Criminology chapter 1 & quiz 1

Mala in se

"inherently evil" Crimes that are universally condemned, and broadly viewed as inherently bad.

what are the 5 elements of an act that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in order to convict someone of a crime? (corpus delicti)

1. Actus rea 2. Mens rea 3. concurrence 4. causation 5. harm

What are the 4 criteria for judging merits of a theory?

1. predictive accuracy 2.predictive scope 3. simplicity 4. falsifiability

What are the 2 purposes of a preliminary hearing?

1. to advise the suspect of his or her constitutional rights and the charges against the suspect 2. to determine if bail should be set

What do the preliminary arraignment judges decide?

1. whether or not a crime was committed 2. whether or not there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person before the bench committed it 3. whether or not a crime was committed within the jurisdiction of the court

What is criminality?

A property of individuals who signal the willingness to commit crimes and other harmful acts

Falsifiability

A theory is never proven true, but must have the quality of being falsifiable or disprovable

mala prohibita

Acts that are bad because they are prohibited - those crimes that are time and culture bound

Which of the 5 principles that define someone as a criminal must be satisfied to satisfy corpus delicti?

Actus rea Mens rea

What are the indirect costs of crime?

All manner of surveillance and security devices, protective devices (alarms, guns, security guards) and insurance costs, medical services, the lost productivity and taxes of the incarcerated individual

What is crime? (book)

An intentional act in violation of the criminal law committed without defense or excuse and penalized by the state

What is criminology?

An interdisciplinary science that gathers and analyzes data on crime and criminal behavior.

What is the process of the American criminal justice system? (8)

Arrest preliminary hearing preliminary arraignment grand jury trial probation incarceration parole

What type of term is criminality?

Clinical/scientific

What 2 contrasting visions have shaped thoughts about human nature throughout history?

Constrained vision unconstrained Vision

True or false: what constitutes a crime is a constant

False; what constitutes a crime is constantly changing across time and place

The harm caused by criminal activity is ______ and _____ harmful.

Financially and emotionally

Mens rea

Guilty mind refers to whether or not the suspect had a wrongful purpose in mind when carrying out the actus Rea

Examples of mala in se

Murder, theft, rape, assault

Arrest

Occurs when a person has been legally detained to answer to criminal charges

Probation

One of the most common outcomes of a guilty verdict It is suspended commitment to jail or prison

What is PSI

Probation investigation reports prepared by probation officers and contain a variety of information about the crime and the offenders background On the basis of this information, the probation officer issues a sentencing recommendation

predictive scope

Refers to scope or range of theory and thus scope or range of the hypothesis that can be derived from it.

the supernatural era

Religious and spiritual explanations of bad behavior predominated.

what acts are deemed to be in need of regulation?

Socially harmful acts

What are direct costs of crime?

The costs of running the criminal justice system(including the salaries and benefits of personnel and the maintenance costs of the buildings) , the emotional pain and suffering of the victim of the crime, the costs associated with crime (the cost per incident multiplied by the crimes reported to the police)

Who has the power to define crime?

The state

True or false: crime is a socially constructed phenomenon that lacks any "real" objective essence and is defined into existence rather than discovered

True

Incarceration

a commitment to jail, prison or a county work release program

Parole

a conditional release from prison prior to completion of one's full sentence granted by a parole board supervised by parole officers

How is criminality characterized?

a general willingness to use and abuse others for personal gain

Preliminary Arraignment

a hearing before a magistrate or judge

What is science?

a method of acquiring reliable knowledge that has two components : Theory and research

define policy

a selected course of action designed to solve a problem

Define theory

a set of logically interconnected propositions explaining the relationships Among phenomena

Define ideology

a way of looking at the world; a general emotional picture of how things should be

What is crime? (class)

an act in violation of a criminal law for which punishment is prescribed, committed with intention and without defense or justification

What does corpus delicti mean?

body of the crime is the elements that must be presented for an act to be legally defined as a crime

How is a criminal defined?

by the law

What can an arrest be based on?

can be based on an arrest warrant or probable cause

The ______ school of thought emphasizes human rationality and free will in its explanations of criminal behavior.

classical

According to John Hagan, which of the following criteria helps us differentiate between real crimes and those which are arbitrary and socially constructed?

consensus harm severity

Which of the following is an intentional act in violation of the criminal law committed without defense or excuse and penalized by the state?

crime

When criminologists study ______, they study individuals who commit harmful acts, regardless of the legal status of those acts.

criminality

unconstrained vision

denies an innate human nature, viewing it as formed anew in each culture this is how the world should be

what are correlates?

factos that vary along with the phenomenon of interest

true or false :Lack of mens Rea means that an act cannot be illegal

false

true or false: a theory is not shaped at all by the ideological vision of the person who formulated it

false

What is an indictment?

formally charges the suspect with a specific crime or crimes

Actus rea

guilty act refers to the principle that a person must commit some forbidden act or neglect some mandatory act before they can be subjected to criminal sanctions People can only be criminally prosecuted for doing something, not thinking or being something

What is the first step in defining a theory?

identify correlates

______ is a way of looking at the world, a general emotional picture of how things should be.

ideology

simplicity

if 2 competing theories are essentially equal in terms of the 1st 2 criteria (Predictive scope and accuracy) the less complicated theory is considered more elegant

Trial

is a 6th amendment right is the examination of the facts of a case by a judge or jury for the purpose of reaching a judgement

policy --

is a course of action designed to solve some problem that has been selected from among alternative courses of action

Crimes that are time and culture bound are described as ______.

mala prohibita

the enlightenment

members of the classical school such as Beccaria emphasized human rationality and free will

Harm

negative impact that a crime has to an individual or the general public

preliminary hearing

occurs after arrest and booking

examples of mala prohibita

prostitution, drug possession, jaywalking

Criminologists use what is known as the ______ to try to answer the questions they ask rather than simply speculate about the questions.

scientific method

Define Hypothese

statements about relationships between and among factors that we expect to find based on the logic of our theories

Crime is a _____ of all harmful acts that range from simple things like smoking to very serious things like murder

subcategory

Which of the following is an example of a direct cost of crime?

surveillance and security devices

Concurrence

the act (actus Rea) and the mental state (mens Rea) must occur together

Industial Revolution

the positivist school held that science could provide answers for everything

What method to criminologists use to answer questions?

the scientific method

A short history of criminology order:

the supernatural era the renaissance the enlightenment the industrial revolution

What is the second step of defining a theory?

theorists must then establish whether correlates have a causative influence on crime

A(n) ______ is a set of logically interconnected propositions explaining how phenomena are related.

theory

predictive accuracy

theory has merit and is useful to the extent that is accurately predicts what is observed MOST IMPORTANT

Causation

there must be a proximate casual link between the criminal act and the harm suffered

Renaissance

there was a move toward human- centered naturalism some argued that criminality could be identified through personal appearance

What is the goal of criminology?

to understand its subject matter and to determine how that understanding can benefit society

True or false: Criminality is determined independently from legal definitions of crime

true

True or false: every theory has policy implications

true

True or false: questions of cause and effect must be answered at the same level of analysis at which they were proposed

true

true or false: the term truth is never used in theories, only what is more useful

true

constrained vision

views human activities as constrained by an innate human nature that is self-centered and largely unalterable This is how the world is

When can the label of criminal be applied?

when a person has been arrested and convicted

Grand jury

where the prosecutor presents evidence to; they can issue an indictment composed of between 7 and 23 citizens

Examples of levels of analysis

whole societies subcultures neighborhoods families individuals