Anthro 169 Brantingham
Why does a lot of crime go unreported?
Inconvenient Attempted and not completed Little loss or injury Sense of security intact Does not seem serious Did not involve firearm Social stigma Police could not solve
Free will: → determinism
does not exist, it is determined by biological makeup of peopled, it is a determined characteristic
Stand your ground laws
"A defendant is not required to retreat. He or she is entitled to stand his ground and defend himself or herself and, if reasonably necessary, to pursue an assailant until the danger of (death/great bodily injury) _________ establishes a right by which a person may defend one's self or others against threats or perceived threats, even to the point of applying lethal force, regardless of whether safely retreating from the situation might have been possible Huge biases in terms of white on black and black on white homicides
Utilitarian
"greatest good for the most people"
The relationship between crime and social welfare
There is a weak relationship between the two. Switzerland and USA spend the same amount on social welfare, but have very different rates of crime
Dramatic Fallacy
(Fallacy) Goal of Hollywood is to entertain → Make money → Horror story The public perception of crime is driven by hollywood
The cops and courts Fallacy
(Fallacy) Public expectation that... Cops should always be there to prevent crime or catch criminals in the act Courts are effective in preventing future acts
The organized crime fallacy
-Most crimes are committed by solo offenders -avg number is less than 2 across ages -Younger means more common co-offending -emerges out of 'play groups' -Requires little skill to commit crime
Primacy of the individual
-Presumption of innocence public , impartial trials -Adherence to rules of evidence to rules of evidence and procedure -Equality before the law -Equal punishment for equal crimes -Due process -All rights of the individual must be respected
The whatever you think fallacy
-What constitutes a crime is subjective -Each society and state manufactures crime arbitrarily -there are NO universal processes or patterns to crime
mental illness & crime stats, schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder statistics
-medically recognized impaired cognition & perception the world -schizophrenia -affects 0.4% of world population; 1.5-4.4% in prison populations -antisocial personality disorder -affects 1-3% of adult populations; 47% in prison populations
What percentage of homicides in the US are done through explosives?
0%
nine propositions (distilled into 4)
1. criminal behavior is learned via intimate social interactions 2. criminal behavior is learned if it is favored over non-criminal behavior in a social context 3. criminal behavior is learned like any other behavior and is therefore not categorically different 4. crime is not explained by general needs or general values
What is "street justice"
1. formal police justice is too slow and too 'weak' 2. people don't trust the police to respect their interests -loss of faith
The criminal justice funnel
2.5 million burglaries 1.9 million reported 245k arrests 84k convictions 71k prison → 2.8% chance of prison time
plausible numbers?
3,999,759 people in LA over age of 15 in 2017 79,995 may suffer from APD (2%) 19,193 GTAs in LA in 2017 approximately 1 in 4 would need to steal a car 132,125 violent + property crimes in 2017 each would need to commit 1.7 crimes per year
are the numbers plausible for people w APD
3,999,759 people in LA over age of 15 in 2017 n 79,995 may suffer from APD (2%) n 19,193 GTAs in LA in 2017 n approximately 1 in 4 would need to steal a car n 132,125 violent + property crimes in 2017 n each would need to commit 1.7 crimes per year not plausible
Mental disorders within prison populations
50% of the population in state prison has a documented mental health problem 39.8% of federal prison has a mental health problem 60.5% local jail 10.6% US population
Control theory key question
6.4 million vehicles in 2010 70k thefts 6.3 million not stolen Why are there not more cars stolen? Why are people resisting the urge? Why don't more people engage in more crime
Mental health and gun violence
<5% of crimes in US <5% of 120,000 gun killings between 2001-2010 ~111 mass shootings between 1982 & 2019 link to mental illness anecdotal those with mental illness 65- 130% HIGHER victimization rate than public overall
Violation of the law
A behavior that breaks the law and leaves offender liable to public prosecution and punishment -crimes may be intentional, or -unintentional but negligent, -Absent justifications such as self-defense or incapacity
Violation of social norms
A behavior that transgresses a unspoken social or cultural rule that leaves the offender liable to public gossip, ridicule and or ostracism
Gini Coefficient
A measure of income inequality within a population, ranging from zero for complete equality, to one if one person has all the income.
career criminal
A person who repeatedly violates the law and organizes his or her lifestyle around criminality.
