1Criminology Test 1 Study Guide Chapter 1-Criminology – The scientific study of nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior.oEdwin Sutherland and Donald Cressey core interests of criminologists;The development of criminal lawThe cause of law violationsMethods used to control behavior-Crime – Any culpable action or inaction prohibited by law and punishable by the state as a misdemeanor or felony. An act deemed socially harmful or dangerous, that is specifically defined, prohibited, and punished under the criminal law. oActions – e.g., Killing, robbing a bank, etc.oInactions – legal duties associated with status or contractual relations.Good Samaritan lawsDuty to assist laws-Criminal Law – Written code that defines crimes and punishments. oPunishment = death, incarceration, fines payable to the state.o“Proof beyond a reasonable doubt”-Civil Law = Violation against an individualoPunishment = fines paid to the individualo“Preponderance of the evidence”-Felony – Serious offenses, such as murder, rape, and burglary. oFelonies are punishable by death or imprisonment for more than one year in a state prison. -Misdemeanor – Minor or petty crimes, such as unarmed assault, petty larceny, and disturbing the peace. Punished by a short jail term and/or a fine.oMisdemeanors typically are punishable by less than a year in a local county jail or house of corrections.2-Actus Reus – Must prove the person committed the criminal act.-Mens Rea – Must prove the person committed the act with criminal intent or a “guilty mind.”-Interdisciplinary – Involving two or more academic fields. -Criminal Justice – System made up of the agencies of social control, such as police departments, the courts, and correctional institutions that handle criminal offenders.-Criminological Enterprise – The various subareas included within the scholarly discipline of criminology, which, taken as a whole, define the field of study.-Valid Measure – A measure that actually measures what it purports to measure; a measure that is factual.-Reliable Measure – A measure that produces consistent results from one measurement to another. -Sociology of Law/Law and Society/Socio-Legal Studies – Determining the origin of law. Measuring the forces that can change laws and society. Is a subarea of criminology concerned with the role that social forces play in shaping criminal law and the role of criminal law in shaping society. -Connecticut Dept. Of Public Safety v. Doe (2003) – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of sex offender registration when it ruled that persons convicted of sexual offenses may be required to register with a state’s Department of Public safety and may then be listed on a sex offender registry that contains registrants’ names, addresses, photographs, and descriptions and can be accessed on the Internet. -Marvin Wolfgang’s study “Patterns in Criminal Homicide” – Is a landmark analysis of the nature of homicide and the relationship between victim and offender.-White Collar Crime – Illegal acts that capitalize on a person’s status in the marketplace. oMay include theft, embezzlement, fraud, market manipulation, restraint of trade, and false advertising.3-Criminal Statistics – Gathering valid crime data. Devising new research methods; measuring crime patterns and trends.-Theory Construction – Predicting individual behavior. Understanding the cause of crime rates and trends.-Criminal Behavior Systems – Determining the nature and cause of specific crime patterns. Studying violence, theft, organized crime, white-collar crime, and public order crime. -Penology (Punishment, Sanctions, and Corrections) – Studying the correction and control of criminal behavior. Using the scientific method to assess the effectiveness of criminal sanctions designed to control crime through the application of criminal punishment. -Victimology – The study of the victim’s role in criminal events. Studying the nature and cause of victimization. Aiding crime victims; understanding the nature and extent of victimization; developing theories of victimization risk. -Capital Punishment – The execution of criminal offenders; the death penalty.-Mandatory Sentences – A statutory requirement that a certain penalty shall be carried out in all cases of conviction for a specified offense or series of offenses.-Utilitarianism – The view that people’s behavior is motivated by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.-Classical Criminology – Theoretical perspective suggesting that (1) people have free will to choose criminal or conventional behaviors; (2) people choose to commit crime for reasons of greed or personal needs; and (3) crime can be controlled only by the fear of criminal sanctions. Punishment must be swift, certain, & severe.-General Deterrence – The effect of punishment on “potential offenders”oPotential Offenders will weigh the cost of punishment in their decision to offend.-Specific Deterrence – The effect on punishment on the “individual who is punished.”4oThe punished individual will weight the cost of the punishment he/she received in his/her decision to offend in the future.-Positivist Criminology (founded by Augusta Comte) – Human behavior is a function of external forces that are beyond individual control. oEmbraced the scientific method for studying crime.-Positivism – The branch of social science that uses the scientific method of the natural sciences and suggests that human behavior is a product of social biological, psychological, or economic forces…….Has a number of elements:oUse of the scientific method to conduct research.oPredicting and explaining social phenomena in a logical manner.oEmpirical VerificationoScience must be value-free and should not be influenced by the observer/scientist’s biases or political point of view. -Scientific Method – The use of verifiable principles and procedures for the systematic acquisition of knowledge. Typically involves formulating a problem, creating hypotheses, and collecting data, through observation and experiment, to verify hypothesis.-Biosocial Theory – Approach to criminology that focuses on the interaction between biological and social factors as they are related to crime.-Sociological Criminology –Approach to criminology, based on the work of Adolphe Quetelet and Emile Durkheim, which focuses on the relationship between social factors and
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