CCJS 105: Introduction to CriminologyFinal Exam Study Guide (cumulative portion)The final exam will consist of 100 multiple choice questions. Approximately half of these questions will be drawn from the content covered in the first two exams. In order to assist your studies a comprehensive list of these items are included below. That is, only these items appearing below will be drawn from in compiling the cumulative portion of the final exam. Please note that some of the terms and concepts listedbelow are broader than others. The dark figure of crime: the ever present lack of knowledge of all crime, we can never know all crime that has happened but over the years we have been getting better at understanding crime through official studies, victimization surveys and self-reported dataAdvantages of the UCR(mostly) consistent crime definitions, Trend data, National figures can be broken down by areaLimits of the UCR-Political manipulation, Hierarchy rule- with multiple offenses committed in one incident, only most serious is counted on the UCR (i.e. rape homicide is only a homicide), Ecological Fallacy- cannot represent population because crime can be by visitors to an area, measures police responseto crime—not actually crime itselfStrengths of the NCVS-eliminates reporting bias by police, Bounding- first round of interview questions are thrown out to ensure more accurate resultsWeakness of NCVS-redesigned rape question lead to higher estimates (interview bias), households exclude jails and businesses, victimless crime and homicide are not reported, series victimization- NCVS rule where if you are a victim of the same crime multiple times than it is only counted as one ongoing crime (i.e. robbed several times= 1 robbery), memory decay (forgetfulness), Telescoping- over exaggeratingQuantitative data- data that can be measured or averagedQualitative data- data that can be observed or described by not measures, cannot be averaged, yes/no, The 3 part definition of criminology- the study of crime to help predict events relative to time, place and cultureCrime: harm, mens rea, actus reusCrime patterns: Age: age crime, late teens early twenties peak age of crime. Peak age of violent crime is 18, property crime is 16. Stops around mid 20s because employment, family and marriageGender: almost exclusively male (only 7% women) but women have become more prevalent since their liberation, men have more testostoroneGeographic: disproportionately high amount of crime in the southNeighborhood: metropolitan areas have higher crime rates that rural areas, most violent crime (except rape) occur in public places, urban areas people feel more pressured to conform so they don’t commit crime as ofterRace- used to be believed that certain races were more criminal (not credible today) there is structural racism possible (the criminal justice system is racist) African americans have disproportionately higher crime rates. Most crimes are INTRA racial Class -originally believed that the poor committed most crime, but than the idea of white collar crime came about, higher rate of those who are poor being involved in street crime Conflict theory-society has many different groups and those who rise to the top will make laws to criminalize acts of the other groups (out groups)Consensus theories-society works together to create criminal lawMala in se- an act that is wrong in and of itself (ie rape, murder)Mala prohibita- an act that goes against the law but is not necessarily immoral or wrong in and of itself (drinking, pot)Actus reus- a guilty act, the actual act of commiting the crimeMens rea- a guilty mind, the intention to cause harm or do the bad actVictim-offender overlap-offenders and victims often are from the same background, same race, same area, same social classThe science of criminology- It follows a scientific method, uses observation to make inferences, hard to enforce, yet to be proven3 criteria required to establish causal relationship- Correlation,Temporal ordering (longitudinal data), Spuriousness must be establishedThe role of ideology and politics – ideology is established to try to predict crime relative to time, space and culture, by knowing this politicians can try to establish policies to intercept crimes so they don’t happen or can lessen the affect to societyIndependent variable- the variable that causes the other variable to change Dependent variables- outcome of the independent variable, resultCross-sectional data- data collected at one time (snapshot/picture)Longitudinal data- data collected multiple times (movie/ film)Macro-study of group interactionsMicro- study of individualsRelative rates of crimes and crime numbers produced by UCR and NCVSMost all crimes are male dominated, many often committed by offenders they know, south has higher rateof crime than is proportional to their population, disproportionate number of African Americans and minorities in general committing crime. UCR: violent crime 13% property 87%. NCVS: 23% violent crimes property 77%.Self-report data – data that is not from official sources such as police departments or agencies but reported by offenders or victims, 3rd party agencies or the governmentImportant figures: Emile Durkheim-large part of sociological criminology, worked on strains of modernization theory, believed that crime occurs because there is anomie in society (anomie is a state of normlessness and chaosdue to social change)Cesare Beccaria-father of classical theory who wrote on crimes and punishment in 1764 with important ideas such as free will, rational choice, hedonistic calculus, utilitarianism, social contract and deterrence. His work was largely influential to shape the US constitution our rights came from his thinking and criminal justice theories that still are arising today were influenced. Also came up with deterrence theory which emphasized swiftness severity and certaintyCesare Lombroso- father of early biological theor, Italian prison physician who applied darwins theory to criminology and coined the term atavism (the idea of a biological throwback) and created the idea that an individual was born criminal and you could identify a criminal man through certain traits he possessed Travis Hirschi- control theorist whose theories were empirical and came up with the social bond theory and the self control theory. Wrote a general theory of crime which focused on Shaw & McKay (zone II) – created the social disorganization
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