INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY Flashcards
A hierarchy of available criminal opportunities existing in a stable slum neighborhood
Criminal
Disorganized slums undergoing invasion- succession or turnover of ethnic groups in which there are neither legitimate nor illegitimate opportunity struc- tures, the result being violence:
Conflict
Neither legitimate nor illegitimate opportunities exist, individuals reject both means and ends and simply “drop out,” seeking status through “kicks” and “highs” of drug abuse
Retreatist
This theory emphasizes criminality as a learned process
Social process theories
Where does Social process theories originate from?
The Chicago School
Robert Parks believed that_________
Freedom from group constraints also meant freedom from group supports.
What are two examples of unplanned subcultures also called “natural areas”?
Examples of natural areas are ghettos and bohemias
Shaw and McKay theorized that________.
Crime is due to social disorganization in pathological environments rather than deviant behavior of abnormal individuals.
Define Criminology
Criminology is the science or discipline that studies crime and criminal behavior.
Where was the science of Criminology founded?
Criminology, emerged in Europe in the late 1700s
The term deviance refers to __________________.
The term deviance refers to behavior that’s outside the range of normal societal toleration.
Sociologist William Graham Sumner identified three types of norms
Folkways are the least serious norms; they refer to customs that are preferred but not subject to serious sanctions, such as etiquette. Mores are more serious customs that involve moral judgment as well as sanctions. Laws represent formal modes of control, codified rules for behavior, and can be thought of as a “crystallization” of the mores.
The term undercriminalization refers to_________.
a failure to prohibit acts that many feel are mala in se.
Overcriminalization refers to___________.
overextending the criminalizing acts.
Gemeinschaft societies
Are simple, homogenous, and have a normative consensus. They don’t need codes of law, as sacred tradition ensures understanding and control.
when societies become more diverse, have greater division of labor, and have less complete normative consensus, they become__________.
Gesellschaft societies that need law to impose, via the state, control and order.
Durkheim, suggest that________.
Crime may be a functional necessity in society.
The consensus model is based on_________.
The idea that law reflects commonly held mores that are crystallized into law.
The conflict model says__________.
Law is used by more powerful groups to preserve the status quo on behalf of the powerful.
The interactionist approach holds that__________.
Criminality is a label or stigma attached by a societal reaction and that the labelers are engaging in moral entrepreneurship.
There are four characteristics of criminal law:
- Political authority assumes the role of plaintiff.
- Criminal laws must specifically define crimes and punishments.
- Law must be uniformly applied.
- Penal sanctions are enforced through punishment
administered by the state.
For an act to be a crime, the following conditions are required:
- The act must be prohibited by law.
- A criminal act, actus reus, must have occurred.
- There must be injury to the state or the people.
- The act is performed with a blameworthy state of mind (mens rea, or guilty mind).
- The act directly or indirectly caused the harm.
Crimes punishable by a year or more in prison.
Felonies
Crimes punishable by less than a year in jail.
Misdemeanors
