mid term 1

Question 1

Crime as a social construct:

Answer 1

refers to a collective judgement concerning the norms of society. Ex. Murder is only “murder” wrong in our society and not in the army. Why? Bc special construct
- Signifier ‘crime’ Refers to action that violates the legitimate social norms of a collective social order

Question 2

Social Distribution of crime:

Answer 2

9 facts about crime
1. Most crime is property crime
2. Violent crime is heavily consisted in large cities
3. Crime overwhelming committed by males
4. Individual 13-24 age are disproportionately involved in crime
5. Violent crime more usual in lower social classes
6. Violent crime heavily concentrated in minority groups
7. Victims and offenders of violent crimes tend to share same characteristics of economic/ demographics
8. Violent crimes tend to be crimes of passion
9. Greatest proportion of violent crimes committed by repeat offenders

Question 3

Uniform Crime Report

Answer 3

Reports about certain crimes and arrests to Federal Bureau combines thousands of reports then receive from across the nation

Limitation: dark figure of crime

Question 4

Index Offenses

Answer 4

part 1 offenses ; four violent crimes
murder
forcible (not statutory) rape
robbery
aggravated assault

Property offenses:
burglary
motor vehicle theft
larceny
arson

Question 5

National Crime Survey (NCVS):

Answer 5

households survey asking ppl if they have been a victim to crime ; 6 months, 12 years old, telephone or by knocking

best for:
providing annual level and change estimates on criminal victimization and information on the nature of those incidents

Question 6

Crime Rate

Answer 6

number of crimes that are committed during period of time in a particular place / number of criminal incidents known to the police in terms of the number of people in population

Question 7

Self-Report Surveys

Answer 7

depends on whom we ask, why we ask, based on researcher
- Committed arrestable offense.
- Survey of self-report based on offender
- Survey of time span and occurrence (very difficult to make survey questions)

Question 8

Triangulation

Answer 8

comparing answers to form what info is relevant

Question 9

Crime Incidence

Answer 9

number of crime events that have occurred in given area; expressed as number of events suffered per head of pop.
- Allows for comparisons with different sized population

Question 10

Crime Prevalence

Answer 10

dividing number of victims in the specified pop. By the total number of persons in the population and multiplying the rate by 1000

Question 11

Dark Figure

Answer 11

unknown crime of UCR unreported crime

Question 12

Ecological Fallacy:

Answer 12

applying data to group or individual with opposite type that was studied. Ex. Data for psych students was applied to a single engineer student ex2. Racial profiling (forming dogs and cats together)

Question 13

Hierarchy Rule

Answer 13

only most serious crime is counted and given the incident
- if person is murdered, raped and robbed; only murder is counted

Question 14

Microlevel

Answer 14

person

Question 15

Macrolevel

Answer 15

society

Question 16

Enlightenment

Answer 16

period beginning 1700s
- Science, philosophy and technology started to compete with religion
- Ex. Theories based on sun or moon being center could be determined by telescope
- Promised ppl truth based on intellectual teachings

Question 17

Rene Descartes

Answer 17

first to question if he was separated from God
- Proved it on a rainy day “I question therefore, I am” / if I have my own thoughts, I have free will
- Contributes to first class of classical criminology

Question 18

Classical Criminology

Answer 18

main idea is crime is a result of Freewill

Question 19

Positivist Criminology

Answer 19

human behavior is caused @ least in part by direct behavior

Question 20

Principle of Utility

Answer 20

principle that action are to be judged by their usefulness in this sense: their tendency to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness

Question 21

Cesare Lombroso

Answer 21

• Believed that criminals could be identified through general characteristics they shared with one another
• Founder of positivist criminology
• Believed criminal mind was inherited

Question 22

Phrenology

Answer 22

theory of human behavior based upon the belief that an individual character and mental faculties correlate with the shape of their head

Question 23

Jeremy Bentham

Answer 23

animal rights and class criminology
- Why does one person choose to do good and one chooses to do bad answer(humanitarism)
- Came up with principle of pleasure and pain
- We do things because it brings us pleasure and we don’t do bc they bring us pain

Question 24

Cesare Beccaria

Answer 24

huge fan of Bentham; disciple has to follow pleasure pain theory
- Argued all laws should be written down; they have to have punishment as well
- 3 requirements
1. Proper severity
2. Proper swiftness
3. Must have certainty

Question 25

Sigmund Freud

Answer 25

theory of the id, superego, ego

Question 26

Atavistic Stigmata:

Answer 26

Lombroso believed that atavistic could be measured psychical stigmata:

protruding jaw, drooping eyes, large eyes, twisted and flattish nose, long arms relative to the lower limbs

Question 27

Theory

Answer 27

explanation that predicts: how, why, cause and effect, testable; either verifiable or false able

Question 28

ID

Answer 28

pleasure

Question 29

ego

Answer 29

be the judge: control

Question 30

SUPEREGO

Answer 30

don’t do it

Question 31

Albert Bandura: (social learning theory)

Answer 31

theory suggest observation and modeling play primary role in how and why people learn ; had the experiment of the bobo doll

Question 32

Social Learning Theory

Answer 32

theory suggest observation and modeling play primary role in how and why people learn; tie between positive and negative reinforcements
- If you spend more time with ppl who obey the law you will too

Question 33

Age-Crime Curve

Answer 33

refers to the assumption that crimes are most prevalence during mid to late adolescence (13-24) age

Question 34

Severity

Answer 34

if you make punishment same for rape and murder; ppl will ore likely just go big or go home

Question 35

Certainty

Answer 35

being free form any doubt, state of being absolutely certain

Question 36

Swiftness

Answer 36

lack of delay; promptness. The crime is punished right away

Question 37

Political Economy of Crime

Answer 37

explores the relationship between a government and its ppl owing to enacted public places

Sphere of family, government. Church and money

Question 38

Correlation

Answer 38

Can only be determined by an experiment

Question 39

causation

Answer 39

means one event causes another event to occur

Question 40

Tautology:

Answer 40

circular reasoning
- If a theory states that greed causes people to commit crime, then it says we know Jon is greedy because he committed a crime.
- Impossible to subject the theory to the scientific process

Question 41

Twin Studies:

Answer 41

(lange)studied 13 pairs of identical twins, 17 pairs fraternal twins
- Suggest more likely in genetic twins (sample size was extremely low)
- Researcher starts with 6000 pairs; 67 cases of identical twins and 114 cases of fraternal twins with carinal record
- Genetic plays a role but they are different lives, friends, classes
- - genetic is a RISK factor those studies not controlling environment

Question 42

Adoption Studies

Answer 42

difference 6% genetics plays a role/ RISK

Question 43

Edwin Sutherland

Answer 43

theory about white collar being most deadly, (positive nad neutral tied) with reinforcements

Question 44

Differential Association

Answer 44

developed by Sutherland, proposing that through interaction with theirs, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behavior

Question 45

White-Collar Crime

Answer 45

consist in business and professions as principally of violation of delegated trust or implied trust: misrepresentation of asset values and duplicity in manipulation of power

Question 46

risk

Question 47

control for