MIDTERM II Flashcards
What is theory and how does it help us?
- Set of verifiable principles about a thing or behaviour.
- our world, our behaviours, things we encounter in out being
- Make the familiar seem strange (goes without)
- should it be the way it is? and if not, what then?
- It helps us to explain the world in which we live
- always us to think differently about the world around us
- allows us as individuals to engage with the world around us
What were Pre-Enlightenment Theories of Crime Like?
- Theories of crime were inspired by religious beliefs and superstition
- There was widespread belief in evil spirits and magic.
- People ascribed various unusual phenomena of nature to the activities of evil spirits
- This led to the belief that any pathology in human behaviour must also be due to evil spirits
- Church dominated life
- People who committed crimes were “tempted” by the devil to do so
-> DEMONOLOGY - everything that happened was a result of forces of good and evil.
- Led to very harsh punishments of offenders who were seen as threats to religious order as well as to the social order. -> torture and capital punishment for hundreds of offences; trial by ordeal (hot water, hot iron, dunking) or combat.
What were the two explanations for the role of evil that spirits played in sinful behaviour prior to the enlightenment era?
- Temptation
- The Devil tempts; righteous believers are told they can resist the Devil through their faith.
- Those who are sinful are weak and morally inferior
- Possession
- Wrongdoers are possessed by evil spirits and no longer able to chose between good and evil.
- Evidence of guilt determined through trials is intended to differentiate between the righteous and the sinner.
- Severe and often fatal methods used to rid a person of such spirits.
Why did people use demonology in the pre-enlightenment era?
- Religious and political elites sought to silence rebellious people in times of social upheaval.
- Blaming social problems on the Devil and other evil spirits was a means to achieve two objectives:
- It diverted attention from the failings of elites and placed blame on individuals who were “possessed” by the Devil.
- Those in power made themselves indispensable by saying only they could stop the Devil.
→ eg. Witches → set out as the reasons why things weren’t going well → became a scapegoat
- Those challenging the status quo were branded as heretics and subject to extreme punishment
- Witches became a scapegoat for anger:
–The accused were mostly women, especially independent women not protected by a male.
–Witch hunts reinforced the power of the existing social hierarchy - Women had natural lustful and weaker natures that could be tempted to sin
- Feared women independence → many men and women found them threatening → attack them to get rid of “the devil within”
- Women pushed against the roles set for women → omg witch!
What was the Enlightenment about/what did it bring?
- The scientific revolution brought about during the Enlightenment caused a change in thinking.
- The focus was on systematic doubt, and empirical and sensory verification of ideas.
- Scientific method
- Ideas shifted to naturalistic explanation based on reason and the scientific method (observation).
- Which prompted a more scientific approach to understanding crime and criminal behaviour
- What Is Enlightenment?’ (1784), the German philosopher Immanuel Kant summed up the era’s motto in the following terms: ‘Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!’
- We can question what we think we know!
What is the Enlightenment Philosopher’s View of Society?
- Society is comprised of free and rational human beings. This view leads to calls for more individual rights and freedoms.
- People enter into a social contract: they agree to give up some freedom for a safer society
- This contributed to the movement through Europe to reform governance and criminal justice.
What was Classical Theory of the Enlightenment Period Like?
- RADICAL DEPARTURE FROM DEMONIC THEORIES ~
- CRIME IS THE RESULT OF FREE WILL NOT POSSESSION (DETERMINED BY OUTSIDE FORCES)
- HUMANS ARE HEDONISTIC
- CESARE BECCARIA (AND HOBBES) SAID PEOPLE ENTERED INTO A CONTRACT WITH THE STATE FOR THEIR MUTUAL BENEFIT.
- Beccaria criticized the cruelty, inhumanity, and arbitrariness of the current justice system.
- In eighteenth-century England, as many as 350 offences were punishable by death.
- Eg. kid in pre-enlightenment Montreal → stole some bread → they cut of his hand
- So Beccaria wanted to create a criminal justice system that was fair, transparant and that ppl knew what the punishments associated with such actions
- Punishment ought to be focused on prevention
Who was Cesare Beccaria and what did he say?
Who was the FIRST criminologist.
- Classical Theory (enlightenment period)
- He said/advocated for:
-> Fairness
-> Proportionality → punishment should fit the crime
->Trials should be public
-> The law should be public and widely available
-> Should outlaw capital punishment
-> Everyone is equal before the law
What were reforms proposed by classical theorists based on?
- Reforms proposed by the Classical Theorists were based on radical new theory of the causes of crime.
- People broke the law BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THAT DOING SO WOULD ADVANCE THEIR OWN INTERESTS.
- people are hedonistic
- This theory was based on the assumption that people are RATIONAL beings who calculate the consequences of their actions.
- People broke the law BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THAT DOING SO WOULD ADVANCE THEIR OWN INTERESTS.
- Therefore society needed a system of punishment that was severe enough to deter, but not so harsh that rights were violated.
- Crime could be prevented if punishments were
- Swift
- Certain
- And slightly greater than the pleasure gained from the action
→ The biggest deterrent of crime happens right after you get caught → bc it’s embarrassing → immediate impact of “oh shit i just got caught” has the biggest benefit to deterring crime and criminality.
- Crime could be prevented if punishments were
- the further into the system you go and the further removed the punishment is from the crime
- punishing according to deed
What was Early Punishment like?
- Death
- Fines
- Corporal punishment
- Shaming: Stock, Pillory
- No prisons as such - more as ‘holding’ cells
What was the Penal Treadmill and who created it?
- William Cubitt, a civil engineer raised in a family of millwrights, created the treadmill—which was also called the treadwheel in the early days—in 1818
- Caused many deaths → having heart attacks and things like that
- If you got caught, they would make you walk on this treadwheel → like a stair stepper → the wheel would grind up grain to make wheat/grain etc.
- But Beccaria said you couldn’t do this → bc it could give ppl pleasure → grounding grain was productive
- Punishment should be punishment for punishment sake → should not have a totalitarian factor
What is the Modern Legacy of Classical Theory of Crime?
- Successful deterrence is a function of:
- Certainty of punishment
- Celerity of punishment (speed - prompt)
- Severity of punishment
- And, the exemplarity
- We should make an example out of that individual so others learn
- If nobody knows about it, it is not going to have effect
- Need to have public face → ppl need to know what the punishment for certain crime is
- 3 types/forms of deterrence
- General deterrence
- gram of coke → we will sen this individual to jail for a year → to say that this behaviour is unacceptable and making them an example of everybody else
- Specific deterrence
- eg. person gets picked up for shoplifting → we want to deter that individual from engaging in that type of behaviour in the future → specific to that individual
- eg. person gets picked up with a gram of coke → we say this behaviour is unacceptable and we say they will spend 3 months worth of weekends in jail
- Restrictive deterrence
- trying to control crime and criminality in a very specific area. → restricted to a specific area → trying to deter behaviour in general in that space
- eg. photo radar → on Whitemud → eg. everybody knows that truck will be there from time to time → everyone will slow down → the idea is to slow ppl down
- General deterrence
What are the three types/forms of deterrence?
- General deterrence
- Specific deterrence
- Restrictive deterrence
What is General Deterrence?
gram of coke → we will send this individual to jail for a year → to say that this behaviour is unacceptable and making them an example of everybody else
What is specific deterrence?
eg. person gets picked up for shoplifting → we want to deter that individual from engaging in that type of behaviour in the future → specific to that individual
- eg. person gets picked up with a gram of coke → we say this behaviour is unacceptable and we say they will spend 3 months worth of weekends in jail
What is restrictive deterrence?
- trying to control crime and criminality in a very specific area. → restricted to a specific area → trying to deter behaviour in general in that space
- eg. photo radar → on Whitemud → eg. everybody knows that truck will be there from time to time → everyone will slow down → the idea is to slow ppl down
Why is deterrence such a controversial topic?
