Nature of Crime Quiz A

Theory

A hypothesis that has been tested with a significant amount of data.

Part II Offenses

All crimes recorded by the FBI that do not fall into the category of Part 1 offenses. These crimes include both misdemeanors and felonies. The most common part 2 offenses are drug use violations, simple assaults, driving under the influence, disorderly conduct and driving under the influence. These offenses are measured only by arrest. These crimes are the ones that aggravate our daily living, and are a lot more common than part 1 offenses. These offenses are measured only by arrest data. Typically solves crimes whereas Part 1 offenses aren't. Less serious offenses, recorded on arrest rather than the number of times reported.

Anomie - Emile Durkheim

Anomie is a social condition in which there is a disintegration or disappearance of the norms and values that were previously common to the society. The concept, thought of as "normlessness," was developed by the founding sociologist, Émile Durkheim.

Positivist Criminologists - Garafalo & Ferri

As a good positivist, he believed that criminals have little control over their actions. ... Here Garofalo departed from Lombroso and Ferri, both of whom were against the death penalty, although Lombroso gradually came to accept it for born criminals and for those who committed particularly heinous crimes.

The Positive School

The primary idea behind positivist criminology is that criminals are born as such and not made into criminals; in other words, it is the nature of the person, not nurture, that results in criminal propensities. ... Lombroso distinguished between different types of criminals, including the born criminal and the criminaloid.

The Born Criminal

nstead, using concepts drawn from physiognomy, degeneration theory, psychiatry and Social Darwinism, Lombroso's theory of anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone "born criminal" could be identified by physical (congenital) defects, which confirmed a criminal as ...

Cesare Lombroso - Atavism

the scientific method, he postulated that criminals represented a reversion to a primitive or subhuman type of person characterized by physical features reminiscent of apes, lower primates, and early humans and to some extent preserved, he said, in modern "savages".

Three major sources of data on crime and victimization in the US

1. The number of persons arrested. 2. The number of crimes reported by victims, witnesses, or the police themselves. 3. Police employee data.

The dark figure of crime

A term used to describe the actual amount of crime that takes place. The "figure" is "dark" or impossible to detect, because a great number of crimes are never reported to the police. These are the actual amount of crimes that occur in the country.

The UCR

An annual report compiled by the FBI to give an indication of criminal activity in the United States. They UCR released every year through the DOJ. It has attempted to measure the overall rate of crime in the United States by organizing "offenses known to law enforcement." Answers the question of how much crime is there in the U.S.The FBI relies on the voluntary participation of local law enforcement agencies. 18,400 agencies in total cover most of the population. Recorded whether an arrest is made or not, crimes known to the police and sheriff departments. Federal crimes are not included. Participation in the reporting is voluntary although the incentive to report is money.

Biological Theories

Biological explanations of crime assume that some people are 'born criminals', who are physiologically distinct from non-criminals. The most famous proponent of this approach is Cesare Lombroso.

Three levels of Social Control - Bursik & Gramsick

Bursik and Grasmick's recently reformulated, ecologically oriented systemic model of neighborhood disorder explicitly recognizes three levels of informal social control: private (family and close friends), parochial (based on nearby acquaintances), and public (between neighborhoods and external agents and agencies).

Classical School of Criminological Thought

CESARE Bonesana, Marchese di BECCARIA. Often referred to as the Father of Classical Criminology.

