Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Classical Criminology The law was made proportionate to crime so that the most serious offenses earned the harshest punishments Positivism All true knowledge is acquired through direct observation and not through conjecture or belief Statements that cannot be backed up by direct observation all babies are born innocent and The scientifi c method must be used if research fi ndings are to be considered valid This involves such steps as identifying problems collecting data forming hypotheses conducting experiments and interpreting results influences of a persons upbringing and environment Biological Positivism Examining the facial features of criminals to determine whether the shape of ears nose and eyes and the distance between them were associated with antisocial behavior study of the shape of a persons skull and and bumps on the head to determine whether these physical attributes were linked to criminal behavior external cranial characteristics dictate which areas of the brain control physical activity Psychopathic Personality innate preternatural moral depravity insanity and criminal behavior were strongly linked Crime is a sort of outlet in which their unsound tendencies are discharged they would go mad if they were not criminals and they do not go mad because they are criminals Atavistic Anomalies belief that born criminals had inherited a set of primitive physical traits savage enormous jaws and strong canine teeth Indirect Heredity criminogenic traits acquired due to a degenerate family whose members suffered from insanity syphilis and alcoholism Direct Heredity being the offspring of criminal parents Biosocial theory bridges a connection between physical and mental traits the social environment and behavior Cartographic School of Criminology makes use of social statistics that include demographic info on population density gender religion and wealth Social Disorganization inability to apply social control inability to protect residents from crime drug abuse and violence Social Psychology the study of human interactions and relationships and emphasizes such issues as group dynamics and socialization an individual s relationship to important social processes such as education family life and peer relations is the key to understanding human behavior Contemporary structural and social ecological theory a person s place in the social structure controls his or her behavioral choices and due to the ecological conditions they face those at the bottom of the social structure cannot achieve success and instead experience anomie strain failure and frustration Crime Typology offender groups such as professional criminals psychotic criminals amateur criminals and so on Others focus on the crimes clustering them into categories such as property crimes sex crimes Penology involves the correction and control of known criminal offenders it is the segment of criminology that overlaps criminal justice Victimology Using victim surveys to measure the nature and extent of criminal behavior not reported to the police Measuring the factors that increase the likelihood of becoming a crime victim Studying the role of the victim in causing or precipitating crime Designing services for the victims of crime such as counseling and victim in causing or precipitating crime Designing services for the victims of crime such as counseling and compensation programs Consensus View crimes are behaviors believed to be repungent to all elements of society Conflict View society is composed of a diverse collection of groups who are in constant and continuing conflict However different socioecon groups have different crimes that they are prone to and penalties to go along with them Interactionist View people assign what is right and wrong according to their own interpretations of reality observations of others positive and negative reactions reevaluation of their own behavior from what they learn from others Moral Entrepreneurs people who use their influence to shape the legal process in the way they see fit Crime and Criminal Law Common Law If a new rule was successfully applied in a number of different cases it would become a precedent These precedents would then be commonly applied in all similar cases Mala in se Latin for Inherently evil and depraved Mala prohibitum not right according to current social conditions Stalking Statutes prohibit the willful malicious and repeated following and harassing of another person Social Goals of Common Law enforcing social control discouraging revenge expressing public opinion and morality deterring criminal behavior punishing wrongdoing maintaining social order Cliff Notes 1 2 3 4 5 children who are antisocial early in life are the most likely to continue their offending careers into adulthood T he deeper the roots of childhood maladjustment the smaller the chance of adult adjustment The most prominent factor associated with persistent offending is a persons family relations discipline and emotional ties to parents The adolescent raised in a large single parent family of limited economic means and educational achievement was the most vulnerable to delinquency Critical criminologists often compare and contrast the harsh penalties exacted on the poor for their street crimes burglary robbery and larceny with the minor penalties the wealthy receive for their white collar crimes securities violations and other illegal business practices though the latter may cause considerably more social harm While the poor go to prison for minor law violations the wealthy are given lenient sentences for even the most serious breaches of law Rather than being class neutral criminal law reflects and protects established economic racial gendered and political power and privilege The process in which people are defined or labeled as criminal is also subjective 5 The process in which people are defined or labeled as criminal is also subjective What Do Criminologists Do devise accurate methods of collecting crime data Trained in the scientific approach to and study and analysis of the phenomenon of crime and criminal behavior trained in sociology criminal justice political science psychology econ and natural sciences
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