Week 2 Flashcards
What are the PART 1 OFFENSES?
- Murder & Non-negligent manslaughter
- Forcible rape
- Burglary
- Aggravated Assault
- Robbery
- Larceny (theft)
- Motor vehicle theft
What is a Uniform Crime Report?
Local and state police agencies report counts of each crime type to the FBI– the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
What is a Supplemental Homicide Report?
Supplemental Homicide Reports (SHR) allow police to report more detailed information about homicides
Police departments
What are some MEASURMENT ISSUES when it comes to crime reports?
- Difficult for police to update reports as investigations complete
- Unable to link detailed information in SHR’s to specific cases
- Little detailed information overall
- Police report most serious crime occurring, even if multiple crimes occurred all at once (called Hotel or Hierarchy Rule)
Which of the following is NOT a Part I Offense? A) Robbery B) Vandalism C) Burglary D) Arson
D) Arson
What does UCR stand for? A) Unstandardized Crime Rate B) Uniform Crime Rate C) Uniform Crime Report D) Unreported Crime Record
C) Uniform Crime Report
What is the National Incident-Based Reporting System?
- Collects detailed information about crime events from police departments (location, race, time of day, circumstances, etc.)
- This is in addition to the basic information provided through the UCR program
- Only 39% of law enforcement agencies participate
What is a dark figure?
- The UCR and NIBRS program tell us about crimes reported to police
- BUT many crimes are not reported to police– these make up the dark figure of crime
What is the National Crime Victimization Survey?
- Began in 1973
- Unlike the UCR, the NCVS is a twice-yearly survey of randomly selected households in the U.S. (i.e. not police)
- Selected households are surveyed repeatedly over several years
- Residents are asked questions about personal information, household victimization, individual victimization
- These crimes may or may not have been reported to police
- Gets at the “dark figure of crime”
- Reports double the number of violent crimes and 2/3 times the property crimes reported to police
- Does not include homicide, kidnapping, commercial crimes, etc.
Suppose we want to study kidnapping. We want a data source that has counts of kidnapping cases & detailed information about these cases. Which of the following is most likely to have what we need?
A) UCR
B) NIBRS
C) NCVS
B) NIBRS
Town A has a population of 500
Town B has a population of 1,000
Town A experienced 10 violent crimes last year
Town B experienced 20 violent crimes last year
Which town seems to have a bigger violent crime problem?
A) Town A
B) Town B
C) They are the same
C) They are the same
Do you think overall crime rates have been increasing, decreasing, or staying the same in recent years?
A) Increasing
B) Decreasing
C) Staying about the same
A) Increasing
What is the main idea about rational choice theories?
Main Idea: Individuals make a calculated choice to commit crimes based on perceived costs, benefits, & opportunities
- Costs: potential punishment, injury, damaged relationships, financial loss, etc.
- Benefits: fun, money or goods, solves a problem
What is Cesare Beccaria (Pain-Pleasure Principle)?
- Pain-Pleasure Principle: People choose actions that are pleasant & avoid those with unpleasant or painful consequences
- To be effective, punishment must be swift, certain, & proportionate to the crime committed
What is the routine activities theory-COHEN & FELSON?
Crime occurs when three elements intersect:
- Motivated offender
- Suitable target
- Absence of capable guardians
What is the Psychoanalytic Theory and who created it?
Sigmund Freud
- Some individuals are improperly socialized or develop unhealthy relationships in childhood
- These early influences lead to subconscious psychological conflict/ confusion
- This conflict results in feelings of guilt or anxiety
- Crime relieves these symptoms
What are some criticisms of Psychological Theories?
- Deterministic– imply that a person has no ability to chose one behavior over another
- Sometimes ignore social processes
- Sometimes ignore change in personality and other characteristics over time
What is the main idea about Differential Association Theory?
- Main Idea: Differential Association Theory argues that just like any other behavior, deviance is learned through interaction with others.
- Deviance occurs when “definitions” favorable to norm or law-breaking outnumber definitions favorable to the obeying the norm/ law
- Imitation/Modeling: We may copy the behavior of others, deviant or otherwise
- Stimulus discrimination/ generalization: Certain stimuli act as cues for our behavior. For example, someone’s tone may imply whether behavior is expected or unacceptable in a given situation
What are DEFINITIONS?
Definitions are the ideas/ beliefs/ attitudes/ skills that we learn from others through interaction. Some of these will be favorable to deviance; some will not
Jackie has schizophrenia. Based on a hallucination, she believes she must break a vase in a store. She breaks the vase. Jackie’s behavior is best explained by which theoretical perspective we have covered so far?
A) Rational Choice Theories
B) Psychological Theories
C) Social Learning Theories
B) Psychological Theories
What is STRAIN and RELATIVE DEPRIVATION?
Strain is a negative emotional state/ feeling that can result from relative deprivation and other circumstances:
- Anger
- Frustration, Irritation
- Stress
- Sadness
Relative Deprivation: Feeling at a disadvantage or inferior when compared to others
What is the Main Idea of the General Strain Theory?
Main Idea: Deviance is caused by poorly coping with strain experienced in our relationships and everyday life
- Peer groups
- Being around other stressed people
- Stress because of wanting to conform to group norms
- Stress resulting from harmful group behavior (drug use)
- Community
- Influences what goals people have and what options are available
- Influences feelings of relative deprivation and exposure to negative events
- Determines whether or not angry, strained people will interact
What are Agnews 4 Causes of Strain?
- Failure to achieve positively valued goals
- Gap between expectations & achievements
- Removal of something positive in one’s life
- Introduction of something negative in one’s life
What is the Main Idea behind Mertons Anomie-Strain Theory?
- Main Idea: anomie/ strain occurs when there is a gap between culturally defined goals and socially approved means to attain those goals
- culturally defined goals: money, fame, nice house, status
- socially approved means: education and work
- GAP ANOMIE/ STRAIN DEVIANCE
- Through modes of adaptation