Telescoping
A phenomenon of memory in which events that occurred in the distant past are remembered as having occurred more recently than they actually did.
Positivist Criminology
A school of criminology that views behavior as stemming from social, biological, and psychological factors. It argues that punishment should be tailored to the individual needs of the offender. Scientific revolution Rejection of Free will Replaced with Causal determinism
Biology plays a big role in risk taking activity
A serious bender: someone drinking alcohol breaks into a drug store and steals cigarettes: he was a nice guy but biology did it!
Private convergence settings
Abandoned buildings, hidden places for crime
Columbine
Abnormal behavior in normal conditions Abnormality comes from within the offender
Public incidence settings: bars and intoxication settings
Alcohol, self control goes down, intoxication, supervision is limited
victims rights
All 50 states have some form of victims rights statutes Treated with dignity, respect and sensitivity Informed of criminal justice process Protection from threats, intimidation and harm Apply for victim compensation funds restitution , minimally through right to sue
Superego dominant
All about social conformity If this drive is building up the id is just so pressured The id bursts The superego internalizes guilt so it looks back at those transgressions. Individuals may commit crimes to punish themselves so they go commit crimes The Id and the superego cannot be analyzed directly There is no way to really confirm this It is plausible but it cannot be proven
What data are best?
All of the above, depends what your question is
NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey)
An annual survey of selected American households conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to determine the extent of criminal victimization-especially unreported victimization-in the United States
What is crime?
An identifiable behavior than an appreciable number of governments have specifically prohibited and formally prosecuted and punished includes -rare crimes that are widely punished -Moral and social violations that are codified in law Excludes -oddball crimes that are irregularly punished -moral and social violations that are disapproved of
Cesare Beccaria and his book: Worries he had about publishing his book without anonymity
Beccaria cared about his own safety, he worried about how citizens could hurt them, he was also afraid of the above and wanted protection for his property, feared arbitrary seizure and wanted protection. He had great interests in protecting himself. He was very aware that his book would make people very angry, he published it anonymously originally because of his worry about how the catholic church would react for example.
Why differential
Association with criminal models varies This subculture is diff from other subcultures They present criminal models association with criminal 'models' varies in... frequency, duration, intensity but motives/attitudes learned early matter more
Why do some individuals refrain while others do not?
Awareness and fear of consequences: self control Absence of self control Reckless Immoral acts Illegal behavior
Antisocial behavior
Behavior that lacks consideration of others and may cause damage to society whether intentionally or unintentionally A person has acted in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as himself Public substance abuse Aggressive dogs Begging Prostitution byproducts Abandoned vehicles Car cruising Public noise Littering and graffiti
Many to one crime
Burglary ← Money ← fun ← revenge One crime related to many crimes
By whom are most homicides committed?
By intimates and close friends 80% while only 20% are done by strangers
Italian Positivist School
Cesare Lombroso Most famous for publishing a book called the criminal man He proposed that there was an easy way to identify who was criminal and who was not Indicated by a bunch stigmata These stigmata tells you what time of crime they'd do and what type of criminal they are Ferri and Garafelo extended his work Ferri said there are features of the criminal environment that are just as detirministic of criminal behavior Garafalo extended more psychological approaches to criminality
Gun seizures
Changed immensely, there was 1k more shootings in 1990 than now due to new restrictions, heavier punishment
Justice system remains largely _______
Classical School
Dopamine and white collar crime
Committing a crime and not getting caught for it, it is like a drug. Getting a kick from being able to do such a thing What starts off as taking a couple of dollars from the bank account becomes exciting and then it becomes progressively worse The UCLA student hackers get a kick out of hacking There may be this pavlovian response The development of violence amongst individuals has a lot to do with this excitement, this kick You build a tolerance, so the punch turns into a kick which then eventually turns into something more and more dangerous
CRAVED
Concealable Removable Available Valuable Enjoyable Disposable
The other cop fallacy
Cops are perceived as...
