FRSC 3110

Question 1

Type of crime

Answer 1

-violent- degree of violence, how violence is defined
-white collar
-property
-organized

Question 2

Circumstances of crime

Answer 2

-one incident or repeated
-over time or at once
-one/multiple victims

Question 3

Perpetrator of crime

Answer 3

-age, occupation, background, health, marital status
-motive
-planning- planned, random, spontaneous

Question 4

Victim of crime

Answer 4

-individual- known/not known
-group
-society
-reaction/no reaction

Question 5

Crime changing over time

Answer 5

-some behaviours recognized as crimes+ universally condemned through history
-others previously thought as illegal now legal
-some previous tolerated behaviours suddenly unlawful, even though no measurable increase in threat to public safety
-attitudes toward punishment have changed over time

Question 6

Important goal of the course:

Answer 6

“Examine the causative factors in effect when a crime is committed and encourage an appreciation of the challenges of crafting effective crime-prevention and crime-control policy.”

Question 7

4 definitional perspectives in criminology on what is crime:

Answer 7

-legalistic
-political
-sociological
-psychological

Question 8

Legalistic perspective

Answer 8

Crime: human conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a state, the federal government, or a provincial or local jurisdiction that has the power to make such laws
-without law to see if behaviour is criminal, there would be no crime
-social, moral+ individual significance of immoral forms of behaviour not easily recognized
-need to consider the temporal element
-a problem is that it seeds the power to those that make the laws

Question 9

Political perspective

Answer 9

-crime in terms of power structures
-crime is the result of criteria built into the law by powerful groups+ used to label selected undesirable behavior as illegal
-law serves interest of politically powerful
-criminal laws do not bear any inherent relationship to popular notions of right and wrong

Question 10

Sociological perspective

Answer 10

-crime as an antisocial act necessary to repress in order to preserve the existing system of society (Fattah)
-primarily an offence against human relationships+ then a violation of the law (Classen)
-need a broader consideration of crime than either the legal or political perspectives

Question 11

Psychological perspective

Answer 11

-crime as a problem behavior
-a form of social maladjustment
-results in difficulties in living within a framework of acceptable social arrangements
-if this definition adopted: criminologists studies would expand greatly

Question 12

Crime+ deviance

Answer 12

Deviant behaviour: human activity that violates social norms
-some forms are not criminal
-some behaviours are still against the law even if those who engage in them do not think of them as deviant

Question 13

3 points of view on what should be defined as criminal

Answer 13

1. The consensus perspective
   
   2. The pluralistic perspective
   3. The conflict perspective

Question 14

The consensus perspective

Answer 14

-perspective on social organization
-laws should be enacted to criminalize given forms of behaviour when members of society generally agree that such laws are necessary

Question 15

The pluralist perspective

Answer 15

-multiple beliefs and values exist in any complex society
-most social actors agree on usefulness of law for dispute resolution
-legal system is value neutral+ concerned with the best interest of society

Question 16

The conflict perspective

Answer 16

-an approach to social organization that considers conflict a fundamental aspect of social life and can never be fully resolved
-society comprised of diverse social groups
-each group has different definitions of right and wrong
-conflict between groups is unavoidable
-group conflict centers on the exercise of political power
-law is a tool of power

Question 17

Crime rates+ criminology

Answer 17

-60s+70s time of social upheaval
-increase in alcohol consumption, diverse rates+ use of mind-altering drugs
-dramatic increase of crime rates through the 60s-80s
-contributed to greater interest in discipline of criminology

Question 18

Criminology (different perspectives)

Answer 18

• Boyd - “the scientific study of crime”
  -Gabor – “the systematic study of crime & reaction of
  society to criminality”
  -Winterdyk – “the scientific study of human behaviour, crime causation, crime prevention, and the punishment and rehab of offenders”
  -Schmalleger & Volk – “an interdisciplinary profession built around the scientific study of crime and criminal behavior, including their forms, causes, legal aspects, prevention, control”

Question 19

Criminologist approach to criminology

Answer 19

1. The study of what motivates people to commit crimes
   
   2. Identifying effective crime prevention strategies
      Considering the response of society to different crimes

Question 20

Criminology- an interdisciplinary study

Answer 20

-draws on sociology, psychology, biology, law, geography, economics
Includes
-Study of law & the history of crime
-why people commit crime & the criminalization process
-Crime responses, prevention and control
-Crime rates and change over time
-Deviance
-Policing, corrections and penology
-And other studies related to the criminal justice system

Question 21

Criminologist- what do they study

Answer 21

-study crime+ prevention
-criminals+ treatment
-societies responses to crime
-criminalization process
-how certain behaviours become criminalized over time while some become decriminalized
-the stigmatization process — how offenders are treated or “labelled”
-Net widening/shrinking — the potential of new laws and methods to increase/decrease “community” supervision and impact social control
-The effects of smart phones and electronic surveillance

Question 22

Criminalists what do they study

Answer 22

-collection of evidence from crime scenes
-identify, document, collect, test, analyse+ preserve evidence
-interpret findings+testify in court

Question 23

4 basic questions of criminology

Answer 23

-why do crime rates vary
-why do individuals differ as to criminality
-why is there variation in reactions to crime
-what are possible means of controlling criminality

Question 24

Sociological approach- answering questions of criminology

Answer 24

-Focus on the social order and on how social forces work to define crime and create the conditions in which crime can either diminish or flourish
-Examine how social conditions (social context) can influence our laws and our crime rates.
Argue that criminal conduct is more likely to be driven by social conditions than by individual “aberrations”

Question 25

Psychological approach- answering questions of criminology

Answer 25

-focus on individual criminal behaviour
-predict risk of reoffending
-evaluate effectiveness of treatment+ rehabilitation
-put individual front and center
-indv. Psyche and behaviour

Question 26

Biological approach- answering questions of criminology

Answer 26

-early criminologists believed criminality was a biological trait
-little empirical evidence to support crime gene
-recently been focused on connection between biology+environment
-argue some indv. Have personality traits or certain characteristics that predispose them to committing crime

Question 27

Social problem perspective

Answer 27

Crime is the manifestation of underlying social problems:
-Poverty
-Discrimination
-Breakdown of traditional social institutions
-Pervasive family violence
-Inadequate socialization practices
-Breakdown of traditional social institutions
Social responsibility perspective
-individuals fundamentally responsible for their own behaviour
-they choose crime over other more law-abiding courses of action

Question 28

Social responsibility perspective

Answer 28

-individuals fundamentally responsible for their own behaviour
-they choose crime over other more law-abiding courses of action

Question 29

Primacy of sociology

Answer 29

-crime occurs in the social world
-primary significance of crime+ of criminal behaviour is fundamentally social in nature
-any control over crime must stem from effective social policy