Critical Crim - Criminology of the Powerful Flashcards
What does the criminology of the powerful in critical crim do that other criminological stand points do not?
Making crimes committed by the state, private business, organisations and corporations, and members of the upper-class a central concern in criminological studies.
Edwin Sutherland accused criminologists of what?
Accused criminologists of ignoring the illegal activities of those in business, politics, and obsessing about the criminal underworld.
3 things about Sutherland on White-collar crime?
- Conventional criminologists theories of his time ignored big business and focused almost exclusively on explaining the low-class criminality
- Came to the conclusion that people in position of power and authority were fundamentally engaging in forms of organised crime, but not treated as such.
- WCC threatened the lawable aspects of the American economic system.
3 factors to why we assume that only the poor & disadvantage commit crime?
- The judges
- The State & The Law
- The Media
3 things about Frank Pearce and Crimes of the Powerful?
(Year?)
- First scholar to use the term CoP
- A critique of orthodox criminology, uncritical support for law and order and crime as pathological behaviour
- Understanding why crimes of the powerful have been historically neglected by criminologists
1976
1 limit of criminology in CoP?
Criminal statistics show unequally that crime has a high incidence in the lower class and a low incidence in the upper class.
what limits come with criminologists using criminal statics derived from the CJ agencies to formulate general theories?
- The conventional explanations are invalid because they are derived from biased samples
- The samples do not include the criminal behaviour of business or professional men
4 Reasons why there are biased statistics?
- Because the upper-class have political and financial power to escape arrest or conviction
- hired skilled attorneys
- Influence the administration of justice
- Dealt with through administrative and civil procedures rather than criminal courts (not seen as “criminal”)
Sutherland ridicules theories of crime that…?
Ridicules theories of crime that blamed poverty, broken homes, absent fathers, poor education, for crime.
- The wealthy elite and persons in position of power also commit crime, but receive different treatment.
The study of CoP is not merely about crime, it is really about…?
(Who, Year?)
CoP is not merely about crime, it is really about Power and the institutionally powerful who have become the central agents of power in contemporary societies
Whyte, 2009
What does the criminology of the Powerful challenge?
- Challenging criminology’s individualistic focus on the cause of crime
- Questioning the legitimacy of a state-sanctioned criminology
- Bringing politics into criminology
3 things about state crime in critical criminology?
- The role of the sovereign, hardly considered in criminology
- Violence by the states and governments can be incredibly destructive
- State has been absent in criminological research
state crime is defined as?
(who, year?)
Acts defines by laws as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of their job as representative of the state
Chambliss, 1989
Chambliss states 3 things about state crime?
(Year?)
- States have historically engaged in money laundering, assassinations and more
- Crime is central to understanding capitalism’s historical transformation
- Crime is a political phenomena
1989
4 limits of Chambliss definition?
- Its a legal definition, meaning it restricts scientific inquiry to those acts defined by legislators as criminal
- Tends to exclude some of the most harmful acts
- Committed by the people who make and enforce the laws
- Historically some of the most heinous social harms were not criminal but in fact were legally sanctioned
