelled as deviant can lead to deviant behavior Symbolic Interactionists and Labelling Theorists argue crime is a social construction, people are often criminals as a result of stigmatisation, or idenfitied as 'criminals' because of stigmatisation

Biological Explanations for crime Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)

Biological criminologist believed criminals were born and not made. "strange teeth and high cheekbones etc" Sexist and racist perspectives also

In the meantime: back to Labour Process Theory...

Braverman argued that humans were not robots. You could never fully discipline workers so the workplace was always contested in some way. When management are in seemingly total control, workers find ways to fight back. 'When the great lord passes, the wise peasant bows deeply and silently farts'. James Scott (1990) Domination and the Arts of Resistance.

Santizing space, criminalizing homelessness

Bylaws punishing behaviours primarily displayed by homeless people Public space as first and foremost commercial space.

NZ use

Cannabis-cannabis in their lifetime 1/3 of people who have ever used it had used it in the past year Of the people who had used in the past year, just over ½ used at least monthly, 1/7 were daily users. 1 in 6 of past year users reported negative effects on their lives. Amphetamines-7.2% of NZers have tried amphetamines in their lifetime. 1/3 who have ever used it had used it in the past year Of the people who had used in the past year, ¼ used at least monthly and less than 1/7 used weekly or more. 1 in 5 of past year users reported negative effects on their lives.

Community Policing

Catalysts include Recognition of public support as critical to police effectiveness. Criticisms of the existing (professional) paradigm & current practices. Police can perform a wide range of functions Changing nature of communities Public demand for police accountability (Segrave and Ratcliffe: 2004)

Traditional Policing

Centred on 'crime fighting': Rapid response to calls, and investigation and prosecution of crimes. Innovations largely technologically-driven. Performance measures: reported crimes rates and 'clearance' rates.

Critical Race Feminism/Black Feminism

Centred on the experiences of Black women and women of colour, and as such view women's oppression in terms of simultaneous gender- and race-based disadvantage. Within criminology, Black and critical race feminists call attention to the discriminatory treatment of non-White women in the criminal justice system.

Police-Māori relationships

Challenging Perspectives: Police and Māori Attitudes Toward One Another (Te Puni Kokiri and NZ Police 2001): The police as an institution is hostile to Māori and their cultural practices Police hold negative perceptions of Māori; and A significant number of Māori distrust Police; The often discriminatory nature of interactions between Police and Māori; Racist and negative preconceived ideas and attitudes of Police officers toward Māori and Māori issues; and The institutionally racist culture of the NZ Police force.

Zero-Tolerance Policing Broken Windows Theory Critique

Claims of its successes are contested Disproportionately harms poor communities and communities of colour

NZ and CITES

Colonial NZ used to have a lively trade in 'rare objects' ranging from tuatara to mummified human heads, but... NZ became a signatory to the global CITES convention and passed the Trade in Endangered Species Act - 1989. Now we regularly track and arrest smugglers trading in endangered species. Makes for good media stories and is a subject around which a total social consensus has built up. Risk Society theory: rapid action to criminalise smuggling endangered species. This was uncontested, because there is low economic cost to stopping this trade and such a law culturally fits with predominant ideas about preserving nature. No major class groups are negatively affected by this.

Settler Colonialism

Colonialism involves subjecting particular groups of people, with pre-existing links to land and resources and independent cultural and political processes, to the control of another group. [...However,] people do not hand over their land, resources, children, and futures without a fight... In employing the force necessary to accomplish its expansionist goals, a colonising regime institutionalises violence

Socialist Feminism

Combine radical and Marxist perspectives to conclude that women's oppression results from concomitant sex- and class- based inequalities. Within criminology, socialist feminists examine causes of crime within the context of interacting gender- and class-based systems of power. (partiaraical ideas shape women and who they are in a family contex)

Critical Criminology (Marxist)

Combines concerns across related approaches like Marxism and Feminism Applies critical analysis to contemporary society. Concerned with structures of power which also includes language (postmodernism).

Reprobation

Community reprobation plays a key role in preventing crime. Crime is caused by: Lack of self-sanctioning conscience and appropriate social connections. Broader society focused on individualism (rather than communitarianism). Many of the crimes that cause the most social harms (drink driving, environmental harm, white collar crime, corporate crime, domestic violence) do not receive the same amount of social censure as other crimes. Freedom from domination requires not just criminal sanctions but community reprobation of harmful acts.

COURT FUNCTIONS

Courts must make two crucial judgments: Is the person guilty? If so, what is the appropriate punishment? Processes through which these judgments are made are complex, and depend on the nature of the offence.

Basic Concepts from marxist perspective

Crime is focused on class interests Focus of analysis: crimes of the powerful and crimes of the less powerful. Human rights and ideas of social injury or harm (eg: see zemiology) Crime prevention seeks to challenge State repression of the working-class and expose the social harm by the powerful on the less powerful

Key ideas in cultural criminology/postmodern approaches

Crime is subjective Power is diffuse Power is discursive Socially constructed reality Class is relevant.... But this is not the only key focus of analysis.

RELIES ON COMMONSENSE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT CRIME

Crime rates are soaring Crime is worse than ever The CJS is 'soft' on crime The CJS is loaded in favour of criminals There should be more police Police should have more powers Courts should deliver tougher penalties Victims require retribution through the courts

The Crimes of the Powerful

Crimes of the powerful (eg. crimes by wealthy citizens, corporations or the government), Many social harms are not (or are inadequately) addressed by the criminal law. Crimes of the powerful: crimes of control (police brutality, violation of civil liberties); crimes of government (warfare, rendition, political assassination) and crimes of economic domination (pollution, price-fixing, industrial homicide, negligence towards consumers). Crimes of the powerful have a much greater economic and social impact than 'street crime'. Critique of the use of state personnel as tools of class conflict.

Criminal Law in a Colonial State

Criminal law in this context serves two purposes: it legitimises the use of force; and it imposes a range of cultural, social and institutional values and processes.

Feminist criminology has been successful and has resulted in significant shifts in:

Criminological research and understanding Criminal justice practices (including police attitudes, laws, sentencing, victim support and so on). Public awareness of issues, particularly around violence against women.

Cultural Criminology of drugs

Cultural criminology: crime and the agencies of control are both cultural products. Focus on the emotional/affective aspects of criminal behaviour AND in responses to criminal behaviour. Locating activity within an emotional universe is one of the characteristic features of what is broadly known as cultural criminology (Textbook: p.243) Media/cultural analysis and ethnomethodology as key methodological approaches

DDT safety advertising: 1950s

DDT - the new wonder pesticide - is advertised as safe in almost any dose... before we discovered that it wasn't! This photo shows government employees spraying DDT at US beaches in the 1950s to kill mosquitoes. Cancer causing effect

NZ and DDT

DDT: deployed widely in the 1950s. Hugely popular and successful. Manufactured in New Zealand, in factories that previously made older (also toxic) pesticides using ingredients like arsenic. Banned by the 1970s with some protest from farming industry. Now a clear crime to own, apply or distribute DDT. A major problem remains around who should pay for decontaminating old factory sites like Mapua (Nelson) or Paritutu (Taranaki). Risk Society theory: rapid action to criminalise DDT because everyone can get cancer from DDT residues...

Utlitarianism

Decisions must be made solely based upon outcomes that are useful and that lead to the greatest good for the greatest number. -Jeremy Bentham

and the responses of some environmental crime is:

Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster: BP is pursued for massive damages (which then pays for coastal clean-up and compensation for commercial fishers). But deep-water oil drilling is not immediately banned. How about COVID-19? It isn't technically classed as an environmental crime, but it is a major environmental hazard that has wide-spread negative effects. But these are different across classes and industries. Pubs and clubs are heavily affected by lockdowns. Netflix booms. The Response around the World: different industries lobbying and calling for very different actions. Governments are in a total mess

Paramilitary Policing

Defined as: "the application of (quasi-) military training, equipment, philosophy and organization to questions of policing' (Jefferson 1990: 16) Characteristics of Police Paramilitary Units: Equipped with militaristic equipment and technology Organisational structure is modeled after the military Generally engage in 'high risk' activities (Kraska and Kappeler 1997: 1-18)

Postmodern Feminism

Departs from other feminist perspectives by questioning the existence of any one "truth", including women's oppression. Within criminology, postmodern feminists interrogate the social construction of concepts such as "crime", "Justice" and "deviance" and challenge accepted criminological truths. -eg not all women get the same oppression from men there are different ways different reasons of justice etc

Mapping Crime

Developed (alongside Guerry) the process of mapping crime rates against social indicators

Personality and Crime Eysenck:

Dimensions of personality: Extraversion, Neuroticism (nervous and anxious), and Psychoticism (lack of empathy).

What is Discourse?

Discourse refers to: ...ways of constituting knowledge, together with social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them (Foucault). A particular way of talking about and understanding the world. Discourse entails underlying assumptions about the nature of the world

Key Issue: Discretion

Discretion is an inescapable element of police work, and it arises from two factors: the ever-present reality of scarce resources and the ambiguity of the law (Brown, 1988: 4).

Types of Restorative Justice in NZ

Diversion referral: usually for first time offenders who admit their guilt for misdemeanours: Police refer offender to RJ and decide what needs to be done within a particular time frame (pay money to the victim/to a charity, community work, letter of apology). If the task is done within the timeframe, the charge gets dropped and the offender's record is cleared. Court referral: the judge can refer offenders to RJ once they have pleaded guilty (most prevalent in NZ) Post-sentencing RJ: the request for this type of RJ can come from the offender or the victim.

Brief History of NZ Police

Drawing from Wolffram, Heather "The history of policing" in Gilbert and Newbold, CRIMINAL JUSTICE. Colonies - initially used the template of Irish Constabulary rather than the English system. Initially in NZ: Focus on order rather than consent By mid-1840s, policing became even more militant in order to subdue Māori uprisings. When police were first introduced people were unsure and thought it would be similar to the army. Private polcing in rich areas and that they would be unarmed. Policing styles throughout the colonies varied based on the perceived level of 'threat' from Indigenous populations.- established 2 types of police good and bad.

The Social Harms of Criminalization

Drug laws punish users. Drug laws make drugs more expensive - increasing drug-related crime. Drug laws induce creation of new drugs. Enormous cost of law enforcement (compared to spending on harm minimization and addiction services).

How are drugs conceptualized today?

Drugs as immoral Drugs as a health issue Are there other ways to conceptualize addiction? What do the people who actually take drugs say about their own drug-taking? And how do our assumptions about drug use, particularly about particular drugs, shape drug policy? Does our drug policy thus align with available evidence (and how does discourse shape what we consider evidence)?

Who was prosecuted after the Global Financial Crisis?

During the Global Financial Crisis, it emerged that Wall St businesses had engaged in behaviour that was deemed fraudulent - particularly around the risky and deceptive lending practices that created the 'sub-prime' mortgage bubble. In the UK, a couple of bankers were prosecuted. In the USA, no Wall St executives were prosecuted (in fact, the government bailed out their businesses). The victims of their fraud - poor people with collapsing housing assets - faced the usual legal processes of default and bankruptcy.

Lecture response 10: When workers are highly empowered in workplaces - like having strong unions crime is likely to be ...

Easier for management to not police crime very much (eg less polieced)

Risk Society, Factor 1: New Economic Forces

Economy: major transitions begin to happen to the industrial, economic and class structure of society after WWII. More urbanised society. More service sector work, white collar and pink collar jobs and new economic sectors like financial services, IT and tourism. As a consequence of these transitions - the relative size of the working class shrinks and the middle class expands. So there is less direct reliance on unlimited resource extraction to underpin economic growth.

What do Māori want? (Moyle and Tauri 2016)

Effective consultation with Māori communities to develop solutions to social problems. Genuine power-sharing between Maori communities and providers, and service agencies. Greater emphasis on community-based initiatives.