- ruining someone’s reputation
- not everybody who commits a crime is doing it for the same reasons
- utilitarianism → we should treat people as ends in themselves and not means to some further end
- we should just deal with the person for what they’ve done, not for the greater good → we should treat that person on the basis of what they’ve done → shouldn’t try to make an example of a person to benefit others
→ Prevention → we need to make it such that an individual who engages in certain behaviour is certain to be caught
- we should just deal with the person for what they’ve done, not for the greater good → we should treat that person on the basis of what they’ve done → shouldn’t try to make an example of a person to benefit others
What were Common Features of the Positive School (of Criminology)?
- Belief in the perfectibility of society progress
- Society was also infinetely flawed
- Assume body and mind differences between people
- Not just hedonists
- Differences in experience → ppls bodies and experiences are different → if we can understand why certain “body types” and “experiences” lead to criminality, we can solve the problem.
- Belief that punishment should fit the individual criminal, not the crime
- eg. instead of punishing the crime of speeding, what we ought to do is figure out what is going on in the life of that individual.
- punishment according to need
- Belief that the CJS should be guided by scientific experts
- back in the old days juvenile court judges did not have any legal training eg. ministers, principals of school → training they had was in humanity and human behaviour → principals were working with youth for years
- who better to understand the individuals needs than a principal or minister?
- Assume criminals can be treated, rehabilitated, corrected, reintegrated.
- no longer looking at deterrence as main philosophy
What was the contrast of the positive school with the classical school of criminology?
- No biological/physical/mental differences among offending groups
- rational/calculating actors
- hedonistic
- motivated by self interest
- maximize pleasure, but avoid pain
- the reason your friend took the last piece of pizza
- therefore, deterrence was accepted and dominant mode of punishment
Who was Cesare Lombroso?
- Often referred to as the “father of modern criminology”
- Most important work on “the Criminal Man”
- Suggested there are basic differences (physical) compared to criminal offenders and non-criminals
- said we could identify different kinds of criminals based on their physical characteristics (eg. those who do theft, those who do violent crime)
- appealing idea bc population in cities were increasing → and it gave an ‘easy’ way to determine who were criminals or not! → all you have to do, is find these physical characteristics! → which would make society better
- influenced by Eugenics (from social darwinism)
- “people become criminals because they were born out of sync with social evolution”
- They are atavists ~ throw backs to an earlier evolutionary period which is marked on the body
- bc offenders were part of an earlier stage of human evolution
- connected; Degeneration → offenders have characteristics of primordial humans → deformed compared to those evolved humans
- measured ppls heights, weight, sizes of hands, etc.
- according to him, the offender was a different type of human → different characteristics that made them different form other ppl → large jaw, asymetric face, epilepsy. etc.
- “born offenders”
- did not agree with the philosophy of free will
- His work was influenced by:
- Darwin
- Lavater
- Gall
What is an Atavist?
throw backs to an earlier evolutionary period which is marked on the body.
- popular concept of Lombroso and Positive School
What was the main point of Lombroso and the Positive School?
- Main point
- To understand early positive theories of crime that focused on Biology
- Objectives:
- Understand the meaning and influence of “positivism”
- Learn about the different “positive theories” that look to biology to explain criminality, including:
- Physique and crime - body type theories
- Mental deficiency and feeblemindedness
- XYY Chromosomes and Criminal Behaviour
- Psychological Models of Deviance
- Characteristics:
- Protruding brow bone, sinister look
What was the 2nd Influence on Lombroso’s Work?
Physiognomy.
- Making judgements about people’s character from appearance of their faces
- Outward appearance can predict the hidden inclinations or dispositions of the soul.
- Founder G. Baptiste della Porte (1535-1615) associated following with criminals:
- small ears
- bushy eyebrows
- small noses
- large lips
- If we can map human faces on animals, we can map who might be criminals
- eg. this person has a hooked nose like a crow → they will share characteristics
What was the 3rd influence on Lombroso’s work?
PHRENOLOGY
- study of the external characteristics of a person’s skull
- indicator of his or her personality, abilities, or general propensities
- bumps on their skull map out certain characteristics
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p099tghy/is-phrenology-the-weirdest-pseudoscience-of-them-all-
- some bumps on the skull indicate lower brain function
- e.g. combativeness
- other bumps represent higher functions and propensities
- e.g. morality
- crime occurs when the bumps indicate that the lower propensities are winning out over the higher propensities
What is Atavistic Stigmata and how was it used in the Positive School/Lombroso’s work?
- Criminals can be identified through physical features called atavistic stigmata:
- atavism – refers to earlier stage of evolution
- stigmata – physical features which identify an individual as less evolved
- Lombroso identified 5 atavistic stigmata:
- bumps on the head (phrenologists)
- big jaws
- strong canine teeth
- protruding brow
- Arm-span which is greater than height
- noted another identifying feature of criminals was the presence of tattoos
- Lombroso argued that those who had tattoos were able to withstand and handle pain → indicator that they aren’t as evolved
→ had huge impact on criminality and criminal justice ideas
- Lombroso argued that those who had tattoos were able to withstand and handle pain → indicator that they aren’t as evolved
- damning part of Lombroso’s work was that he did not have a control group → he just studied criminals so it became a self-fulfilling prophecy
What is stigmata?
physical features which identify an individual as less evolved.
What was the 5 atavistic stigmata identified by Lombroso?
- bumps on the head (phrenologists)
- big jaws
- strong canine teeth
- protruding brow
- Arm-span which is greater than height
What was Somatyping and who was responsible for it?
- Developed theory based on tissue layers, embryology and physiology
- Endomorph
- Mesomorph
- Ectomorph
- Balanced
- Physical types correspond to temperament and personality
- Compared 200 juvenile delinquents to 200 others.
- to try and determine whether there was sth about a person’s body type that gave us any indication of if they would be criminals or not.
- William H. Sheldon
What was Endomorphic physique like according to Sheldon?
- Roundness
- like santa
- Temperament:
- relaxation of body
- a comfortable person
- affable
- more easy going
What was Mesomorphic Physique like according to Sheldon?
- Relative predominance of muscle
- Temperament — somotonic (body) → get and gain energy from activity
- Active, dynamic
- walks, talks, gestures aggressively
- like Arnold Schwartznager
What was the Ectomorphic Physique like according to Sheldon?
- Lean, fragile, delicate body
- Temperament - cerebrotonic (more energy from being by themselves)
- An introvert
According to Sheldon’s Somatyping, who is most likely to be involved in criminal activity?
- Mesomorphs
- just bc of their personality traits
- Subject to scrutiny
- poor job measuring delinquency
- poor job of measuring impact of culture and environment
- sampling problems
- ideal type
- that each individual fits into a category → mesomorphs look like this, etc.
- there is not ideal type → we all share characteristics across this.
- Gluecks follow up found some validity
- Perhaps a different response to them?
What was the sterilization of Leilani Muir?
- Leilani Muir → was sent to a school and been sterilized → 1957, 14 years old she was forcibly sterilized in a school for “mentally defectives”
- When she was little she was abused by her mother → starved, beat, she used to steal lunches from other kids
- eventually the teachers saw and would start bring lunch for her → they’d move whenever ppl questioned her parents
- In early adolescence, Leilani’s future was dominated by Eugenics
- was sterilized bc she was claimed incapable of intelligent behaviour
- and fear of transmission of mental defect
- happened a few days before her 11th birthday
- literally “tested” them for 5 minutes.
- no fully informed consent → would not tell them what procedure they were doing → eg. would say they are taking their appendix out → took it out and sterilized them
Leilani Muir: What is Eugenics and why did it emerge when it did?
