1 Criminology Test 1 Study Guide Chapter 1 Criminology The scientific study of nature extent cause and control of criminal behavior o Edwin Sutherland and Donald Cressey core interests of criminologists The development of criminal law The cause of law violations Methods 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 o Actions o Inactions legal duties associated with status or contractual relations e g Killing robbing a bank etc Good Samaritan laws Duty to assist laws Criminal Law Written code that defines crimes and punishments o Punishment death incarceration fines payable to the state o Proof beyond a reasonable doubt Civil Law Violation against an individual o Punishment fines paid to the individual o Preponderance of the evidence Felony Serious offenses such as murder rape and burglary o Felonies 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 o Misdemeanors typically are punishable by less than a year in a local county jail or house of corrections 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 2 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 o May include theft embezzlement fraud market manipulation restraint of trade and false advertising 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 3 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 o Potential Offenders will weigh the cost of punishment in their decision to offend Specific Deterrence The effect on punishment on the individual who is punished o The 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 o Embraced the scientific method fro 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 o Use of the scientific method to conduct research o Predicting and explaining social phenomena in a logical manner o Empirical Verification o Science must be value free and should not be influenced by the observer scientist s biases or political point of view 4 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 crime o Quetelet Examined the influence of social factors on the propensity to commit crimes He found that age sex season climate and population composition along with poverty were related to criminality o Durkheim Views crime as a normal part of society Author of Division of Labor Mechanical Society Simple
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