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Four Criteria of Crimes Prohibited and punishable by law Actus reus guilty act the prohibited behavior had to have actually occurred thinking about crime is not crime Social harm an injury to the state or to the people Harm must be external physical financial etc Mental harm is not enough Mens rea guilty mind the person committing the crime had to have intended for the crime to occur The person had to be acting with purpose knowledge negligence or recklessness intent Classifying Crimes Some crimes are worse than others Mala in se bad in itself Mala prohibita bad because it is prohibited Felonies and Misdemeanors Felony break federal law exceeds more than one year Misdemeanor punishable by a day or less in jail less than one year Common criteria for assessing crime seriousness Harm Inflicted What is the objective level of harm caused Status of Victim Does the victim merit special protection by the law Moral Judgments What and whose moral judgments will influence the criminalization of behavior and activation of the criminal justice process Offender Characteristics What is the role of the background and circumstances of offenders What is Criminology Coined by a Frenchman Paul Toppinard in 1889 Scientific study of crime and criminal behavior Sutherland The study of law making law breaking and the response to law breaking Interdisciplinary Focus on causes of crime Related areas Criminalistics scientific evaluation of physical evidence Criminal Justice focuses on practical issues concerning crime like preventing controlling crime and dealing with offenders What do Criminologists Do Theory construction and testing Data gathering and analysis Analysis of crime patterns and trends Teaching Social Policy Creation Threat Assessment and Risk Analysis Program Evaluation Ex Scared Straight Predicting Crime Criminology in the 20th Century Laub 2003 1900 1930 Golden Age of Research Just data 1930 1960 Golden Age of Theory Theories developed 1960 2000s Golden Age of Theory Testing Sophisticated methodologies 5 Paradigms in Criminology page 21 in Brown book Paradigm Rational Choice Criminal choices are made when advantageous you gain something out of it human beings are rational people they are aware of their actions Positivism Pathological conditions is the genesis of criminal behavior Factors outside the control of human beings push or pull people to commit crime They can be individual conditions ex schizophrenia Interactionism Interaction patterns determines criminal behavior attitude Critical left paradigm Crime is a tool in the hands of power elite to maintain status quo Integration Crime can be explained by combination of two or more theories to have a full understanding Different from physical science because the definition of crime is constantly changing Social sciences does not have formulas or one factor that will identify when murders will happen Science follows an order on how things have to be dealt with Wheel of Science Theory Literature Review Hypotheses Decide on the methods Data Results of Data Generalizations Correcting and Developing the Model Review of Elementary Research Methodology Independent and dependent variable Cross sectional and longitudinal research designs Micro level and macro level analysis micro small unit of analysis and macro is more general Example micro person macro nationally Sample Research design Validity and reliability validity logical true under interpretation reliability dependable measure of how valid measures are Correlation and causality two things can be related to each other but not be caused by each other Correlation vs Causation Correlation Positive or Negative Things vary together in a systematic way Causation A cause produces a certain effect correlation does not imply causation Four elements of scientific causation 1 Correlation a relationship must exist 2 Time sequence cause always precedes the effect 3 Absence of spuriousness ruling out other factors 4 Theoretical rationale reasons to believe X causes Y Probability not a certainty Crime reporting Citizens must decide whether a crime has been committed If yes it must be reported to the police Once the act has been reported an officer must decide whether a crime has occurred How to classify it Whether to record it or not Ways of Measuring Crime and Delinquency Raw Numbers Simple count of individual events Crime rate number of crime per 100k population number of crimes number of people in population x 100 000 percent change proportion of change in individual events from one time to another T2 T1 T1 X 100 percent change from T1 to T2 Crime Funnel The funnel effect of official crime data Goal get a source close to this level We want event level data We usually get arrest level data The value of crime statistics decreases as data becomes further away from the top Sources for Measuring Crime and Delinquency Official Data Archived data held by an institution or agency E g Uniform Crime Report and NIBRS Self Report Data information received from the subjects under study E g The National Youth Survey Victimization Survey Information collected from random samples of residents E g National Crime Victimization Survey Uniform Crime Reports UCR Started by FBI in year 1929 Covers over 95 of the US Approx 17 000 agencies Statistics are based on Index Crimes Violent murder aggravated assault robbery rape Property burglary MVT Larceny Arson Strengths 1 Best measure of crime across the nation 2 Easy to access and inexpensive 3 Allows for city and regional trend comparison Weakness 1 Doesn t capture unreported crime 2 Diverts attention from white collar crime 3 Only most serious crime is reported hierarchy rule Why do people not report crime Some people are illegal scared of being deported Request individuals to indicate the type and amount of criminal behavior in which they have engaged Hierarchy rule Future NIBRS Self Report Data Strengths 1 Dark Figures 2 Secret Deviance Weaknesses 2 Telescoping 3 Falsification 1 Emphasis upon trivial offenses NCVS National Criminal Victimization Survey no homicide data Started in 1972 Random sampling of households Uses panel design so same households are queried over a period of time Provide national estimates of victimization dark figures Panel design allows psycho social studies A lot of info is collected about relatively few crimes similar to SRD Falsification Strengths Weaknesses Telescoping Underreporting continues Cannot be used for comparative research Crime Trends


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UMD CCJS 105 - Four Criteria of Crimes

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