- being born of the right breed → well-born
- making the best humans, preventing inferior specimens from breeding → create a superhuman race → towards the health and wellness of society
- Population control → selective breeding of humans derived from plant science and animal husbandry having a “superior” or “superhuman”/correct race
- end of 18th c
- goal: to pick out inferior ppl and set them aside
- ppl with emotional problems, behavioural disorders, development disorders
- were sterilized with fear that they could pass on this “mental defect”
- in Alberta → Alberta United Farmer’s Woman’s Association → believed future of Canada was threatened by wave of immigration → proposed sterilization of those “feeble-minded” → 24% in the schools were Canadians, 76% were not Canadians in these schools.
- 1928 → Alberta sterilization act came into law. → in God’s plan, they were helping the individual they were sterilizing and the community → perfect community
- Claimed the number of mentally ill has increase by 450%
- Nazi Germany 5 years later did the same thing →
- up to 400,000 mentally ill Germans were sterilized in the 1930s → many went on to die in the gas chambers
- Told if you wanted to leave the school, you had to be sterilized → condemned Rita to incarceration → there for almost 50 years
- 1957 law was changed → no longer had to require consent
Who were the major players supporting the idea of eugenics and sterilization in the case of Leilani Muir and outside of it?
- H.H Goddard → we ought to be giving IQ tests to recent immigrants → if we could get them before they came into the country, we could save a lot of hardship and money
- in Alberta → Alberta United Woman’s Farm Workers Association → believed future of Canada was threatened by wave of immigration → proposed sterilization of those “feeble-minded” → and “not of Canadian stock”
- Emily Murphy → magistrate → advocated adoption of sexual sterilization act to prevent them from having trouble → insane people are not entitled to progeny
- Nazi Party of Germany
- Government of Alberta (they passed the act)
How did H.H Goddard support his contention that there is a link between heredity and intelligence?
- was head of a school for mental defectives
- greatest danger facing a nation was the threat of mental defectives
- did a study → photographs that he doctored around the eyes or mouth to make them look more sinister or dark.
- retouched photographs in his book on eugenics to give ppl more of a blank stare, a more sinister look. → became a major icon of the eugenics movements
What groups were most likely to be defined as mentally defective? What were the solutions instituted to govern those defined as such?
- ppl with emotional problems, behavioural disorders, “mentally defective”, people with illness (eg. Polio)
- Recent immigrants: Irish and Italians were at the heart of Canadians concerns → concerned about the impact these people would have on their way of life in the cities, government, and on the country’s coffers
- Stated 80% of those coming to Canada were mentally defective → implication that these mentally defectives would wind up in prisons
- giving IQ tests → have cultural bias built in, racist, not made so ppl who speak another language can do well
- sterilization
- incapacitation
- incarceration
- deportation
- give them an IQ test upon arriving in Canada → bc they believed countries were sending their mentally defective to drain Canada -> could deport them if they knew immediately they were mentally defective
- courts used to identify those who were mentally defective → could then incarcerate them for long periods of time
How is Law and Eugenics intertwined?
- the law was created in order to sterilize and take the rights away from those deemed mentally defective
- incarceration → it became understood among elites that those who were criminals were also mentally defective -> if we used the courts to identify them, we could protect society
- law also became a form of redress for Leilani Muir → led for a way for her to be compensated for her loss, her hardship.
- was this idea that those who appear in the courts were most mentally defective
Why is it important to learn about eugenics?
- important to learn about bc it shows how our system was impacted by these ideas and infiltrated by them
- shows how ppl in power impact the lives of others → we have to be careful with the kinds of things we do.
- ppl at this time were enamoured with science
- we have to be careful when we do science → careful of the implications of this word
What were Eugenics Theories on Criminals/Criminal Behaviours?
- Offenders were:
- defective in mind
- a product of improper breeding
- made inferior through biology
- Problem? Offenders could not be reformed.
- There was nothing we could do for them.
- Solutions:
- Deportation
-
Incapacitation
- jail
- Sterilization
- Eugenics contradicted the philosophy of the Court
- Court was the space for identification
- Murphy: 80% of people that appear in my courts are recent immigrants → must be something in the genes that is the problem
- But we fail to look at the social aspects and social causes that produce that outcome in the first place → if we think oh the marginalized appear in the courts way more than others
- Very prevalent
- Pictures of childrens’ hands in reports → La Rosa thought large hands were an indication that the individual was not at the same stage of evolution as others (atavistic traits)
“Bumping Up Against the Court” W.L Scott
- Created the Juvenile Justice Act
- trying to counter Eugenics ideas
- “A child is like a lump of putty, soft at first and easily moulded, taking its shape from its surroundings. Despite the undoubtedly great influence which heredity exerts on the psychological make up of the individual, it has no direct effect in moulding his moral character. That is the work of the environment.
- I am of course aware that the very reverse is taught by a certain school of criminologists, notable among whom are Lombroso, and others of what is known as the Italian School. These men speak of the “born criminal” and pretend to recognize him by certain “stigmata” or marks of crime. But leaving aside the exceptional cases of the mentally or physically defective, the children who are breaking the criminal law are just ordinary normal children and their moral condition is entirely the result of environment (W.L. Scott, 1913 “The Juvenile Court and Probation System for Children.”)
- Court officials thought we should try to reform them instead of incapacitate them → bc they were mouldable
Why do people commit crimes?
- survival
- want something
- revenge/anger
What factors go into the decisions to commit a crime?
- taking into account consequences if you get caught
- risk vs reward
- if there’s anyone around/surveillance
- deterrence → if you got caught before, you might not do it again
- where did you grow up? was it normalized? -. background factors → environment
What is the Routine Activities Approach?
- Most dominant theoretical approach when it comes to policy in criminality
- Three factors must be present for crime to occur:
- Motivated offender
- Suitable target
- eg. easily converted into cash or easily pawnable
- Lack of guardianship of the target
- Changes in any of these factors can lead to an increase or decrease in crime.
- → these 3 factors are the most important in preventing crime
- → if we have all 3, crime is most likely to occur
What did Cornish and Clarke discuss in “The Reasoning Criminal”
- Assume free will and a rational criminal
- Decision to commit crime is a matter of weighing of available information
- Short term benefits outweigh long-term considerations
- Tried to understand the questions that a burglar might ask:
- Which house offers the best target?
- Do the neighbours watch out for one another?
- How hard will it be to gain entrance?
- What sorts of goods are inside the house?
→ trying to figure out which is most vulnerable, how to maximize their reward and minimize their risk
→ kind of like animals in the wild → looking for the most vulnerable prey in order to minimize the risk to themselves and the effort required to do that behaviour.
According to a “professional thief” what is a suitable target?
- looks for settled homes → bc ppl who are of a socioeconomic status that are settled have disposable cash to buy jewlery and electronics
- nice yards → money
- ppl with presented alarm systems → cellular systems deter (wireless and most effective) but wired ones can be cut and does not deter.
- aggressive dogs may be a deterrent but not always → if dog does to another room 1) signifies someone is in the house and 2) it is not an alpha dog → looking for sb to deal with it → people don’t leave their dogs alone for long
- would disconnect the alarm system
- nosy neighbour is a deterrent → neighbourhood watch is a deterrent bc never wants to be confronted by anyone.
- says ppl need to empty their mailboxes → so ppl know they’re home.
- lawns need to be taken care of
- → if it does look like ppl are away then that house is also a possible choice
- front of the house → looking for visual pathways → being able to see through the house → big glass door houses → how well he could see if there was sb home or not.
- lights in the house or cars in the driveway
- doesn’t want to confront anyone → do not want to be observed by ppl who can later identify you
What are Crimes of Opportunity?
- target anyone who is alone
- “flash” → nice clothes or jewellery caught their attention → ppl who have money
- also looked for ppl who wouldn’t fight back → someone they could overpower (drunk, lost)
- attacked on street, in subway, or outside/just inside buildings
- willing to make more risks
- most vulnerable in driveway in the suburbs
What are people looking to steal?
