CCJS105 Final ReviewDefining Crime:- Criminology: scientific discipline that studies crime/criminal behavior (closely linked to sociology but interdisciplinary)o Definition of criminalityo Forms of criminal behavior (and what explanations they correspond to)o Causes of crimeo Societal reaction (how we deal with people who break the law)- Theory: wide question for why crime happens/ why people engage in criminal behaviors- Methodology: technique/set of methods used to answer wide questions (collect data to test explanations)- Definitions of Crime:o Crime: Prohibited by law A criminal act took place (actus reus) Social harm, injury to the state or people “Guilty mind” or intent (mens rea) Decision or act must be causally linked to harm (ex: speeding, drugs) Concurrence: Actus Reus and Mens Rea match, criminal meant to do it Commission: rape, murder Omission: doctors refusing to take care of patients, you knowing about terrorist plots and fail to let officials know Felonies: offenses punishable by a year or more in prison Misdemeanors: less serious offenses punished by less than a year in jail Violations: usually punished by small fines- Relativity of Crimeo Not all people or cultures view the same behavior as criminal at the same timeo Time: behavior at one time in violation of legal codes may later be decriminalized, or be acceptable then later be criminalizedo Space: What is defined as crime may differ from one country to another, or between locations within a specific country- Consensus vs. Conflicto Conflict: members of higher class are said to make lawso Consensus: laws are made to equally represent the entire society- Mala in se: some behaviors are prohibited by criminal law because everyone agrees they are bad (ex: murder, rape)- Mala prohibita: Behaviors are criminalized but we don’t all agree they should be (speeding, underaged drinking, smoking)Criminal Justice System- Criminal Justice: concerned with societal, and particularly official, reactions to crime and criminalso Rely on the knowledge of patterns of crime and criminal behaviors (methodology)- Goalso Deterrence: dissuade people from committing crime in the futureo Incapacitation: stop people from committing crime again by capturing them and putting them in jailo Retribution: you broke the law, you pay for it;- Processo Policecourtscorrectionso 1 in 100 are put behind barso 1 in 31 under correctionsMeasuring Crime- Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) (official data)o Published by the FBIo Data from the police departments, voluntary but 95% of population is coveredo Primary source of crime rates for the media or criminal agencieso Hierarchical Rule: only consider most serious crime, if commit 2 times, then the most serious crime is reportedo Part 1 crimes (index) Believed to be serious, to occur frequently, and have a greater likelihood of being reported to the police Criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft, arson Violent crimes—top 4, property crimes—bottom 4o Part 2 Crimes (non-index) Less serious, not used to calculate the crime rate, only arrest data reported to the FBI Simple assault, embezzlement, vandalism, disorderly conduct, DUIo Strengths: Collaboration between the relevant agencies minimizes redundancy Offers nationwide crime statistics (city and regional comparisons possible) Has been collected since 1930, crime trends analysis possibleo Limitations: Not all crimes reported Emphasizes conventional street crimes and excludes other serious crime Most crimes captured by “index” crimes Vulnerable to changes in reporting/recording Vulnerable to political manipulations- National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) (victimization data)o Strengths: More comprehensive incident based statisticso Location, time presence of weapon, attempted vs. completedo Limitations: Adoption slow—covers only 20% of the nations population- National Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS) (participant observation)o Survey of approximately 40,000-70,000 householdso Collected by the US Census Bureau for the Bureau of Justice Statisticso Uncover “dark figure of crime”o Strengths: Allows measure of “victimless” crimes and crimes not reported to the police The researcher studies a group through direct observation and various levels of involvement Great source of qualitative datao Weaknesses: Hard to survey adult population Mistaken or dishonest report Difficulty in gaining access Potential ethical/legal dilemmas Time-consuming- Triangulationo Every method has both strengths and weaknesseso Whenever possible researches use more than one method to obtain datao Methods are combined so that the strengths of one method overcome the weaknesses of another- Dark Figure of Crime: crime not reported to the police- Generalizability: inferences possible beyond individual or place studied- Validity: Accuracy of measurement- Reliability: consistency and/or stability of measurement- Causality: correlation between the variables- Experiments: o Two groups: Control and experimentalo Randomly assign people to the two groupso Treat the experimental group by manipulating the IVo Compare the DV differences in the experimental and control groups o Ineffective through experiments: DARE - Macro: used to explain group level behavior- Micro: used to explain individual behavior- Longitudinal: Researching method that gets information from more than one point- Cross Sectional: Researching method that gets information from one pointWhat does Crime look like?- Prevalance of Crimeo UCR: over 10 million index crimes recorded in 2010 11 million arrests made for part II crimes in 2010 12% of UCR index crimes were violent offenseso NCVS: approximately 20 million criminal victimizations in 2007 Violent Crimes: 22% Property Crimes: 78% Victimization rates higher than those reported by the UCR- Geographic distributiono Violence: South (UCR), and West and Midwest (NCVS)o Violence: Higher in Urban areas (UCR, NCVS)- Crime Trendso Changes over time in the levels and patterns of crimeo Murder and Robbery: well defined, well-measured, well reportedo More crime in July, August, December at night and weekends- Ageo Property crime tends to peak earlier (age 16) than violent crime (18)o Crime commission declines with age (white-collar crime exemption)o Conundrum: most adult offenders
View Full Document
Unlocking...