Exam 1 Flashcards
Role Diffusion
according to Erik Erikson role diffusion occurs when youths spread themselves too thin, experience personal uncertainty, and place themselves at mercy of leaders who promise to give them a sense of identity they cannot develop for themselves.
Ego Identity
according to Erik Erikson, ego identity is formed when persons develop a firm sense of who they are and what they stand for.
At-Risk Youths
young people who are extremely vulnerable to the negative consequences of school failure, substance abuse, and early sexuality.
Cyberbullying
Using the internet to bully one another instead of the traditional face to face
Cyberstalking
Stalking someone over the internet
Sexting
sending compromising photos to a boyfriend or girlfriend
Juvenile Delinquency
participation in illegal behavior by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit
Chronic Juvenile Offenders
youths who have been arrested four or more times during their minority and perpetuate a striking majority of serious criminal acts.
Chronic 6 Percent
believed to engage in a significant portion of all delinquent behavior; these youths do not age out of crime but continue their criminal behavior into adulthood.
Juvenile Justice System
The segment of the justice system, including law enforcement officers, the courts, and correctional agencies, that is designed to treat youthful offenders.
Paternalistic Family
A family style wherein the father is the final authority on all family matters and exercises complete control over his wife and children.
Poor Laws
English statues that allowed the courts to appoint oversees for destitute and neglected children, allowing placement of these children as servants in the homes of the affluent.
Chancery Courts
Court proceedings created in the fifteenth-century England to oversee the lives of highborn minors who were orphaned or otherwise could not care for themselves.
Parens Patriae
the power of the state to act on behalf of the child and provide care and protection equivalent to that of a parent.
Child Savers
nineteenth-century reformers who developed programs for troubled youth and influenced legislation creating the juvenile justice system; today some critics view them as being more concerned with control of the poor than with their welfare.
House of Range
a care facility developed by the child savers to protect potential criminal youths by taking them off the street and providing a family like environment
Children’s Aid Society
child-saving organization that took children from the streets of large cities and placed them with farm families on the prarie.
Orphan Trains
A practice of the Children’s Aid Society in which urban youths were sent west for adoption with local farm couples.
Law Enforcement Assistance Administration LEAA
Unit in the U.S. Department of Justice established by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to administer grants and provide guidance for crime prevention policy and programs.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Branch of the U.S. Justice Department charged with shaping national juvenile justice policy through disbursement of federal aid and research funds.
Delinquent
Juvenile who has been adjudicated by a judicial officer of a juvenile court as having committed a delinquent act.
Best interests of the child
A philosophical viewpoint that encourages the state to take control of wayward children and provide care, custody, and treatment to remedy delinquent behavior.
Need for treatment
The criteria on which juvenile sentencing is based. Ideally juveniles are treated according to their need for treatment and not for the seriousness of the delinquent act they committed.
Waiver
transferring legal jurisdiction over the most serious and experienced juvenile offenders to the adult court for criminal prosecution.
Status Offender
a child who is subject to state authority by reason of having committed an act forbidden to youth and illegal solely because the child is underage.
Uniform Crime Report
compiled by the FBI the UCR is the most widelyy used source of national crime and delinquency statistics
Part I Offenses
Offenses including homicide and non-intelligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, arson and motor vehicle theft. Recorded by local law enforcement officers, these crimes are tallied quarterly and sent to the FBI for inclusion in the UCR.
Part II Offenses
All crimes other than Part I offenses. Recorded by local law enforcement officers, arrests for these crimes are tallied quarterly and sent to the FBI for inclusion in the UCR.
Disaggregated
analyzing the relationship between two or more independent variables (murder convictions and death sentence) while controlling for the influence of a dependent variable (such as race).
Sampling
Selecting a limited number of people for study as representative of a larger group
Population
All people who share a particular characteristic, such as all high school students or all police officers.
Self-Report Survey
a research approach that requires subjects to reveal their own participation in delinquent or criminal acts.
Dark Figures of Crime
incidents of crime and delinquency that go undetected by police.
Racial Threat Theory
As the size of the AA population increases the amount of social control imposed against AA by police grows proportionately
Aging out process
the tendency for youths to reduce the frequency of their offending behavior as they age. Aging out is thought to occur among all groups of offenders.