Cultural criminology

Emerged out of Postmodern Criminology focuses on meanings and perception Focus of analysis: language and meaning "conflicts over existence' or 'reality' as expressed in and through language.' Cause of crime: hegemony of dominant discourses, suppression of alternatives Nature of offender: constituted through dominant discourses Response to crime: replacement discourses

Checking of Power

Emphasis on checks on power: Rights of the citizen - right to a fair trial, presumption of innocence, rights of appeal. Emphasis on the separation of powers.

nature is unpredictable

Environmental sociology recognizes that environmental dynamics can sometimes have unpredictable and uncontrollable results. So, you can't always assume that environmental harms are 'quarantined' to only affect vulnerable groups of poor people. Let's consider the examples I've used so far...

The theory of the Risk Society: Was it useful?

Explains why the most rapid action on criminalising harms to the environment happens where these impact directly on the health or happiness of the wealthier classes. And poorer classes don't have so much influence on the political processes that lead to criminalisation of harms. But, it also shows us how the middle classes in Western Societies are increasingly coming into conflict with traditional industrial, manufacturing and farming industries - and the people who work in them. And, because environmental harms are sometimes slow to accumulate, it shows how a generational effect is starting to become clear in relation to environmental harms.

Summary of feminist criminology

Feminist criminology became prominent during the 1970s (and continues to develop) and addressed the androcentric nature of mainstream criminology. Feminist Criminology does not limit its focus to women, rather it asks us to apply a gendered lens to the study of criminology There are different schools of feminist thought

Feminist Criminology

Feminist perspectives in criminology developed in the 1970s as part of a broader alteration of social, political and cultural consciousness. Part of a broader critique of positivist approaches in the social sciences.

the places we work

Feudal society had centuries of cultural traditions socially regulating the actions of peasants, farmers, farm labourers (and land-owning aristocrats).The new factories and industrial cities of the Industrial Revolution were a site of potentially unknown social relations, unrest, new kinds of conflict and exploitation

Case Study: Flint, Michigan

Flint: a major industrial city in Michigan. Flint River: historically a dumping ground for industrial waste from the car assembly industry. Two rivers: Detroit River (treated) and Flint River (dumping site). To save money, the city council changed to getting water from the Flint River in 2014. Massive public health crisis erupts - particularly due to lead contamination. But the problem seems politically difficult to fix... People had to end up buying their own water

LEFT REALISTS

Focus on street crime, intra-class crime. Concern is with the suffering of the victim - less sympathy with the offender. Local crime victim surveys. Focus on social solidarity and community policing.Crime is a serious problem and we need to address it; Official crime statistics underestimate the problem due to underreporting by those most affected by crime; Most personal crime is intra-class, and disproportionately afflicts the poor and their neighbourhoods Agree with Marxist/Radical approaches that inequality is a key contributor to crime and needs to be addressed

SENTENCING AND JUSTICE 2

For members of the public - especially relatives, friends of the victim(s) and/or offender(s) - sentencing is the moment at which justice is seen, or not seen, to be done.

London's Killer Fog of 1952

Four days in December 1952 • Caused by the widespread use of low-quality coal in power stations and for factory and home heating. • 100,000 were rendered ill and 12,000 died from the 'pea-souper' fog. • Directly led to the Clean Air Act of 1956 (first envirormental act)

Freedom liberty as non domination

Freedom is more than arbitrarily escaping interference. It is best understood in terms of structural relationships that exist between persons and groups. It requires "the assurance of not even being exposed to the possibility of arbitrary interference by an uncontrolled power" (Braithwaite 2000: 89) This freedom is called personal dominion. Freedom Continued: Dominion Dominion: All people should be free from unwanted interference and arbitrary power. Criminal acts: Those that impinge on the personal dominion of the victim. Criminal acts: communal evil.

Michel Foucault

French Philosopher (1926-1984) It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticize the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticize them and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them. Key text: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. 1975

State car policing

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the NZ government took more than 100,000 children from experiences of strife, neglect, poverty or family violence and placed them in state care. There, they experienced abysmal conditions, limited education and social isolation. Experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence. (disproportionately Maori children)- these children were more likely to end up in prison. The neglect was just different to pakeha norms not exactly bad they just were more independent children

The Operation of the CJS should be based upon:

Full public accountability of each apparatus of the state; A genuine upholding of human rights; Law reform that is designed to protect the interests of the working class; And a democratization of institutions.

Shifts to law

Fundamental differences between colonial and Indigenous concepts of law: Individual responsibility compared to collective responsibility for wrongdoing; The removal of the victim from the judicial process; The concept of the state as the injured party rather than the collective group; The separation of the criminal process from the community; The distinction between civil and criminal law and penalty; Differences in the justifications for, and types of punishment (for example, imprisonment compared to restitution and reparation).

Crimes of the Powerful: Economic

GFC (global finicatial crisis) : Despite criminal conduct by executives in large financial institutions (as well as irresponsibility, greed and poor financial policy), the government did not prosecute. Billions of taxpayer dollars used to bail out institutions.

Liberal Feminism

Gender role socialization as the primary source of women's oppression Women's offending, or lack thereof, as a function of gender role socialization Main focus in on equality before the law. -taught to embody specific roles in society eg girls dolls and males guns mens are taught to be more violent

Key challenges of classical theory

General principles vs specific defendants. Some people cant make rational decisions -children and people not in heir right minds. Bureacratisation-The growth in power of the Secretariat, which was able to make decisions and operate policies without reference to ordinary party members

Fighting Back: Workplace Sabotage

Gerald Mars was interested in the way in which Donkey Jobs led to workers fighting back in various ways. There are two lines of battle in many jobs: between workers and management, and between workers and their customers.

How we used to experience workplace crime

Gerald Mars' classic study Cheats at Work talks of many studies of how workers 'fiddle' their jobs - in the 1970s and 80s. And management let them get away with it! Mars distinguished between...Wolfpack jobs and Donkey Jobs Both had their own ways of giving more control to workers and less control to managers.

New Zealand has a strong tax-free culture:

Giles (1999) estimated the Black Economy in NZ using a range of methods: Tax-gap - modelling the difference between legitimate income earned and actual tax paid. This involves between 6.4% - 10.2% of all potential taxable income. Mixed modelling of GDP: 6.8% in 1968, rising to 11.3% in 1994. The NZ Reserve Bank won't release details on how it measures the Black Economy, but it clearly does do something when calculating 'money supply' in circulation before setting interest rates.

Impacts:

Good having more diverse criminal justice and personal impacts etc People Containment of Indigenous critiques of neo-colonial state formal justice systems through the production of state-centred indigenised policies and programmes; and Blocking Indigenous activities aimed at enhancing their jurisdictional autonomy and ability to develop their own responses to social harm, via the importation of 'culturally appropriate' crime control products.

Coal Miners' Strike: Britain under Thatcher, 1984-85

Government strategy to 'break the unions' when Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of Great Britain so that coal mines could be closed or sold off. 362 days of strike action and the police were given special powers to combat strikers. 164,508 police actions against union pickets are reported.

Graffi: as we know it today is linked with youth culture

Hip Hop Culture USA 1960s and 1970s -Political expression for marginalised urban groups

The social (and political) construction of addiction.

Historically, addiction meant being immoderately or compulsively devoted to a thing (not necessarily alcohol or drugs). Not generally situated in a medical or moral discourse until later in the 19th century. Moralizing of 19th century temperance movements. Moved to the medicalization of addiction as a disease. A medical/moral/drug perspective on addiction became dominant. Increasingly neoliberal discourse.

Labelling highlights the social nature of the definitions of crime

How we define an act or event as criminal is linked to who has the power to officially label a person as criminal

Karl Marx, 1818-1883

Human nature, 'species being' (creative conscious engagement in the world, man makes life activity to his consciousness) Relations of production: (capitalism most thing people can sell is wage labor) Buying/selling labour Bourgeoisie, proletariat Class

Scenario 2: Bosses in Charge!

If Scenario 1 was workers in charge, then times began to change in the 1980s and 1990s: Rise of new economic thinking in the 1980s - neoliberalism - which targeted the 'privileged' position of organised labour. Lots of union-busting policies follow... End of the Cold War in 1990 opens up the Western world to a flood of skilled and educated (and cheap) labour from the ex-communist countries. Globalisation: service industries (like call centres) are increasingly relocated to developing countries like India. Rise of jobs being substituted by AI.

Drug Use in NZ (from NZ Drug Foundation: Year 2015/2016)

Illicit drug use: 11% of adult used cannabis in past year, 0.9% used methamphetamine; up to 3.2% used party drugs and 1.1% used opiates. The drugs that cause the most harm in NZ are alcohol and tobacco In the 2015/2016 year 80% of adult population reported drinking alcohol; 31% at least twice a week; 20% hazardously. 16% of NZers are smokers. 9% of physical health loss in NZ is attributed to tobacco use. Social harm estimated as at $1.8 Billion a year (includes cost of personal harm, community harm, and interventions).

Discipline and Punish

In 1975, Foucault published Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison. Offers a history of the penal system in Western Europe. Seeks to analyze punishment in its social and historical context; And to examine how changing power relations impact on practices of punishment.

Alternatives... of drug problems

In 2001, Portugal decriminalized drugs Massive reduction in problematic drug use, HIV and hepatitis infection rates, overdose deaths, drug-related crime and incarceration rates. Language shift - from "junkies" to "people with addiction disorders" But still limits - harm-reduction advocates still call for supervised injecting sites, ready availability of naloxone and needle-exchanges in prisons. And.... What of the risks of normalizing drug use?

Alcohol in NZ

In 2011/12, 15% of New Zealanders aged 15 years or more who drank alcohol in the past year had a potentially hazardous drinking pattern (Ministry of Health 2015). 8.4% of past year drinkers binge drink (drink excessively) at least once a week.

comparisons (welfare and tax of state)- welfare vs corporate fraud

In 2016: 1000 beneficiaries were prosecuted for benefit fraud. In 2016: 70 companies and individuals were prosecuted for tax evasion. Citizens in NZ are more tolerant of people failing to pay the state compared to people who take money off the state. In the late 1990s, the Government set up a hotline for people to report incidents of fraud to Inland Revenue. There were over 11,000 'dobs' on benefit fraud, but only a couple of hundred calls reporting tradies avoiding paying

21st Century Workplace Sabotage

In Mars' examples, sabotage seemed to mainly consist of: breakage, spoiling products, vandalism and stealing. In the 21st century, workers in IT-connected service industries are in a much more ambiguous terrain. They are capable of being under surveillance to a huge degree. They have access to electronically stored information that is 'fluid' and easy to hide or store.In the case of the Scottish insurance and pension workers, they had access to company databases that they could use to undermine and subvert the (vaguely illegal) strategies of the company. With Edward Snowden, once he was ethically convinced of the need for the NSA to be sabotaged, he had access to 100,000s of files to do the deed. 21st Century workplace sabotage has

Conclusion: Conflict Theory and workplace fiddles

In a time of full employment and high union membership, workers had a lot of license to 'enjoy' work in ways that now would be classified as illegal. (nb. They were likely illegal then as well, just not pursued). In that era (50s-70s), workplace crime was socially constructed in a way that legitimised worker rights and empowerment relative to management.Can a particular variant of Conflict Theory (called Labour Process Theory) explain how we socially construct criminality in the workplace? In a time of full employment and strong union power (1950s-1970s), workers had a great deal of empowerment in the workplace. This extended to management turning a blind eye to worker 'fiddles' in the workplace. Keeping workers happy was the key to maintaining a productive workplace (and the fiddle makes boring jobs more tolerable).

The Result: labour is replaceable, Bosses are in charge!

In a world where there is now an abundance of semi-skilled labour... management can squeeze every last bit of productivity out of staff. In neoliberalised economies, were are now under high levels of discipline and surveillance.

Social Context of Marxist Criminology

In criminological theory, society was beginning to be viewed as more pluralist, not a homogenous unitary whole. These ideas paved the way for more critical and conflict oriented views to emerge.

Some mixed action: different classes are affected in different way

In some cases, different industry sectors are positioned on either side of the crisis. Wealthy corporates, small businesses, industrial workers... all experience different effects ---

Something big has happened to the social acceptability of farming in NZ

In the 1800s, farming was the most desired activity for our land (by Pakeha settlers). • Farms and farmers were socially esteemed throughout the 20th Century. • Yet, now nearly all the ecologically transformative activities that created farming in the 1800s would be deemed criminal under NZ environmental law. Something has massively changed between colonial settlement and now

Modern Day

In the 1980s Marxist criminology waned somewhat to critical criminology. Paved the way to view crime in broad structural terms - racism, sexism, classism, homophobia and so on. Still sheds light on crimes of the powerful.