Child Sexual Assault

Child molestation is one of the most prevelant crimes against person in the US with approximately two thirds of incarcareted offenders having ofended against childre. It is more problematic to actually gauge the prevalencae of child molestaiton because rates depend on how broadly or narrowly molesting is defined. Your authors give a bets guess- the % of children in the US experiencing sexual abuse sometime during their childhood is 25% for girls and 10% for boys. Girls are more likely to be abused within the family (stepfathers and step siblings) and boys are more likely to be victimized by acquarines outside the family and strangers. Children are at greater risk for maltreatment when not raised by both biological parents. The vast majority of step parents do not abuse their step children but the risk is greatly elevated in stepfamilies. A nationwide study found that stepchildren were 9.2 times more likely to witness family violence, and 4.6 times more likely to be maltreated and 4.3 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than children living with two biological parents. Another study found that the youngest child is at the greatest risk to be abused. A child living with a stepfather or mothers live in boyfriend is approximately 65 times more likely to be fatally abused than a child living with both biological parents. The strongest predictor of sexual abuse for boys is growing up in a ftaher absent home. Finklehor's (1984) risk factor checklist for the likelihood of girls victimization (predictors) living with a stepfather, living without a biological mother, not close to mother, mother never finished high school, sex punitive mother, no physical affection from biological father. Family income under $10,000 (1980) $27,863 (2012), two friends or fewer in childhood.

Collective Efficacy - Sampson & Groves

Collective efficacy is the process of activating or converting social ties among neighborhood residents in order to achieve collective goals, such as public order or the control of crime. This formulation relies on trust and a shared willingness to actively engage in so- cial control as key dimensions explaining crime.

NCVS

Created by victim survey, conducted by the bureau of justice statistics and census. They go out and call and reach households and survey the on their victimization. Must be 12 years or older to participate in the survey. Survey is taken online so there is no face to face interview, only happens twice a year. National Crime Victimization Survey (1972). Crime victimization surveys involve asking large numbers of people if they have been criminally victimized within some specific time frame. Self- reported data. People do not remember everything as it happened, lying, misunderstandings.

What is a crime?

Crime is an action or activity that is Punishable under criminal law, as determined by the majority or, in some instances, by a powerful minority. Considered an offense against society as a whole and prosecuted by public officials, not by victims and their relatives or friends. Punishable by sanctions based on laws that bring about the loss of personable freedom or life. Criminologists believe that crime is a socially constructed phenomenon that lacks any real objective essence and is defined into existence rather than discovered.

Criminality

Crime is an intentional act of commission or omission contrary to the law; criminality is the part of individuals that signals the willingness to commit those ats and other harmful acts. Criminality can be used as a clinical or scientific term but never as a legal term. It can be defined independently of legal definitions of crimes. Thus criminality is a continuously distributed trait that is a combination of other continuously distributed traits that signals the willingness to use force, fraud or guile to deprive others of their lives, limbs or property for personal gain. People can use and abuse others for personal gain regardless of whether the means used have been defined as criminal. It is a propensity to do these acts that defines criminality, independent of the labeling of the act as a crime or of the person being defined as a criminal. A combination of other comptine lousy distributed traits: low empathy, low self- control, high sensation seeking and signals the willingness to use force, fraud or guile. Criminality is not a trait inherited.

Mala in Se

Crimes are said to go against natural law that is against the natural moral and public principles a society. Murder, rape and theft are examples of mala in se crimes. These are generally considered crimes from one country to the next, within all cultures. We can assume these crimes are very bad. Being victimized by such crimes evokes physiological reactions= anger, helplessness, sadness, depression in all cultures.

Mala Prohibita

Crimes that we have to be told that are wrong. Refers to acts that are considered crimes only because they have been codified through statutes- human made laws. Also thought to be wrong only because it has been prohibited such as speeding through a school zone. It is not inherently wrong though it may reflect the moral standards of a society at a given time. Definition can vary from country to country and even state to state.

Victimology

Except for minor offenses, for every criminal act there's at least one victim. Criminologists have spent decades trying to determine the factors that contribute to making a person a criminal but it wasn't until 1941 when criminologist Hans Van Hneitg that people started seriously thinking about the role of the victim. It turned out that although victimization can be an unfortunate random event where the victim is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time in many perhaps even in most cases of victimization there is a systemic pattern.

Modern Criminology

Focused on physical attributes, such as the size of one's forehead, to try to predict and explain who would become a criminal.

Jeremy Bentham

Human Nature. British Lawyer and philosopher who was a major figure in the classical school. His major work: Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) contained the philosophy of social control based on the principle of utility. The principle of utility prescribed the "greatest happiness for the greatest number." The principle posits that any human action at all should be judged moral or immoral by its effect on the happiness of the community. Thus the proper function of the legislature is to design laws aimed at maximizing the pleasure and minimizing the rapino the largest number in society.