- jewellery, money, wallet, phone
- “flash” → jewellery is easy to carry → easily pawnable → much easier to conceal and get away with
What are the steps involved in committing a crime?
- Background and Situational Factors
- have needs in order to survive → ppl who are living on the streets or have no other opportunities available to them will do what they can in order to survive
- who is this individual and what is going on in their lives at that time?
- Suitable Target
- who is the most vulnerable individual in order to get X?
- Motivated Offender
- Shawn went to school and came back with a brand new Yankees hat → finally says he stole it → said he saw it in a car, threw a rock through the window and stole the hat → anyone who has these situational factors and is motivated will commit a crime
- if you’re hungry and you have no money or food → have to eat → motivated
- Previous Learning and Experience
- If you don’t have the previous learning and experience
- In order to break into a house you have to know how to do it
- Have to know how to get rid of your stuff afterwards
- Blocked Opportunities and Perceived Effort
- Readiness to Commit Crime
What does “Background and Situational Factors” refer to?
- Background factors would include: social factors: family background, peers
- Situational factors would include: whether the person has consumed alcohol or drugs
Presence of a suitable target.*
What does “Suitable Target” refer to?
- research indicates that criminal choice is influenced by the perception of target vulnerability.
- Empty home versus occupied
- will attack home where there are many occupants
- Eg. Upshal → partier → he would often bring the party back to his house (that he shared with prof and friends)
- Would come into the house and turn on the stereo → one night prof was sleeping → heard crashing sound → hears footsteps coming upstairs → hears noises throughout the night → next day the TV was gone and their booze were gone → had been robbed
- if you have a lot of ppl in your house it may not be usual to hear ppl moving around the house →
- dog is a deterrant → bc they will bark → lose their mind when its someone they don’t know
- Many versus single occupant
- Intoxicated
- Empty home versus occupied
- The more suitable and accessible the target, the more likely crime will occur
- Capable guardians (easy score)
- armed and dangerous victims
- physical security measures improves guardianship and limits offender access to targets (not monitored)
What does Previous Learning and Experience refer to?
- Direct or vicarious experience with crime
- comparing the target to others they have been successful with in the past
- Also refers to:
- the criminal’s self-perception of skills (learned)
- ability to elude law enforcement
- and get rid of the stuff afterwards (fence)
- need a market for it → sb you can sell it to
- need to know where to sell your things
- can’t take a laptop or bike to pawn shop → bc police and owners may be looking for it there; 2) pawnshops need to know you’re information 3) they are required by law to report it to the police and see if its stolen.
What does “Blocked Opportunities and Perceived Effort” refer to?
-
The amount of effort required
- Criminal will take the route with lowest risk of detection and resistance (from mark; police)
- eg. Stealing new cars is really hard to do now
- ppl who steal cars use them to park them out → they will cut parts out of the car
- car manufacturers now better at putting vin numbers in different places
- ppl steal them to get away
- ppl sell overseas
- ppl steal them mainly for joyriding purposes → older cars more than newer ones bc they’re easier to steal
What does “Readiness to Commit Crime” refer to?
- Readiness to commit crime
- Withdrawal of legitimacy or belief in a just world
- “Minimum wage sucks”
- The offender engages in self-talk to rationalize the behaviour → excuse away the behaviour by ignoring the fact that there is a victim
- “No one really gets hurt, that’s what insurance is for.”
- Minimizing the belief that other deserve to have stuff
- “Those people don’t deserve to have all those things”
- “Why do they have a XYZ and I have nothing?”
The Likelihood of Crime Depends on the Interactions Among What?
- A suitable target (vulnerable, desirable)
- A capable guardian (other people, police)
- A motivated criminal (young, unemployed, under the influence)
How do we Prevent Crime?
- As opposed to reacting to crime, we might be able to prevent it before it occurs.
- Manipulating the environment to govern behaviour
- Eg. New communities today → confusing if you are there as a visitor → usually one way in and out → on purpose → urban designers want to make it so its confusing for ppl coming to those communities as visitors; 2) if there is only one way in and out, it can control traffic AND they don’t have anything else in them other than houses → no stores in the community only homes → deters ppl from coming into the community unless they live there or know sb → for the most part we control who comes in and out of those communities by manipulating the space.
- Grocery stores (how many times have you come out of the grocery store with more items than intended)
- Costco
- Ikea
- funnel you through the escalator so you have to go through the whole store before → so you buy more stuff
- Disneyland
- they funnel ppl the way they want traffic to go
- How would you manipulate space to control crime — that is how can we alter our environments to prevent crime.
How can Policy Implications reduce opportunities for crime?
- Opportunities for crime can be reduced by:
- Increasing the effort required to commit a crime by target hardening or by controlling access to targets
- Increasing the risks by increasing levels of formal or informal surveillance or guardianship.
- Reducing the rewards by identifying property to facilitate recovery, by removing targets, or by denying the benefits of crime.
- Eg. Bike index → any time you buy a new bike, you can register your bike → now there is a database of all bikes being sold
- Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)
- how tall bushes can stop crime, see through fences can stop crime
- trees must be trimmed up to 6 feet off the ground
- Surveillance is key
- patios → ppl sit on their patios, swimming pool → bring people out of their home and into a common area → always a neighbour outside
- trees and bushes do not cover views
- making things more visible → making it easier to see whats going on
What are examples of Situational Crime Prevention?
- Target hardening
- High-intensity street lighting
- Benches
- Community design
- Security systems (the Club)
- dead-bolt locks
- Keeping valuables hidden from view (blinds, car)
- Direct access phones to campus security
- Designed to:
- increase effort
- increase risk
- reduce rewards
What is Defensive Design?
- Why are most city benches designed the way they are?
- CPTED → looks at environment and picks out where the vulnerabilities are → manipulate environment to control what kind of behaviours are done there
- eg. Benches → prevents ppl from staying or loitering in that area for long periods of time → trying to control the space to manipulate the behaviour
- Streetlights most recognizable defensive designs → more ppl spent time outside, retraction in crime → public space more hospitable for people/eyes to be out
- to encourage certain behaviour and discourage others → also about driving economic development.
- Have these type of benches (uncomfortable) in certain areas → discourage negative behaviour and encourage ppl to come to these places in order to spend their money
What are the Limitations of Defensive Design?
- weaknesses
- doesn’t take into people with mobility problems ppl
- makes you spend money you don’t always want to spend
- could put that money towards actual spaces for homeless
- lacks accessibility → eg. ppl with kids have harder times taking out kids when there is no where to rest
- Who is targeted
- Displacement
- Only removed the target
- they will find other places → eg. homeless ppl → not dealing with the problem, just moving it into another place/space.
- Attending to structural conditions that are precursors to crime
- Onus - blaming victim
What is the STA Test?
- Test for determining to commit or not commit a crime somewhere
- surveillance (will I be seen)
- access (can I get in and out?)
- Territoriality (does anyone care what happens here?)
Who was Emile Durkheim (1958-1917)?
Emile Durheim (1958-1917):
- Father of sociology
- Durkheim’s theory of modern society “The Division of Labour In Society”
- Without norms to guide them, societies function poorly.
- He popularized the concept of ANOMIE to explain crime in more advanced and differentiated urban societies.
- How is society ordered? (Solidarity - part of the whole?)
- Mechanical solidarity
- cohesiveness of small undifferentiated societies
- common beliefs and values
- talking about small-scale societies and communities
- everybody knows one another in mechanically organized societies and we all depend on individuals to do their job in order for society to continue
- in these communities we all depend on one another for our survival
- more communal
- Organic solidarity (the organic analogy)
- Greater division of labour
- yes everybody is important, but we don’t rely on everyone, one another for our survival
- Everything is necessary
- Individualism
- more atomized society → meaning, individualistic
According to Durkheim, what are the functions of crime and anomie?