Age of onset
age at which youths begin their delinquent careers. Early onset is believed to be linked with chronic offending patterns
Chronic Recidivist
someone who has been arrested five times or more before age 18
Continuity of Crime
the idea that chronic juvenile offenders are likely to continue violating the law as adults
Victimization
The number of people who are victims of criminal acts.
Choice Theory
holds that youths will engage in delinquent and criminal behavior after weighing the consequences and benefits of their actions. Delinquent behavior is a rational choice made by a motivated offender who perceives that the chances of gain outweigh any possible punishment or loss.
Trait Theory
holds that youths engage in delinquent or criminal behavior due to aberrant physical or psychological traits that govern behavioral choices. Delinquent actions are impulsive or instinctual rather than rational choices.
Free Will
The view that youths are in charge of their own destinies and are free to make personal behavior choices unencumbered by environmental factos.
Classical Criminology
Holds that decisions to violate the law are weighed against possible punishments and to deter crime the pain of punishment must outweigh the benefit of illegal gain. Led to graduated punishments based on seriousness of the crime (let the punishment fit the crime).
Routine Activities Theory
The view that crime is a normal function of the routine activities of modern living. Offenses can be expected if there is a motivated offender and a suitable target that is not protected by capable guardians.
Predatory Crimes
Violent crimes against persons and crimes in which an offender attempts to steal an object directly from its holder.
General Deterrence
Crime control policies that depend on the fear of criminal penalties, such as long prison sentences for violent crimes. The aim is to convince law violators that the pain outweighs the benefit of criminal activity.
Specific Deterrence
Sending convicted offenders to secure incarceration facilities so that punishment is severe enough to convince them not to repeat their criminal activity.
Situational Crime Prevention
A crime prevention method that relies on reducing the opportunity to commit criminal acts by making them more difficult to perform, reducing their reward, and increasing their risks.
Hot Spot
A particular location or address that is the site of repeated and frequent criminal activity.
Crackdown
A law enforcement operation that is designed to reduce or eliminate a particular criminal activity through the application of aggressive police tactics, usually involving a larger than usual contingent of police officers.
Criminal Atavism
The idea that delinquents manifest physical anomalies that make them biologically and physiologically similar to our primitive ancestors, savage throwbacks to an earlier stage of human evolution.
Biosocial Theory
The view that both thought and behavior have biological and social bases.
Minimal Behavior Dysfunction
Damage to the brain itself that causes antisocial behavior injuries to the individual’s lifestyle and social adjustment.
Learning Disabilities
Neurological dysfunctions that prevent an individual from learning to his or her potential.
Psychodynamics Theory
Branch of psychology that holds that the human personality is controlled by unconscious mental processes developed early in childhood.
Bipolar Disorder
A psychological condition producing mood swings between wild elation and deep depression.
Attachment Theory
Bowlby’s view that the ability to have an emotional bond to another person has important lasting psychological implications for normal from childhood to adulthood.
Identity
Psychological state, identified by Erikson, in which youths face inner turmoil and uncertainty about life roles.
Behaviorism
Branch of psychology concerned with the study of observable behavior rather than unconscious processes; focuses on particular stimuli and responses to them.
Social Learning Theory
The view that behavior is modeled through observation, either directly through intimate contact with others or indirectly through media. Interactions that are rewarded are copied, whereas those that are punished are avoided.
Cognitive Theory
The branch of psychology that studies the perception of reality and the mental processes of reality required to understand the world we live in.
Extraversion
Impulsive behavior without the ability to examine motives and behavior.
Neuroticism
A personality trait marked by unfounded anxiety, tension, and emotional instability.
Psychopathic Personality
A person lacking in warmth, exhibiting inappropriate behavior responses, and unable to learn from experience. The condition is defined by persistent violations of social norms, including lying, stealing, truancy, inconsistent work behavior, and traffic arrests.
Nature Theory
The view that intelligence is inherited and is a function of genetic makeup.
Nurture Theory
The view that intelligence is determined by environmental stimulation and socialization.
