P200 Exam 1

UCR Strengths

*Collected since 1930's18,000+ police departments volunteer info *Can examine percent change in types of crime from previous year (or other time periods) *Can find descriptive information about demographic correlates of Part I crimes (e.g., gender, age, race, geographic region)

Self-Report Studies Strengths:

*Findings suggest much crime/delinquency remains hidden from legal officials (i.e., like NCVS, illuminates some of "dark figure of crime") *Can examine theoretically interesting correlates of crime *With longitudinal designs, can examine changes over life course (and increase causal inference)

NCVS Strengths

*More accurate estimate of the number of crimes (Note important exception: Homicide!) Thus, illuminates some of "dark figure of crime" *Info on context has improved development of theories of victimization (e.g., we now know that most violent crime is intra-racial; that is, black-on-black, or white-on-white)

Self-Report Studies Weakness:

*Often focuses on minor or "trivial" offenses such as truancy, running away, minor substance use, etc. (but not always!) *Potential issues with validity (i.e., respondents may not always be truthful, may underreport criminal behavior, especially when they fear confidentiality may be breached) *Many focus primarily on boys (b/c boys typically commit more crime) (again, not always!) *May also ignore white-collar offenses (and again, not always!)

NCVS Weaknesses

*Potential issues with underreporting (e.g., excludes commercial crimes such as shoplifting; interview issues such as recall problems or lack of reporting out of fear, shame, etc.) or over-reporting (e.g., "telescoping" or reporting crimes that occurred prior to 6 months before the interview) Excludes some populations due to household sampling (e.g., homeless, runaways, etc.) Like UCR, these data also divert attention away from white-collar crimes, as focus is on street crimes.

:Key Correlates of Crime: Correlates of Crime

*Prior Criminality Association with Criminal Peer Additional correlates: age geographic location gender social class race

Examples of paradigms?

*Ptolemaic & Copernican models *Consensus & Conflict perspectives *Classical and Positivist paradigms

Why do paradigms matter?

*They shape the types of questions we ask *And influence how we attempt to answer them. *Not usually considered right/wrong or true/false *Rather, useful or not useful at a given timeo

UCR Weaknesses

*Underestimation of the amount of crime (or, the "dark figure of crime" - about 60% of all victims do NOT report crimes to police!) *Minimizes seriousness of white-collar crimes (focus on Index I crimes (property, violent), or "one-on-one harm" crimes, emphasizes these as most serious) *Bias (discrimination in arrests may lead us to mischaracterize the "typical" offender)Changes in citizens' reporting practices may artificially raise estimates of official crime rates *Police crackdowns (e.g., drugs, prostitution), or politically motivated police reporting (e.g., report more crimes to influence funding, or report fewer crimes to give appearance of police effectiveness) can artificially bias official crime statistics *Definitions of crimes may vary across police precincts (e.g., issues with defining rape)

Legally acceptable defenses:

*didn't commit the actus reus (criminal act) *didn't commit it with mens rea (criminal intent or guilty mind) *insanity plea, duress, mistake of fact, necessity/self-defense, entrapment, intoxication *Exceptions to mens rea defense: strict liability crimes (traffic laws, robbery, statutory rape, rarely matters in murder, etc.)

Social Interaction - (Positivist School of Criminology The scientific process itself reflects core scientific values:

-Collaboration; contribution (acknowledgement); relevance; and prestige

Classical School of Criminology

-Crime, like most human behaviors, are the result of rational (instrumental, goal-oriented) decision-making processes -"Deliberative" actor assumption -humans think before acting -"Utilitarian" actor assumption -humans attempt to maximize rewards and minimize costs

Consensus

-Law is a natural part of informal rules of interaction of a society -societal customs determine the "correct" way to act (i.e., norms); laws are seen as formal statements of general principles of morality that are already operating - i.e., law is a product of consensus, and exists to maintain consensus (reaffirms what we as a social group already believe) -may also see laws as recognized by all as necessary for sake of order (e.g., traffic laws)

Adequate General Theory of Crime

-Motivation for crime (internal & external) -e.g., structural factors; situational factors; learning, interaction processes; self/identity processes; some physiological & psychological propensities (e.g., testosterone; reactance) -Constraint (internal & external) e.g., informal & formal sanctions (deterrence; social control); morality; some physiological & psychological propensities (e.g., executive functioning & self-control) -Opportunity -Contingencies

Basic framework articulated by Beccaria:

-Motivation underlying social action should be utilitarian value -Crime is an injury to society; focus on act & extent of damage, not intent -Prevention is more important than punishment -Against secret accusations & torture; For speedy trails and fair, humane treatment of accused -Only valid purpose of punishment is deterrence, not revenge -Incarceration should be used more widely, but w/upgraded conditions and systems of classification

