Crim 101 chapter 1 Flashcards
Define criminology
The study of crime and criminal behavior, which are defined by reference to criminal law.
Define crime
An act punishable by law; an evil act; a shame, a senseless act
When did criminology begin?
In the 19th century
In Canada, when did the study of crime begin in universities?
During 1950s (specifically 1951) at UBC
In the beginning, which department was criminology under?
Department of social sciences
What was four things that the local Haney Correctional Institution do?
- Became a site of an emerging progressive correctional administration
- Concerned about developing educational and vocational programs
- Maintaining family and community ties for offenders
- Developing programs of probation and parole
In the beginning of the program for criminology, was the program short lived or long lived? And for how long?
The program for criminology was short lived as it closed in 1959
What did Denis Szabo do and what year? 1 thing
In 1963, Szabo declared a new discipline and new profession when the school of criminology was created at the Université de Montréal
What did J.L.J. Edwards do and what year? 1 thing
In 1963, Edwards established the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto as a research entity
What did Tadeusz Grygier do and what year? 1 thing
In 1967, Grygier established the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa as an applied interdisciplinary program with courses in both English and French.
What did Ezzat Fattah do and what year? 1 thing
In 1973, Fattah established the Simon Fraser University’s School of Criminology and offered interdisciplinary programs.
At what year to what time did criminology programs emerged within departments of sociology at many universities?
1960s to the present, criminology programs emerged within departments of sociology at many universities
What are four things criminology programs focused on?
- Understanding crime as a form of deviance
- Study the processes of defining criminal law
- Social precursors to involvement in crime
- The potential range of appropriate and/or effective responses to lawbreakers
Define deviance
Behavior that differs from accepted social norms; may include acts that violate specific rules (crime), sexual behaviors, or non-criminal acts that challenge accepted values.
When did the study of crime merged as a subject of scholarly inquiry?
1960s and 1970s
Previously, what was the study of crime limited to? 3 type of people
Philosophers, theologians and politicians
What were three countries that experience a rapid growth of criminology?
Canada
United Kingdom
United States
What were the two key features of social life in Canada, United Kingdom and United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries?
Urbanization and industrialization
What did the crime related to the behaviors of the urban poor result in? 3 things
New proscriptions (bans) were enacted against vagrancy, drunkenness and prostitution.
What were two things happening in the late 19th and early 20th century?
- A lot of people were migrating to urban areas and more crimes arose which was related to the behaviors of urban poor. As a result, new proscriptions (ban) were enacted against vagrancy, drunkenness and prostitution.
- The beginning of globalization where immigrants were threatening the current economy because they work cheaper. They also brought in drugs and other illegal things to Canada (like opium and cocaine). As a result, alternatives to tobacco and alcohol were prohibited and laws were passed to aid deportation of foreign drug peddlers and restrict immigration.
What did immigrants of China bring to Canada? what about immigrants of India? Of South America?
China brought opium.
India brought hashish
South America brought coca and cocaine
Overall, culture was changing. It was becoming more urban and more global and changes _____ _______
Overall, culture was changing. It was becoming more urban and more global and changes created tensions.
What kind of tensions did changes to culture bring? 3 things
- Challenges to traditional institutions and ways of thinking
- Practice of capital punishment began to be criticized
- Reformers began to advocate for more humane treatment of lawbreakers and more economic support for urban poor
What kind of advantages did changes to culture and globalization bring? 2 things
Growth in literacy and greater access to information
Who was Timothy Leary?
A counter-cultural leader that advocated for mind-active drugs usage
In 1960s, at what period of time did crime rates began to escalate?
In the time of youth rebellion, crime rates began to escalate
Define demographics
Statistical data relating to characteristics of a population, such as relative size of age groups, gender balance, or any other measurable information
Why were the crime rates increasing for males in the mid-1960s?
Because the percentage of young males within the populations of Canada, United States and the United Kingdom increased dramatically which increased the crime rate for males.
Define correlation
The finding that two measurable phenomena occur together, suggesting a relationship, but not necessarily one of direct cause and effect
What are two things that seem to correlate with the rate of crime?
Age and gender
Fun fact: the difficult task for criminologists is
to try to understand the significance of the correlation between age and sex and crime rates in order to construct an effective criminal justice policy
What are five things that occurred from 1966 to 1975?
- Alcohol consumption increased dramatically by about 50% per capita
- Introduction to birth control pill changed male-female relationship as it enables women to experiment with sex without risk of pregnancy
- Divorce rate increased fourfold
- Number of women in the labour force increased from 2.2 million to 5.5 million
- The four things mentioned above contributed to the increased of crime rates
How is criminology an interdisciplinary program? 9 things
It draws from sociology, psychology, law, geography, history, political science and economics. With developments in the use of DNA and in forensic entomology, it also draws from chemistry and biology.