Pre-Enlightenment crime
Crime has a 'supernatural origin' Crime was done through "demons and witchcraft"
general cue
Crime is favorable here You can do any type of crime here
CPTED
Crime prevention through environmental design = manipulate Opportunities for crime to occur Motivation for crime to occur Risk to offender if crime occurs
differential psychology
Crime product of "sick minds" The joker will take the money no matter what
Cognitive psychology
Crime product of way the mind works Product of the way the mind normally works Brain computes quickly It is normal to do such a thing Process psychology argument
How do we know about crime
Crimes are behavioral violations of the law reported to and certified by the police FBI crime statistics Uniform crime reports National Incident based reporting system Tracks reported crimes > 17k law enforcement agencies 94% coverage of US population Incident, victim, offender and monetary damage
Criminal law requires
Criminal intent: mens rea Willful behavior violating the law (actus reus)
criminal atavism
Criminals manifest physical anomalies that make them biologically and physiologically similar to our primitive ancestors (i.e., they are savage throwbacks to an earlier stage of human evolution) or Evolutionary throwbacks to a human type Stigmata he actually measured, how far criminal's ears were How long their fingers were, etc He would count up these stigmata and the more you got, the more you are a criminal physical stigmata
incident settings
Cues favorable to crime Absence of effective supervision Absence of norm enforcement Suitable victims and or targets
Offender convergence settings
Cues favorable to prelude Allow informal unstructured activity Allow information sharing of information Insulate from interference in activities nearby , ripe crime opportunities Security and privacy important entry/exit regulated Can see out/ but others can't see in
Racism and Eugenics
Dangers of searching for simple markers When you go and look at prison populations, they find that many of the men in prison come from broken homes Do we have the right to intervene in the lives of others "man in the high castle" (show) Where do we draw the line for moral interventions
Aspatial data
Data not tied or only incidentally tied to a location You get beat up in Cabo but you're being interviewed about something that occurred in the place that you live, so this is not representative
Legal issues of defining a victim
Depends on demonstrable link to offender behavior Severity of harm related to external standard Conduct of harmed party Stage of criminal justice process Some laws define a felony/assault as someone who is a criminal but you may not be considered a victim A simple assault may not make you eligible
Psychological assumptions of development
Developmental and socialization processes Mental → Normal Moral Stages Social → abnormal Sexual Depending on what happens in each of these stages, you either end up with normal or abnormal outcomes
Hirschi's Social Control Theory
Dominant version of control theory. Hirschi links the onset of criminality to weakening of the ties that bind people to society. He assumes that all individuals are potential law violators, but most are kept under control because they fear that illegal behavior will damage their relationsips with friends, family, neighbors, teachers, and employers. Without these social bonds, or ties, a person is free to commit criminal acts. -Argues that the social bond a person maintains with society is divided into four main elements: attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. -People are not socialized to crime People are under socialized to conform Crime is not learned Controls are learned Everyone wants to naturally do crime but we learn to control those natural fundamental impulses
Mala prohibita crimes
Drinking alcohol Premarital sex Women voting Women driving Internet hunting Chewing gum Shooting turtles
LA by the numbers
Essentially, the amount of people and amount of crime with the amount of cops we have is so disproportionate that the chances of getting a cat accident is much higher than catching a car thief -4 million people -10k officers -20k car thefts -prob catching a car thief in the act is very very unlikely -The chance of dying in a car accident is much higher
Life course risk factors
Events in context Poverty Poor child rearing Parent who is never present or punish harshly Criminal parents Criminal peers Active in different degrees at different ages
EVIL DONE
Exposed Vital Iconic Legitimate Damageable Overabundant Near Easy
Beccaria's beliefs about individuals
Free will Hedonistic: people value pleasure over pain Rational: maximize pleasure and minimize pain
One to many crime
Get money → gta → Burglary → robbery Many crimes related to one prelude (getting money)
evidence for Merton's strain
Gini coeficient goes up → more crime (higher inequality) New york is a good example of this Arkansas, less inequality, less crime There is something going on. depends. cannot be validated
the role that a cue plays
Graffiti, trash, nobody there → cue to steal from the mail box The cues you experienced on your way, are less important than when the crime is going to happen
By what means are most homicides committed?
