Chapter 14- Lecture Flashcards
What is criminology?
The body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its school the process of making laws, breaking laws, and reacting towards the breaking of laws.
What is crime?
Designates certain behaviours and actions that require social control and social intervention, codified in law.
What is deviance?
Actions that violate social norms, and that may or may not be against the law.
Most crimes are understood as___however all___acts are not___.
- deviant
- deviant
- criminal
What are some examples of deviant acts that have changed over time?
- divorce
- male hair buns
- female tattoos
- stay at home dads
What is the definition of social deviance?
Any acts that involve the violation of social norms
What does Howard Becker believe about social deviance?
Not the act itself, rather people’s reaction to the act that makes it deviant.
Who defines deviance?
Politicians/government, scientists, religious institutions, media
-media and society attempt to tell us who/what is deviant.
What can be understood as both informal and formal social controls?
deviance
What are moral entrepreneurs? What are two examples of moral entrepreneurs?
- Raise opposition to a particular social phenomena. Raise a movement against/for something
- Rosa Parks and Louis Riel
What is Rational Choice Theory?
Behaviour not the result of supernatural forces, but rather purposeful
What did Beccaria and Bentham believe about rational choice theory?
- If crime results in some form of pleasure for the criminal, then paid met be used to prevent crime
- Sentences must be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime
What are the four basic believes for Rational Choice Theory (classical criminology)?
1) People have free will to choose criminal or lawful solutions, and thus crime is a rational choice
2) Criminal solutions are seen as more attractive than lawful ones if they require less work for a greater payoff
3) The fear of punishment can control people’s choices
4) A society is better able to control criminal behaviour when criminality is met with: measured severity, certainty of punishment, swiftness of justice
What is the biological perspective to crime and criminology (positivism)?
- Application of the scientific method to the social world
- Focused on the individual, assuming that once we identify features that distinguish criminals from non-criminals, then possible to determine how to eliminate criminal behaviour
What is biological determinism?
The hypothesis that biological factors completely determine a person’s behaviour (criminality is based on physical traits).
What is Cesare Lombroso’s “The Criminal Man”?
Distinguished by an asymmetrical fact, large ears, particular eye defects, etc.
What is the overall theme of the biological perspective?
People are born criminal
What do sociological approaches to crime seek to do?
Shift the focus of criminology toward a consideration of the environments in which people are located.
What is the functionalism approach to crime rooted in?
Emile Durkheim’s notion of anomie
How is the notion of anomie applied to crime?
Rules governing behaviour break down resulting in people no longer knowing what to expect from one another. Formlessness leads to deviant behaviour.
What is the conflict theory approach to crime?
Crime is the product of class struggle.
What does the conflict theory approach to crime focus on?
- The role government plays in creating criminogenic environment. An environment that, as a result of laws that privilege certain groups, produces crime of criminality.
- Also focuses on the role that bias plays in the criminal justice system
Which sociological approach believes that criminal law is a tool to protect the interest of the affluent and the powerful?
Conflict Theory
What does conflict theory challenge with crime?
Challenge the commonly held belief that law is neutral & reflects the interests of society as a whole.
How does symbolic interactionism approach crime?
Criminal behaviour learned through interactions with others.
What are the two different symbolic interactionism theories for crime?
Differential Association Theory
Labelling Theory
What is Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory?
People learn criminal behaviour through social interaction.
What is Becker’s Labelling Theory?
- Based on actions of others to an individual’s act; response leads to the labelling of a person as deviant
- No act inherently deviant until g groups with socially powerful statuses labels it as such
- Profiling
What is an example of labelling theory?
- Profiling
- Ex. Black and Spanish and Muslim people (aura of negativity).
What is the feminist theory approach to crime?
Concerned with issues of power, distractions of resources, and seek to explain the gendered nature of crime.
How have female criminals been viewed, historically?
As ‘sick’ or ‘pathological’
How are women who commit violence constructed?
As ‘victime’ or ‘mad’ or ‘bad’ or all three.
What does feminist theory believe is the underlying condition behind certain crimes?
Patriarchy
What hypothesis does feminist theory challenge with crime?
Chivalry hypothesis
What is the sociology of law?
- Subdiscipline of sociology
- Attempts to place law, regulations, specific legal cases, and the administration of criminal justice into a social context
Where were principles of Canadian Law adopted from?
Britain
What is the Rule of Law?
- No person is above the law, and there should be no arbitrary exercise of state power
- Creation, administration, and application of the law based on acceptable procedures that promote fairness and equality
Historically, what are the 3 approaches to the law?
- Consensus
- Conflict
- Interactionist
What is the consensus view to the law?
- Law is neutral framework for maintaining social cohesion
- Definition of crime is a function of norms, morality
- Applied fairly and uniformly
What is the conflict view of the law?
- Law as a tool to protect the haves from the have-nots
- Protects the property of those in power, suppresses potential political threats to the elites
What sth interactionist view of the law?
- Crime and law reflect opinions of people who impose their definitions of right an wrong on the rest of society
- How we define what we are willing to accept in society
What do critical legal studies focus on?
Contradictions and inconsistencies of the law
What do critical legal studies reject?
Notion that law can ever be value-free
Why do critical legal studies believe laws exist?
Laws exist as a legitimized way to support the interests of specific classes and groups of people
What does critical race theory focus on with law and crime?
Focuses on issues of oppression and discrimination
Which theory believes that racism is an embedded feature of modern society?
Critical Race Theory
What is critical race theory interested in?
Topics such as racial profiling
What actively constructs our sins elf who is “at risk”?
the media
What does the media create? What is this?
Create moral panics: the reaction of a group based on the false of exaggerated perception that some groups of behaviour threatens the well-being of society
Since 1991, has the crime rate significantly increased or decreased?
Decreased
Which province has the highest crime rate?
Saskatchewan
What year was the crime rate at its lowest level in more the 25 years?
2011
What is Canada’s Crime Severity Index (CSI)?
Measures the seriousness of crimes reported to the police.
Where were the highest CSI values? Where were the lowest CSI values?
Highest: NWT and Nunavut
Lowest: Ontario, New Brunswick, PEI
What is notable about the homicide rate?
Remains fairly stable; slight increase in 2011
What is the fear-gender paradox?
Men are more likely than women to be victims of crime; women have higher fear of crime
What are consequences of women’s fear of crime?
Policies such as the Safe Streets Act
What does women’s fear of crime reinforce?
Women’s dependency on men
What does women’s fear of crime shift responsibility from?
Focusing on risk shift responsibility from the state protecting its citizens to individual being responsible for avoiding risk and risky situations.
What can fear of becoming a victim of crime lead to?
Avoidance of outings and interactions which can negatively affect life satisfaction
What is/are public order or victimless crimes?
Acts considered to be crimes based on moral principles (prostitution, gambling, pornography, substance abuse).
What is Moral Regulation used to describe?
How some behaviours become constituted as immoral and are thereby regulated.
What are some examples of moral regulation?
welfare recipients, sex and sexual relationships
What is moral regulation perpetuated through?
discourse
What affects of perception of crime victims?
moral regulation
