mid term 1 Flashcards
Crime as a social construct:
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
Social Distribution of crime:
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
Uniform Crime Report
Reports about certain crimes and arrests to Federal Bureau combines thousands of reports then receive from across the nation
Limitation: dark figure of crime
Index Offenses
part 1 offenses ; four violent crimes
murder
forcible (not statutory) rape
robbery
aggravated assault
Property offenses:
burglary
motor vehicle theft
larceny
arson
National Crime Survey (NCVS):
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
Crime Rate
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
Self-Report Surveys
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)
Triangulation
comparing answers to form what info is relevant
Crime Incidence
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
Crime Prevalence
dividing number of victims in the specified pop. By the total number of persons in the population and multiplying the rate by 1000
Dark Figure
unknown crime of UCR unreported crime
Ecological Fallacy:
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)
Hierarchy Rule
only most serious crime is counted and given the incident
- if person is murdered, raped and robbed; only murder is counted
Microlevel
person
Macrolevel
society
Enlightenment
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
Rene Descartes
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
Classical Criminology
main idea is crime is a result of Freewill
Positivist Criminology
human behavior is caused @ least in part by direct behavior
Principle of Utility
principle that action are to be judged by their usefulness in this sense: their tendency to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness
Cesare Lombroso
- Believed that criminals could be identified through general characteristics they shared with one another
- Founder of positivist criminology
- Believed criminal mind was inherited
Phrenology
theory of human behavior based upon the belief that an individual character and mental faculties correlate with the shape of their head
Jeremy Bentham
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
Cesare Beccaria
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
Sigmund Freud
theory of the id, superego, ego
Atavistic Stigmata:
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
Theory
explanation that predicts: how, why, cause and effect, testable; either verifiable or false able
ID
pleasure
ego
be the judge: control
SUPEREGO
don’t do it
Albert Bandura: (social learning theory)
theory suggest observation and modeling play primary role in how and why people learn ; had the experiment of the bobo doll
Social Learning Theory
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
Age-Crime Curve
refers to the assumption that crimes are most prevalence during mid to late adolescence (13-24) age
Severity
if you make punishment same for rape and murder; ppl will ore likely just go big or go home
Certainty
being free form any doubt, state of being absolutely certain
Swiftness
lack of delay; promptness. The crime is punished right away
Political Economy of Crime
explores the relationship between a government and its ppl owing to enacted public places
Sphere of family, government. Church and money
Correlation
Can only be determined by an experiment
causation
means one event causes another event to occur
Tautology:
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
Twin Studies:
(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
Adoption Studies
difference 6% genetics plays a role/ RISK
Edwin Sutherland
theory about white collar being most deadly, (positive nad neutral tied) with reinforcements
Differential Association
developed by Sutherland, proposing that through interaction with theirs, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behavior
White-Collar Crime
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
risk
control for