Part One Offenses

Index Crimes- Crimes reported annually by the FBI in its uniform crime report. Part 1 offenses include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assualt, burglary, larcny and motor vehicle theft. Due to their seriousness they are recorded by the FBI to give a general idea of the "crime picture" in the United States in any given year. These offenses will most likely be covered by the media, and inspire the fear of the crime population. These crimes are so heavily covered that when someone says crime the first thing that pops into their head is someone physically fighting another person. However the offender and the victim usually do know each other, homicides are rarely random. Over half percent of reported part 1 offenses are larceny/thefts and the rest are burglaries. What most people think of as a serious crime or serious violent crime.

Criminiology

Interdisciplinary science that gathers and analyzes data on various aspects of crime and criminal behavior. The goals of criminology as with all scientific disciplines is to understand the subject matter (what causes crime) and to determine how that understanding can benefit society. Criminologists use the scientific method to study crime and criminal behavior. The scientific method is a tool for uncovering the truth from error by demanding evidence for ones conclusions by formatting hypotheses derived from theories that are tested with data. Why are some harmful criminalized and not others? What can we do to prevent crimes? Why are some individuals more prone to committing crimes than others?; Are some examples of questions criminologists ask.

NIBRS

National Incident Based Reporting System- Began in 1982: Designed to collect more detailed and comprehensive crime statistics than the UCR. Collects data on 46 group a offenses and 11 group b offenses. No hierarchy rule thus it reports multiple offenses. Provides info on the circumstances of the offense adn about the victim/offender characteristics (relationship/age/sex/race.) Only 19 states and 3 citites participate (Austin Memphis and Nashville.)

Self-Report Surveys

One of the most widespread self- reported surveys is the drug use forecasting program which collects information on narcotics use from arrested who have brought into booking facilities. There is no penalty for admitting criminal activity thus subjects are more forthcoming in discussing their behavior. Drug dealing/prostitution and victimless crimes not revealed in survey data, surveys only households, crimes committed against commerical buisnesses are not included. Data does not have to meet any evidentiary standards in order to be reported as an offense. Provide a way for criminologists to collect data without having to rely on government sources. Sometimes asks how many times a person has been arrested. Questionnaires used in these surveys typically provide a list of offenses and ask subjects to check each offense they recall having committed and how often. Often times rely on high school and college students for subjects/ answer. Problem because most high schoolers and college students haven't experienced incarceration and don't find an extensive criminal history. Worried that it might not be anonymous. Popular findings: males tned to report antisocial behavior less honestly than females and african americans less hoenstly than other racial groups.

Cesare Beccaria

Published Dei Delitti e Delle Pene- on crimes and punishment in 1764. This book became the manifesto for CJ reform in Europe. On crimes and punishments was considered an "impassioned plea to humanize and rationalize the law and to make punishment more just and humane. "Beccaria placed an emphasis on the idea that citizens give up certain rights in order to gain protection from the state (aka the social contract.) Beccaria believed that punishments should be: applies without reference to the social status of the offender or the victim and identical for identical firms, should be proportional to the eve of damage done to society.

Punishing offenders under the classical school

Punishment should be severe: "for punishment to attain its end which inflicts has only to exceed the advantage derivable from the crime." Beccaria made three important observations regarding the applications of effective punishment. Punishment should be certain: "it should always make a stronger impression than the fear of another which is more terrible but combines with the hope of impunity. Punishment should be swift: " the more promptly and the more closely the punishment follows upon the commission of a crime, the more just and useful it will be fine." Punishment should also make a lasting impression on the criminal.

Rational Choice Theory - The Rational Choice Perspective

Rational choice theory states that individuals use rational calculations to make rational choices and achieve outcomes that are aligned with their own personal objectives. These results are also associated with an individual's best, self-interests.