- Anomie and Normlessness
- anomie - disintegration or disappearance of the norms and values that were previously common to society
- associated with a feeling of disconnection → leads to the feeling that one does not belong → means their role is no longer important to society → hopeless → increase risk of crime
- stake in conformity has been reduced → what ties them to the norms of society has been reduced
- is suspension of the norms of society
- In times of rapid social change, social solidarity can break down; there are no clear societal norms/values.
- When social cohesion breaks down and social isolation is great, society loses its traditional social control mechanisms and eventually suffers from a high rate of crime.
What is Durkheim’s Functionalism and Crime?
- Crime related to given order
- “An act is criminal when it offends the strong, well-defined states of collective consciousness…[w]e should not say that an act offends the common consciousness because it is criminal, but that it offends the common consciousness because it is criminal. We do not condemn it because it is a crime, but it is a crime because we condemn it….” (Durkheim, The Division of Labour, pp 39-40)
- aka we condemn these kind of behaviours because we see them as harmful to our social world
- we create these kind of moral boundaries around these behaviours we don’t find desirable and want to discourage.
- Crime is a NORMAL phenomenon of all societies because it is:
- Universal
- Necessary
- ie. crime performs function for a society:
- Sets up and reinforces moral boundaries
- Helps achieve group solidarity
- ie. crime performs function for a society:
Who was Robert k. Merton?
- Robert K. Merton
- born Meyer R. Schkolnick
- Teen, magic — adopted “Robert Merline”
- friend said “name was lame”
- undergrad became Robert Merton
- coined terms “self-fulfilling prophecy” and “role models”
- “Social Structure and Anomie” written as Harvard grad student
- born Meyer R. Schkolnick
How does Robert K. Merton view society?
Pictured society like a vast machine.
- comprised of:
- Cultural acceptable “goals”
- members should strive for—
- and the culturally acceptable “means” to attain them.
- scarce commodities
→ in a fair society, everyone would have access to the means and the goals
- anomie and strain result when:
- societal members are denied means of achieving cultural goals
- an ideally organized society:
- means available for all to achieve their goals
→ this gap between the means and ends creates anomie
→ we all know what we want but we can’t all achieve them → the means to do so are finite → not everyone has access to them → result is strain and anomie
According to Merton what are our goals?
- Merton talked about American dream
- vision of “American/Canadian” dream guides how life ought to be
- What is this dream?
- to own a house
- financial stability
- have a family
- discretionary income to spend on
- job
- vacations
- education
- If the North American Dream informs them they simply need to work harder
- And be patient
According to Merton, what are the “means”?
- enter social institutions:
- primarily education and employment,
- proper vehicles to success
-
legitimate means” to success:
- study hard, make the grade → diploma
- a diploma & good educational record - good job
- hard work for an employer - attain “success” – climb corporate ladder
- if society operated this way…
- born into society, receive a good education and job, and gradually acquire the statuses of the good life
- social machine would function smoothly!
- but, is this the case?
What is “THE GAP” according to Merton and Anomie?
- Gap between the goals and the means!
-
inequality creates tension in system:
- “strain” could potentially lead individuals to call means into question
- rather than join to challenge inequality,
- respond → modes of adaptation
- Merton argues that NOT everyone has equal access to these institutions -> path to goals blocked for some.
What is Strain Theory?
- Durkheim
- Murton
- Something pushes you to do crime
According to Strain Theory, what do we use to Adapt to Strain?
CONFORMITY.
- most common response
- do best with means available
- remain committed to belief
→ they will eventually reach goals…
- Can you think of techniques employed to keep individuals committed to conformity and the American Dream?
- authority figures → your parents, the gov’t.
- institutions in society that are helping to reinforce it
- employers → dangle promotion over your head → workplaces → if you work hard, you’ll move up → raise in pay → carrot dangled in front of us
- media
Governing Consent
- Sayings: Success is a journey not a destination
- Ideological systems: meritocracy (Society is an even playing field)
- everybody has this ability
- Social Control: education, policing, correctional, media, etc.
- Anomie → strain and stress ppl fee
According to Strain theory, other than conformity, how else do we adapt to strain?
- INNOVATION
- A new way to the ocean?
- …people who find their advancement blocked may find new paths to achieve goal → ppl who reject the means
- alternatives are paths of deviance, they need NOT be criminal:
–e.g. gambling is not promoted by society as a path to success, but is nevertheless legal
–e.g. attaching oneself to a rich relative!- eg Facebook guy → stole the idea → marketed it as his own
- drug dealing → not acceptable means to ends we desire → can be lucrative
- alternatives are paths of deviance, they need NOT be criminal:
- …people who find their advancement blocked may find new paths to achieve goal → ppl who reject the means
- Innovation requires a society where:
- “goals” of material success are valued
- Insufficient access to legitimate “means”
- their path to success (the goals) are blocked
- eg homeless → you need to eat, have no money → one way to eat is to steal stuff that you want
What does innovation as an adaptation to anomie, require?
- Innovation requires a society where:
- “goals” of material success are valued
- Insufficient access to legitimate “means”
- their paths to success (the goals) are blocked
- eg homeless → you need to eat, have no money → one way to eat is to steal stuff that you want
- in North America, “winning the game” is often more important than “playing by the rules”
- getting what you desire/what is set out for us is often seen as the most important thing: eg. having new clothes, new shoes, new game.
- can be little things: like doing well on an exam →
- when we are losing constantly → we’re looking at ways to win
- subtle/not-so-subtle cheating
According to Strain Theory, other than innovation and conformity, how else do we adapt to anomie?
- RITUALISM
- Reject goals, still committed to society’s institutions of advancement
- Rather than value education/work as means to success, see the “means” as ends in themselves.
- satisfaction that you get from the means
- Ritualistic → person who rejects the goals but still follows the means → education and job with no desire for advancement or to get ahead.
- Examples:
- “I may not be wealthy, but education is good for its own sake”
- “Hard work is good in itself, not for where it gets you”
- Corporate employee who accepts their lot in the hierarchy.
What is the adaptation of Retreatism to Anomie?
- Realize never reach their anticipated goal—
- may reject society’s institutions altogether (the goals and the means)
- “Why should I stay in school—what good will it do me?”
- “Why should I work hard for others? The game is rigged!”
- may reject society’s institutions altogether (the goals and the means)
- retreatism: reject both accepted goals and means
- eg. ppl in active drug addiction
- ppl who live off the grid
- alcoholics
- effectively drop out of society
rejection is deviant, but legal - becoming a hermit
- submitting to alcoholism
- may include criminal activities
- illegal forms of drug use or abuse
What is the rebellion adaptation to anomie (strain theory)?
- Unlike other modes of response
- *rebellion is a group response — not an individual one!
- replace goals and/or institutional means of an unequal social system with something else:
- Can take very overt forms:
- Revolution
- More tacit response
- eg. we decide as a group we want t olive our own life according to our own rule → eg. creating a commune
- eg. Marx → a society where each and according to one’s own need
- Marx: we ought to have all that we need to live a happy life
- As a society we have alienated ourselves as human beings → we are alienated from ourselves, we as human beings are created and we have certain needs that should be met (for everyone) → we ought to have the ability in our social world to work and live in ways that are free from exploitation, alienation
- Mean: when we work we are most often working for someone else → and when we work that process of work has nothing to do for us → and we don’t benefit from that work the same way our corporation does
- eg. prof’s son works at Starbucks _> makes 30 drinks an hour → 7 dollars a drink → 7x30 → makes the corporation that amount of an hour but only gets paid 15.20 for that work.
- Can take very overt forms:
What are Merton’s Adaptations to Anomie?
