criminology test 1 (what is crim - law enters the chat)

Question 1

What is criminology?

Answer 1

Criminology is the scientific study of crime, criminal behavior and the criminal legal system. –>
Understanding the causes and consequences of crime in our society, how do our systems of punishment work,

-Politics define criminal behavior and the shape of our legal system

Question 2

What are Criminologists interested in?

Answer 2

• The social and structural causes of criminal behavior
• How society views crime and people who have been criminalized
• Basis of our laws → how to they come to be or change over time?

Question 3

How is crim Multidisciplinary

Answer 3

• Criminologists can come from different academic backgrounds
• Criminologists may disagree on the causes and consequences of crime
• Criminology has always been seen as multidisciplinary
• Contemporary criminology is more interdisciplinary

Question 4

Criminalization meaning

Answer 4

the action of turning an activity into a criminal offense by making it illegal.
and the action of turning someone into a criminal by making their activities illegal.

Question 5

Criminological interests

Answer 5

• Fear of crime
• Victimology
• Deviance
• Crime statistics
• Crime prevention
• Juvenile delinquency
• Gangs
• Rehabilitation
• Whether someone reoffends the law

Question 6

mala in se / malum prohibitum

Answer 6

Difference between acts that are mala in se (commonly agreed they are wrong) and malum prohibitum (prohibited by law, but not widely agreed upon as crimes)

Question 7

What is a crime?

Answer 7

• Definitions of what constitutes a crime are socially constructed
• When activities are deemed illegal, or people are treated as criminals, they are criminalized

Question 7

mores/folkways

Answer 7

• Several acts can violate held mores or folkways (a norm) but still not criminal
  –> Folkways represent the customs and norms in daily life
  –> Mores extend to informal codes related to right or wrong or ethical or unethical actions
• Mores may extend to crime

Question 7

Importance of Definitions

Answer 7

• Consensus definitions are essential to assess the nature and extent of crime in our society
• Definitions are necessary to identify the behaviors, individuals, and groups of study
• Clear definitions allow for comparative of scholarships
• Can distort representations of crime if definitions are not used
  –> Ex the definition of gangs in the media

Question 8

Informal and formal sanctions

Answer 8

• Informal sanctions are actions like side-eyeing someone when they’re acting outside of the norm
• Formal sanctions are punishments doled out by authorities like the police
• This isn’t just about constraint, it is about coordination
• There’s a template for acceptable behaviour to avoid bad experiences

Question 8

Hagans typology of deviance

Answer 8

• Considers whether behaviors are labeled as deviant or if they are criminalized
• Hagan considers the degree of social harm, the severity of the social response, and agreement about the term
• While some crimes are widely seen as harmful, there is a lack of consensus about many others

Question 9

What is a norm?

Answer 9

It’s kind of an operation that produces normal - how we’re expected to behave
- We have to be disciplined into norms

Question 9

Thinking sociologically and criminologically about criminalization

Answer 9

• Crime is both historically and culturally relative
• As society changes we see that certain behaviours have become legal while others have been made illegal
• The concept of criminalization captures how crime and criminals are socially constructed
• For the purposes of this course, we will consider crime and deviance sociologically

Question 10

What is social control?

Answer 10

“All those mechanisms and resources by which members of society attempt to assure the norm-conforming behavior of others” - Chriss (2022:7)
–> Social control enlists us to project/reinforce norms

–> When someone breaks the norms, they get shamed by society
- Sanctions are a mechanism of social control

Question 11

Solidarity is a social fact

Answer 11

• Durkheim had a concept that solidarity is essential to a well-functioning society
• Solidarity is important for the labor movement - fair trade
  -It’s a fundamental feature of every society everywhere
• A society without it - social fracture, conflict
• Forms of solidarity change along with society

Question 12

Mechanical solidarity vs organic solidarity

Answer 12

Mechanical solidarity: Solidarity built on a shared belief system. Because of this, punishments were harsher. Small, rural, agricultural, culturally homogeneous. Group interest takes precedence over individual needs.

Organic solidarity: Interdependent relationship due to job specialization, weaker group cohesion and anonymity, after the industrial revolution

Question 13

What is Social differentiation

Answer 13

“the distinction made between social groups and persons on the basis of biological, physiological, and sociocultural factors, as sex, age, or ethnicity, resulting in the assignment of roles and status within a society.”