Marxist Criminology and Confict-Based Approaches to Crime...

In the textbook, pp 113-116 describe some of the characteristics of a Marxist 'confict-based' approach to criminology. A Marxist approach to criminology looks at the way in which criminal justice and legal systems basically serve to support and reproduce the structures of capitalism. Conflict-based approaches are similar, but recognise that the make-up of society reflects a power-struggle between many groups - like class (but also including race/ethnicity, gender and sexuality).

REPARATION

Increased acknowledgement of victims' rights Not only the harms of crime, but the costs of participating in criminal justice processes.

Government Responses: Critique

Indigenisation-Attempting to increase number of indigenous people in CJS. Critiques: Tokenism Cooption rather than empowerment Continues colonial project Cooption-Utilising elements of Indigenous cultures in police and interventions Critique: Still based on western philosophies and traditions, but Māori cultural philosophy and practice is 'added on'

Lecture response 6: What is it meant by indigenization and cooption -give examples -give critiques

Indigenisation-Attempting to increase the number of indigenous people in CJS (or attempting to increase the number of Maori getting into law etc) Cooption-Utilising elements of Indigenous cultures in police and interventions (and in Maori art etc) cultural appropriate Critiques: Tokenism Cooption rather than empowerment Continues colonial project Critique: Still based on western philosophies and traditions, but Māori cultural philosophy and practice is 'added on'

THE ROLE OF VICTIMS

Individual victims seen as central and representative. Victims' voices or those who claim to speak for them, are given authenticity and validity in relation to the development of crime control. Sensible Sentencing Trust (Garth McVicar) played key role in NZ justice policy.

DETERRENCE

Individual: punishment should deter the individual from offending again. General: Punishment should deter others from committing the same crime Absolute: Legal sanctions deter crime Marginal: Harsher sentences deter crime We dont have much evidence for this -For absolute deterrence, certainly. For marginal deterrence, not so much And in terms of individual deterrence, prison is counter-productive. KEY CONCEPT: RECIDIVISM Currently 60 percent of prison inmates re-offend within two years of being released from jail.

Lecture response 5: Choose a crime and explain any two of the key feminist criminal approaches may approach this crime

Infanticide- women's social role being the primary caregivers of children (liberal feminist perspective) influences this crime, also socialist or marxist framework show that women in poverty are more likely

Workplace crime is 'socially constructed':

It is socially negotiated through conflicts between management and workers. The balance of power in workplace conflict has shifted dramatically since the neoliberalisation of economies in the 1980s. This change reveals wider shifts in the position of different classes in society. This shifting boundary of what is considered workplace crime demonstrates the site at which some key processes creating inequality in society have been deployed, reinforced and (partly) resisted. If you want to know why your generation is increasingly working as part of the 'precariat', the answer is that for 40 years workers have been losing Braverman's battle in the workplace.

INCAPACITATION

Keeping the public safe by incapacitating offenders Only works if we: Lock up those who would otherwise have committed further offences If those we lock up are not replaced If crimes committed after release aren't so serious as to negate effects of incapacitation. Is it ethical to punish someone because of a perceived risk of future offending? Is it ethical to base punishments on inaccurate predictions?

Second Wave Feminism

Key demands of the women's liberation movement: Equal pay Equal education and job opportunities Free contraception and abortion on demand Free 24-hour nurseries, under community control Legal and financial independence An end to discrimination against lesbians Freedom from intimidation by the threat or use of violence or sexual coercion, regardless of marital status An end to the laws, assumptions and institutions that perpetuate male dominance and men's aggression towards women (Feminist Anthology Collective 1981 - cited

critiques of labeling theory

Labelling - limited to explaining secondary deviance Labelling cannot explain primary deviance. It can't tell us why people committed a crime, joined a gang, or engaged in deviant acts in the first place. Focusses on social reaction to perceived deviant behaviour Labelling more plausible for minor delinquency Unable to ascertain why one person will accept a label, another reject it = variability in response to labelling An individual may accrue a range of negative labels even before they come into contact with the CJS Focuses on micro-level interactions.

BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: 2010

Largest oil spill in history. • 11 deaths in the explosion • Uncontrolled for 87 days • 780,000m3 of oil spilled. • Still calculating the extent of environmental damage. • BP has, to date, paid US$42.2b of fines and compensation - legal action is ongoing.

Post-War Period

Late 40s and into the 1950s - many advanced capitalist countries entered a long boom period of economic growth. BUT there were persistent crime rates - how do we explain these? Theorists began to examine more closely the distribution of opportunities in society, and also the ways in which people interact with and learn from each other.

Further Implications

Legitimacy is fluid Interactions between police and denizens as 'key moments' Legitimating perceptions shaped by wider factors

Different Schools of Feminist Thought

Liberal Feminism Radical Feminism Marxist Feminism Socialist Feminism Postmodern Feminism Critical Race Feminism

The Impacts of Colonization

Loss of land Social, economic and political marginalization Government policies and practices which aimed to 'civilize', Christianize and assimilate Indigenous people Forced removal of children Banning of language and cultural practices Imposition of an alien justice system.

Critiques of Restorative Justice

MICHELLE SMITH'S LETTER as printed in the Press on Saturday. This letter is a belated response to an article by Mike Yardley (Dec 16) about restorative justice. It's a delayed response because we've had a bit to contend with lately. We agree with Mike's opinions on restorative justice. For the last 20 months our family has been journeying through the justice system, in pursuit of something we thought looked like justice. Our experiences have left us feeling that our justice system and its processes are often too offender driven. We have had to come to terms both with reduced charges for a serious crime, and the defendants' right to request multiple bail hearings. Finally, we watched in horror as the two defendants received lightweight sentences for a horrific crime. A potential factor for consideration in sentencing could have been both offenders' 11th-hour pre-sentencing remorse, and offers of restorative justice. The sentencing judge remarked that one offenders' offer to participate in restorative justice was "to his credit". We don't want to drink tea and chat with killers. Restorative justice for us would be a sentence that reflects the severity of the crime and provides protection for the public. MICHELLE SMITHfor the family ofthe late Terrence Martin SmithPapanui

Who pleads guilty

Mack and Roach Anleu (2000): those who are most likely to plead guilty are indigenous people, and accused persons who would 'not present well in court'. Māori are more likely to plead guilty than non-Māori, raising questions about access to justice and adequate legal representation

How policing can contribute to democracy...

Maintaining public tranquility Protecting and respecting individual rights and freedoms Preventing crime Providing assistance Can help contribute to equity, as well as being informative, accountable and encouraging community participation in democracy = a thick public good

main sociological groups in the places we work

Management: the people who own businesses... ...or are paid salaries (ie. A permanent annual income) to manage other people. Workers: the people who are paid hourly wages and don't have the same level of decision-making as managers do. Unions: organisations that promote 'collective power' for workers to exert more rights in their workplaces. (Not all workplaces are organised like this: especially when work is undertaken by family members - like a farm or corner dairy).

Summary Concepts of environmental crime 1

Marxist Criminology/Radical Criminology: the different application of crime to the powerful and less powerful. • Social Structure as an explanation of crime • Noting how criminality changes through history. • Historical transition from acceptability to unacceptability of harm to the environment

Summary of indigenous perspectives

Mass incarceration of Indigenous people needs to be understood in terms of the processes of colonization. Protection, assimilation and criminalization have worked together to control indigenous populations. The voices, experiences, knowledge and research by Indigenous people needs to be brought to the forefront.

The 'tax-free' economy

Measuring this is very hard to do (as the Tax Dept is the usual government agency that measures economic activity). 'Cashies' are valuable for customers (no GST) and vendors (no need to declare revenue for income tax). Cashies, at heart, are a crime against the state rather than directly against other citizens. Varies greatly in different countries.

Disciplinary Power

Mechanisms of power that regulate behaviour. Power is diffuse, not top-down. Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons? The slackening of the hold on the body.

Police Objectives

Meeting community needs Minimizing crime Ensuring public order Encouraging citizen involvement Providing assistance in emergencies Promoting road safety Improving operational policing strategies. (White and Perrone; 2015: 248)

Note: Thinking about over-representation

Moana Jackson (The Māori and the criminal justice system 1988) - An emphasis on disproportionality can be problematic: Invites unfavourable comparisons Emphasizes racial difference, while eliding the social and cultural factors responsible for the differences Publication of statistical indices of disproportionality has failed to result in policy responses.

Lecture response: When workers are disempowered in work places- like having no union representation and weak worker rights crime is likely to be

More polieced

Reintegrative Shaming Theory (IMPACTS)

More remorse More forgiveness More likely to report that they have learnt from the process that there are people who care about them.

Primary Deviation - initial deviant behavior

Most of us engage in some form of deviant activity at some stage in our life People who engage in deviant activity do not "fundamentally change their self-concept." "... we do not see ourselves as a drunk, a pothead or a thief" Our identities do not change, deviance is something that we pass through

The 'real' story - Daly

Myths of restorative justice: 1) restorative justice is the opposite of retributive justice 2) restorative justice uses indigenous justice practices and was the dominant form of pre-modern justice 3) restorative justice can be expected to produce major changes in people.

The Contemporary Era - Overrepresentation

Māori people are over-represented in the Criminal Justice System. This can be explained by the impacts of colonization: Socio-economic disadvantage The intergenerational trauma of child removal The damaging impacts on culture and identity BUT ALSO the systemic bias in the institutions of criminal justice. The criminal justice system is leaky

21st Century Workplace Sabotage...

NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Increasingly concerned that NSA activities were extra-legal. Leaked material to Guardian journalist Glen Greenwald. Approximately 160,000 files of classified information. Hailed as both a hero and traitor Maybe responsible for new restrictions on NSA activity? Still facing prosecution if he returns to the USA

Restorative Justice NZ

NZ Youth Justice System, since the early 1990s - with a focus on reintegration, restorativeness, diversion and family empowerment - has long been seen as a model of youth justice worldwide. Family Group Conferencing (FGC) - used both as a diversionary technique, and at pre-sentencing stages. In contrast to most other jurisdictions that have introduced conferences, all young people whom the police want to take to court and who have not been arrested and charged have to be referred to a family group conference and, if the conference can resolve the matter, then that is the end of it.

Another example of economic crime is harm to consumers

Nestle: baby food contributed to african babies deaths (infant mortality). Aggressively marketed formula when there wasn't clean water etc and translated it and sent it to everywhere had people dressed as nurses to buy the formula and that it was safer for babies than breast milk.

Evidence for Three Strikes Legislation?

New Zealand Court of Appeal : The Court of Appeal 'the research into whether the three strikes regimes actually work to reduce crime is equivocal at best' New Zealand Ministry of Justice: "There is no substantial international or New Zealand evidence on the effect of three strikes laws on crime. The existing evidence is mixed and more robust research is needed to understand the true effects of these laws".

Climate Change...

New Zealand was an enthusiastic signatory to the Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming in 1995 Not surprising given that the Clark/Cullen Labour Government had a strong constituency of support from middle class, urban, white collar workers. NZ decelerated its commitment to this area when the Key/English National government was elected in 2008 - supported by strong constituencies from farming and transport industries. Then became a politically bipartisan issue in 2019 with the Zero Carbon Act: but no actual criminal framework exists in NZ... yet! Currently, we have more concern over climate change from: people with children, young people, people who live near to high impact areas.Risk Society theory: Responses to distant environmental threats disproportionately affect both the industries that will be immediately affected, AND the generations who will live to experience the consequences....

So, does the theory of Risk Society explain the 'class complexity' of the social acceptability of environmental crime?

New groups of people in the middle classes begin to align around 'risk politics' and fear of environmental harms. Complicated fractures open up between middle class groups supporting criminalisation of environmental harms, and working class participants in older polluting industries. Generational class effects also start to take shape - particular around long term environmental risks like climate change.

PENAL POPULISM

No longer referring to evidence-based approaches, or listening to criminal justice experts. Instead, politicians seek to provide the solutions the public want. Think: longer sentences, mandatory minimums, 'tough-on-crime' Public should be protected at all costs The aim is for public acclaim and election-winning rather than to actually reduce crime.