Gun violence, 72% of homicides were committed by guns (10,982)
What do guns do in terms of body size and violence
Guns equalize
Another reason for underreporting
Having your own criminal activity monitored
Aftermath → prelude → incident example
I need my fix → stealing stereo from car → transfer → get my money → get my fix
The medical model
Identification of the problem in individuals Prevent crime via intervention Treat individuals who have committed crime Something is present or absent Biological models of crime: there is something broken Some people agree to chemical castration
attachment (social control theory)
If my mom found out i did this she would be so upset, the reason for your control if you have no social bonds whatsoever then attachment does not matter to you, so you go ahead and commit the crime
The verification problem
If you believe that strain is what enables people to commit crime, you are wrong, it is not causal because a lot of people go through stress and do not commit crime
Celerity
If you commit the crime, the time period between is relatively short, low celerity between cigarettes and cancer (most important)
The Innocence of Youth Fallacy
Most people who commit crimes are youth
markers of low-self control
Impulsivity Adventure seeking Self centeredness Easily frustrated Lack of diligence Physical → prefer immediate gratification
event centric
Incident Start of crime to end of crime fraction of an instant Crime sequence Incident (seconds) ---> Aftermath: evade, hookup, get high, party, crash (mins, hours)
Prelude --> _____ --> can become a _____
Incident --> aftermath, can become a cycle
Individual and the law
Individual: Free will, Hedonistic and rational Certainty celerity and severity Law: Utilitarian, social contract and Harm prevention
What does it take to be skilled?
Is this a bait car? One offender teaching another how to be a car thief You can learn through youtube You can practice at a junkyard Face to face communication
Settings and effective supervision
Isolated → abandoned house Venice beach → lost in the crowd, pickpocketing is easy, too many people, so packed Starbucks → bad for crime
The american dream is dead Who is defining the goals today?
It is heterogenous The goals of society are being changes
Norms, motives and relativism
It may be entirely normative behavior within a group It is not something people feel guilty about What you learn earlier is more rooted in your system Things that are learned earlier have more of an impact
The not from here fallacy
Judgement of criminality increases if the individual group does not... -Come from here therefore -Look like me, sound like me, dress like me, act like me
How does lady justice look at crime?
Lady justice does not look at the circumstances of individuals because she is blindfolded, justice should not be blind
Social origins of the law
Law reflects social consensus about morality -enforcing laws serves collective interests Laws reflect power of special interest groups -laws enforced against groups that threaten values and social economic positions of special interests therefore it is not a social consensus and only helps specific people
Parenting peers and social capital
Life course events later on in life can have an impact
Behavioral settings
Locations used recurrently for particular sets of behaviors Lecture hall, frat house, living room, bruin walk: these areas have specific behaviots that are supposed to occur The setting itself is structured for certain behaviors
Property criminals
Long, thin fingers & lipless look
Many to one settings
Lots of different settings for one particular type of behavior
Ingenuity Fallacy
Media images suggest that to commit crime (and to solve it) you need to be daring and clever, but it is actually quite simple
The agenda fallacy
Most proposed solutions to crime are part of a larger agenda -Political agenda (e.g., hobble the welfare state, make the rich pay) -moral agenda s (e.g., follow a certain moral creed) -religious agendas (e.g., get faith) -social agendas (e.g., [anti]immigration) -accept the broader agenda à crime reduced The ______fallacy refers to the fact that many people have an agenda and hope you will assist them. They want you to take advice, vote a certain way, or join their religious group. They may be totally sincere, but still they have plans for you. Their promise, usually bogus, is that their agenda will greatly reduce crime in society
Mala in se crimes
Murder Rape Robbery Assault Arson Burglary -Is situational
Normal behavior/abnormal conditions
Naturally goal seeking Goals established and framed by society Goals are unattainable by legitimate means
Deterrence theory challenges
Not all costs are pure costs: Jail ink, doing time gives a certain reputation (can be a benefit) Ticketing a porsche driver for speeding does not do shit
How do we know the statistics about lack of reporting?
