Rachel Lilienfeld Introduction to Criminology: Exam 1 Study GuideConcepts/TermsPoliticization- science is commonly used to advance political claims (racism, sexism…)- Science is establishing facts to wining a debateThe definition of criminology-- Process of making law- The breaking of law- The reaction of breaking of the law Correlation (two things vary in a systematic way)Establish causation (causal connection)- Relationship must exist (correlation)- Time sequence (cause must proceed effect) (temporal ordering)- Absence of Spuriousness-o ruling out other factors = Spuriousness-correlation does not imply causation Ideology- set of beliefs that all of us develop about how the way the world should be- Religious ideology - Political ideologyo conservative(right)-repressiveo liberal(left)-forgiving- media plays a role in misunderstanding crime and its causes (meshed with Indology)Conflict and consensus theory- conflict(Marcs)- a belief that the law reflects the interest of a powerful minority - consensus(Durkheim)- a belief that the law reflects the interest in most people of society evenlyThe dark figure of crime- crime that is not reported or cannot be reported Ecological fallacy- the economic resources of communities are associated with rates of crime in those communities does not necessarily mean that the same statistical relationship holds on an individual level Index crimes- part 1 of the UCR (8 index crimes)- the two most reliable are MVT and homicide- also robbery, criminal homicide, burglary, forcible rape, aggravated assault, larceny-theft,arson, motor vehicle theft - aggravated assault is most commonly occurring index crime of violenceIs criminology a science? Yes and no. -yes- theory-an effort to explain or make sense of the world- methodology –methods criminologists use to attempt to explain “why”o methods can be qualitative or quantitative (and stories)-no- not good at predicting things- definition of crime is always changing - moral imperativeQuantitative and qualitative data/Cross-sectional and longitudinal data- quantitative- numbers- qualitative-color, size ..- cross-sectional data (one point in time like a snapshot)- longitudinal data (more than one point in time like movie or film)Macro and micro level of measurement- macro example=city, state, nation, gang- micro= individual ExtraRelatively of crime-the variation of conception of what behavior is criminal from one time, place,or context to another Five paradigms of crime (general framework)- free will or rational choice- people are able to make rational choices - positivism- focus is beyond control of the individual and the factors on why people commit crimes lay outside - interactionism- humans interact and react to each other - critical criminology- goes further into interactionism (powerful vs. powerless)- integration- combines the m together Solutions - boot camp- death penalty - DARE (not effective)- Scared straight (not effective) - Three strike legislation- Gun buy-backs Four criteria of crime-- prohibited and punishable by law- Actus rea- actual event must have occurred- Social harm (institution, individual..)- Mens rea- rational act (planning) (guilty mind)Ways of measuring crime-- Raw numbers (mean nothing)- Crime rate- numbers in crime per 100,000 -Percent change (from T1 to T2) = (T2-T1)/T1 * 100%- Independent variable- explains dependent, things you think- Dependent variable- thing that needs to be explained (ex: crime rate)-How could crime cause poverty? (acts as a tax)Classifying crime- Some are worse than others (misdemeanors/felony)- Mala in se- bad in itself (murder/rape)- Mala prohibita- law defines that it is bad (prostitution and gambling) Prevalence- number of people in a population that report one or more offences (how often trends show up)ItemsUniform Crime Reports – results are calculated as a rate (voluntary system)-gets data from law enforcement agencies - Strengtho consistent (definition does not vary)o trends in datao easy to access and inexpensive- Weaknesso ecological fallacyo measure of policy activity rather than crime o doesn’t capture unreported crime o only serious crimes are reportedo doesn’t capture white collar crime - hierarchy rule-only the worst crime gets recorded when someone commits multiple crimes at onceo committees ten different robberies, only shows up as one robbery National Crime Victimization Survey (provides national estimate of victimization-uses sampling)- NCVS estimates crime numbers that are double of what the UCR estimatesstrength of NCVS-Bounding (method to eliminate these two things)- eliminates dark figure of crime - weakness o can not compare cities o telescoping o falsification o victimized crimes like homicide are not included - memory decay is naturally forgetting o less crime than actually happens gets reported because people could forget- telescoping too much crime gets reportedo if asked if something happed in the last six months someone could say yes even though it was eight months ago and they just forgotSelf-report surveys (based on offender behavior)- focuses on adolescent populations- strength o dark figure (gets stuff not reported to police)- weaknesso emphasis upon trivial offense o falsification NIBRS doesn’t use hierarchy rule- nbrs represents a smaller proportion of the pop than ucrSome violence is approved (self defense, war)Not approved (homicide)Crime Patterns/Correlates of Offending/Victimization-time - crime rates have gone down since the 13th century - most crime happens at night - weekends have a higher crime rate alsogeographical area- cities(urban) areas tend to have more crime - south has a higher crime rateage- 16-24 has the most crime (stable over time) (over represented)- teens have highest crime ratesrace - looking past black vs. white and including Hispanic- Hispanic has the highest house rate victimization gender- crime is male driven -poverty and crime are connected Homicide—Southern subculture, victim precipitation, victim/offender overlap- south has the highest homicide rate- four typeso murder- premeditated o manslaughter- not as premeditated o excusable homicide- death that occurs at a consequence of an accident perpetrated by a preforming a lawful act with ordinary causationo justifiable homicide (self defense or death penalty)- victim/offender overlap o both tend to have similar straits (homicide is normally intraracial and social economic statues is the same)- victim precipitationo when
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