- Conformity = accept means; accept goals
- Innovation = reject means; accept goals
- Ritualism = accept means; reject goals
- Retreatism = reject means; reject goals
- Rebellion = replace means; replace goals
According to Reppucci and Clingempeel 1978, all research on crime reflects what two value assumptions
- ASSUMPTION OF OFFENDER DEFICIT: the view that offenders who break the law have some psychological deficit that distinguishes them from normal, law-abiding citizens.
- ASSUMPTION OF DISCRIMINATING TRAITS: the view that offenders are distinguished from non-offenders by, for example, their high levels of impulsiveness and aggression.
What is Community Psychology?
a perspective that analyzes social problems, including crime, as largely a product of organizational and institutional characteristics of society. It is closely related to sociology.
- “level of analysis” pov:
1. the individual level, in which social problems are defined in terms of individual deficit
2. the small group level, in which social problems are created by problems in group functioning, essentially problems in interpersonal communication and understanding
3. the organizational level, in which the organizations of society have not accomplished what they have been designed to accomplish;
4. the institutional or community level, in which it is suggested that social problems are created by institutions rather than by persons, groups, or organizations.
- at this level the emphasis is on the values and policies underlying institutional functioning.
- “victimless crimes” like drug abuse and prostitution cuts across these 4 levels.
- If the problem is defined at the first level, individuals will be examined to determine what psychological problems they have.
- Once this has been determined, direct interventions will be employed in changing these people so that they fit into society better and conform to existing laws.
- At the small-group level, the influence of peers, such as drug-abusing friends, can be viewed as influencing the individual’s behaviour.
- At the next level, organizations such as law enforcement agencies are seen as having insufficient resources to prevent or deter individuals from engaging in criminal activities.
- Finally, if the problem is defined at the institutional level, it can be said that problems individuals face are caused by the laws their society created. → eg therapy not helpful if the problem is related to socioeconomic patterns.
What is Psychoanalytic Theory and Freud’s contribution?
- Sigmund Freud
- Basic premise: people progress through five overlapping stages of development.
- Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages.
- Freud believed that personality is composed of 3 forces:
- the id (biological urges that strive continually for gratification)
- the ego (which screens, controls, and directs the impulses of the id and acts as a reality tester → rational part of the personality)
- superego (conscience → ethical and moral dimensions of personality)
- Psychoanalytic theory holds that the ego and superego are developed through successful resolution of conflicts presented at each stage of development.
According to Psychoanalytic Theory, when does criminal behaviour occur?
- Suggests that criminal behaviour occurs when “internal (ego and superego) controls are unable to restrain the primitive, aggressive, antisocial instincts of id” (Nietzel, 1979)
- Criminal behaviour is the consequence of an individual’s unsuccessful progress through the early stages of development, generally thought to be due to a failure to identify with prosocial parental figures; this leaves the superego inadequately developed or deficient. (Martin Sechrest, and Redner 1981)
- Psychoanalytic researchers have proposed that delinquent behaviour reflects a weak, deviant or harsh superego that is unable to control the oral, anal and phallic impulses that are resurrected at puberty (Schoenfeld 1971; Kline 1987)
- A weak superego, developed as a consequence of parental deprivation and lack of affecting during the first few years of the child’s life, results in a person with few inhibitions against antisocial behaviour, who acts in ways to satisfy his or her id, regardless of any social restraints.
- A deviant superego, developed as a result of identification with a deviant role model, results in a person with deviant values. → will perform criminal acts that mirror his or her parents’ criminality.
- A person who has developed a harsh superego experiences pathological levels of unconscious guilt, and performs criminal acts to subconsciously invite punishment in an attempt to assuage this guilt.
According to Warren and Hindelang (1979) what are 5 other interpretations of criminal behaviour from psychoanalytic theory?
- Criminal behaviour is a form of neurosis that does not differ in any fundamental way from other forms of neurosis (e.g., while some neurotics work too hard, others set fires).
- The criminal often suffers from a compulsive need for punishment in order to alleviate guilt feelings and anxiety stemming from unconscious strivings.
- Criminal activity may be a means of obtaining substitute gratification of needs and desires not met inside the family.
- Delinquent behaviour is often due to traumatic events whose memory has been repressed.
- Delinquent behaviour may be an expression of displaced hostility
According to Bowlby, what part does socialization play in Crime? (psychoanalytic theory)
- Bowlby stressed that a stable attachment to a mother in the first few years of life makes it possible for the child to show affection toward others and care about them.
- If this attachment does not occur, the child will be unable to show affection and, thus, may damage others without remorse through various forms of victimization.
- early childhood abuse and neglect contribute to the development of criminal and antisocial behaviour.
What is reproductive fitness variance?
the range of possible offspring an organism can produce.
- related to evolution theory
- the number of offspring a woman can produce is limited by pregnancy, lactation, and menopause, while men are limited mainly by the number of fertile women with whom they can mate.
- Because women have historically been fouces on raising children and keeping them safe, they are less likely to engage in risky antisocial behaviour that might jeopardize their ability to take care of their children, ensuring their survival.
- By contrast, since men strive to make themselves appear ambitious (to have more mating opportunities) , industrious, wealthy, they are less risk-averse than women, especially during adolescence and early adulthood, when competition for mates is most intense (Quinsey, 2002).
- This theory explains not only why men commit more crimes than women but also why criminal behaviour peaks in adolescence.
- Evolutionary theory is criticized for its deterministic nature, which suggests that behaviour is predetermined and thus there is little we can do to prevent or treat it.
What is moral development theory?
refers generally to theories of individual psychology that investigate how moral reasoning emerges in the individual and develops as the individual matures.
Moral Development Theory and Crime?
- Moral development theory: refers generally to theories of individual psychology that investigate how moral reasoning emerges in the individual and develops as the individual matures.
- If we wish to understand criminal and delinquent behaviour we need to ask how it is that individuals develop, or fail to develop, a sense of morality and responsibility.
- One of the first contemporary moral development theorists was Jean Piaget (1932), whose research focused on the moral lives of children.
- Concluded that moral reasoning develops in stages.
- The thinking of young children is characterized by egocentricism (they project their own thoughts and wishes onto others because they are unable to take the perspective of those others)
- Through interactions with others, by the ages of 11 or 12, children normally have progressed to the stage of cooperation with others.
- Kohlberg: six stages of moral development.
- All individuals go through the same sequences of stages.
What is Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral development (based off of Piaget)
- Preconventional: characteristic of children under age 11 and of many adolescent and adult offenders.
- At this level, society’s morals and values are understood as “do’s” and “don’ts” and are associated with punishment.
- roles and social expectations are sth external to self.
- punishment 2. instrumental hedonism
- Conventional: average adolescent and adult in our society and others.
- Understands, accepts, and attempts to uphold the values and rules of society.
- the self is identified with or has internalized the rules and expectations of others, especially those of authorities.
- approval of others 4. authority maintaining morality
- Postconventional: customs are critically examined with regard to universal rights, duties, and moral principles.
- Characteristic of a minority of adults after the age of 20.
- has differentiated his or her self from the rules and expectations of others and has defined his or her values by means of self-chosen principles.
- democratically accept law 6. principles of conscience
What did Carol Gilligan think of Moral development and Gender?
variation in moral standards by gender, with females taking a more care-oriented approach to morality and males typically following a more justice-oriented approach.
What are the conclusions on Moral Development and Criminal Behaviour?
CONCLUSION: Moral development may affect how an individual behaves in a given context, but it is clear that other characteristics of the individual, as well as the situation, will also be important determinants of behaviour.
What was Kohlberg’s thoughts on moral development and crime?
- people with high moral development are more likely to make individual choices and to be less influenced by friends or by consequences of actions.
- Thus, there should be an inverse relationship between moral development and delinquency.
- Not causation!!
- Individuals at the same level of moral development my or may not become delinquent.
- guilt inversely related to delinquency, while shame has a positive relationship with offending behaviour.
- Moral development was inversely related to recidivism for juvenile and adult offenders.