Outside official channels! Victimization surveys National crime Victimization surveys Crime self-report Haphazard surveys (random) Juvenile focus
Policy Implications
Parenting really matters Supervise Recognize Punish
UCR part II offenses
Part I crimes concentrated in poorer areas Property crime: 16 bill heavily criminalized, heavily persecuted White collar crime: 300-600 bill not heavily persecuted.. things like: simple assault -curfew violation and loitering -embezzlement, forgery and counterfeiting -disorderly conduct -DUI -drug offenses -fraud -gambling liquor offenses -domestic abuse -prostitution -public drunkenness -runaways and vagrancy -sex offenses -stolen property -vandalism -weapons offenses
control theory assumptions
People are naturally amoral Unconcerned with rightness or wrongness ^People don't think about whether it is right or wrong Desire to commit crime is natural Crime =exercising rational self interest Self interest arises from hedonism People value pleasure over pain Value money over less money Capable of following rules But only when rules serve self interest
The Ingenuity Fallacy
Perfect execution Planning Most crimes require little skill
indirect social control
Performed indirectly through socialization/ Intervention by the agents of society to control the behavior of individuals and groups internal monologue
General Strain Theory
according to Agnew, the view that multiple sources of strain interact with an individual's emotional traits and responses to produce criminality Strain arises in practical (micro settings) Actual or anticipated failure in valued goal Removal of a valued position or status Imposition of negative value outcome or noxious stimulus No legitimate opportunities to resolve
Public convergence settings
Places where you won't get caught when doing crime, public places such as the edges of a park
Beware of your agendas
Prop 8: ban gay marriage Sexual orientation is not a choice, it is grounded in biology This discrimination policy playing out, the point of view from the courts What is going on here is in biology, so it is not fair to ban it When we ask questions like this,
Example of irrational law leading to more crime
Punishment in china, punishment more severe when victim lives than when killed in a car accident
Social harm prevention
Purpose of law and punishments is to prevent harm to society.
Counting official crimes
Raw crime counts LA homicides: 256 in 2018 New orleans 146 in 2018 Crime rates per 100k people LA 6.3/100k New orleans 35/100k Reported at City, county, state and national levels
Subjective issues of defining a victim
Recognition that a crime has occurred Severity of harm relative to subjective standard social/cultural pressures (e.g., privacy)
Policy Implications
Replace cues favorable to crime remove /regulate convergence and crime settings Age of majority laws Skate boarding on railings
Who came up with traditional strain theory?
Robert Merton and Emile Durkheim
strain theory
Robert Merton's theory that deviance occurs when a society does not give all of its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals or Crime is normal behavior deployed in response to abnormal conditions Crime comes from without the offender, comes from the environment
courts and corrections do not
Sanctions Rehabilitation
Learning Norms
Selection bias or Enhancement certain cultural rules and cultural norms Self selection into the group, people who feel comfortable with calculus feel comfy in majoring in engineering A group of anthropologists don't do calculus, that is the norm.
one to many settings
Setting is conducive to a set range of behaviors. It would be difficult to set up a seminar in a lecture hall
specific cue
Setting → behavior 1 Here's a setting, here is a cue, here is a specific type of crime that can be done here
why are part 1 crimes tracked
Severity Frequency Visibility
Psychoanalytic approach
Sigmund freud Id: is about raw emotion, animal desire Ego: conscious, negotiator Superego: social subconscious
The role of body size in violence
Smaller women are attacked by bigger women and bigger men smaller men are attacked by bigger men
Learned content
Social norms Practical knowledge
traditional strain theory
Society defines a bunch of goals that people "should" strive for and it provides the resources to reach those goals If there is a mismatch between the goals and the means of achieving these goals then that can lead to crime
Crime sequence and time
Some crimes take years to investigate but minutes or seconds to execute while others do not involve courts, but other types of aftermath.
Belief (Social Control Theory)
Some people just have some strong moral/belief that commiting crime is bad, some people just have a moral core. It is the right thing to do!
Aftermath and outcome leakage
Sometimes an assault can turn into a homicide, sometimes petty theft can turn into grand theft -You steal a watch thinking it's 1k when it is actually 100k -You hit someone in the head and a few hours later they die
Public incidence settings
Street corners and community edges Crime clusters between the boundaries in two neighborhoods
But does crime pay?
Street drug dealers learn less than minimum wage, boom and bust. Lots of money then days without nothing. A low level of monetary support White collar crime, Bernie Madoff stole at least 65 billion in a ponzi scheme People who steal small amounts of money often get caught Crime does not really pay, does not appear to pay all that well
Policy implications for Merton's strain theory
Temper people aspirations Provide access to legitimate opportunities let's create jobs!