Define forensic entomology
The study of insects to assist in legal investigations; insects found on a corpse can help identify facts about the time and place of the victim’s death.
How is psychology used in criminology? 3 ways
- To identify the criminal
- To predict the risk of reoffending
- To evaluate the effectiveness of various forms of rehabilitation or treatment
How is sociological analyses of crime used in criminology?
- Social forces work to define crime and create conditions in which lower or increase crime rates
- Point out social and structural changes that might be made in order to effectively respond to the challenges that crime presents
- Used to create theories of crimes so that we can prevent it.
What is sociological analyses focused on?
Social order
What is psychology focused on?
The study of individual behavior
Define criminality
The state of being criminal; criminal acts or practices
What are 9 things sociological analyses give rise to?
- social control theory
- labeling theory
- differential association theory
- notions of anomie
- Moral panics
- Culture of control
- Marxian and neo-Marxian analysis
- Foucauldian perspectives
- postmodern conceptions of criminality
What is more likely to drive crime and criminal conduct? social conditions or individual aberrations
Social conditions
What are 3 things that are pre-eminent when it comes to criminology?
Law, deviance and social analyses of crime`
How does the study of law help criminology? 3 ways
- It defines the landscape of crime
- Sets out the specifics of prohibited behaviors
- Sets the specifics of the penalties that are attached to certain crimes
How does the history of law help criminology? 3 things
- Provides insight into the changing nature of crime especially the malleability of some forms of deviance and the evolving nature of what might be viewed as appropriate responses to crime.
- It indicates how and why new forms of criminality are created
- Reveals changing responses to long-established and universally condemned forms of conduct
Fun fact: study of amendments to criminal law over time and the debates surrounding these amendments reflect changes not only to the punishment of crime but also to the logic and utility of these changes
wow
What are 5 subjects central to criminology?
Law, psychology, sociology, biology, and chemistry
What are 4 subjects less central to criminology?
History, geography, political science and economics
How does the 4 less central subjects contribute to criminology? 2 ways
- Recurring patterns within the social and spatial geography of crime have been critical to the development of programs of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and the tracking of serial predatory offenders across time and space.
- Economics allow investigators to conduct expensive investigations and run crime reduction programs
How does biology and chemistry contribute to criminology? 2 ways
Biology allows to utilize DNA and to determine time of death. Chemistry allows to collect evidence
Define inculpatory
Evidence that establish guilt
Define exculpatory
Evidence that remove guilt
Define criminalization
To define an act as a crime and thereby subject that act to formal punishment
What do criminologists study?
Dependent in part on the field of their training and the lens or framework through which they understand the realities of crime
How does we determine whether specific crimes have increased or decreased over time within specific jurisdictions? two things
- By using data from nation-states and from police report (through the uniform crime reporting survey) and compare the trends, patterns and increase and decrease of a crime.
- Through surveys of criminal victimization (such as the General Social Survey)
What is wrong with replying on police data/reports? 3 things
The data depends:
- on the willingness of victims to report a particular crime
- The perceived significance of an incident by the victim
- Both individual and societal attitudes toward involvement with police and the criminal justice system
Define the criminal justice system
The various institutions and processes through which an offender passes such as the police, the courts, and correctional facilities and programs.
Fun fact: crime rate dropped in Canada and US
During the 1990s to present
Are explanations for increase/decrease crime rates universal or not?
The explanation are not universal
Why are explanation for the increase or decrease crime rate not universal? Give a counterexample
A crime like motor vehicle theft dropped in Canada because of motor alarm improvements where as some other country could have this same decrease for different reasons(more police or camera)
Did crime rate for homicides in Canada and the US increase or decrease in the late 1970s? By how much?
The crime rates for homicides in Canada and US has decreased by almost half in the late 1970s
Crime rates ______ in the late 1960s and early 1970s while crime rates _______ in the last 20 Years
Crime rates increased in the late 1960s and early 1970s while crime rates decreased in the last 20 Years
How do we reduce the impact of crime has on us?
By understanding how and why particular kinds of crime increase and decrease over time
While many forms of personal property crime have declined in the past 20 years….. (3 things)
Online victimization, identity theft, and credit card fraud have all dramatically increased
What are four important parts of criminology?
- Understanding the creation of criminal law
- Concomitant penalties
- Changing crime rates
- Understanding why particular individuals commit crime and why some continue to do so and why some don’t.
What age and gender commit the most crime? What are two characteristics of these type of people?
Most young male (between ages 15 and 34) commit the most crime. They tend to have few resources and little education.
What did Cesare Lombroso argue for about criminality?