- CONCLUSION: Moral development may affect how an individual behaves in a given context, but it is clear that other characteristics of the individual, as well as the situation, will also be important determinants of behaviour.
What was Eysenck’s Theory of Crime and Personality?
- Illegal, selfish or immoral behaviours are inherently reinforcing, and hence it is more fruitful to try to explain why people do not commit crimes.
- Claims that children will naturally engage in such acts and only refrain from doing so if they are punished.
- Based on classical conditioning: a basic form of learning where a neutral stimulus is paired with another stimulus that naturally elicits a certain response; the neutral stimulus comes to elicit the same response as the stimulus that automatically elicits the response.
- Each time a child is punished, he or she may experience pain and fear. This pain and fear may be associated with the act itself. Thus, whenever the child contemplates the act, he or she will experience the fear, which will tend to inhibit the response.
- Eysenck equates the conditioned fear with conscience.
- Delinquents and criminals do not readily develop this conditioned response, either bc of lack of exposure to effective conditioning practices by parents and others, or bc they are less susceptible to conditioning.
- Conditionability is a crucial factor on the social or environmental side.
- “strictness” is a result of the certainty and frequency of pairings of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli.
According to Eysenck, what are the 3 dimensions of personality?
- Extroversion - highly sociable, impulsive, and aggressive.
- Those scoring high on extroversion have a low level of arousal → require more environmental stimulation.
- High introverted, introspective and inhibited people are the other extreme of this particular dimension.
- Neuroticism is linked to the concept of neurosis.
- People who are high on this dimension are characterized by such symptoms as anxiety, restlessness, and other emotional responses.
- opposite is stability.
- psychoticism - high = cold, impersonal, hostile, lacking in sympathy, untrustful, antisocial, inhumane, lacking in human feelings, with paranoid ideas that ppl are against him.
- Beleived that levels of extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism are determined mainly by genetics and that most people have moderate levels of each.
- Extroverts, bc of their high need for excitement, their impulsivity, and their relatively weak conscience, are believed to be more prone to criminal behaviour.
- Persons high on neuroticism and extroversion would be difficult to condition → more likely to be criminals or delinquents.
- Persons high on psychoticism would tend to be more serious offenders, with a propensity for violence.
According to Eysenck, who what personality type was most prone to criminal or delinquent behaviour?
- Extroverts, bc of their high need for excitement, their impulsivity, and their relatively weak conscience, are believed to be more prone to criminal behaviour.
- Persons high on neuroticism and extroversion would be difficult to condition → more likely to be criminals or delinquents.
- Persons high on psychoticism would tend to be more serious offenders, with a propensity for violence.
- Eysenck’s theory shows how psychological and social variables can be interrelated.
- Individuals who may have a psychological propensity to commit crime may be socialized effectively if they grow up in an environment that provides effective conditioning.
- Similarly, individuals with a low propensity for criminality may become criminal if their environment is too permissive.
What did Farrinton, Biron and Leblanc (1982) find about personality and criminality?
- Farrinton, Biron, and LeBlanc (1982): while most offenders generally scored higher on psychoticism and neuroticism, similar results were not found for extroversion.
- this is not surprising, since some aspects of extroversion are related to criminality (eg. impulsiveness), but others are not (eg. sociability).
- Boduszek and colleagues (2012): showed that psychoticism, neuroticism, and extroversion significantly predicted criminal thinking, supporting Eysenck’s theory
What is Social Learning Theory?
- Focuses on individual behaviour but it also takes into account the environment’s influence and the individual’s social conditions.
- cognitive functioning—the ability to think and make choices—is central to social learning theory.
- modelling is important element of social learning: a form of learning that occurs as a result of watching and imitating others.
Social Learning Theory: What did Bandura say?
- aggressive behaviour can be learned from three sources:
- Family: studies have shown that children of parents who respond aggressively to problems will tend to use similar tactics.
- children who were abused will later become abusers themselves.
- subcultural influences: the influence of social models and peers.
- highest incidence of aggression is found in communities in which aggressive models abound and fighting prowess is regarded as a valued attribute.
- symbolic modelling: violence on TV, which provides models of aggressive behaviour.
- Family: studies have shown that children of parents who respond aggressively to problems will tend to use similar tactics.
What did Hartnagel’s studies on social learning and aggression show?
- high school students who described their favourite tv shows as violent also reported committing more aggressive acts that students whose favourite shows were nonviolent.
- Anderson and colleagues (2012): relationship between playing violent video games and aggressive behaviour.
- BUT cannot be concluded through correlational studies alone that viewing violence is the cause of aggressive behaviour.
- Exposure to tv violence may well increase one’s tolerance of violence and decrease one’s sensitivity to acts of violence:
- Thomas and colleagues (1979): found that both adult and child subjects showed less autonomic reactivity (a measurement of the extent to which an individual’s organism reacts to external stimuli) to a scene of real-life interpersonal aggression if they had first watched a violent scene from a tv show.
- Currently, exposure to violence on tv is not considered a direct cause of aggressive and violent behaviour; however, it is considered an important risk factor that can contribute to aggressive and violent behaviour.
What is Bandura (1986) suggest the best deterrent to criminal/aggressive activity is?
- suggests that the best deterrent to such activity is the provision of more attractive prosocial alternatives.
- but acknowledges: “when inducements to criminal acts are strong, when personal sanctions against such conduct are weak, and when people lack socially acceptable means of getting what they want, fear of punishment serves as a major deterrent to transgressive conduct.”
What are Bandura’s Proposed 3 major sources of deterrence against criminal activity?
- Legal sanction
- from belief that there are legal transgression, notwithstanding the reality the most crime goes unpunished.
- “offenders judge personal risks to be lower and more in line with the actual probabilities.”
- Social sanction
- reflect the negative social consequences that criminal stigmatization can have for an individual and the powerful deterrent effect it has.
- Self Sanction
- self-imposed moral standards; they are viewed as the most effective deterrent, for they operate even when there is no risk of detection.
What is Strain Theory?
the proposition that people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals they are unable to reach because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals.
What is Anomie?
a concept developed by Emile Durkheim (1858- 1917) to describe an absence of clear societal norms and values. Robert Merton used the term more narrowly to refer to a situation in which people would adopt deviant means to achieve goals beyond their means.
According to Merton, what is crime?
Merton: Crime is a symptom of the gap between culturally prescribed aspirations and the socially structured (eg. schooling) means for realizing them.
- if there is any gap between the desired goals and the means, innovation or illegitimate tactics are more likely.
What are culturally prescribed aspirations?
a rejection of the notion that aspirations are entirely self-created; rather, they are defined by culture and transmitted by other members of society.
- in America, the accumulation of money and the status that results from material wealth are universal goals.
What did Konty (2005) find about criminal and deviant acts?
found that those students favouring “self-enhancing” values (values that emphasize social status, prestige, dominance over others, and personal selection) over “self-transcending” values (values that emphasize appreciation, tolerance, protection, and welfare of others) were more likely to report having committed criminal and deviant acts.
- stronger effect on self reported behaviour than sociological variables like race and social class.
What is Durheim’s Strain Theory?
Anomie is due to weak social regulation.
- when social cohesion breaks down, society loses its traditional mechanisms of social control and eventually suffers from a high rate of crime.
What is Merton’s Strain Theory?
Anomie is due to the gap between aspirations and means.
- crime occurs when there is a gap between culturally ascribed aspirations and socially structured means for realizing these aspirations.
What is Messner, Rosenfeld’s Strain Theory?
Anomie due to institutional factors.
- strong pressures to succeed monetarily and weak restraints on the means to succeed in a society that emphasizes economics leads to crime.
What are subcultures?
a group of people who share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviours that differs in some significant way from that of a larger society.
What is the Chicago School of Criminology?
