Exam 1 Flashcards
What is the red tape idiom?
Regulations used to hinder or prevent bureaucratic decision-making
What are the Dublin regulations?
Once a refugee flees a country, they must stay in the first country they fled to
Why are refugees often criminalized?
They lack proper identification
Who was the thinker behind the Nightmare of the Bureaucracy?
Weber
What did Weber believe?
Authority figures distrust people, even if they follow the rules
Why is deviance and crime difficult to define?
Because it is a social construct with different interpretations
What is crime? (Historically)
Behaviour in violation of the law
What is the modern definition of crime? (Based on classical theory)
Laws should be established when social harm occurs
When do crimes vary?
Across space, time, and culture
What is an example of when a crime changed over time?
Same-sex rights in Canada which were once illegal are now legal
How do Gottfredson and Hirschi define crime?
As the use of force and fraud
How do Downes and Rock define crime?
(Avoid precise definition) A banned or controlled behaviour which is likely to attract punishment or disapproval
What does Becker suggest about deviance?
That it is merely a label
What are traits of positivists?
Abolitionism, objectivism, and determinism
What are the traits of constructivists?
Relative, subjectivism, and voluntarism
What is conformity?
Adherence to norms
What is non-conformity?
Normative violation without reaction
What is deviance?
Normative violation with reaction
What is crime?
Violation of codified law
What is synopticism?
The public takes the elite’s views and uses them as their moral compass
Why is deviance difficult to define?
Not all deviance is considered immoral, or harmful to others (Too broad)
What does Deutschmann believe?
One theory cannot explain all forms of deviance
What do Becker and Szaz think about deviance?
That state interference leads to more deviance
What is epistemology?
Ideals about how best to study society (A way of knowing the world) -> Methods
What is ontology?
Claims about what is the nature of social reality (Data)
What are the four requisites for establishing causality?
Causality, reliability, validity, and representative
What is causality-covariance?
Variables which are associated with each other (One cannot occur without the other)
What are some variables of causality-covariance?
Age, sex, socio-economic status, visible-minority status
What is the causality-temporal sequence?
That the independent (Cause) variable must come before the dependent (Effect) variable
What is causality-nonspurious relationships?
An unknown and unwanted variable responsible for change
What is the difference between reliability and validity?
Reliability: Results must be easily replicated
Validity: The researcher has captured what was being analyzed
What kind of questions should be avoided to find valid and reliable data?
Unclear questions, double-barrel questions, long questions, incompetent respondents
What is the crime funnel?
High amount of crimes reported, very little are incarcerated
Why should negative questions be avoided?
They generate bias
What was Calhoun known for?
Conducted an experiment on rats to determine the relationship between population density and deviant behavior
Why are victimization surveys not perfect?
People cannot remember all crimes, and people reluctant to admit to crimes, victimless crimes, high profile crimes etc
What are different kinds of research methods?
Surveys, self-reports, personal interviews, observation studies
When it comes to self-reports, what are people more honest about? What do they hide?
They are honest about past crimes, and less likely to talk about their income
What is the interviewer effect?
People are less or more likely to talk to an interviewer based on their physical charateristics
What did lighter punishments lead to?
Lower crime rates
What was punishment like (in the middle age)?
Torture was used on the body to break the mind
How did Beccaria and Bentham view middle age punishment?
Viewed demonic punishment as systematic rage
What did Beccaria and Bentham suggest about human nature?
That humans want happiness and that they were governed by self interest
What is Mini-Max theorem
Everyone is rational, always calculating units of pain and pleasure
What is an effective way of dealing with deviance? (As opposed to punishment alone)
Deterrence (Placing more emphasis on the crime, rather than the criminal)
What are the three elements for punishments to be effective?
Swiftness, certainty, and severity
Who suggested that a separation of powers be in place? (So that not one person has authority over the fate of another)
Foucault
Who stated that laws should be created when behaviour demonstrable a social crime?
Bentham
Who stated that if there was no victim, there is no crime?
Bentham
What is the French Penal code?
A book created by Napoleon which tells the crime relating to the punishment (Same punishment for all crimes)
Who proposed the Panopticon? Why?
Bentham, as a place of rehabilitation should deterrence not work
Why are victimization surveys important?
Official crime statistics do not accurately reflect crime
What is the scarlet letter?
Branding people with letters reminiscent of their crimes
What is spectral evidence?
Ghostly images (in dreams)
What is the Malleus maleficarum?
A book used to punish witches
Who were normally accused of being witches?
Women
What factors led to the witch hysteria?
Economic contraction, racism, sexism and the malleus