Lombroso argued that criminality was a biological trait (people where “born as criminals”)
What did William Sheldon argued for about criminality?
Sheldon argued that body type (or somatotyping) is strongly linked to criminal behavior with well-muscled mesomorphs more likely to commit criminal offences
Was Lombroso or Sheldon right about their argument? And why?
Both were unable to to provide much empirical support to their argument.
Fun fact: Research in the past 20-30 years has begun to regard
criminal conduct as a complex mix of biology and environment
Define traits
Those attributes or features that distinguish or characterize an individual
Does biology predetermine criminality?
No
What are three things that individuals can have that predispose them to crime?
Personality traits
Characteristics
Acquired trauma (Brain damage)
What did Sarnoff Mednick, William Gabrielli Jr. and Barry Hutchings researched and discovered?
They researched how environment and family ties can affect adopted children and identical into crime.
They discovered that the children were more likely to commit crime if their biological father had criminal records.
What is two examples of acquired trauma that can predispose individuals to crimes?
An example is the frontal lobe damage which has been linked to aggressive behavior. Another example is the prevalence of brain injuries in prison populations has been very clearly identified as both disproportionate to the general population and a significant risk factor for reoffending
What are two things criminologists have to consider when understanding criminality?
Biological predisposition and environmental influences
What is the onset of a crime influenced by? two things
The interaction of biological risks and a dysfunctional environment, often characterized by physical and emotional abuse and neglect
The study of criminal has also allowed us the opportunity to understand that often _____ ______ support exists for some of our populist concepts.
The study of criminal has also allowed us the opportunity to understand that often little empirical support exists for some of our populist concepts.
Define empirical
That which is understood or verified through experiment, measurement or direct observation; as opposed to theoretical
Sex offenders are a more ______ population
Sex offenders are a more diverse population
How are sex offenders classified?
They are classified as anti-social deviants who commit a range of crimes, some of which happen to be sex offences.
Do sex offenders have a high or low rate of reoffending?
They have a relatively low rates of reoffending
Define stigmatize
To strongly disapprove of a person or behavior; to find disgraceful.
What are two advantages for studying an individual offender and two disadvantages?
Two advantages:
- Better understanding of the difficulties that offenders face
- Better understanding of the challenges that we have in responding appropriately and humanely to their circumstances
Two disadvantages:
- Those who study them often fail to take account of social conditions
- Demonize and stigmatize offenders
What does CPTED stand for?
Crime prevention through environmental design
What is CPTED? 2 points
- It is a multi-disciplinary approach and almost all of its interventions apply to an urban environment, using landscape and lighting design to increase natural surveillance and
- It seeks to manage crime by decreasing the opportunity and an individual’s motivation for committing crime and by increasing the risk to the offender if the crime is committed
Define interventions
Strategies intended to shape the physical environment to mitigate crime; also various programs targeting individual offenders, offering alternatives to criminal behavior
What do critics say the disadvantages of CPTED? 2 disadvantages
- Environmental design only displace crime to less-protected environment and does not address the root causes of or motivations for criminal offences
- CPTED shifts the responsibility for crime prevent away from the state and onto the individual by expecting citizens to follow the crime prevention advice
_____ _____ is aligned with CPTED
Geographic profiling is aligned with CPTED
Define geographic profiling
A tool that permits police officers to focus on the likely residence of offenders in cases of serial crimes
How does geographic profiling contribute to CPTED?
It draws on an understanding of urban environments and the behaviors of serial predatory offenders and it uses mathematical tools to determine the likely residence of a given offender
Who developed geographic profiling?
Kim Rossmo
What is electronic monitoring?
Involves an individual, usually an offender, wearing an electronic device that allows his or her location to be monitored through a control centre
What is electronic monitoring also known as?
Electronic tagging
What are 1 advantage of electronic monitoring?
- Avoids both the cost of placing the offender in a correctional facility and well-documented negative impacts of incarceration on the individual
What are two disadvantages of electronic monitoring?
- Electronic monitoring’s potential for net widening and for demeaning intrusions into personal privacy
- Electronic monitoring device can be remove and has a limited range
Define net widening
Imposing a form of control on individuals who might otherwise not be subject to such control
Fun fact: Electronic monitoring is an effective public safety alternative to the use of imprisonment, reducing reoffending for the individuals placed under such surveillance.
wow
What happened in the trial of O.J. Simpson?
- Convicted for the 1994 murder of his wife
- DNA evidence were used to convict him thanks to deoxyribonucleic acid
What is deoxyribonucleic acid?
A molecule used to encode genetic instructions in all living organisms. It is like a fingerprint identification but with genetics. Also referred as genetic fingerprinting.
What were the two people who have been compensated for their wrongful convictions thanks to DNA evidence?