Routine Activities - Lifestyle Theory

Routine Activities Theory and lifestyle theory are separate entities but in victimology they are similar enough to explain criminal behavior but it can be applied to victims as well. The theory stresses that criminal behavior takes place via the interaction of three variables that reflect individuals everyday routine activities. 1.) The presence of motivated offenders. 2.)The availability of suitable targets 3.) The Absence of capable guardians. The basic idea of lifestyle theory is that there are certain lifestyles (routine activities) that disproportionately exposed some people to a high risk of victimization. Lifestyle are the routine patterned activities that people engage in on a daily basis, both obligatory(work related) and option (recreational). A high risk lifestyle may be getting involved with deviant peer groups or drugs, just hanging out or frequently bars until late at night and drinking heavily.

Routine Activities Theory - Cohen & Felson

Routine activities theory is a subsidiary of rational choice theory. Developed by Cohen and Felson (1979), routine activities theory requires three elements be present for a crime to occur: a motivated offender with criminal intentions and the ability to act on these inclinations, a suitable victim or target, and the absence of a capable guardian who can prevent the crime from happening. These three elements must converge in time and space for a crime to occur.

Deterrence Theory

Says that people don't commit crimes because they are afraid of getting caught - instead of being motivated by some deep moral sense. According to deterrence theory, people are most likely to be dissuaded from committing a crime if the punishment is swift, certain and severe.

Social Disorganization - Shaw & McKay

Social disorganization theory is one of the most enduring place-based theories of crime. Developed by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, this theory shifted criminological scholarship from a focus on the pathology of people to the pathology of places. Applied park and burgess concentric zone theory to the study of delinquency in Chicago. Their search began in 1922. Calculated the rates of delinquency for various geographic Areas or "zones" of chicago. They discovered several things about the spatial distribution of Delinquency in chicago: The area with the highest rate of delinquency was directly next to the central business district. The area with the lowest rate of delinquency was the farthest from the central business district. Rates of delinquency decline steadily as one moves out from the poorest zone of transition to the most affluent zone. Delinquency rates were consistently high with children no matter what immigrant group lived/ moved into the zone of transition. No matter what ethnic group lived in the zone of transition their delinquency rates were the highest in the city. In addition to delinquency, rate of other social ills (poverty/mental illness/ poor housing/ alcoholism/ heterogeneity) were also high. The consistency in their research lead to Shaw and McKay to Conclude: that delinquency and crime could NOT be due to the fact that the children of immigrants were biologically or morally inferior as some had argued. Shaw and McKay stresses that even though their biological make up remained the same, their rates of crime declined as they moved to better areas. The delinquency rates of the neighborhood did not seem to be due to the individual characteristics of those who lived in those neighborhoods. They concluded that delinquency and crime could not be due to the fact that the city was invariably corrupt and pathological as others had argued, because high delinquency rates were not uniform. Shaw and McKay believed that the cause of high crime was rooted in the characteristics of particular types of neighborhoods, and was not due to the kind of people who resided in those neighborhoods. Social Disorganization bred high levels of crime. These areas were considered the most undesirable areas of the city. People are eager to leave these areas, due to high conditions of poverty. High levels of heterogeneity and community disruption.

Social Structural Theories

Social structure theories emphasize poverty, lack of education, absence of marketable skills, and subcultural values as fundamental causes of crime. Three subtypes of social structure theories can be identified: social disorganization theory, strain theory, and culture conflict theory.

Consequences of Victimization

Some crime victims suffer lifelong physical pain from wounds and some suffer permanent disability but forth a majority of victims the worst consequences are psychological. When we are victimized our comfortable and just world view si shattered. With victimization comes stressful feelings for shock, personal vulnerability, anger, fear or further victimization and suspicion of others. Victimization also produces feelings of depression guilt, self blame lowered self esteem and self efficacy.

Strain Theory - Robert Merton

Strain theory is a sociology and criminology theory developed in 1938 by Robert K. Merton. The theory states that society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals (such as the American dream), though they lack the means.

Cartographic Criminology - Quetelet

The cartographic school (or method, as some have called it) represented an ideological shift, from a focus on biological conditions to one on social conditions as they relate to crime causation; it concentrated on examining the relationship between crime and the physical environment.

