Midterm 1 Flashcards
Crime deviance continuum:
What determines seriousness? (CSH)
- Degree of consensus that an act is wrong
- Severity of societies response to that act
- Degree of harm
Three agencies of the Canadian Legal System (CLS)
- The police
- The courts
- The correctional/prison system
2 Theories of law creation
- The consensus model
- The conflict model
What is the consensus model?
That law is a product of social agreement about what is morally wrong
What is the conflict model?
That law originates out of conflict between specific groups that have different beliefs and interests.
- Groups have different levels of power and those with the power want to protect their interests
Cesare Beccaria’s (1764) An Essay on Crimes and Punishment was a critique of what?
Beccaria was criticizing the cruelty and inhumanity that characterized the criminal justice system of his day
3 sources of crime statistics
- UCR 2.0
- Victimization Surveys
- Self-report Surveys
What are the limitations of the UCR?
Doesn’t show the dark figure of crime
Why criminologist need crime data (DEERP)?
Description – How much and what types of crime
Explanation – Crime trends? Social or geographical patterns?
Evaluation – Is crime prevention or control working?
Risk Assessment – Location, time, environmental designs – how people can avoid risk, the more known about when and where crime is happening
Prediction – prediction = prevention and prevention is preferrable to punishment
Adolphe Quetelet, one of the key figures of “The Statistical School” of crime theory found that crime is influenced by what?
Social Organization
- society prepares the crime and the guilty parties are just the instruments by which it is executed
What are the three key beliefs shared by Biological Theorists?
- Criminals = biologically distinct from non-criminals
- Biological difference exists at birth, predispose people to crime
- Criminals can be identified by their differences (e.g. genetics, physical structure, brain structure)
Explain Cesare Lombroso’s Theory of Atavism:
o What are stigmata?
Features of a criminals that defines them as atavism:
Big jaw
Hairy
Big cheek bones
Abnormal heads
Insensitive to pain
More neanderthal-like
What is William Sheldon’s Somatotype Theory?
There are THREE different body types
Each with different temperaments and personalities
The idea was looking at different body types could predict personality traits
What are the traits of an endomorph?
Round and soft
Easygoing and happy
What are the traits of a mesomorph?
Well-built and muscular
Aggressive and reactive
What are the traits of an ectomorph?
Tall and lean
Introverted and nervous
Twin Studies:
o What do they examine?
o How do they examine this?
- Used to examine nature vs nurture
- Compares monozygotic (MZ) = identical twins
Share 100% genetics
Came from the same egg
With dizygotic twins (DZ)
Share 50% genetics
Two eggs
Relies on equal environments Assumption
MZ = equal genetics + equal environment
DZ = different genetics + equal environment
If genetics matters, we should see higher concordance between MZ and DZ
Concordance evidence behavior
60% for MZ twins
30% for DZ twins
What is concordance?
the probability that a pair of individuals will both have a certain characteristic (phenotypic trait)
Which version/allele of MAOA is related to crime?
- What is this gene known as?
– The Warrior Gene (Monoamine Oxidase A)
Low activity allele vs high activity allele
Low activity MAOA = less neurotransmitter regulation
Low activity MAOA may be linked to crime
Possibly correlated to aggression and violence
Which version/allele of the 5-HTT gene is related to crime?
Short version of 5-HTT – less sensitive to punishment
- Reduced serotonin
- Increases risk of crime
Which version/allele of the DRD4 gene is related to crime?
Long version of DRD4 – more pleasure seeking
- Need more dopamine to feel pleasure
- Increased risk of crime
What is the Differential Susceptibility Perspective?
Individuals with certain genetic makeups are more sensitive to favorable and unfavorable environmental influences than those without these genetic makeups.
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory:
o What are the three components of our personalities?
Id: our biological drives
Superego: ethical and moral dimensions of our personalities
Ego: mediates Id and Superego
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory:
o What are the three ways in which the Superego can be dysfunctional?
- Weak Superego: Id dominates behaviors
Can act more primitive, more aggressive, led more by sexual desire
2.