Morin and Milgaard
Suppose crime was like a system. How does Canada become exposed to increased crime rates? What are the symptoms of it? How do we investigate this problem? How do we fix it? (5 solutions)
Canada can become exposed to increased crime rates through immigration and changes in family structure. The symptoms are increased crime rates. We can investigate it through criminology programs offered at university. We can fix the issue through community programs, community policing, hot spot policing, crime prevention through environmental design, situational crime prevent and etc.
What is two things that are in the foundation of criminology?
Theories and methods
What are criminology courses are there? 9 things
- Policing
- Corrections
- Criminal law
- Sentencing
- Penology
- Juvenile delinquency
- Drugs and crime
- White collar crime
- Criminal investigations
What do some theorists in criminology described themselves as?
Critical criminologists
What do critical criminologists focus on? 2 things
Critical criminologists focus on the power of the state and its potential for abuse
What do rational choice theorists argue?
They argue that crime occurs as a consequence of rational choice made by willing actors
What does a prominent department of criminology focus on? (7 things)
Teaching theories related to anomie, differential association, social control, social disorganization, routine activities, deterrence and developmental approaches.
What are 9 theories that guide criminology and criminologists? IMPORTANT
Rational choice, learning theory, teaching theories related to anomie, differential association, social control, social disorganization, routine activities, deterrence and developmental approaches.
What methods are used by criminologists? two methods
Qualitative approach
Quantitative approach
Define qualitative
The study of phenomena based not on measurement but an exploration of the reasons for human behavior and the qualities of subjective experience.
Define quantitative
Relating to the measurement of something - its quantity - rather than its qualities
What are two professions that are likely to employ qualitative methods of analysis?
Lawyers and sociologists
What are two professions that are likely to employ quantitative methods?
Psychologists and economists
Define mixed methods approach
The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods
What did Adam Trahan and Daniel Stewart argue for? 2 things
- They argued that the current divide between quantitative and qualitative research is restricting our ability to develop a coherent understanding of crime and criminal justice
- They also argued that the mixed methods approaches can overcome this obstacle
Data from police-generated forms. Is that quantitative data or qualitative data?
It is quantitative data
Suppose we want to know whether the extent, nature and character of homicide have changed in Canada over a 50-year span. What can we document? 5 things
We can document changing rates, any changes over time in the methods used to commit such crime, the gender and age of victims and suspects, provincial and municipal differences in prevalence and potentially changing motivations for these killings.
What are 2 steps of quantitative methods
- Engaging in a systematic empirically-based inquiry and using numerical data
- Depending on mathematical, statistical or computational techniques
What are two drawbacks to qualitative methods?
- They cannot be applied to a much larger group of individuals
- The qualitative method used has limited number of participants or number of data points therefore it lacks reliability
Why can’t qualitative methods be applied to a large group of individuals?
Because the techniques (like field observations or semi-structured interviews) used for this method are more subjective and more likely to be affected by the differing approaches and potential biases and inclinations of individual interviewers.
What are two techniques of qualitative methods?
- Field observations
2. Semi-structured interviews
How does the value of qualitative data increase?
The value of qualitative data increases as it becomes more similar to the quantitative data. This can be done by conducting more interviews and researches in different areas of the world.
How does qualitative data become more relevant and have more utility?
By conducting more interviews and researches in different areas of the world.
What is the Achilles heel of qualitative research?
Gathering qualitative data through lots of researches and interviews through different areas of the world.
What is the big tent approach?
All credible approaches are welcome in criminology in order to understand how and why individuals commit crimes, and what can be done to decrease the likelihood of reoffending.
Who created the big tent approach?
Rob Gordon
What is two disadvantage of quantitative method?
- Disadvantages of quantitative data analysis: collect a much narrower and sometimes superficial dataset. results are limited as they provide numerical descriptions rather than detailed narrative and generally provide less elaborate accounts of human perception.
- It inevitably point to correlations rather than cause-effect relationships.
What does SCP stand for?
Situational Crime Prevention
What do SCP focus on?
SCP focus on reducing the crime rates by increasing the risk for offenders and decreasing the opportunities to commit crime
Who created SCP and when?
Ronald V. Clarke in 1980s
What are three deviance that was first illegal and then became legal?
- Homosexuality (gay) was illegal in late 19th century and then became legal
- Abortions was illegal in 19th century and then became legal
- Marijuana possession is illegal and is becoming legal.
What are three key questions we must attempt to answer when we want to understand crime in the present and the future of our society?
What to criminalize and how to respond to crime?
What does the best evidence tell us about our responses to crime and their effectiveness?
Can the study of crime help us to respond to emerging challenges?
Draw figure 1.2
Check page 15 for figure 1.2
