Week #1

Question 1

What is criminology?

Answer 1

“The study of the making of laws, the breaking of laws and the reaction to the breaking of laws”

o - Edwin Sutherland, 1939

Question 2

What is the goal/aim of criminology?

Answer 2

Measure crime
Predict crime
Explain, crime
Suggest means to control criminal behaviour

Question 3

What are some Characteristics of Criminology

Answer 3

a) Interdisciplinary field: Sociology, psychology, biology, law, philosophy, economics
b) Self standing: Criminology has its own graduate programs, professional organizations, and core literature

Question 4

What are two types of research in criminology?

Answer 4

Quantitative Research

Qualitative Research

Question 5

Explain the quantitiatve research?

Answer 5

o   Lab work
o   Large samples
o   Broad and generalizable
o   Fixed, standardized
o   Focus on numbers
o   Theory testing
o   E.g., statistical analysis

Question 6

Explain Qualitative Research?

Answer 6

o   Fieldwork
o   Small samples
o   In-depth, non generalizable
o   Flexible, open ended
o   Focus on words
o   Theory development
o   E.g., Ethnography

Question 7

What is crime? 2 perspectives

Answer 7

Conflict vs. Consensus perspective

Question 8

Explain the conflict perspective of crime?

Answer 8

o Marxist, left perspective
o Crime is simply what the owners of the means of production say is criminal, because those things hurt their profit
o Crime is what the rich people want to criminalize to hold down the masses and reel in the money

Question 9

Explain the consensus perspective of crime?

Answer 9

this course
o We can all agree on what the most criminal things are (murder, rape, robbery, assault)
o Great deal of support because there have been survey research since the 20’s where they ask ppl of different demographics to rank crimes from most to least serious, and regardless people rank these things similarly