The principles of the Classical School

The classical perspective sees human beings as fundamentally rational, portrays pain and pleasure as the two central determinants of human behavior, and sees punishment as necessary to deter law violators and to serve as an example.

Two Schools of Thought (Modern Criminology)

The classical school originating in the 18th century, and the positivist school originating in the 19th century.

Emergence

The first stage of a social movement, occurring when the social problem being addressed is first identified.

Charles Darwin

The theory of anthropological criminology was influenced heavily by the ideas of Charles Darwin (1809-1882). However, the influences came mainly from philosophy derived from Darwin's theory of evolution, specifically that some species were morally superior to others.

Workplace victimization v. Victimization in the School

Two important demographic variables not included in the 2016 NCVS report are victimization at work and school. Highlights from the US department of justice report on workplace violence reveals that workplace violence has been on the decline. Males were 62% of victims. 77% of all victims were white. Most victims were between the ages of 35-49. Only 9% of male workplace fatalities were home movies- which were more likely to be perpetrated during the commission of a robbery. Homicides were 21% of all occupational fatalities for women- with relatives and domestic partners committing about 39% of female occupational homicides. The three occupations most at risk: police officers - (30.2) per 1,000 workers. Corrections officers (33.0) security guards (66.0). The most dangerous jobs are those that deal with the public in a protective or supervisory capacity or those where workers work alone and are relatively isolated from others (work at night, and working with money- can you guess which occupations) Safest job- university professor. Public perception of victimization in the nations school are fueled by isolated but horrendous events like Sandy Hook. According to you authors one of the safest places to be in school.

Victim Precipitation Theory

Victim Precipitation first theorized by von hentig (1941) and applies only to violent victimization. The basic premise is that by acting in certain provocative ways, some individuals initiate a chain of events that lead to their victimization. Most murders of spouses and boyfriends of women for example are victim precipitated in the perpetrator is defending herself from the victim (Mann, 1990). Likewise, serious delinquent and criminal behavior and serious victimization are inextricably linked. Victim precipitation theory has been contetnious when it is applied to rape ever since Menachem Amirs 1971 study of police records which found that 19% of forcible rapes were victim precipaited which was defined by amri as the victim agreeing to sexual relations and then reneging. This attitude seems to indicate that some people believe that there could be an act labeled "justifiable rape" in the same as the label "justifiable homicide". For this very reason, criminologists disparage victim precipitation theory as victim blaming, although it was never meant to be that.

Who gets victimized?

Victimization is therefore not a random process. There are a host of systemic, environmental, demographic and personal characteristics involved. According to the 2055 Ncvs the individual most likely to be iviti mixed is a young balck unmarried male living in poverty in an urban environment. This is the exact profile of someone most likely to victimize others. Victimization studies, like criminal behavior studies show that victimization rates drop at age 25 going forward, it drops with increasing household income, and that being married is a protective factor against victimization, as it is against crime. Victim characteristics also differ according to crime type. Females are more than 4.3 times more liekly than males to be victimized by rape/sexual assault. Males are more likely to be victimized by aggravated assault. Females are more likely to be victimized by someone they know and males by strangers. Blacks are 1.7 times more likely than other races to be victims of aggravated assault but slightly less likely than whites to be victims of simple assault. Indivudals 65 years or older were 20 times less likely than individuals 20-24 to be victimized by any type of violent crime but slightly more likely to be victimized by personal theft.

Social Ecology - Park & Burgess

Were urban sociologists and not really interested in the study of crime, however their work heavily influenced Clifford R. Shaw and Henry d. mcKay who worked for the illinois institute for juvenile research in chicago. Social ecology studies relationships between people and their environment, often the interdependence of people, collectives and institutions. One such human ecology theory was developed by Ernest Burgess in 1923. Burgess was the first sociologist to pose a theory about why certain social groups are located in specific urban areas. His model was based on the city of Chicago and used a concentric ring to show how urban land was used.

The Insane Criminal

What is an insane criminal? The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for his or her actions due to an episodic or persistent psychiatric disease at the time of the criminal act.