Chapter 1 Flashcards
Criminal justice system
the stages through which the offender passes, including police, courts, and corrections
Intimate violence
crime that occurs in the context of familiarity, such as spousal abuse, child abuse, or elder abuse
Criminology
the scientific study of the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behaviour
Criminologist
one who brings objectively and method to the study of crime and its consequences
Deviant behaviour
behaviour that departs from or doesn’t conform to social norms, but isn’t defined as a crime by the law
Decriminalization
reducing the penalty for a criminal act, and its illegality
Utilitarianism
a view that punishment should be balanced and fair, and that crime is a rational choice
Classical criminology
the perspective that people freely choose crime, and that it can be reduced through the threat of criminal sanctions
Positivism
a branch of social science that sees behaviour as a product of social, biological, psychological, and economic forces
Criminal anthropology
early efforts to discover a biological basis to crime through physical measurements, usually associated with Cesare Lombroso
Atavistic anomalies (or traits)
the physical characteristics of “born criminals” that indicate they are throwbacks to primitive people
Anomie
rapidly shifting moral values produce normlessness, where the individual has little guide to what is socially acceptable, usually associated with Robert Merton
Chicago School
Early 20th century sociological research on the social ecology of the city and the city of urban crime
Bourgeoisie
in Marxist theory, the owners of the means of production; the capitalist ruling class
Proletariat
in the Marxist theory, the working glass, who provide the labour in capitalism