Critique of merton strain theory

Note: Strain varied so doesn't apply to all, just to basic concepts. Focus on working class crime. Assumed a consensus of values in society (particularly Merton/Cohen). Link between opportunity and crime a bit simplified. Issues with gender... Ignores the process of criminalization itself...

Chernobyl: 1986. Playground in the abandoned city of Prypriat, USSR.

Nuclear power plant reactor explosion. Worst peacetime nuclear disaster. Estimated 5000-25000 casualties, 100,000's evacuated - many permanently. A toxic radioactive cloud begins to drift across Europe, touching down whenever it rained.

Workplace Power: the NZ Meatworkers Union

One of NZ's 'hard' unions since the 1950s Used the right to organise to keep non-union labour out of NZ abattoirs. A major source of wealth for rural Maori communities. A happy meatworker is a productive meatworker...

Amplification of Disadvantage in Policing

One of the core areas of criminological research is that poorer socio-economic status (class), and ethnicity (particularly being Maori or Pasifika in NZ) are disproportionately correlated to: Tendency for police to 'apprehend and arrest'. Lower levels of 'diversion' in the court process. Harsher levels of sentencing and likelihood of incarceration.

NZ and Air Quality

One of the key issues for public health in NZ. Used to be a widespread problem due to our passion for open fires and enthusiasm for burning coal. Regional councils used the Resource Management Act to implement progressive change (eg. Christchurch smog) since the 1990s. Or didn't: the West Coast.Risk Society theory: The classes being impacted were very different in Christchurch compared to the West Coast. In Christchurch, rising middle-class concern about health outweighed the declining political power of working class voters who worked in polluting industries. In the West Coast, it was the opposite...

When did harming the environment become a crime?

Only quite recently: • The first legal statutes against some environmental crimes were passed in the US in the 1970s. International treaties co-operating on environmental crimes were signed in: • 1975 - Trade in endangered species (CITES) • 1987 - Ozone depleting substances (ODS) • 1989 - trans-boundary dumping of waste • 1999/2001/2003/2009 - escalating attempts to co-ordinate international legal responses to illegal fishing. • A similar sequence is now starting around illegal logging. And before? Almost all these things were not only acceptable, but also highly desirable! • Capturing or killing endangered species - the mark of a man!Inventing refrigerators - a huge benefit to the domestic life of Western citizens. Which also created ozone-depleting gases...Dumping rubbish - an invisible side-effect of 'progress'.Catching increasing amounts of fish - one of the key 'success stories' of the Industrial Revolution after 1850Logging trees - a good thing, because otherwise they'll go to waste. Once they are gone, we can turn the land into farms.

A particular kind of Conflict Theory: "Labour Process Theory"

Originated with a social theorist called Harry Braverman. Theorised the industrial workplace as being a social site where there is constant potential for conflict between labour and management. In some historical periods, workers/labour are quite empowered and retain a greater share of value created by the industry. In other periods, management is in control and workers are disempowered (and their pay packets are squeezed).

Example of police bias : Cannabis Arrests and Convictions

Over-policing Data on cannabis use and arrests/convictions for cannabis related offences were gathered during the course of a 21-year longitudinal study of a birth cohort of Christchurch-born children. Findings included: Rate of cannabis use could not explain arrest or conviction rate. Arrest and conviction rates were elevated (more than 3 times higher) for Māori (even when use, offending history and previous contacts with the police were all taken into account). Fergusson. Swain-Campbell and Horwood (2003): Arrests and convictions for cannabis related offences in a New Zealand birth cohort.

Radical Feminism

Patriarchy, or male dominance, as the root cause of women's oppression. Focus on manifestations of patriarchy in crimes against women, such as domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment And recognize that women's offending often is preceded by victimization. -Womens violence is to do to their childhood and sexual physical abuse(male violence is the cause )

Key Ideas of policing

Police exercise discretion when making decisions about whether or not to enforce the law Community policing is increasingly utilized by the police to cultivate trust and legitimacy Police culture and existing tensions between the police and certain communities can represent important barriers to the successful implementation of this approach. Paradoxically, intelligence-led policing and paramilitary policing are simultaneously increasing in popularity

criticisms of community policing

Police often see themselves as crime fighters (see Winfree and Newbold 1999) Is it good PR under which we have business as usual? It works best where it is least needed (Somerville 2009) Not all communities want community-oriented policing (for one example, Cunneen 1992)

Public Confidence in Police in NZ

Police treat people with respect (55% agree, similar to the equivalent proportion in 2014). Police are visible in my community (52% agree, down from 59% in 2014). Police use force appropriately (e.g., physical force, pepper spray, TASER) (51% agree, similar to 2014). Police improve safety on our roads (51% agree, down from 64% in 2014). Police can be relied on to respond when called (40% agree, down from 48% in 2014). Police treat all ethnic groups fairly (39% agree, down from 45% in 2014). Police successfully prevent crime (30% agree, down from 38% in 2014)

'Measures of Legitimacy'

Policing power may be said to be legitimate if... 'Individuals perceive that police officers act in morally valid ways' 'Individuals believe that the police abide by the rules and procedures intended to govern their behaviour' 'Individuals voluntarily offer their consent to police activity'

REHABILITATION

Popular during 50s and 60s Since the 70s however, it has been acknowledged that treatment programs rarely work. However, this doesn't mean there shouldn't be rehabilitative programs in prisons!

CONTEXT OF PENAL POPULISM: PRATT 2007

Populism exists where sections of the public feel disenfranchised, ignored by the elite. Perceived 'elite' are constructed as being 'out of touch' with real life. Specifically populist parties develop (e.g.: New Zealand First). Resonance between populist politicians and extra-establishment forces - pressure groups, citizens' rights advocates, talk-back radio hosts, etc.

repsonse to these crime rates

Populist responses to crime. 'Us' and 'them' mentality Simple solutions to complex programs. Criminal is outside society. (criminals are bad and not like us)

Foucault and Power

Power is diffuse and dispersed - through government and civil institutions, through social interactions, through discourse. Power is not simply repressive, but productive. Punishment needs to be interpreted through specific social and historical workings of power (in this case the shift from a feudal to a bourgeois society).

Ulrich Beck: The 'Risk Society'

Prior to the 1960s, wealthy people (and countries) usually managed to export or distance themselves from environmental risk. If we were wealthy we could make sure the bad stuff happened at a safe distance from us. For much of the first 150 years of industrialisation, the perception of risk could be 'distanced' by physically situating risk somewhere else. We could 'psychologically outsource' environmental risk. But, post-WWII, a new set of environmental crises emerged in which the middle classes could no longer escape risk. We experienced the 'boomerang effect' of the risk society.

Environmental Crime in transition...

Prior to the 1970s: anything goes! Environmental 'externalities' are just a cost of doing business. Clean Water Act 1972 criminalizes industrial 'point source' pollution of rivers and lakes. But since then, enforcement of criminality has lapsed when negative impacts only involve certain classes of people.... Poor people! Enviromental crime and class are linked

NZ PRISON POPULATION

Prison rates are soaring NZ has a very high imprisonment rate Crime rates have been dropping since the 90s Māori are massively over-represented. Unemployed, homeless, people with cognitive disabilities and mental health problems are massively over-represented. Is crime increasing?- The answer is largely no. The number of murders/manslaughters has remained fairly stable since the late 80s.

2 Procedural Justice Theory

Procedural justice is concerned with making and implementing decisions according to fair processes. A significant body of research indicates that procedural fairness predicts subsequent compliance with the law. Rules or procedures must be consistently followed, and impartially applied. Treated fairly and with dignity. Four key aspects: Consistency Impartiality Voice Transparency "offenders are more likely to understand what is going on in conferences than in court cases, felt more empower to express their views, had more time to do so, were more likely to feel that their rights were respected, to feel that they could correct errors of fact, to feel that they were treated with respect and were less likely to feel in conferences that they were disadvantaged due to "age, income, sex, race or some other reason" (Braithwaite, 2004)

Factory and Process Workers

Production lines are efficient for assembly... But they also have many single sites in which a workers can 'de-rail' a manufacturing process. Eg. Autoworkers welding the doors shut on luxury cars during an industrial dispute. Or 'Taco Bell guy', who shows how NOT to do this...

RETRIBUTION

Punishment is deserved Laws reflect the moral order and the criminal has behaved 'wrongly' An expression of vengeance

Alternative View of drugs (rats and pleasure)

Rat Park Experiment Rats in isolation vs. rats in "Rat Park" Rats in "Rat Park" did take morphine, but not to excess (in isolation, they took 19x as much). Suggests that the social environment plays a key role in addiction. Pleasure is rarely mentioned, yet it is the key reason why people take drugs. If we ignore how users themselves feel about a drug, then any preventative, treatment or harm minimization approach will likely be incoherent. (social environment plays a key role of addiction is your life like a park or a cage)

There is no obvious link between high imprisonment rates and high crime rates.

Rather, neoliberal societies with higher levels of social inequality, a focus on individual responsibility and inadequate welfare systems tend to send people to prison (see US, NZ) while social democracies with a focus on collective responsibility tend to have low imprisonment rates (see the Scandinavian countries).....the rise in popularity of criminological perspectives that emphasise individual responsibility and the need for a tough authoritative approach fit well with a political context that emphasises individual effort, downplays the importance of collective actions, and fosters a climate of fear to garner votes (Textbook p. 175).

Labelling Perspectives emerged out of the broader social movements of the 1960s and 1970s

Recognition of society as pluralistic in nature Links to the Symbolic Interactionist approach in Sociology - notion of the self being built through interaction "Social reality thus is contingent - how we view the world very much depends on where we are situated within that world." -Rise of civil rights and womens and gay rights etc. social contingency is on how we view the world and where we are in the world Meaning is part of an ongoing social process, of constant interactions between groups "The meaning we give to events and situations depends upon how we negotiate definitions of each event or situation." p. 97 (textbook, 2017) Labelling = social process Deviance = a relative term -context matters in labeling theory Meaning is part of an ongoing social process, of constant interactions between groups "The meaning we give to events and situations depends upon how we negotiate definitions of each event or situation." p. 97 textbook, 2017)

Reintegration

Reintegrative shaming is disapproval extended while a relationship of respect is sustained with the offender

Merton strain theory:Retreatism

Rejects both the culturally defined goals and the institutionalised means of attaining them.

before the age of reason.....

Religion was the dominant source of knowledge in the western world. Religion was used to explain norm violating behavior (but also natural physical and social phenomena in general) - Gods and demons as causes of crime and deviance- exorcisms and torture

PURPOSES OF PUNISHMENT

Reparation Deterrence Retribution Incapacitation Rehabilitation Denunciation

The Soviet Union collapses between 1989 - 1991...

Resulting in one of the most interesting economic experiments in history. The socialist command economy totally collapses by 1991, dragged down by huge inefficiency and massive military spending. But the '500-day plan' to create an 'instant liberal economy' also totally fails... The result is that Soviet citizens nearly starve and riot, except that they had another economy to fall back on - the Black Economy.

Rise of Sociology as Academic Discipline

Rise in social sciences. Criminal behaviour as a manifestation of a social pathology. Development of professions and the idea of expert solutions to social problems.

Workplace Surveillance

Rise of technologies and techniques of surveillance: Checking worker behaviour (eg. drug testing) Intimidation Setting performance targets, Key Performance Indicators, measures of performance. Terry Austrin: study of casino workers in NZ...

Loss of legal protections

Rise of the 'precariat'. Temping, casualisation and 'trial periods'. Outsourcing to contractors The result is a greater proportion of the workforce without access to legal protections from unfair dismissal, health and safety rules, requirements for basic training, overtime pay, holiday pay, parental (rise of causa work etc)- no way to get close with workers and form bonds etc

Critiques of Marxist approaches

Romanticise offenders ignoring harm on victims Not everyone in need or in poverty commits crime Theory is too broad and general: Not all crime is based on class relationships

NZ and Ozone-depleting substances

Scientifically discovered as a threat in 1985. None of these aerosols were manufactured in New Zealand (so we had no industry or class group that would be disadvantaged), The technological alternative was readily at hand. New Zealand is physically close to the source of danger (ozone depleted atmosphere bubbling up from the Southern Ocean), So, we were an enthusiastic supporter of the 1987 Ozone-Depleting Substances Treaty. Risk Society theory: no harm to economic interests, obvious harm to economic interests, obvious harm to everyone's health... Amazingly rapid response!

