Chapter One Criminology and the Sociological Perspective DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR TEST ONE NOTES Sociological criminology an understanding of crime and criminal justice Sociological Perspective stresses that people are social beings more than individuals society shapes their behavior attitudes and life chances Emile Durkheim social forces influence our behavior and attitudes even suicide has social roots Social structure how a society is organized in terms of social relationships and social interaction horizontal social and physical characteristics of communities and the networks of social relationships to which an individual belongs example gender race social class etc vertical known as social inequality is how a society ranks different groups of people C Wright Mills Private troubles if a few individuals are unemployed then their private troubles are their own fault But if masses of individuals are unemployed structural forces must account for their bad fortune Public issues personal troubles result from the intersection of their personal biography with historical and social conditions Sociological imagination ability to understand the structural and historical basis for personal troubles once acquired one is better to understand and to change the social forces underlying their private troubles Debunking motif things are not always what they seem and expose false claims about reality crime and victimization are public issues rather than private troubles Rise of Sociological Criminology Norms standards of behavior Deviance behavior that violates those norms and arouses negative social reactions Customs norms remain unwritten and informal Social control how customs are enforced Laws more formal norms that are written people would attribute crime to religious forces Classical School of Criminology Adolphe Quetlet crime rater where higher for young adults men and the nonpoor Emile Durkheim Sociological paradigm deviance will always exist because social norms are never strong enough to prevent to all rule breaking normal part of everyday living Punishment of deviance clarifies social norms and reinforces social ties among those watching the punishing cannot have social change without having deviance Robert K Merton Anomie theory deviance to the poor s inability to achieve economic success in a society that highly values it Crime Deviance and Criminal Law Criminology study of making laws of the breaking of laws and of society s reaction to the breaking of laws Crime behavior that is considered so harmful that it is banned by a criminal law Deviance is a relative concept whether a given behavior is judged deviant depends not on the behavior itself but one the circumstances under which it occurred deviance is not a quality of a behavior bt what other pople thingk about the behavior example killing Deviance is relative in time what is considered deviant in one time period may not be considered deviant in a later period and vice versa example use of weed and coke Consensus and Conflict in the Creation of Criminal Law Consensus theory assumes agreement of opinions of different people on what they social norms of behavior are and should be Formal laws represent the interests of all segment of the public People obey laws because they reflect their values When crime and deviance occur they violate norms and punishment of the behavior is needed to ensure social stability Conflict theory assumes that members of the public disagree on what s considered socially appropriate their disagreement reflects their disparate positions based on inequality of wealth and power Laws represent the powerful and help the ruling majority maintain their social position powerful may commit crimes but since they determine which laws are created they are often ignored Goals of Criminal Law 1 Help keep the public safe from crime and criminals 2 Articulate society s moral values ad concerns 3 Protect the rights and freedoms of the nation s citizenry by preotecting it from potential governmental abuses of power rule of law Legal Distinctions in types of Crime Mala in se crimes evil in themselves behaviors that violate traditional norms and moral codes example violent and property crimes Mala prohibita crimes wrong only because they are prohibited by law violate contemporary standards example illegal drug use and white collar crimes Felonies crimes punishable by more than 1 year in prison Misdemeanors crimes punishable by less than 1 year Criminal Intent Actus reus actual act actual criminal act of which the defendant is accused Mens rea guilty mind defendant committed a crime knowingly Legal Defenses to Criminal Liability Accident or mistake Ignorance of the Law Duress narrowly defined to mean fear for one s life or safety Self defense prevent an offender from harming you or someone else Entrapment someone commits a crime only because plead insanity Insanity Research Methods in Criminology Independent variable variable that does the influencing Dependent variable variable that is influenced Surveys administration of a questionnaire to some group of respondents who are interviewed either face to face in their homes or another location we can generalize the results of a random sample to the entre population Used to gather 3 types of info 1 Public opinion on crime 2 Self report data on crime and delinquency 3 Criminal victimization Experiments are assigned randomly either an experimental group or a control group Longitudinal studies same people are studied over time Chapter Three Measurement and Patterning of Criminal Behavior Measuring Crime Uniform Crime Reports UCR massive data collection from almost all the nation s police precincts Part I Crimes most serious crimes only cleared if anyone is arrested or death of prime suspect Violent Crimes Property Crimes homicide rape robbery assault burglary larceny motor vehicle theft arson How a Crime Becomes Official A crime typically becomes known to the police only if the victim reports the crime 60 of crimes are not reported to the police so many crimes remain unknown to the police and do not appear in the UCR Not all police report crimes may be too busy or crime not too serious Crimes appearing in the UCR is smaller than the number that actually occurs Critique of UCR Data 1 Underestimation of amount of crime 2 Diversion of attention fro white collar crime focus on Part I crimes so seriousness of the latter is minimized 3 Misleading data on characteristics of arrestees more