Scientific Values(Postpositivism)

-Science is a human action. Scientists... -have all the value drives of normal human beings -create knowledge by seeking answers to questions they value

Scientific Process

-Start with empirical generalizations -Develop specific explanations (simple theories) -Use research to test explanations -Develop general theories by integrating specific explanations

Autonomy - (Positivist School of Criminology The scientific process itself reflects core scientific values:)

-freedom to choose (& conduct "ethically neutral") research

Aesthetics - (Positivist School of Criminology The scientific process itself reflects core scientific values:

-ingenuity; conciseness; elegance

Conflict

-many moralities representing a variety of group interests in a society -focuses on whose morality is expressed in law and with what consequences -views law as a weapon, and assumes it will be used as such by any group that can do so to its advantage -considers importance of social class; law may exist to protect interests of dominant class (consider Reiman's arguments about how the wealthy are "weeded out" at all stages of the criminal justice system, from defining crime to sentencing...)

Intellectual integrity - (Positivist School of Criminology The scientific process itself reflects core scientific values:)

-precision; skepticism; confirmation; caution

Basic philosophy

-would-be criminals are deterred by threat of punishment (loss of money, freedom, or life) if it is swift, certain, appropriate for the offense, and sufficiently unpleasant to offset any potential gains to be realized by committing the act -Widely adopted implication: Punishment should fit the crime! -Also, crimes may range in injury from immediate dissolution of society to small injustice to a private member of society -Unrealized potential 1: humane treatment (corporal punishment replaced with psychological & social persecution) -Unrealized potential 2: certainty & swiftness more important than severity to deterrence (discretion at every CJ level) -Criticized: individual differences or contexts were unimportant; focus on the act meant all actors culpable (no exceptions) -Objective overreaction based on indignation over inconsistencies & other inadequacies of early CJ system

Causation

: one variable directly causes a change in another

Definitions

: statement of a concept's meaning; 'true' by definition (but arbitrary)

Hypotheses

: testable relational statements; often both empirical & causal claim i.e. claims about what relationship exists and why it exist 'truth' is always tentative, based on accumulation & consensus

Independent Variables

: the "causes," or the variables that theoretically explain or predict changes in a dependent variable (e.g., political initiatives for "get tough" policies)

Experimental Science: Scientific Methods

:at least some factors of interest can be controlled and manipulated by researcher

Fact:

:empirical 'existence' statement; "true" by observation (but contingent on context)

Observational Science

:factors cannot be directly controlled or manipulated by researcher *researcher attempts to predict nature

Mediation

:mediating variables intervene between two variables and explain why they are correlated.

Moderation

:moderators "change" or modify the relationship between two variables (e.g., they may specify certain conditions under which two variables are correlated)

What is a paradigm?

A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them -i.e., a framework or lens through which we view the world *T&H: "distinctive theoretical models or perspectives; in the case of crime, they vary largely on opposing assumptions of human behavior"

Self- Report Studies Incidence

Average number of offenses per person in the study. (How frequently people engage in these behavior)

Positivist School of Criminology

Cesare Lombroso -challenged the "free will" and "culpability" ideas implied by classical utilitarian theorists -His ideas suggested that human behaviors may be largely determined by factors that are outside of a person's control General Principles -Rejection of metaphysical and speculative approaches -Denial of "free will" conception of human action and substitution of a "deterministic" model -Application of the scientific method -Clear distinction between science and morality

Qualitative

In-depth interviews; participant observation Focus: meaning and interpretation rather than numerical trends Usually used to explore new (i.e., previously unstudied) groups and behaviors, and to examine underlying processes Explore subjects' interpretations of attitudes, behaviors, etc. Analyze data by looking for general patterns across subjects

NCVS

National Crime Victimization Survey US Dept. of Justice began collecting in 1970's *Interviews individuals from randomly selected households *Asks about victimization experiences for several person and property crimes (primarily Index I crimes) *Includes info on context of crime (time of day, physical setting, characteristics of victim such as gender, race, income, extent of injury, & relationship to offender) *Dark figure of crime: "hidden" crimes that do not show up in official statistics because they are not reported

What is the UCR measuring? What is not measured in the UCR?