Hormones and chemicals
Testosterone Aggression Serotonin The "brakes" dopamine The "fuel" Risk taking behavior
Glux and William sheldon about Body form and temperament explaining temperament
The endomorphs: roundness and soft, sociable and tolerant The ectomorph: wide shoulder, narrow hips, heavy boned, introverted and inhibited The Mesomorphs: Buff and tall, expressive domineering, prisons are dominated by guys that look like this
Id dominant
The idea that the id is dominant: weighs down on the individual. Drive for self preservation overrides any concern for others in society, it is all about take take take. Individuals who can care less about anyone else
What is the NGRI plea? Is it often successful
The insanity defense NGRI plea: 0.58% Successful: 0.26% Non criminal homicides: 2%
Income and victimization
The lower your income, the more likely you are to be a victim of property crime. People at higher income levels experience much less crime overall
Gender differences in crime
There are clear sex differences in the types of crimes committed by gender There are really long term stable differences between men and women between 1980 , 2007 and 2008
Self-Control Theory
The theory of delinquency that holds that antisocial behavior is caused by a lack of self-control stemming from an impulsive personality.
life course theory
Theory that focuses on changes in criminality over the life course brought about by shifts in experience and life events Outside influences on behavior Events +/- bonds w society Influence varies at different life history stages Cumulative impact Kids are growing up, then an event happens to them, it can be a positive or negative event that can impact them in different ways The event may bring you closer or farther from social norms The degree of bonding with society Different life events at different points in time, matter more or less
What is the second most common way homicides are committed?
Through poisoning 0.09%, the rest are through other means
Why non-random
Underreporting bias? Amongst certain groups Dependent on the offender's target characteristics: only women Maybe women engage in one kind of behavior that makes them fall prey to this offender
Assault
Unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another -crimes may be intentional, or -unintentional but negligent: throwing a rock over a freeway and killing someone -Absent justifications such as self defense or incapacity: insanity defense
are victims random?
Victim characteristics The victims are not random Oh, I am a victim of a random crime? We perceive that we are random but we are non-random . In order for it to be random, there has to be a perfect mixture of people walking down that part of campus The characteristics of the victims themselves impacting their victimization Offender looks at victim and says this person is a viable target Sometimes it has to do with just the violator themselves
UCR part 1 offenses
Violent: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, Property: burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson
Gorring
Went to prisons and the countryside There are no big differences between criminals and non criminals, not surprising from our point of view Not actually different from the population at large Threw out the vast majority of the stigmata He did not completely do away with the biological explanation There are some differences, the english differences were typically smaller and had lower intelligence, more willful antisocial proclivities, more accepting of violating the law, rather than 100% being contributed to biology, maybe it is 60% He challenged some of Lambroso's hypothesis Criminals are normal but extreme, they are not so rare to be abnormal, out there on the tail relative to average
Victimization by race
crime among american indians factors radically higher than anybody else
Blood sanctions
death for major offenses mutilation for minor
Ferri and Garofalo beliefs
Whereas Lambroso was stuck on these physical stigmata Criminaloids Garafalo talks about Insane criminals in terms of their biology, their brains don't work properly. Criminals who are criminals by passion or by occassion Ferri and Lambroso strongly believed in the biology They thought that there should be a panel of scientific experts If someone has these stigmata, you cannot fix them, there is no rehabilitation you can come up with for people who are burdened with these characteristics Lambroso: born criminaloids Insane criminals Opportunity or passion
Like victimizes like
White victimize white more often than white victimizing black and the other way around, this has to do with proximity as well
sex differences in offending
Women avg. rate 1.9 homicides 30% of all petty theft 43% of all fraud 65% of all prostitution Men avg. rate 15.4 homicides 89% of all homicide 87% of all assaults 93% of all weapons viol.
Why do people stop offending after 25
desistence.
Innovation (Strain Theory)
deviant person accepts goal but uses illegal means to achieve it
How is Antisocial personality disorder
diagnosed from observable behavior
Legal definition and proximity
You may be a victim of a crime but that victimization may not extend to people around you If you were robbed, your parents cannot claim the victimization The only exception to this, the spouse or parents can claim victimization for homicide, this is a very special circumstance, other than this, your victimization does not extend to anybody else.