Deviant Superego: learn consciousness from criminal influence
- Someone grows up in a criminal world
- Conscious is trained to value criminal behaviors
3.
Harsh Superego: Excessively strong conscience, leads to unconscious guilt
Crime occurs because people are inviting some form of punishment into their lives due to unconscious guilt
Eysenck’s PEN model:
o What does PEN stand for?
Psychoticism
Extroversion/Introversion
Neuroticism/Stable
Eysenck’s PEN model:
o Which two personality types in the PEN model are connected to crime?
Extroverted-Neuroticism
Increases criminality due to aggression and risk seeking
Extroversion and neuroticism on their own do not cause criminal behaviour
IQ and Crime:
o According to Hirschi and Hindelang (1977), how big is the gap in IQ between offenders and non-offenders?
8-9 points
IQ and Crime:
o What are the two explanations for why IQ is connected to crime?
- Low IQ: worse at legitimate activities like school, getting a job etc.
- Lower verbal IQ limits ability to develop high order cognitive processing (moral reasoning and empathy, when you have these you’re less likely to commit crime)
Explain Cesare Lombroso’s Theory of Atavism:
o What is atavism?
An evolutionary throwback to more primitive times. Specifically, it’s a person who has not developed at the same pace as the rest of society.
What is Id and what does it do?
Id: our biological drives
- Born with the Id
What is superego and what does it do?
Superego: ethical and moral dimensions of our personalities
- Developed over time
-Our conscience
What is ego and what does it do?
Ego: mediates Id and Superego
- Deals with reality, makes decisions
-Happens subconsciously
Drug & Alcohol Misuse and Crime
o What are the four reasons drug and alcohol misuse are related to crime?
- Efforts to support addiction can lead to crime (buying drugs, theft)
- Committing crimes under the influence
- Illegal
- Involvement in drug markets can lead to criminal interactions
Spatial location
o Is crime consistent across neighbourhoods, cities, provinces/territories, or countries?
What country you live in matters:
Different countries have different contexts of crime
What province or territory you live in matters:
Some provinces experience different levels of crime
What city you live in matters:
What neighborhood you live in matters:
What are the two general hypotheses for why some visible minorities are overrepresented?
- Some evidence of racial profiling and sentencing disparities (i.e. longer sentences for racial and ethnic minorities
- Blacks and Indigenous people also offend at a higher rate
Is the gap bigger or smaller for violent crimes compared to property crimes?
Generally speaking, the gap is bigger for violent crimes than property crimes
What are THREE reasons why people tend to desist
- Developmental maturity – more regulated emotions, self-control, rational decisions
- Incentives for conformity (turning points)
- Marriage, employment, military, children
- Called the life course perspective - Less free time
What are FOUR reasons why young people commit more crime?
- Young males prone to risky behaviours
- E.g. car accidents, extreme sports - Developmentally immature
- More susceptible to peer influence
- Fewer incentives for conformity to society rules
How do gender norms & treatment contribute to the gap?
- Traditional masculinity
- Key theme: the importance of dominance achieved through force
- Perceived expectation to be a protector, to be tough and confident – can lead to aggression
- Own more guns
- Breadwinner stereotype
- Perceptions of worth and masculinity dependant on ability to provide for family
- Economic struggles can lead to crime to provide or regain the feeling of masculinity - Strain and Emotion
- Strain theory – overall humans are naturally good but pushed to crime via negative emotions cause by problems (economic struggles, exposure to violence
- Research show when experiencing strain
- Males – more likely to feel anger (outward emotion)
- Females – more likely to feel guilt (inward emotion) - self blame - Fear of punishment
- For some reason, males are less afraid of getting punished or caught offending
- Socialization into risk seeking?
- Fewer people in their social lives depending on them? E.g. having children - Peer influence
- On average adolescent boys are:
- More violent
- Wider friend groups (more friends but less close)
What is the role convergence hypothesis?
Closing of the gap between male and female offenders
1979: females accounted for 15% of crime
2017: females accounted for 25% of crime