Right realism

Sees crime, especially street crime, as a real and growing problem that destroys communities, undermines social cohesion and threatens society. Offer practical solutions to the problem of rising crime.

Charles Horton Cooley and the Looking Glass Self

Self-identity is influenced by how we are described and classified Being labelled as deviant can lead to deviant behavior

THREE STRIKES LEGISLATION

Sentencing and Parole Act 2010: a three stage regime by which the consequences for repeat serious violent offenders are aggravated with every 'strike' conviction. 40 qualifying offences First strike - warning issued, second strike - final warning and must serve full sentence without parole; strike three - judge must sentence the person to the maximum term of imprisonment prescribed for the offence and order that it be served without parole, unless the removal of parole would be "manifestly unjust".

JUDICIAL DISCRETION

Sentencing... is founded upon two premises that are in perennial conflict: individualized justice and consistency. The first holds that courts should impose sentences that are just and appropriate according to all of the circumstances of each particular case. The second holds that similarly situated offenders should receive similar sentencing outcomes. The result is an ambivalent jurisprudence that challenges sentencers as they attempt to meet the conflicting demands of each premise

3 The theory of unacknowledged shame

Shame is a destructive emotion because it leads one to attack others, attack self, avoid or withdraw. But shame is also a normal human emotion that healthy humans must experience - it is vital in motivating us to preserve social bonds. Over specific behaviours is healthy, but chronic self-blame can be destructive.

Durkheim's observations were taken up by labelling theorists Howard Becker and Edwin Lemert in the 1960s

Shifted the focus from why an individual committed a crime to who was doing the defining What behaviour is defined as criminal and why?

Key Arguments of foucault's ideas:

Shifts in power not necessarily "progress" Knowledge is a form of power. Truth is produced by power. What counts as knowledge differs across societies and across time. Each society has its own 'regimes of truth' The individual is an effect of power But resistance is still important.

Introducing: The 'Black Economy'

Since the 1970s, academics have become interested in the 'shadowy' bits of the formal economy. Called the 'Black Economy', 'Informal Economy' or 'Hidden Economy'. Comprised of: Workplace fiddles and theft. The Tax-free economy - eg. doing a 'cashie'. The 'black market' The criminal economy

The great income re-distribution problem...

Since the loss of: worker rights, union bargaining power, legislated workplace protections and more redistributive taxes... We've been through an era where there has been a massive redistribution of income upwards and capturing of productivity/value/profit by the wealthier classes. The changing legal environment in the workplace has had a significant influence on the overall character of our society.

Union Carbide Factory, Bhopal, India. 1984

Site of the worst industrial accident in modern history. Explosion in a poor area and deadly gass leaked and was carcinogenic so more people died 20,000 • 2000 immediately died, 300,000 were serious affected. • Final death toll around 20,000 • Subject of a long campaign to try and gain a prosecution or compensation from the owners of Union Carbide.

Marriott summarises...

So, are there different laws for different classes? $244,768 of 'benefit' fraud = 29 months in prison + $10,000 repayment. Judge: 'Might be seen as overly generous'. $768,538 of fraud by tax accountant = 10 months Home Detention (and 120 hours of community service) + no repayment. Judge: 'Hopeless, no way she could pay reparation'.I think that Marxist Criminology has a strong case to make that while 'we are all equal under the law', the State is not neutral in applying the law. Marxist Criminology argues that this reflects the capture of the state by the wealthier classes.

Responses to crime from a marxist perspective

Social empowerment & participatory democracy Redistribution of social resources Antiracist and pro-human rights campaigns

Social groups and deviance:

Social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an 'offender'. The deviant is one to whom the label has successfully been applied; deviant behavior is behaviour that people so label

Moral Panics and Labelling

Social practices like drawing a benefit have been re-framed as acts of deviance Robert McDonald, 'Welfare Dependency" Shades of Deviance eBook Domestic Purposes Benefit Introduced in Aotearoa/NZ 14th November 1973 1976: Bert Walker, Minister of Social Welfare some solo Mums "ripping the system off"

Measuring the Black Economy:

Some models use Gross National Product minus gross taxable revenue: Japan 4.1% Britain 8.0% USA 8.3% Sweden 13.2% Models using the volume of 'high denomination' banknotes actually estimate these figures even higher.

The Shift in Power

Sovereign power has a "face" - it is identified with a sovereign, or a government, decision makers or powerful groups. It can be resisted. Disciplinary power is "anonymous", invisible, everywhere. It cannot be located in any particular place. It controls us by shaping our very reality.

In times of low unemployment and high union membership like the NZ meatworkers, management turned a blind eye to activities like:

Stealing meat. Taking work property home Taking advantage of sick leave to run second jobs. Because a happy worker is much better than a striking worker.

Goffman on Stigma (1963)

Stigma = a deeply discrediting attribute; an undesired difference To be stigmatized = to be disqualified from full social acceptance

Legal Sabotage: How to tell your clients about their rights (when you aren't supposed to).

Story of a UK insurance and pension services call centre which was under huge pressure for how many claims they could process (or better, frustrate into withdrawing). Four young women worked out that the company didn't want people finding out about lost or unknown benefits from pensions. So, they tracked down widows to let them know that they should make a claim. They cost the company over 10 million pounds (of new legitimate claims) and enjoyed their jobs for a couple of years until they were found out...

The original meaning of Sabotage

Strong wooden shoes worn by 19th Century French workers. Threw their 'sabots' (or clogs) into machinery when they were being replaced by machines in factories. Also used to describe the action of trampling crops when farmers weren't paid enough. The origin of the term 'sabotage' comes from conflicts in the workplace...

Art thief as cultural activism the urewera mural case

Suspicion fell on Tama II, well known Tuhoe activist Te Kaha, a carver, was charged with the II worked with art parton Jenny Gibbs to help return the painIngTe Kaha claimed the intent was 'never to permanently deprive New Zealand of its 'taonga' or treasure. Instead, the mural was taken to show "what it feels like to have your treasures taken off you forcibly." The nonviolence of the activism contested the structural violence and cultural violence of the colonial state and its systems that suppress other knowledge. It was part of a long narrative of resistance by Ngai Tūhoe for indigenous justice Kaha claimed that he did not "steal" the work. "Yes, I took that pain8ng... I didn't steal it. You have a look, I challenge anyone to go and have a read in the dic8onary, and you have a look at what the defini8on of the world 'steal' is, or 'theY''. You'll come to the same conclusion that me and my lawyer did, and that is 'with inten8on to permanently deprive'' is the defini8on of the word 'theY 'or 'steal'.

Environmental Crime - Concluding summary:

The 'great transition' in environmental crime. Things that were acceptable or desirable in the past are now sanctioned or criminal. Strong association of environmental crime with class: both the effects of environmental hazards and the likelihood of legal remedies being created. A cluster of dynamics that Ulrich Beck calls the Risk Society creates a set of risks that compel social and political action around SOME environmental problems. A strong class effect: pitting the urban middle classes against participants in more directly environmentally-damaging industries. A strong generational effect: what is and isn't acceptable behaviour towards the environment will become one of the defining features of politics in the 21st Century.

Marxist Criminology

The Marxist perspective "views crime as an outcome and reflection of basic class divisions in society" Note: Marxist/Conflict/Radical/Critical sometimes used interchangeably. Acknowledges power and social inequality in the construction of criminality. A reaction to earlier criminology that accepted core values and norms and interpreted deviance as deviance from consensus. Emerged in 1960s, a period of sustained critique of dominant institutions.

CRITIQUES OF NEW RIGHT CRIMINOLOGY

The appeal is symbolic Focus on individual choice entirely erases structural inequality. Assumes a conservative and narrow set of moral values. Law is neutral and 'right'. Crime is street crime. Preparedness to do away with human rights (think 'War on Terror').

Exploitation of wage labour

The appropriation of surplus value (employer has to pay you less than they are getting out of you) Alienation: From products; From other workers; From creative selves.

NEW RIGHT ECONOMICS

The boom of economic prosperity in capitalist countries was coming to an end. In the 1980s, we see massive political, social and economic change - often as a backlash to the social progress made in the 60s and 70s. In NZ = rogernomics (after finance minister Roger Douglas).

Key Points for Feminist Criminology

The causes of crime (and the consequences of crime) may differ for men and women because of their differing social worlds. People are products of their social environments (this includes victims, offenders, CJS professionals, researchers and students). They are also influenced by structural elements of society, including the gendered institutions that respond to law-breakers. Given that women and men do not experience the same pressures of culture, structure, and institutions, much work by feminist scholars challenges widespread assumptions about gender, crime, and the CJS.

Is this relevant to New Zealand?

The colonisation of New Zealand was directed towards one aim: becoming Britain's 'farm in the South Pacific'. • The early history of colonial New Zealand has been written as a triumph of progress, science and empire. • The development of farming in New Zealand resulted in a country that was 'licensed to farm' without legal, political or social consequences.New Zealand farming: From Colonial Hero......to Ecological Crime-Zone?The Colonial Economy: Selling New Zealand as the perfect destination for farming...

1. Reintegrative Shaming Theory

The core claims are that: Tolerance of crime makes things worse Stigmatization, or disrespectful, outcasting shaming of crime makes crime worse still; while Reintegrative shaming, disapproval for the act within a continuum of respect for the offender, disapproval terminated by rituals of forgiveness, prevents crime.

Does crime in the workplace get redefined when there is a power shift towards management control under neoliberalism?

The first shift is a loss of union power - loss of compulsory membership, constraint on ability to strike. The second is the loss of legal protections. The third is that the fiddle is over. Management will now scrutinise and control your productivity.

Conflict-theories of the workplace

The kinds of new workplaces, factories and institutions that emerged were a site of enormous social conflict. I'm going to use Conflict-theory to look at the way in which management and workers have, over time, contested the control of the workplace. To do this I'll draw on some classic sociological studies of management control and worker

History of the Drug War

The majority of illicit drugs we see today were once legal, popular and used for medicinal purposes. Chinese people would smoke opium and steal white peoples jobs (economic resentment) The Nixon campaign in 1968 and the Nixon White House after that had two enemies: the antiwar Left and black people... We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black. But by getting the public to associate hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. John Erlichman, White House counsel to President Nixon.

What if environmental harms hurt rich and poor people?

The move towards 'remedy' by government, and eventual criminalisation of environmental harm seems to happen much more quickly where both rich and poor people are affected.

Risk Society, Factor 3: New Scientific Knowledge

The old (pro-industrialisation) techno-sciences like physics, chemistry and geology start to be challenged by the new ecological sciences. Strong claims emerge from this new scientific knowledge arguing that endangered species ARE disappearing, fish stocks ARE running out, rainforest declining and the climate IS warming. Instead of limitless growth, we develop a new knowledge of thresholds and limits in natural systems.

The role of the Police

The police are inefficient at dealing with inner-city crime and are hostile and discriminatory with regards to young people and ethnic minorities. The mutual antagonism between police and local communities sets in train a vicious circle of non-cooperation Inner-city working-class communities are deeply concerned about local crime, want effective policies to control it, and see the police as central to crime control. Effective policing requires that police concentrate on those crimes that the public see as most serious, and that policing is democratised and community-oriented.

If there are different laws for different classes, are there actually two different economies?

The previous examples show how formal systems of law, policing and legal process favour wealthier people in society. This provides a window into a much wider sociological dynamic: the way in which societies often are divided into two economies: 1. the formal economy, favouring private wealth and wealthier citizens - a 'rich person's economy'. 2. a 'less formal' economy - a 'poor person's economy'. This 'poor person's economy' is an important site of agency and resistance to entrenched inequality

cooption

The process by which a group subsumes or acculturates a smaller or weaker group with related interests.to elect into a body by the votes of the existing members. to assimilate, take, or win over into a larger or established group: The fledgling Labor party was coopted by the Socialist party. to appropriate as one's own; preempt: The dissidents have coopted the title of her novel for their slogan

Systemic Change

The system is geared towards capital accumulation not towards meeting social needs. A response to crime needs to address the basic problem of the exploitative capitalist system - collective ownership, redistribution of wealth, etc.