Commitment (Social control Theory)
You want to go to law school, you want that promotion, attachment is not too important to you, this commitment will enforce control so you do not jeopardize your future goals Commitment and attachment work together, a professor reprimanding you and being disappointed, they do not necessarily need to work together though
age-crime curve
a curve showing that crime rates increase during preadolescence, peak in late adolescence, and steadily decline thereafter Early onset offending begins at 10-14 The peak begins at about 19-20 years of age 15-25 peak offending population Decline begins after 25
antisocial personality disorder
a personality disorder in which a person exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist Intelligent Self-centered shameless/guiltless Impulsive No life plan Intolerant Relation s with others Superficial Impersonal Disconnected Deceptive Lack of empathy Unresponsive to relationships Relations to society Disregard for norms, rules and obligations
social control theory
a theory of delinquency that links deviance with the absence of bonds to society's main institutions
Private incidence settings
abandoned buildings Blocks with abandoned buildings vs control 2.1x drug crimes 1.9x property crimes 1.3c violent crimes 1.8 cromes total
Ritualism (strain theory)
abandons society's goals but continues to conform to approved means
conformity (strain theory)
accepts culturally approved goals; pursues them through culturally approved means
Direct social control
direct intervention by the agents of society to control the behavior of individuals and groups some ppl are watching you, so they can go tell your mom/professor
people with mental health issues
are often the victims of crime
Violations of moral codes
behavior that transgresses a moral prescription and leaves the offender liable to public condemnation, punishment and or ostracism -Is a transgression=crime?
Cesare Beccaria
believed that punishment should fit the crime, in speedy and public trials, and that capital On Crimes and Punishment Targets of judicial reform -unwritten laws -secret trials -trial by torture -gruesome punishments
Problems with Unwritten laws
can be applied arbitrarily, it is not written down it is up to your whim to apply to what you see fit.
Problems with Trial by torture
can get any evidence you want through torture
The mother of all targets is ____
cash
rebellion (strain theory)
challenges both the approved goals and the approved means to achieve them
Trait-Based Personality Theories
combination of personality traits that lead to criminal behavior personality= the totality of behavioral and emotional traits Measurable or observable Largely innate Not deterministic, creates potential under right circumstances
General deterrence
consequences for those who did lower rates of the crime
Hierarchy Rule (UCR)
counts only the most serious offense in an inciden -Police pick the most severe crime committed in the moment. A very complex event distilled into one crime such as aggravated assault, simply from the counting crime point of view. Persecution would be different
Irrational and ineffective law leads to ____.
crime
Around age 30, ______ increases
fraud increases possibly due to accrual of debt and power.
Involvement (Social Control Theory)
going from one activity to another, always busy, so you do not even have time to commit a crime, you go to school, work, church, dinner, etc. This is strictly about time, Hirschi referred to it in terms of time
Underreporting of crime in the U.S.
has been a problem because members of racial and ethnic minority groups have not always trusted law enforcement agencies and have often refrained from contacting the police.
Environmental criminology
how criteria aids or deters criminal activity by target hardening Vacant lots correlated with higher crime Characteristics people learn from their environment
Severity
if you commit the crime and you're caught how severe is the punishment
Certainty
if you commit the crime there is certainty that you will be caught for it (most important)
Prelude --> _______ --->
incident --> aftermath
Equality → natural differences
is based on socioeconomic grounds and racial grounds, that is how it is structured, these forms of inequality, that is the natural world, that is the way it is
adolescent-limited offenders
kids who get into minor scrapes as youth but whose misbehavior ends when they enter adulthood ex throwing a rock through a window at 18, not going to do that down the line
Self control is _____
learned/acquired early in childhood Stable across time Stable differences between males and females Women commit crime at much lower rates than men fixed by age 8-10
expressive goals
less tangible benefits, such as collective awareness and cultural legitimacy
Problems with Secret trials
no need for evidence
Specific deterrence
not allow the crime to happen again, dui → take away license, lower reoffending (recidivism)
15-25 IS THE ______
peak offending population
criminal offending and honesty
people lie! unless you've built some long trustworthy relationship.
