Criminology Final Flashcards
Critical criminologists
Researchers who view crime as a function of the capitalist mode of production and not the social conflict that might occur in any society regardless of its economic system.
Critical criminology
The view that capitalism produces haves and have-nots, each engaging in a particular branch of criminality. The mode of production shapes social life. Because economic competiveness is the essence of capitalism, conflict increases and eventually destabilized social institutions and the individuals within them.
Communist Manifesto
In this document, Marx focused his attention of the economic conditions perpetuated by the capitalist system. He stated that its development had turned workers into a dehumanized mass who lived an existence that was at the mercy of their capitalist employers.
Productive forces
Technology, energy sources, and material resources
Productive relations
the relationship that exist among the people producing goods and services.
Capitalist bourgeoisie
The owners of the means of production
Proletariat
A term used by Marx to refer to the working class members of society who produce goods and services but who do not own the means of production
Lumpen proletariat
The fringe members at the bottom of society who produce nothing and live, parasitically, off the work of others.
dialect method
For every idea, or thesis, there exists an opposing argument, or antithesis. Because neither position can ever be truly accepted, the results is a merger of the two ideas, a synthesis. Marx adapted this analytic method for his study of class struggle.
Thesis
In the philosophy of Hegel, an original idea or though.
antithesis
an opposing argument
synthesis
a merger of two opposing ideas.
supranational criminology
The study of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the supranational penal system in which such crimes are prosecuted and tried.
Surplus value
The Marxist view that the laboring classes produce wealth that fa exceeds their wages and goes to the capitalist class as profits
Marginalization
Displacement of workers, pushing them outside the economic and social mainstream.
Dropout factories
High schools in which the completion rate is consistently 40 percent or less
globalization
The process of creating transnational markets, politics, and legal systems in an effort to form and sustain a global economy.
state-organized crime
Acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials, either elected or appointed, in pursuit of their jobs as government representatives.
Instrumental theory
The view that criminal law and the criminal justice system are capitalist instruments for controlling the lower class.
Structural theory
The view that criminal law and the criminal justice system are means of defending and preserving the capitalist system.
demystify
To unmask the true purpose of law, justice, or other social institutions.
left realism
A approach that views crime as a function of relative deprivation under capitalism and that favors pragmatic, community-based crime prevention and control.
Preemptive deterrence
Efforts to prevent crime through community organization and youth involvement
critical feminism
An area of scholarship whose focus is on the effects of gender inequality and the unequal power of men and women in a capitalist society
Patriarchy
A society in which men dominate public, social, economic, and political affairs
Paternalistic families
Traditional family model in which fathers assume the role of breadwinners, while mothers tend to have menial jobs or remain at home to supervise domestic matters.
Role exit behaviors
In order to escape from a stifling life in male dominated families, girls may try to break away by running away or even attempting suicide
egalitarian families
Families in which spouses share similar positions of power at home and in the workplace
power-control theory
The view that gender differences in crime are a function of economic power (class position, one-earner versus two-earner families) and parental control (egalitarian families)
Peacemaking
An approach that considers punitive crime control strategies to be counterproductive and favors the use of humanistic conflict resolution to prevent and control crime
Restorative justice
Using humanistic, nonpunitive strategies to right wrongs and restore social harmony
shame
the feeling we get when we don’t meet the standards we have set for ourselves or that significant others have set for us.
reintegrative shaming
A method of correction that encourages offenders to confront their misdeeds, experience shame because of the harm they caused, and then be reincluded in society.
sentencing circle
A peacemaking technique in which offenders, victims, and other community members are brought together in an effort formulate a sanction that addresses the needs of all.
developmental criminology
A view of criminal behavior that places emphasis on the changes people go through over the life course. It presents a criminal career as a dynamic process involving onset, continuity, persistence, acceleration, and eventual desistance from criminal behavior, controlled by individual level traits and conditions
Life course theories
Theoretical views studying changes in criminal offending patterns over a person’s entire life.
Latent trait theories
Theoretical views that criminal behavior is controlled by a master trait, present at birth or soon after, that remains stable and unchanging throughout a person’s lifetime
Trajectory theory
A view of criminal career formation that holds there are multiple paths to crime
Population heterogeneity
The view that the propensity of an individual to participate in antisocial behavior is relatively stable trait, unchanging over their life course.
State dependent
The propensity to commit crime profoundly and permanently disrupts normal socialization. Early rule breaking strengthens criminal motivation and increases the probability of future rule breaking.
Problem behavior syndrome (PBS)
A cluster of antisocial behaviors that may include family dysfunction, substance abuse, smoking, precocious sexuality and early pregnancy, educational underachieving, suicide attempts, sensation seeking, and unemployment, as well as crime.
Integrated theories
Models of crime causation that weave social and individual variables into a complex explanatiory chain.
Age-graded theory
A developmental theory that posits that traits and experiences matter to criminal disposition.
Turning points
According to Laub and Sampson, the life events that alter the development of a criminal career.
Cumulative disadvantage
A condition in which repeated negative experiences in adolescence undermine life chances and reduce employability and social relations. People who increase their cumulative disadvantage risk continued offending
Social Capital
Positive relations with individuals and institutions that are life sustaining
Social schemas
Cognitive frameworks that help people quickly process and sort through information
Criminogenic knowledge structure (CKS)
The view that negative life events are connected and produce a hostile view of people and relationships, preference for immediate rewards, and a cynical view of conventional norms.
Propensity
An inclination or tendency to behave in a particular way
latent trait
A stable feature, characteristic, property, or condition, present at birth or soon after, that makes some people crime prone over the life course
General Theory of Crime (GTC)
According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, a developmental theory that modifies social control theory by integrating concepts from biosocial, psychological, routine activities, and rational choice theories.
Self-control
A strong moral sense that renders a person incapable of hurting others or violating social norms
Self-control theory
According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, the view that the cause of delinquent behavior is an impulsive personality. Kids who are impulsive may find that their bond to society is weak.
Authority conflict pathway
The path to a criminal career that begins with early stubborn behavior and defiance of parents.
Covert pathway
A path to a criminal career that begins with minor underhanded behavior and progresses to fire starting and theft
Overt pathway
Pathway to a criminal career that begins with minor aggression, leads to physical fighting, and eventually escalates to violent crime.
Adolescent-limited offender
Offender who follows the most common criminal trajectory, in which antisocial behavior peaks in adolescence and then diminishes.
Life course persister
One of the small group of offenders whose criminal career continues well into adulthood
Instrumental violence
Violence used in an attempt to improve the financial or social position
Expressive violence
Violence that is designed not for profit or gain but to vent rage, anger, or frustrations
Cycle of violence
A hypothesis that suggests that a childhood history of physical abuse predisposes survivors to becoming violent themselves in later years.
Violentization process
According to Lonnie Athens, the process by which abused children are turned into aggressive adults. This process takes violent youths full circle from being the victims of aggression to being its initiators; they are now the same person they grew up despising, ready to begin the process with their own children.
crusted over
Children who have been victims of r witnesses to violence ad do not let people inside, nor do they express their feelings. They exploit others and in turn and exploited by those older and stronger; as a result, they develop a sense of hopelessness
Subculture of violence
Norms and customs that, in contrast o society’s dominant values system, legitimize and expect the use of violence to resolve social conflicts.
Disputatiousness
Behavior within culturally defined conflict situations in which an individual who has been offended by a negative outcome in a dispute seeks reparations through violent means.
Gang rape
Forcible sex involving multiple attackers
Serial rape
Multiple rapes committed by one person over time
