Chapter 5: Correlates of Criminal Behavior

Question 1

Definition: Correlate

Answer 1

a phenomenon that accompanies another phenomenon and is related in some way to it

Question 2

6 Major Correlates to Crime

Answer 2

age, gender, race, drug & alcohol use, socio-economic status, spatial location

Question 3

Age as a Correlate

Answer 3

criminal activity intensifies in adolescence and young adulthood (except white collar)

Question 4

Definition: Maturational Reform (3)

Answer 4

theory that people are less likely to commit crimes as they age for 3 reasons

1) Physiological limits
2) Social bonds
3) Responsible trajectory of human agency (ie. getting wasted)

Question 5

Crime as risk taking behavior (3)

Answer 5

1) Young people concerned more with benefits than costs
2) Immediacy weighs heavily
3) “Limited Rationality”

Question 6

Reasons Age is related to crime (3)

Answer 6

1) Individual factors: conduct problems; bullying; unemotional
2) Family background: poor parental supervision; physical abuse; child of convicts more likely
3) Institutional: exposure to juvenile court

Question 7

Romance-crime Nexus

Answer 7

men more likely to offend after breakup

Question 8

Gender as a Correlate

Answer 8

men more likely to commit crimes (9x more homicide); especially violent crimes & serious property offences. Females only higher for drug possession and prostitution

Question 9

Women and Crime

Answer 9

female cases more likely to be withdrawn and have shorter sentences. very few dangerous offenders. women more likely to be killed in spousal homicides

Question 10

Otto Polak’s Explanation for Sex Differences

Answer 10

supposed “greater cunning and deceitfulness” of women

Question 11

Chivalry Thesis

Answer 11

preferential treatment by law enforcement agents and agencies

Question 12

Power Control Theory

Answer 12

in patriarchal families the daughters have very strict rules relayed to them by their mothers that deters them from risk taking. This is not the case in egalitarian families

Question 13

5 Pathways for Women’s Involvement in Crime (Kathleen Daly)

Answer 13

1) Harmed and harming women: endured abuse; difficult family life; substance abuse
2) Battered women: abusive partner is defining factor
3) Street women: suffered serious abuse and are engaged in prostitution, drug selling and theft
4) Drug-connected women: engaged in illicit drug use and sale because of connections
5) Other women: usually engaged in crime for economic gain

Question 14

Convergence Theory

Answer 14

as women’s roles become more like men’s, crime rates will converge (appears to be stable now); limited to petty theft and fraud

Question 15

Race as a Correlate

Answer 15

more minorities in the criminal justice system (blacks in the USA, aboriginals in Canada)

Question 16

Differential Offending Hypothesis

Answer 16

the biological perspective that there are actual differences in racial groups

Question 17

Differential Treatment Hypothesis

Answer 17

structural inequality in administration of justice is responsible; police give more attention; social spaces more surveillance;

Question 18

Cultural Theories

Answer 18

identify traits, characteristics, way of life to explain involvement in criminal justice process; dominant vs subculture idea

Question 19

2 Strains as to Why Aboriginals are Overepresented

Answer 19

1) the view that they are inherently violent
2) Close to cultural conflict theory: their culture is different from the dominant and they are alienated by the norms, laws etc.

Question 20

Criticisms of Cultural Theories

Answer 20

1) Presuppose monolithic & static culture
2) Assume there is “Aboriginal behavior”
3) Pathologize their culture
4) Do not engage with bi-dimensional phenomenon: incorporating their cultures without access to legit opportunity

Question 21

Structural Theories of Crime

Answer 21

situate locus of criminality in historical context and prevailing structures of society; like the distribution of valuable resources (education, jobs etc.). 3 types

Question 22

Colonial Model

Answer 22

Frantz Fanon: a socio-psychological perspective that focuses on the intersection of structural oppression, alienation and 3 adaptive forms of behavior (assimilation, crime, or protest); results in cultural limbo

Question 23

Tatum’s 4 Stages of Colonization

Answer 23

1) Territory of one group invaded by another
2) Colonial society formed; cultural imposition, disintegration and recreation occur
3) Native peoples find themselves governed by colonizer’s representatives
4) Colonial society develops a caste system based on race

Question 24

Definition: Mentacide

Answer 24

deliberate and systematic destruction of a group’s minds with the ultimate objective being extirpation of the group

Question 25

Historic Trauma Transmission Model

Answer 25

Wesley & Smolewski: focus on how historic trauma manifests itself social and psychologically; acculturation associated with negative outcomes; idea of learned helplessness

Question 26

4 ways that traumatic memories are passed down

Answer 26

1) Biological channels: presdispositions
2) Story telling
3) Direct result of violence, deficient parenting etc.
4) Psychological avenues: memory, recollections of pain & suffering

Question 27

Critical Race Theory

Answer 27

Derrick Bell: challenges the policies & dynamics & taken for granted assumptions of institutional power; social constructionist approach; left leaning; legal indeterminacy

Question 28

Definition: Social Constructionist

Answer 28

questions the idea of observable or measurable social reality, proposes a crime is whatever a society defines it to be

Question 29

Assumptions of the Critical Race theory

Answer 29

1) Law reflects dominant groups and favors them
2) Enforcement is biased
3) Law interpretation is subjective
4) Law is not colour blind
5) racism in justice system is normal

Question 30

Definition: Racialization

Answer 30

process whereby categories of the population are constructed, differentiated, inferiorized and excluded

Question 31

Drug & Alcohol Misuse as a Correlate

Answer 31

correlated with mischief, robbery, murder and auto theft; over half of inmates have substance abuse problems

Question 32

3 Factors that link Drug use and crime

Answer 32

1) Efforts to support addiction
2) Under the influence
3) Mere possession

Question 33

Goldstein’s Model for Drug/Crime Correlation

Answer 33

1) Psychopharmacological: drugs can change behavior
2) Economically compulsive: crime committed to feed habit
3) Systemic: violence inherent in involvement with illicit substance (territory disputes etc.)

Question 34

SES as a Correlate

Answer 34

lower classes = more crime (goes back to 18th century in Europe); however, poverty in and of itself does not cause crime; suggested that inequality, rather than SES, causes crime

Question 35

3 key variables of SES

Answer 35

education, income and occupation

Question 36

Wright’s 3 findings for SES-crime link

Answer 36

1) The link is an indirect one: it operates through mediating variables such as attitudes, behavior, neighbourhood etc.
2) Low SES promotes delinquency: because of alienation, financial strain etc.
3) High SES promotes delinquency: less adherence to conventional values; more risk taking/social power

Question 37

Overall SES-Crime link

Answer 37

negative correlation for serious offences; level of education predicts amount of violence; intimate partner violence higher with less education

Question 38

Spatial Location as a Correlate

Answer 38

more crime closer to city centre; larger communities; certain high-risk neighbourhoods (lower income/education); more in Western Canada; more in the Southern states

Question 39

Neighbourhood characteristics

Answer 39

less “collective efficacy” (helping each other out), more immigrants, less opportunities

Question 40

Highest Homicide rates (world/Canada)

Answer 40

World: Turkey/Ukraine
Canada: Thunder Bay/Winnipeg