Life course theory belief
people start off as a blank slate and life course changes their outcomes
Lack of change
people who are victimized in a circumstance will go repeat the same behavior a week later despite being a victim before Most people don't go get house alarms People do not change their behavior in response to victimization: binge drinking next thursday after being sexually assaulted
Public and official crimes
police rarely present at the incident Police rely on public to report crime A lot of crime goes officially unrecognized
instrumental goals
practical aims you want to achieve or tasks you want to accomplish through a particular interpersonal encounter
age victim curve vs age crime curve
pretty much the same, being a victim peaks at 19-20 years of age and then plummets more likely to be victimized by someone your age
Classical Deterrence Theory
rational human beings won't commit crimes if they know that the pain of punishment outweighs the pleasure gained from committing crimes
Social Contract
relationships among free people regulated by laws, not by god (Church) or king.
Holland: laws on prostitution
selling sex is legal and regulated, brothels are legal
Australia: laws on prostitiution
selling sex is legal and unregulated, brothels are illegal
Canada: laws on prostitution
selling sex is legal, but solicitation is illegal
infanticide for girls
serious sex bias in infanticide, girls are killed more often than boys
Why did LAPD reclassify serious crimes to be minor
so they don't look bad "crime goes down"
control theory branches
social control and self control
control theory of deviance
social control depends on people's anticipating the consequences of their behavior
California: laws on prostitution
soliciting sex for money and selling sex are both illegal
strain vs. control theory
strain: gain > lose control: lose > gain
violent criminals
stubby fingers & fleshy lips
Strain + structure = ____
subcultures No legitimate means + abundant illegitimate means = criminal subculture No legitimate means+ no illegitimate means= violent subculture Retreatis
How is Psychopathy diagnosed
taking an assessment
The not me fallacy
the barista paradox... The false image of crime and criminals leads to something worse: a false image of oneself. We would like to think that we are just plain good. The _____fallacy is the illusion that we could never do a crime. It denies every illegal act we ever committed or contemplated. It also includes that special talent for breaking the law while declaring, as did Richard Nixon, "I am not a crook." One way to prove goodness is to cite all the crimes we have not committed. Why haven't I stolen anything lately? It must be because I am good. But perhaps nobody tempted me, or I was simply afraid to do it? These explanations take us down a peg. Ask yourself these questions: • Do you deny or minimize your bad deeds? • Do you find excuses? • Do you shift blame to others? • When you do the right thing, is it for the wrong reasons? • Do you always try to distance moral wrong from yourself? If you answered "Yes" to any or all of these questions, you are actually rather normal. You are trying to feel better, not analyze human temptations and controls.
Private incidence settings
the home Most common setting for homicide, sexual assault and assault 2005-2010 ~60% of violent victimizations in a home setting Deadliest rooms in order Bedroom → kitchen → living room Sources of conflict Intimacy → food and children's behavior → TV No effective supervision
MMPI
the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes.
infanticide
the only difference in the age victim curve
defensible space
the principle that crime can be prevented or displaced by modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity that individuals have to commit crime -To see and be seen (surveillance) Willingness to intervene (territoriality)
differential association theory
theory that individuals learn deviance in proportion to number of deviant acts they are exposed to
Heritability
twin studies Monozygotic vs. Dizygotic MZ: 44-52% concordance n DZ: 21-22% concordance 2x concordance adoption studies outcome for child based on biological & adoptive parent criminality BIO CLEARLY PLAYS A HUGE ROLE X LINKED MOA ON A CHROMOSOME ALSO PLAYS A ROLE, so men are more likely to be criminals genetically
Proof systems
two eye witnesses, or one eye witness + confession, or confession + circumstantial evidence
Retreatism (strain theory)
ultimate goal of society and legitimate means to achieve goal are both rejected, have retreated or withdrawn from society
Principles of Beccaria's approach
utilitarian social contract social harm prevention
Pros and cons of outside official channels
victimization surveys -National Crime Victimization Survey cons -memory -refusal -misinterpretation -telescoping -please interviewer -aspatial
Consequences for victims
victims have role in defining themselves - e.g., domestic violence - what is 'out of line'? - private matter - fear of escalation - blame (female) victim
Problems with Gruesome punishments
wanted to turn these over because they "do nothing"
Gender and Victimization
women get killed in later ages while men it happens more often when they are younger, men are being killed at a much higher rate than women
Law: --> natural law
written by humans The greatest good for the greatest number of people: utilitarianism, satisfy the social contract, produce social harm reduction: these things don't matter, what is going on in the natural world, the natural law the crime and punishment
circular reasoning
→ Personality traits → commit crime → defective personality → We do not know if it is correlation or causation