Number of crimes reported to police/cleared by arrest *Missing crimes not reported

Quantitative

Official statistics; self-report survey data Focus: quantifying variables & analyzing numerical patterns such as mean differences, variation, etc. Usually used to test theories for accuracy & generalizability Start by operationalizing theoretical concepts as variablesAnalyze data using statistics to test hypotheses

Historical Explanations

Primitive societies -Crime = sin (diabolical possession). -Appropriate penalty = exile or kill offender (including hacking or eating offender for the most serious crimes) -Goal was more to avoid wrath or vengeance of gods than to protect society -For private offenses, exact retribution (lex talionis) employed, often via blood feuds -Later, compensation or restitution systems developed to avoid the heavy tolls associated with blood feuds

Self- Report Studies Prevalence

Proportion of respondents who have committed a particular offense

Goals of Science

Provide typologies -(i.e., create categories of similar/different things) -Explain phenomena of interest -Predict phenomena of interest -Provide a sense of understanding about phenomena of interest(i.e., answer questions of why and how)

Evaluating Theory

Scope (how much is explained?) -Logical consistency (does explanation make sense?) -Testability (is it possible to measure concepts & test claims?) -Empirical validity (is explanation supported by evidence?) -Parsimony (how simple is explanation?) Important if all else equal Should not sacrifice explanatory & predictive utility for simplicity's sake Unfortunately, "simple" theories have been dominant in criminology -Policy implications (does explanation help control phenomenon?) This last evaluative criterion is debated by scientist e.g., mechanisms may not be practically or ethically manipulable; also, control may not be a desirable or valued goal for all scientists

Causality

Simple causes have one primary independent variable, whereas complex causes have many crucial independent variables.o

Age of Enlightenment

Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) Context: -feudalism; few had rights; unequal, arbitrary, & severe punishments -Human nature assumptions:People are greedy, selfish, at war with one another -People are rational -People create governments and rules to avoid constant state of fear -People grant governments monopoly on use of force (leviathan) -Introduced notion of "social contract" -People willingly give up certain rights and choose to abide by society's rules in exchange for protection from rule-violators -Contract is "broken" if people feel they have little or no say in government & application of law

Self-Report Studies (NYS, Monitoring the Future)

Types of crimes?All types Convenience vs. Random/Probability sample *May use convenience samples or probability sampling methods (which allow for accurate inferences about larger populations)

Scientific Theory

What is a theory? -A set of concepts linked together by a series of statements to explain why an event or phenomenon occurs. -Explanations of why the world works the way it doeso Are theories true or false? -Cognitive abstractions or models of the world that, like paradigms, are either useful or not useful -Theories can be (and often are) wrong, yet still provide highly accurate predictions e.g., Newtonian mechanics versus Einstein relativity

Legalistic Approach

any culpable action or inaction prohibited by law and punishable by the state as a misdemeanor or felony.

mala prohibita:

aren't necessarily wrong all by themselves even though they are illegal, such as jaywalking. Other examples include public intoxication and parking violations.

3 Basic Criteria for Causality

association/correlation *X is related to Y in a statistical sense nonspuriousness *relationship between X and Y is not false - i.e., it does not reflect confounding variable Z proper time order *X comes before Y *IV precedes DVassociation/correlation *X is related to Y in a statistical sense

*cumulative continuity" : Key Correlation of Crime

essentially argue that engaging in crime affects individuals in ways that increase the likelihood of engaging in crime at later ages. Thus, these theories argue the relationship between prior and later criminal behaviors is causal rather than spurious.

"persistent heterogeneity": Key Correlation of Crime

essentially argue that there are persistent differences between individuals that remain stable over time and it is these differences that make individuals more likely to commit crime when younger and when older. Hence, these theories argue the correlation between past and later behavior is spurious rather than causal. For instance, individuals with low self-control may be more likely to commit crime when they are younger compared to those with high self-control

Part I Crimes: Official statistics (UCR)

homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson

mala in se

inherently evil; referring to crimes that are a threat to life or limb, such as assault, battery, larceny or other offenses in the common law.

Criminological Approach

iolations of social norms (folkways, mores, laws), relativity of crime & deviance, making rules, breaking rules, and social reactions to breaking rules

Crime Rate

number of crimes per a given number of people (e.g., # of crimes per 100,000 people)

Experimental Science

researcher not only attempts to predict nature, but to change it in a predictable way

Part II Crimes

simple assaults, forgery & counterfeiting, fraud, embezzlement, stolen property, vandalism, weapons, prostitution, commercialized vice, sex offenses, drug abuse, gambling, offenses against the family and children, DUI, liquor laws, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vagrancy; all

Dependent Variables:

the "effect," or the variable to be explained or predicted (e.g., incarceration rates)

Culpability

the person who broke the law has no legally acceptable defense

Correlation

variables that are related in a statistical sense