CCJ 4614 Criminal and Delinquent Behavior Barkan Chapter 1 Public Issues Private troubles Debunking Motif the belief that social backgrounds influence the ability to attribute private troubles to problems the sociological understanding of crime and criminal refers to how society ranks different groups of people individual problems that many people have that they think social problems resulting from structural and other problems in Sociological Criminology justice stressing the importance of social structure and social inequality Social Structure the pattern of social interaction and social relationships in a group or society horizontal social structure refers to the social and physical characteristics of communities and the networks of social relationships to which an individual belongs an vertical social structure refers to a social inequality Social Inequality Wealth power and other things of value Sociological Perspective individual s attitudes and behavior stem from their own failings or particular circumstances the social environment Sociological Imagination in the larger social structure part of the sociological perspective refers to the challenges sociology poses to conventional understandings of social institutions and social reality reactions Customs Laws Social Control Criminogenic Crime Conflict that people disagree on norms and act with self interest because of their disparate socioeconomic positions reaction to the breaking of law despite socioeconomic positions with self interest because of their disparate socioeconomic positions societies restraint of norm violating behavior crime causing behavior that is considered so harmful that it is banned by a criminal law as used in sociology and criminology refers to a theory that assumes behavior that violates accepted norms and arouses negative social the study of the making of laws the breaking of laws and society s a theory that assumes that people disagree on norms and act refers to a theory that people agree on norms despite their norms that are unwritten and informal Norms Deviance Consensus Theory written formal norms standards of behavior Conflict theory Criminology Goals of criminal law 1 Most important goal is to help keep the public safe from crime and criminals or to put it another way prevent and control crime and criminal behavior 2 Articulate our society s moral values and concerns 3 Protect the rights and freedoms of the nations citizenry emphasizing court decisions and customs the system of law originating in medieval England and Common Law behaviors that are wrong in and of themselves behaviors that are wrong only because that are prohibited by serious criminal offense punishable by a prions term of more than 1 minor criminal offense punishable by less than 1 year in prison the actual criminal act of which a defendant is accused a guilty mind refers to an individual having criminal intent having the desire to commit a crime threats of coercion on another to commit a crime violent or other actions committed to protect oneself or others a socio demographic characteristic or other trait that Felonies Mala in se Mala prohibita Misdemeanors Actus Reus Mens Rea Criminal Intent Duress law year Self Defense Independent variable influences changes in a dependent variable influence of an independent variable Survey Generalize Longitudinal Studies Dependent Variable Barkan Chapter 2 questionnaire administered to a set of respondents to apply knowledge of particular cases to other similar cases research in which the same people are studied over time an attitude or behavior that changes because of the as used in criminology refers to false beliefs in society that makes a sudden and often distorted focus of the news media on more the view elected officials should represent the interests of concern or worry over becoming a crime victim personal traits that influence the likelihood of the members of the mass media transmitting information about Crime Myths Crime waves Overdramatize Democratic Theory Fear of Crime crimes such as rap and battering more likely types of criminal behavior all people in a democracy Individual Characteristics committing an inequality crime or becoming a crime victim News Media current events seriousness of violent crime political and economic issues criminals because of their race Sentencing preferences given crimes Seriousness of Crime associated with given crimes Structural factors Public Policy Punitiveness aspects of the social structure Racial Prejudice Public Opinion government efforts to deal with public issues and societal needs public judgments of appropriate punishment for convicted unfavorable views toward a certain category of people to exaggerate for the news media the frequency and the views and attitudes of the public on important social public views of appropriate legal punishments for opinions regarding the importance or degree of harm Davies The Murder Book Chapter 1 Murder is Intriguing people are interested in a degree pg 1 The purpose of this book is to provide a broad treatment of the academic study of homicide pg 2 Homicide refers to killing another person murder implies criminal intent and these words are used interchangeable in this text Pg 4 Proven until innocent author believes in pg 4 Chapter 2 US state law throughout the US except in Louisiana that has a French tradition is based on English common law Pg 6 Homicide laws modeled on the Model Penal Code pg 6 In the US initially the death penalty was a mandatory punishment for murder pg 6 Today majority of states still use the Pennsylvania model as way to distinguish between degrees of murder Pg 6 Mala In se Latin wrong in itself naturally or evil wrong murder rape Mala Prohibita crimes that exist because we have defines that behavior as sexual molestation pg 6 illegal or bad pg 6 Misdemeanor Felony Crimes are either defined as felonies by statute or they are considered felonies because the punishment assigned by statute is more severe Pg 8 Model Penal Code 1962 their goal was to establish uniform rational definition of criminal offenses pg 8 Model Penal Code defines criminal homicide as follows o A person is guilty if he purposely knowingly recklessly or negligently causes death t another human Pg 8 o Criminal homicide Is murder manslaughter negligence homicide Model Penal code element of homicide to be proved 1 Purposely knowingly recklessly or negligently 2 Causing the death 3 Of another human pg 8 Mens Rea