Different kinds of 'black economy':

The tax-free economy, (cashys etc) black market (and 'red market') (alternaitive market)

'Red Market'

The trade in human body parts internationally to supply the organ transplant industry. 10% of organ transplants are estimated to be sourced from the illegal international 'red market'. Blood (US$337 per pint) Hair (US$70 for ten inches), Bone marrow (US$23,000 per gram) Kidneys (US$200,000)

CRITIQUES OF LEFT REALISM

Theoretically eclectic or inconsistent? (E.g.: Is the capitalist state the problem or the solution?) Is it actually distinct?

why is it that wealthy groups and companies seem to be less accountable for environmental crimes, and poor people get stuck with the consequences?

There are a thousand ways, but one is that Corporate 'Outsourcing' of Environmental Harms...An important aside: one key dynamic contributing to this, is that corporates that are facing rising environmental regulations at home, 'outsource' the dirtier aspects of the production to Developing World economies where there are less regulations and poor workers have less protections.inhuarun chemical plant in Zekou Town, Qianjiang City of Hubei Province, China. A 2014 UN Report showed that in countries like the UK where carbon emissions have fallen in the last ten years, this is more than offset by the amount of 'dirty' production outsourced to China. (UK PUT ALL THEIR DIRTY WORK TO CHINA)

Summing Up: The Black Economy as an Economy of the Poor.

There is a common thread through all these elements of the Black Economy. It is an 'economy of the poor' and it tends to thrive in situations of economic hardship, or in poorer communities. It is also subject to far more legal scrutiny (certainly in countries like NZ) than activities by wealthier members of society that transgress legal boundaries. While we are all equal under the (economic) law, the way in which laws are applied clearly differs by class.

Corporate Fraud vs Welfare Fraud

There is a popular right-wing media discourse that beneficiaries are engaging in massive amounts of 'welfare fraud'. But much less about the common avoidance of tax payment to the state.

Drug Law in NZ

There is a wide range of controlled and illegal drugs, which the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 classifies according to 'the level of risk of harm' they pose to people misusing them: Class A (very high risk): methamphetamine, magic mushrooms, cocaine, heroin, LSD (Acid) Class B (high risk): cannabis oil, hashish, morphine, opium, ecstasy and many amphetamine-type substances Class C (moderate risk): cannabis seed, cannabis plant, codeine. It is an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to use, possess, cultivate or traffic (deal) in illegal drugs.

Ulrich Beck argues that...

This has created a new style of social life - the Risk Society. This new Risk Society has emerged around five sociological dimensions: economic forces and class groupings, social practices, scientific knowledge, ecological risks, new politics.

Crimes of the Powerful: Government

Torture: US in 2014 admitted to torture of detainees. No criminal charges.

Policing Styles

Traditional Policing Community Policing Problem-Oriented Policing Intelligence-Led Policing

Contemporary Biological Theories

Twin Studies Adoption Studies Diet All are plagued by methodological problems.

Almost total inaction: the victims are poor...

Union Carbide (and its subsequent owners) have never paid compensation to either the government of India or the families of the 20,000 who died and the other 180,000 who suffered health effects... The victims were all slum-dwellers in India Or working class residents of Flint - buy your own bottled water!

Othering Drug Users

Us (normal people):Wine Beer Spirits Tea Coffee Prescription medication Cigarettes? Marijuana? Them (junkies) Meth Heroin Cocaine? Party Drugs? Marijuana?

Checkout Operators (donkey job)

Used to be a job where it was possible to shortchange customers. Now automated - specifically to avoid this. But, now customers are fiddling automatic checkouts - 'self-service shoplifting'!

Criminalisation of Union Activity

Walmart: the largest discount retailer in the US, fighting since 1970s to stop unions forming among their workers: Close entire sections of the store (butcheries) Fly in legal teams to tie up workers in court. Would rather fight class actions for discrimination and abusing workers' rights up to the Supreme Court than allow unions in their shops. Rare victories: in 2010, Walmart was ordered to pay US$86m in unpaid overtime and holiday pay to 232,000 workers.

Social Process: Learning Theories

We are socialized to internalize the norms and values of society. Just as people can learn to obey, people can learn to violate social norms: from delinquent peers, immediate environments and possibly mass media influence.

Scenario 1: Workers in Charge!

Welcome to the 1950s-70s...Post WWII, there were nearly three decades of very high employment. High union membership High benefits for workers Strong legal protections for workers, unions and workplace safety.

The key question that underlies the sociology of environmental crime

What is it that has socially changed that has transformed things that were highly acceptable or desirable in the past into activities that are now seen as criminal? I want to look at two sociological explanations for this transition: 1. The relationship between class and crime. 2. The 'risk society'.

OVERALL ENVIROMENTAL CRIME ARGUMENT

What we consider 'criminal' changes over time. During the Industrial Revolution, environmental crime was something that didn't really exist. Changes in the 2nd half of the 20th Century toward criminalisation of environmental harms show a 'class effect'. Where rich people are impacted, governments move quickly to resolve and criminalise environmental harms. Where poor people are impacted, much less has happened (or things have actually got worse as we've 'outsourced' environmental harms to poorer countries).

The main focus of labelling is secondary deviation.

When an individual engages in primary deviance and there is an official reaction The individual may employ deviant behavior based on their new status Secondary deviation - when the social reaction to primary deviation results in a person experiencing a 'fundamental reorientation of self-concept, and thus their behavior"

Early Example: Chambliss (1964) - The Criminalization of the Poor

When power is key to what is criminal and what isn't. There were no laws against begging etc when the plague hit half of the population died and not enough workers and wages went up (supply and demand) in 1340 first laws against begging to benefit the rich and had to make them work for the wealthy landowners. (driving wages down and benefiting wealthy). Poor were not allowed to travel place to place (prioritise business and consumption)

Lecture response 8: How issues are constructed, how crime is defined and how crime is responded to all relate directly to one's position in the class structure.

White-collar crime is seen as less bad then threift due to positioning in class strucutre etc

Deconstructing Discourse

Who gets to be a privileged knower in contemporary society? What role does medico-judicial discourse play in constituting the criminal? How do 'discursive subject positions' shape the way that people speak and think? What voices are currently subjugated?

Risk Society, Factor 5: New Politics

Within Western Society, political contestation is changing the citizenship status around gender, race, poverty (and eventually sexual orientation). The net result is a lot more people engaged in political processes who are sceptical of the idea of limitless growth and industrial capitalism. Explicitly 'green' political parties first emerge in the 1970s. Since 2016, certain things have happened in politics that are stimulating more of this kind of engagement.

Feminist Criminology developed awareness around:

Women's experiences of victimization - particularly by men known to them. The gendered nature of the law The gendered nature of the Criminal Justice System (its players and its impacts) "...there is relatively less interest by feminist scholars in developing general theories of crime, and greater interest in building theories about women's lawbreaking and victimization, the gendered qualities of crime and victimization, and the discursive power of dominant discourses (criminological and legal)" (Daly 2006).

Another example of economic crime: Industrial Homicide

You are far more likely to die because of a negligent employer than you are to die from violent crime. Workplace dangers are largely preventable: Although some jobs and workplaces are inevitably hazardous, the primary reason for the [] high rate of occupational injury, illness, and death is that corporations disregard their workers' health and safety in the name of profit. Moreover, the government has lax rules on workplace conditions and does relatively little to enforce the ones that do exist (Barkan, 2005: 269)

POLICY SHIFTS

Zero tolerance policing (Thursday's lecture will unpack this further!). Mandatory minimum sentencing (three strikes) "Truth in Sentencing" approaches Changes to parole and bail

Problem-Oriented Policing

Zero-Tolerance Policing Broken Windows Theory (see the work of James Q. Wilson) Strict enforcement of minor offences.

Panopticon

a circular building composed of an inner ring and an outer ring designed to serve as a prison in which the guards, housed in the inner ring, can observe the prisoners without the detainees knowing whether they are being watched (metaphor of disciplinary power where we all learn how to self regulate)

anomie

a social condition in which norms are weak, conflicting, or absent... The organization of society determines the nature and regulation of criminal behaviour. In a society with an unhealthy regulation of the collective conscience (norms not well established, high levels of anomie), there is a greater likelihood of widespread crime.

What is crime?

an action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law.

self-fulfilling prophecy

an expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true.

Why no prosecutions in the US after the GFC?

and corporate crime are framed as 'non-issues' to the public. In this context, the state adopts a form of 'damage control' rather than 'crime control' mentality... They also suggest the state's legitimacy would have been threatened if these cases had been properly investigated, because it would highlight the state's ignorance - or complicity - in financial irresponsibility, greed and criminality."

Psychological explanations

became prominent after men returning to war as they had behavioural problems pior from going to war eg PTSD - addition and anti social behaviour Psychological theories centre attention on the processes of the mind in explanations of criminal behaviour. Emerged from those working within criminal justice systems themselves. Often psychiatrists and doctors - medical model of behaviour. Ideas reinforced by return of soldiers from WWI.

'Crimes' of Control: The bombing of the MOVE Organization

black group vegan against technology wanted a natural lifestyle mayor made them removed from their home problem with police and move organization police has raid of houses and shot a policeman and 9 members of move organization went to jail. Some people said the move group was bad others said they weren't that bad in the neighbourhood. Later on ... Police tossed tear gas in their house and 2 bombs were dropped. Fire killed 11 people and burnt 65 houses police and fire brigade did nothing due to racial and class problems.

Radical/Marxist Criminology and Class

environment and workplace - to show how the boundaries of illegal and legal behaviour have pivoted and shifted during recent history. Shifting boundaries of crime are often signifiers of wider social transformation. There is a key historical pivot for environmental crime during the 1960s/70s with the emergence of Beck's 'Risk Society'. There is a particularly important historical pivot for workplace/economic crime during the period of political neoliberalisation in the 1980s/90s. But the deeper point about Radical/Marxist Criminology is that our legal institutions, processes and consequences show the strong influence of socio-economic class. Sociologically, there is a lot of deep and complex social evidence supporting the old saying: there is one law for the rich and one for the poor.

Unlike radical criminology, which sees the system itself as part of the problem, left realism:

has a reformist agenda within the current system. Both New Right and Left Realism are more political orientations and policy approaches to crime that distinct theoretical traditions.

SENTENCING PURPOSES

holding the offender accountable (just punishment) promoting in the offender a sense of responsibility providing for the interests of the victim (including by ordering reparation for harm done) denunciation of the offender's conduct deterrence of both the offender and other persons protection of the community (incapacitation) and assisting in the offender's rehabilitation and reintegration back into the community ---In criminological literature Retribution Reparation Denunciation Deterrence Incapacitation Rehabilitation

Deterrence theory

people can be deterred from committing crime if the potential risk seems to cerian or too sever. absolute deterrence: having a legal system at all (how much can a given punishment deter crime compared to no punishment) Marginal deterrence: whether making punishment more swift, certain or severe deters crime. General deterrence: when members of the public decide not to break the law because they fear legal punishment. Specific deterrence ( sometimes called individual deterrence) when offenders already punished for breaking the law decide not to commit another crime because they do not want to face consequences again

Extra Notes:

religion first then classical theory. Classical theory is about free will weighing costs and benefits and still basis of much of our legal system. Not always rational. in 19th century rise of positivist theories scientific (individual causes) -biological positivism and psychological explanations

Indigenous Perspectives

researchers insist that [the statistical gulf] must be interpreted in the broader context of colonisation, dispossession of land, Māori urbanisation, the imposition of the Western system of common law, cultural assimilation and the undermining of tikanga and traditional forms of Māori social control.