-
Social ecology of Park and Burgess
- Rapid growth due to immigration, urbanization, and industrialization (mechanical to organic)
- Inspired by plant and animal ecology (how that thing intereacts and is impacted by its environment)
- as opposed to Eulani more’s case were ppl were influenced by plant biology (hereditary)
- Individual responds, adapts and is affected by their environment
- impacted by work of durheim (mechanical solidarity → wehre everyone depends on everyone in a society)
- Chicago school of sociology, most important in looking at symbolic interaction
- was a break from the constitutional theories of Lombroso and the other theorists of heredity who blamed biology.
What did Park and Burgess Find in their studies?
- Newly arrived immigrants initially settled in the most deteriorated areas of the city.
- Within a generation, however, they would move from this n/h (neighbourhood) and were integrated into conventional society.
- Other new immigrants would replace them in the inner n/h.
- Yet crime rates would remain high in the neighbourhood
- Therefore, crime was related to the neighbourhood rather than to the ethnic group who inhabited it.
- Argued: Cities Develop natural zones…
What was the Burgess Concentric Zone Model?
- Inner circle: central business district
- Beyond that: Zone of transition
- Zone 3: Zone of independent
- AS you move from the CBD (central business district) crime and criminality goes down
- main reason is poverty
Why is the Zone of Transition a high crime zone?
- Poverty
- cheapest houses in bad areas
- Ethnic heterogeneity (foreign born)
- tend to congregate and live in similar neighbourhoods
- bc you don’t know anyone else, don’t know english, don’t know the food → similar values, language
- Residential mobility (to other zones)
- Disorder, inclivities
- Anomie of recent immigrants (rapid social change)
- Led to social disorganization, which led to crime.
- 1930s: Gangs in New York: immigrants had no social supports in this country → experience anomie (stress and strain) and had to adapt to it somehow → formed gangs (eg. Al Capone’s gang in Chicago who was involved in Bootlegging → tunnels dug by his ppl to smuggle alcohol and get them to bars)
- eg. Mafia in New York → recent immigrants came together to make money in order to get what they needed
What is Broken Windows Policing?
- Juliani → in charge when New York had this shift → during the start of Broken Windows Policing
- Theory is based on an experiments conducted 26 years by psychologist Philip Zimbardo
- Took 2 identical cars
- One he placed on a street in a middle class Palo Alto neighbourhood
- The other in a tougher neighbourhood in the Bronx
- Results: almost immediately when the car was parked in the Bronx, it was stripped for parts, windows broken
- When the car was in Palo Alto, it remained untouched.
- So he smashed the window in Palo Alto and within hours that car too was stripped of parks
- CONCLUSION: a broken window symbolizes that nobody cares and that this is the space for those behaviours (criminal)
- Eg in bathrooms → you have some bathrooms that are untouched by graffiti, and some that are covered
- if you show graffiti and allow it to continue, you signal that t”his is where you engage in that behaviour”
What happened to Broken Windows Policing in late 20th century?
- Broken windows is associated with the Work of James Q. Wilson
- Prototypical conservative criminologist
- Suggested that:
- “one broken window that goes un-repaired signals no one cares” (’Broken Windows Policing, Atlantic Monthly, 1982)
- “There aren’t any liberals left in New York. They’ve all been mugged by now.”
- The essence of Broken Windows is that:
- Neighbourhood decay, graffiti, litter
- Minor misconduct ~ public drinking and vagrancy
- Signals no one cares and that no one is watching
- The strategy was first tested by William Bratton ~ NYC Transit commission
- “low level crimes” were not being taken seriously
- product of defining deviance up to 1970s and 80s (ie. labelling theory)
→ we have to label and punish these crimes to clarify to people that it’s not okay
What was William Bratton’s philosophy?
- If you crack down on lower level crimes, you’ll also crack down on more serious crimes.
- Bratton wrote that: “subway disorder and subway crime exploded during the late 1980s. Chronic fare evaders, violators of transit regulations, aggressive panhandlers, homeless substance abusers and illegal vendors hawking their goods on station platforms all contributed to an atmosphere of disorder, even chaos, in the subways. I was convinced that disorder was a key ingredient in the steeply rising robbery rate, as criminals of opportunity including many youthful offenders, looked upon the subway as a place where they could get away with anything.”
What did Bratton do/propose
- Do anything you want as long as the economic system is robust and comes back
- Economic system was really driving this system of policing
- In 1994 newly elected Mayor Rudolph Guliani put Bratton in charge of the NYPD
- Turned “Broken Windows” loose on the streets of NY
- 5,000 more cops were put on the street
- quality of life patrols snared drunks, drug users and taggers (prolific graffiti → tagging it, trying to get known)
- whereas graffiti is kind of seen as art
- wanted to get taggers off street → the idea is to tag as many places as possible → wanted to get rid of it asap bc believed if we don’t cover it up, it will encourage more.
- Police identified “hot spots” for gun violence using maps of the city (Comstat — similar to Shaw and McKay aka hotspots of crime)
- Turned “Broken Windows” loose on the streets of NY
- Result ~ 39% drop in crime 50% drop in murders.
What was Juggernaut?
- Juggernaut -> Broken Windows on steroids.
- was the idea of dramatically expanding the drug unit—the number of people engaged solely in going after drugs and drug-related crime, which was anything involving guns, youth, and all the drug crime. We were going to pour in thousands of highly trained cops, coordinated with the district attorneys’ offices. We would literally roll through the city, like securing a beachhead. And after we secured the beachhead, unlike the previous initiatives in this city, we wouldn’t just let the area sink back; we would move in the occupation forces which would be the community police and the beat cops (Tikkun Magazine, August 2000).
- Roll in like an army
- sounds like an army general invading a territory
- different philosophy about thinking about crime and criminality
How does mapping crime help crime prevention?
Mapping crime can help law enforcement protect citizens:
by directing patrols to places they are most needed.
by revealing trends in criminal activity by solving criminal cases.
- better understand the hunting patterns of serial criminals
- hypothesize where these offenders might live.
What is CompStat and how did it work?
- 1990s NY and now used around the world
- Originally titled charts and futures
- Used pins and a map (Jack Maple)❑Reduced crime by 27% in the subway
- Bratton brought it with him when he became chief of police
- Said to have reduced crime by 60%
- we still use these ideas at UofA
What are the problems with Broken Windows policing?
- Targets the individuals who do the crimes, but does not look at the underlying reasons for the crimes
- Is trying to remove the crime and disorder from the space, but that is only goal
- does not look at why these things are happening in the first place
- It is the marginalized in our society that are being targeted
- Eg. homeless targeted for these problems
- It is very expensive
- Have to pay for police officers, their salaries, new tech and also have to pay for the kinds of punishments you dole out → if you put them in jail, it is really expensive
What is the critique on the Bratton’s decrease in crime?
- the decrease in crime (50% in NYC) was the result of:
- Increased standard of living
- if you’re on an economic upswing, (good economic conditions) you can expect crime rate to go down
- Demographic shifts
- Increased standard of living
- Who was targeted: Racial Profiling
- Tikkun: What about racial profiling—”stop and frisk,” stopping autos—was that ever a legitimate law enforcement tool?
- Bratton’s response: It still is a legitimate and essential law enforcement tool. Absolutely essential. The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality and essentiality of that. Now that the city has become much safer, now that America has become much safer and people are examining all these issues, they’re saying, “well, let’s do away with it.” If you do away with it, in five years the city will look like it did in 1970 (Bratton, Tikkun Magazine, August 2000).
- Bratton justifying structural racism
- Cosmetic effect
- Displacement ~
- Crime simply moved from tourist areas
- you don’t stop being homeless because you get arrested
- Band-aid – masks underlying conditions of criminality
- Displacement ~
What is Hot-Spots policing?
most crimes occur at a small number of addresses in any community. Hot-spot policing concentrates police resources on these high-crime locations.