Question 14

Durkheim on discipline

Answer 14

• Discipline is not punishment. It’s about cultivation and habituation, demonstrating what is sensible and possible ex. schools teaching kids how to behave

Power dynamics - it’s as much about production as constraint
- Organizes society in Durkheim’s perspective

Question 15

Thinking about crime in our society

Answer 15

• The enforcement of conflict crimes tends to target marginalized groups
• The law, as a living expression of our collective social norms, can change according to changes in public sentiment
• Crimes are a representation of our collective social norms
• Changes in the law and formal social control practices shape crime data
• The law evolves and changes

Question 15

Crimes in our society

Answer 15

• Including our official classifications, what are some other crime typologies:
  –> Violent crimes and Property crimes
  –> White collar crimes
  –> Hate crimes
  –> Victimless’ crimes
  (Not a clear victim)

In crim, we talk about violent crimes, property, white collar, organized and victimless or consensual crimes

Question 16

Violent crimes and crime trends

Answer 16

• Violent crimes tends to be the focus of public discussion (but Least common)
• Concern of violent crimes must be considered against crime rates
  In canada, we can examine trends in crime types using the crime severity index (CSI) and crime rates
• The decrease in crime can be attributed to multiple factors such as reporting rates (due to views on the police) and economics and land
  Csi looks at the seriousness of crime based on average sentences
• Crime rates look at overall volume of crimes in society
• Severity is based on the sentence of the offense

Question 17

Mens rea/actus rea

Answer 17

In a courtroom, the Crown will draw on concepts of mens rea or actus rea to determine a proper sentence
Actus rea is the action of committing the offense, mens rea is the intention to commit the offense (guilty mind), extends to all types of crimes

Question 18

Homocides

Answer 18

• Most research in criminology is focused on homicides
• Homicides in Canada are uncommon but the impacts are arguably the most devastating
• In our CLS homicides are distinguished by degrees of intention, from first degree, premeditated acts to manslaughter (crimes of passion, involuntary → negligence)

Question 19

Property crimes

Answer 19

-Involve people engaging in acts that violate the law for financial reward
- More common than violent crimes, but less fear of property crimes
- Seen as less harmful and at times, victimless
- The harms and costs of homicides are clear, but this is less so for property crimes
- There are measures in place to minimize the damage of these crimes
- Law abiding people may engage in property crimes more often

Question 20

Crime trends in canada

Answer 20

• Overall declines in both violent and property crime rates
• Upticks in crime severity indexes, especially for violent crimes
• Changes in certain offending patterns are concentrated in our city centers
• Most property crimes are committed by amateurs, lack of planning, opportunistic
• High level crimes are less likely to get caught ex. Low level drug trafficking to high

How police act, how they report crimes, tells us about crime severity in the society

Question 21

Why is crime data important?

Answer 21

• Crime data helps to shape our perceptions of crime and criminal justice system
• A study showed that Canadians had a distorted view of crime, the thought that violent crime is more common than it actually is, that the rate is rising rather than declining, that the volume is much higher than it actually is
  –> Because of exaggerated media coverage and social media
• Crime data came from official and unofficial sources, as well as personal and vicarious experiences
• Narratives about crime wont always align with expert knowledge

Question 22

Sources of crime data

Answer 22

• Official data can include uniform crime reports (UCR), data collected by the courts, and correctional data
• Unofficial data can include victimization and self-report surveys, academic studies and studies done by NGOs
• UCR includes all reported crimes or detected by the police, to a central reporting system

Question 23

Benefits of working with official crime data

Answer 23

• Collected in a standardized way
• Comparisons over time
• The ability to track crime trends and patterns

Question 24

What is the law? Functional

Answer 24

“…but a response to social needs.” (Hoebel, 1954)
–> Functional
Law is something that changes along with society → new laws are formed when new social issues need to be addressed

Question 24

Drawbacks to working with official crime data

Answer 24

• Missing or unfounded cases
• Only detects crimes police report, not all crimes that occur
  –> Estimated 50% of serious violent crimes don’t get reported to police
  –> Around 80% of property crimes are not reported
• Sensitivity to police practices
• Changes in law can impact the data
  Ex. not charging those under 18
  –> Not entirely neutral

Question 25

Law is make believe

Answer 25

• Our beliefs form law
• Law is artificial
• In contemporary societies, we no longer look to religion to provide our laws
  –> Changes the connotation from permanence and transcendence when it’s set by a higher power to something we can control and shift

–> It becomes real in its consequences
- Law doesn’t so much work against us as through us
We don’t have to like what we consent to → we don’t have to fully endorse it to follow it

Question 26

What is the law? Teleological

Answer 26

“…the organization of human happiness.” (Ward, 1906)
Teleological
Creating the ideal world using laws → creating a reality that doesn’t exist yet

Question 27

What is the law? Expressive

Answer 27

“…the function of law is sometimes ‘making statements’ as opposed to controlling behavior directly.” (Sunstein 1996)
Expressive
Laws are the keeper of moral values in society
Attitudes on certain topics may change based on the law

Question 28

Legitimacy

Answer 28

“The basis of every system of authority, and correspondingly of every kind of willingness to obey, is a belief, a belief by virtue of which persons exercising authority are lent prestige.”
- Max Weber

• people need to believe in the authority of the law to conform
• There must be one rule-maker in a society, rule followers must know what to do
• Legitimacy comes into question when these conditions are no longer met Or when people believe they can enact change themselves
  (Weber called this a legitimation crisis)