Studies of the Black Economy...

show that in many countries the Black Economy was an accepted part of their culture. Italian regional government employees in the 1970s - around half were moonlighting in second jobs and 5% never came to their formal jobs at all. Italy (1970s), over 100,000 houses per annum were built by companies that didn't formally exist. Germany - part of the 'economic miracle' of the 1980s was the arrival of Turkish migrants who provided cheap, un-registered labour in many, more informal, parts of the economy. USA - one study in 1982 estimated that 4.5 million Americans derived almost the entirety of their earnings from the Black Economy. UK - 1979 - the 'audit of audits' started by the Thatcher government found that 82% of businesses under-estimated their earnings for tax purposes.

indigenization

the action or process of bringing something under the control, dominance, or influence of the people native to an area.Indigenization is the act of making something more native; transformation of some service, idea, etc. to suit a local culture, especially through the use of more indigenous people in administration, employment, etc.

Class and Crime

the relationship between class and criminality. class interacts with how criminalization/de-criminalization takes place over time. One of the key ideas in criminology is that vulnerable classes of people are more likely to be negatively affected by crime and justice processes. This is also true in the case of environmental crime...

Penal Populism

tough-on-crime policies introduced by politicians that are used to win votes rather than serve justice

Political Orientations of crime

ØConservative- A person who believes in government power, particularly in the economy, should be limited in order to maximize individual freedom. ØLiberal - open to new behaviour or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. ØRadical-Favouring drastic political, economic, or social reforms.

The Crimes of the Powerless

ØCrimes of the less powerful (street crime, workplace theft, breach of welfare conditions). The state and its personnel reflect the interests of the capitalist class: Defining and enforcing a particular kind of social order (e.g.: focus on public order and private property). The pressures and limits of circumstance - and thus offender choice - vary according to class position. Crimes of the less powerful: responses to poverty and to sociocultural alienation. These are the crimes emphasized by the media.

Crimes against the environment are something that are clearly:

• socially constructed, and • how they are being socially constructed has changed very significantly over time. This is a transition from acceptable to bad (cf. some other citizenship struggles in which socially constructed 'bads' become increasingly accepted and decriminalised)

A typology of graffiti

•Political Graffiti •Protest Graffiti •Graffiti Art •Gang Graffiti•Toilet and Other Public Graffiti •Tagger Graffiti

Genetic factors XXY (supermale syndrome)

'Double male' or 'supermale' syndromes (XYY) In 1965, there was a meteoric rise of interest in the genotype following a report that a high frequency of XYY males had been identified in a Scottish institution (Carstairs) for dangerous criminals. Syndrome argued to cause aggressive and antisocial behaviour (clinical findings - taller stature and low or low-normal intelligence). It is unclear, however, if XYY people are more likely to commit crime, or whether they are more likely to be caught.

Social Disorganization- Three structural indicators of social disorganization:

- Socioeconomic disadvantage, - Population heterogeneity (people arriving from all sorts of parts of the country and not having anything in common) - Population instability (planning on moving the area not getting to know neighbours etc) -note: structure and place not people

Techniques of Neutralization

1. Denial of responsibility 2. Denial of injury 3. Denial of the victim. 4. Condemnation of the condemners. 5. Appeal to higher loyalties.

Lecture response 2: -What is positivism? -What is one example of biological positivism in criminology? -What are two key critiques of biological positivism

-(apporach a social probem scientifically through method) a philosophical system recognizing only that which can be scientifically verified or which is capable of logical or mathematical proof, and therefore rejecting metaphysics and theism -(WARRIOR GENE XYY gene) testing of hypothesis can tell us the truth about social world) - why do some people and not others commit crime (abnormalities etc) Individual pathology rise of doctors etc Research is neutral Social world can be studied in scientific way -RACIST AND CLASSIST (Used to justify colonial problems and racial problems) and justifying poor people as less developed and defend colonial powers about power and control and eugenics get rid of poor people and their dna. Bio-approaches can demonstrate, at best, partially genetically influenced predispositions that are still going to be influenced by environmental context. More recent approaches tend to be bio-social. Racism and eugenics

Age of Reason/Enlightenment

-Argued that free will and reason not god and that humans made decisions and weighed out costs and benefits of human nature. Pleasure and pain calculated decisions not controlled by spirits. Their exploration of new ideas in the "Age of Reason" was encouraged by the exciting processes and discoveries of the scientific revolution, A change in how people saw the political systems in the world during 1500-1700.This idea did not extend to the criminal justice system powerful would still torture and whip people.

Merton strain theory:Rebellion

Substitutes own cultural goals and institutionalised means in place of the conventional goals and means in society.

Lecture response 3: -Why does Durkheim argue that crime is normal? -Who were some thinkers considered deviant in their time but whose ideas are now valued by society? -what is anomie?

-If there was no crime people would start to define other things as deviant and other things as criminal because by creating these boundaries people create social cohesion and ingroups and outgroups. Crime and some levels of deviance helps us improve and be innovative and our society would have never moved foward - People like aristotle saying that the world is round people got in trouble as the world was seen as clearly flat, also art and impressionist paintings people push art boundaries, queer people being seen as deviant and incriminated and also women voting and suffragettes fighting for women to vote -The lack of a collective conscience a lack of belief that is shared through the whole society (revolutions time of war and mass urbanisation etc)

Lecture response 1: -Define utilitarianism -What is the difference between absolute and marginal deterrence? -How about general and specific/induvial?

-Treating the highest levels of happiness in the society. Greatest good for the greatest number. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes. It is a form of consequentialism. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. - whether or not we have a punishment for a given crime or increasing hat punishment or making it more swift or certain will reduce that crime -General is if we put other people off committing the crime individual if someone is put of doing the crime again

Classical theory in the contemporary CJS

-Underpins our overall legal system -Other key elements include: -A just deserts approach to sentencing -1 No one other than a person found to be guilty of a crime must be punished for it -2 anyone found to be guilty of a crime must be punished for that crime -3 punishment should be proportional to the crime -Efforts to reduce the discretion of the judiciary (truth in sentencing; mandatory sentencing etc) -Focus on simplifying and codifying law

Otto Pollak - The Criminality of Women (1950)

-women inherently deceitful - Womens crime is underreported because of mens chivalry

Key approaches to psychological theory

1. Psychoanalytic theory, which focused on the conscious and unconscious and how basic emotional and developmental processes affect behavior 2. Personality trait research, which focused on aggression and passivity, and the psychological structures of personality as these related to behavior. 3. Learning theory, which focused on how childhood experiences shaped the formation of certain personality patterns in later life.

Modern Problems

1917: Russian revolution Rise in fascism in post WW1 Germany, Italy and in Spain. From 1929: Great Depression impacting on workers in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Mass movements of people - large numbers of war, political and economic refugees in Europe; wide-scale migration to the US, Australia, Canada and NZ.

So why is crime age-related?

A bit biological: Aspects of brain development relating to emotional maturity, decision-making and risk-taking continue into the mid-20s. BUT criminality and brain development don't precisely track each other. AND some cultures/historical moments have much 'flatter' age curves than others.

Life-course theory- Moffitt's Taxonomy adolescence limited offending

A large group of adolescence-limited offenders who commit mostly minor offences (drug use, minor theft, etc.) and desist as they move into adulthood. Origins of offending - 'maturity gap' and peer social context. Smooth transition into adulthood as they enter into traditional adult roles of employment and relationships. Peer pressure on deviant peers young people are more likely to be peer influenced

Cohen's Subcultural Theory

Attempted to answer questions not addressed by Merton's strain: Why does a substantial amount of delinquency occur in gangs? Why does so much delinquency occur among working-class males? Why is so much delinquent behaviour non-utilitarian (e.g.: vandalism)? Working class youth (who are massively over-represented in CJS statistics) want the same things as middle class youth do, but they lack the means to achieve them = status frustration. Status frustration - goals are rejected, new and deviant goals and values are created (specifically in opposition to dominant culture) and a subculture is formed.

Merton strain theory:Conformity

Accepts culturally defined goals and institutionalised means of attaining them.

Merton strain theory: Ritualism

Accepts culturally defined goals, knows they cannot attain them, but still continues pursuing institutional means.

Merton strain theory:Innovation

Accepts goals, but lacks the institutionalised means. Resorts to innovative means.

Hirschi- Social bonding theory

Conventional attachments stop us from committing deviant behaviour. When our social bonds are weak, we are more likely to commit crime. Four elements of social bonds exist: Attachment Commitment Involvement Belief -Believes that they are all related and linked to each other -Shows delinquency is lower for children who feel closer to their parents,like their teachers value schooling etc

Strain theory overview

Basic Concepts Crime is essentially a social phenomenon. Crime is socially induced. The activities and values of the offender are determined by wider societal forces and factors, and offenders have few conscious choices regarding their available options.Crime is seen in conventional terms. Not just behaviour that violates legal codes but behaviour that violates the general consensus of values and norms in society. Crime is the result of social disjuncture or social processes that represent a social strain within a society. Thus social pathology (rather than individual pathology) best explains crime. Focus on 'structural opportunities' - offenders lack adequate means to achieve their goals = "opportunity theory". Focus on 'cultural understandings' - people are taught different understandings of what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Response: to expand educational, employment and social opportunities AND to re-socialize offenders, healthy peer group activity.

Deviance

Behavior that violates significant social norms

Critiques of biological positivist approaches

Bio-approaches can demonstrate, at best, partially genetically influenced predispositions that are still going to be influenced by environmental context. More recent approaches tend to be bio-social. Racism and eugenics

Key Findings -sociology of criminology

Crime is fairly stable over time, higher for young adults than older ones, and higher among men and the poor than among women and the non-poor. Argued that unfavourable social conditions are at least partly responsible for criminality. In order to reduce crime, we need to ameliorate the social conditions in people's lives. (we don't need to make punishments harsher we need to make a better society with less crime)- (Quetelet_

Routine Activities Theory

Crime is more likely to occur when there are three factor simultaneously present: -Motivated offenders; -Attractive targets _An absence of guardianship Thus changes in peoples everyday lives will impact on crime rates -Has influenced situational crime prevention

A Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills (1959): Social structure lies at the root of private troubles: we need to have a "sociological imagination." It is the political task of the social scientist continually to translate personal troubles into public issues, and public issues into the terms of their human meaning for a variety of individuals.

DAT- evaluation

Causal order (do we seek out people who have the same deviant attributes as us or does it just occur and we get influenced?) Do we learn attitudes and values? Applies much better to some crimes than others. Which crimes can be better explained by association with delinquent peers? Which crimes, not so much?- eg shoplifting and not murder

What were the major "malestream" criminological theories?

Classical Theory (Rational Choice Model) Bio/Psych Positivism Sociological Theories Labelling Theory Critical/Marxist Approaches

Key arguments of classical theory

Classical thinking says that criminals make a rational choice, and choose to do criminal acts due to maximum pleasure and minimum pain. The classical school says criminals are rational, they weigh up the costs and therefore we should create deterrents which slightly outweigh what would be gained from the crime1. Rationality: The classical school assumes that people have free will and that they choose to commit crimes. For example, if Jordan decides to steal some candy at the store, he is not forced to, based on some pre-destiny. He chooses to steal that candy. Not only that, he thinks about it beforehand and says to himself, 'I really want candy, and I don't have money, so I will steal it.' This is the rational thinking that goes into his planning to commit a crime. 2. Hedonism: The classical school also assumes that people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain. For example, when Jordan looks at the candy in the store, he thinks about how it will bring him pleasure, so he steals it. 3. Punishment: Remember how we said that a key idea was the idea of hedonism, where people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain? Well, that informs punishment, according to the classical school. For example, if Jordan thinks about stealing the candy and then realizes that he could go to jail for it, he might not steal it because he'll be trying to avoid the pain of jail. In this way, the classical school of criminology believes that punishment works as a deterrent to crime. 4. Human rights: Jordan has learned that before the classical school of criminology, punishments could be very harsh indeed. It was not uncommon to torture someone who was only suspected of a crime, and the punishments once convicted could be horrifying. According to the classical school of criminology, all individuals have rights, and society needs to respect the rights of individuals. That means that they should not torture or institute punishment that is unreasonably harsh. For example, if Jordan gets caught stealing the candy, we wouldn't expect that his punishment would involve cutting his hand off. That seems a little extreme!

Lecture response 4: Merton's deviance typology gives examples of conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion

Conformity; going to uni getting a job marrying etc, innovation; ways of gaining power and money financial crime etc (when don't have legitimate ways to make money), ritualism; people know they can't afford a house but still work hard and put the effort in, retreatism; rejection of norms of transporting, rebellion; glorivalle (new way of life) and religious goals etc

Social structure - Historical development

Durkheim's focus on social structure (as discussed last week). Collective conscience = a set of beliefs and sentiments common to a whole society. Defining a behaviour as criminal builds a cohesiveness in society - crime has a function. But not all crime is normal - abnormal levels of crime indicate a sick society anomie = state of normlessness

Edwin H. Sutherland: Differential Association Theory

Criminal behaviour is learned. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) the techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes very simple; and (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favourable or unfavorable. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favourable to the violation of law over definitions unfavourable to the violation of law. Differential association may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning. Although criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by these general needs and values, because non-criminal behaviour is an expression of the same needs and values.

Delinquent subcultures

Delinquent subcultures develop - since crime incurs respect, it doesn't always need to be monetarily based, there are nonetheless rewards within the subculture. Delinquent gangs are subcultures: They have a specialised vocabulary, own beliefs, and different ways of dressing and acting. A subculture has its own norms and values. Delinquency is a collective not an individual response

Critiques of classical theory

Does Not highlight inequalities in society some people are poorer than others more likely to steal the bread eetc. Legal inequality some people aren't equal before the law due to social circumstances etc.

When did classical theory emerge?

During the 17th -18th century Enlightenment, the classical school of criminology emerged Enlightenment by the utilitarian and social-contract.

Biological and psychological explanations for crime- Scientific Method

During the 19th Century, focus on bringing the scientific method to the study of human behaviour. Systematic observation, measurement and experiment Formulation, testing and modification of hypotheses

Durkheim: A Sociological Perspective

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)People are social beings more than mere individuals. Famous study on suicide: Influence of social integration and social bonds on suicide rates. Demonstrates that social structure influences individual behaviour. (more suicide in women over men etc, interested in social structure influencing suicide and other behaviours)

Differential association theory--- highlights

Emphasizes social nature of offending (not just biological abnormalities). Helps explain why people in similar structural situations might offend at different rates. Peer networks can help explain (to some extent) ethnic and gender differences in offending.

Biological Explanations for crime William Sheldon's body types

Endomoprh:Fat and soft, sociable and relaxed, Mesomorph: Muscular and hard aggressive and adventurous, Ectomorph:Thin and fragile, introverted and restrained

Life Course Theories- social process theory

Examine crime at different stages of the life course. people commit a lot of crime later teens early 20s gets less and less (minor crime)-young people are naughtier (normative) .. why?

Critical Criminology

Explored crime in terms of power, and oppression. But initially, still ignored women.

Biological and psychological explations for crime - Emerged in 19th Century

Further consolidation of capitalist mode of production Period of technological development and entrenchment of mass production Massive urbanization and development of the 'working class' Period of colonization by European powers

A Gender Lens on Male Crime

Gender is the single biggest predictor of criminal behaviour, yet it was not theorized. Men dominate criminal offending, particularly serious/violent criminal offending (with a couple of exceptions). This holds true when we look at self-report data, across societies and over time. The costs to criminology of its failure to deal with feminist scholarship are perhaps more severe than they would be in any other discipline. The reason is that the most consistent and prominent fact about crime is the sex of the offender. (Naffine 1996: p. 6)

Classical Theory

Grounded in the transition of feudalism to capitalism. Heavily influenced by enlightenment ideas looking to rebuild social structures on the basis of purely rational scientific principles rather than religious practices Development of a body of principles about: -the supremacy of law -the fundamental rights of human beings -equality before the law -and the democratic basis of political authority

Hirschi- Social bonding theory (Evaluation)

Helps explain gender differences. Helps explain age differences in delinquency. Relationship between social bonding and delinquency is weak. Causal order? (studies find reciprocal relationship).

Evaluating deterrence

How much marginal impact can changes in criminal law sentencing have? Evidence suggests that impacts are small and that they depend on several factors The type of crime: - Instrumental crime: Crimes committed for material gain with some degree of planning -Expressive offences:Committed for emotional reasons with limited planning How committed people are to offending (those involved in gangs, organised crime, people with drug problems etc). How private the crime is (as this effects likelihood of being noticed.) Evidence suggests that severity of punishment in particular does not have a deterrent effect

Psychoanalytic Theory Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Human behaviour is inherently anti-social Significance of early childhood experiences Delinquency and link with relationships in the family ID, EGO, SUPER EGO

Addional classical theory

Human beings are essentially self seeking and self interested (free will) Human beings as right holders. Objective of law is to allow free exercise of choice as far possible without leading to social harm. Social contract: that we either tacitly or explicitly surrender some of our freedoms and submit to rule n exchange for the protection of or remaining rights. Assumed consensus. Social contact maninted through punishment (deterrence) Operates on pleasure/pain principle. Focus on criminal act- like cases should be treated alike

Collective Conscience

If our aspirations go unchecked, it would result in chaos. But thankfully we have socialization and social ties. A strong set of norms - a strong collective conscience - and strong social ties will control these worst of our impulses. However, in times of rapid social change, these norms become less applicable to our changing social circumstances. Normlessness or anomie sets in. -Durkheims ideas

Cesare Beccaria

Influended by Hobbes beleived that the state needed to ensure that peoples natural impulses are controlled. Believed in rational thought and free will. Pleasure and pain principle. Argued therofore that punishment should be certan and swif in order to deter people from commiting crime. Believed all should be treated equally before the law. Also believed that punishment should fit the crime, in speedy and public trials, and that capital punishment should be done away with completely.Punishment has to be swift and certain to outweigh the pleasure

Key contemporary areas of focus

Key area of focus: youth gangs - the origins, dynamics and changes in group formation as these relate to social, economic and policing factors. Focus on poverty, unemployment, racism and inequality. Social development theories - focus on key 'risk factors' for criminality (and 'protective' factors) which include bio, psych AND social factors

Jeremy Bentham

Key classical theorist - British philosopher and economist who advocated utilitarianism. The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the basis of morals and legislation. severity of punishment should be limited to what is necessary to deter crime

Sykes and Matza: Neutralization and Drift

Law-abiding people break the law sometimes (even if they accept the law as valid). Part of this is a process of justifying their behaviour (so they don't feel shame or guilt - we'll pick up these emotions again later in Republican Theory!) Focus on affect. (still hold normal values eg church nice to their mother and also deal drugs etc)

Control Theories

Learning theories assume people won't commit crime unless taught to do so. Control theories assume we are naturally capable of anti-social behaviour. Thus the question isn't why some of us become criminal, but rather why most of us do not.

Merton and Strain

Links between unemployment, poverty and crime seem reasonable. But how do we explain crime in periods of economic growth? Post- war boom for example. Despite general economic prosperity, it was also an era when political conformity was fostered through an 'us and them' discourse (particularly against 'communists') and a deliberate blocking of opportunity structures to those who did not conform. It was also a time of ongoing discrimination against immigrant, black and native populations in the US, as well as against women and LGBT+ people. Focus on: Opportunity and Means

20th Century Criminology pre-feminism

Male academics largely studying male population of offenders = women absent & masculinity unexamined Absence of attention on victims of crime Failure to link social/political/cultural/economic parameters Limited examination of the institutions of criminal justice & their operation Recognition of women limited & problematic (i.e women mad or bad)

Matza: Delinquency and Drift 1964

Most people obey the law most of the time. Even those who break the law are not constantly delinquent. Rather the law that binds juveniles by a sense of moral obligation will be in place most of the time, but when it is not in place, delinquents will drift in and out of delinquency. Techniques of N make this easier, but so do subterranean values from the larger culture. The same values (daring and excitement, a belief that aggression is sometimes necessary, the desire for wealth and possessions) can lead to deviant AND conforming behaviour.

History of Sociological Criminology - Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874)

One of the first social scientists to use mathematical techniques to investigate the influence of social factors - such as season, climate, sex and age - on crime. Examined official population-level data in France to look at crime trends and characteristics of offenders.

Critiques (MAO- A)

Over-emphasis on genetic factors Discussion has adopted racial overtones Aggression is socially constructed. "the extrapolation and negative twisting of this notion by journalists or politicians to try and explain non-medical antisocial issues like criminality needs to be recognised as having no scientific support whatsoever and should be ignored" Lea et al. Note: These are the original researchers who posited that Maori people are more likely to have a "warrior gene"

Control theory- different types of control

Personal controls: individual conscience, commitment to law and a positive self-concept. Social controls - attachment to and involvement in conventional social institutions such as the family, school, church and religion

Biological and psychological explanations for crime- Deviance and Experts

Rise of experts - doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, teachers, criminal justice officials etc who could devise scientific ways to treat social problems. An increasing focus on what causes delinquency (so a deterministic approach) Focus on individual pathology rather than social factors Criminals need to be treated, not punished.

Resurgence

Shift towards 'soft determinism' (influence rather than causation) Neurological Mechanisms Genetic Predispositions (genetics can influence)

Contemporary Research

Social ecology: How aspects of the physical and social environment influence patterns of offending and the fear of crime. Social disorganization. When combined: important insights into how and why certain communities are stigmatized and disadvantaged as communities.

The importance of sociology for criminology

Sociology aims to question our taken-for-granted assumptions. Crime and victimization are public issues rather than private troubles - they are rooted in the social and physical characteristics of communities, in the network of relationships in which people interact, and in the structured social inequalities of race and ethnicity, social class, and gender. Many of criminology's important concepts (anomie, relative deprivation, social conflict) draw from concepts originally developed in the larger body of sociology.

Critiques of psychological positivist perspective

The definition of normal (normal at different times in the contrary)-who defines normal The impact of interventions The problem of risk (lack predictive power). Nonetheless: Still persuasive in 'soft' form and significant impact on CJS (in courts and corrections).

Evaluating - Rational Choice Theory

There is some evidence eg ; burglars usually choose houses that are unoccupied that done have dogs etc. White collar criminals tend to weigh up rewards and risks but carefully. But crime often involves strong emotions, drugs and alcohol and some offenders report not thinking about much about the risks involved.

Durkheim: Crime is Normal!

There is something about human nature and the nature of groups that causes people to draw boundaries: this benefits social cohesion. But 'deviance' also allows societies to change. If society eliminated all deviance, it would also eliminate all innovation.-people would find something to punish and people define groups to make social cohesion something needs to be defined as a problem to be social nature of humans

Social context in which strain emerged

Three key periods: Middle of the 19th to beginning of 20th Century: rise of sociology as an academic discipline. Early 1920s through WW2 (Modern 'problems': urbanization, migration, Great Depression) Postwar period of 1940s and 1950s ("Postwar Boom")

Feminine mythology

Thus despite this so-called objective "rationality" of traditional criminology, women's offending has largely been interpreted through a mythology of the feminine which presumes that: women are inherently maternal, passive and domestic while at the same time driven by excessive or repressed sexuality, coupled with tendencies to hysteria and psychological instability.

Historial devlopemnt

Two basic tools to analyze society - division of labour and collective conscience. Division of labour = specific types of work tasks and roles. Collective conscience = a set of beliefs and sentiments common to a whole society. Defining a behaviour as criminal builds a cohesiveness in society - crime has a function. But not all crime is normal - abnormal levels of crime indicate a sick society. (durkheim wanted to understand whos doing what in society)

Life-course theory- Moffitt's Taxonomy A small group of life-course-persistent offenders

Two types of offenders: A small group of life-course-persistent offenders. They exhibit early, chronic, persistent and serious forms of antisocial/criminal behavior that emerges early and continues throughout their lives. Origins of offending: neuropsychological development (often cognitive difficulties) in combination with disadvantaged familial and economic environments. Often a lack of opportunities to transition smoothly into traditional adult roles.

eugenics

science dealing with improving hereditary qualities- "the science of improving a population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics" Can involve discouraging people from having children (e.g.: limiting welfare to some populations); or Targeted control of reproduction including forced contraception and forced sterilization.

Deterrence

the attempt to discourage criminality through the use of punishment and the action of discouraging an action or event through instilling doubt or fear of the consequences.

Rational Choice Theory

the classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two

Rational choice theory

the classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two. offenders choose whether to commit crime after carefully calculating the possible rewards and risks. People thus decide whether to commit crime based on the information they have. Thus not only are risks relant (so punishment) byt also situational factors and opportunities