Chapter One:
Crime and Criminology
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Crime and Criminology - Lecture Slides | SOC 104, Study notes of Criminology
Summary Chapter 1 Material Type: Notes; Professor: Marin; Class: CRIMINOLOGY; Subject: SOCIOLOGY; University: North Shore Community College; Term: Summer II 2010;
Typology: Study notes
2009/2010
1 / 19
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Chapter One:
Crime and Criminology
• How Criminologists Define Crime
- (^) Deviance includes a broad spectrum of behaviors, ranging from the most socially harmful, such as rape and murder, to the relatively inoffensive, such as joining a religious cult or cross-dressing.
- (^) A deviant act becomes a crime when it is deemed socially harmful or dangerous; it is then specifically defined, prohibited, and punished under the criminal law.
Deviant or Criminal?
• Definition
- (^) An academic discipline that uses the scientific method to study the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior.
- (^) Interdisciplinary science 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.
Criminology
- (^) Criminal Statistics/Crime Measurement
- (^) Analysis
- (^) Measurement
- (^) Identification (Victims)
- (^) Testing (theories)
- (^) Sociology of Law/Law and Society/Socio-Legal Studies - (^) Investigate history of legal though - (^) Assess effects of proposed legal change
What Criminologists Do
The Criminological Enterprise
- (^) Developing Theories of Crime Causation
- (^) Sociological
- (^) Neighborhood, poverty, socialization, group interaction
- (^) Sociological
- (^) Penology: Punishment, Sanctions, and Corrections
- (^) Penology: the correction and sentencing of known criminal offenders. - (^) Rehabilitation - (^) Social control
What Criminologists Do
The Criminological Enterprise
- (^) Victimology
- (^) Victim surveys
- (^) Victimization risk
- (^) Victim culpability
- (^) Services for crime victims
What Criminologists Do
The Criminological Enterprise
- (^) Positivist Criminology (Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
- (^) Scientific method
- (^) Logic
- (^) Empirical verification
- (^) Value-free
A Brief History of Criminology
Sociological Criminology
Quetelet (1796-1874), Durkheim (1858-
- (^) Relationship between social factors and crime
- (^) Crime is a social phenomenon that can be reduced by improving social and economic conditions
- (^) The Chicago School (crime a reaction to the social environment)
- (^) Social Views (life experience and access to opportunities)
A Brief History of Criminology
Contemporary Criminology
- (^) Rational Choice Theory (they rational decision makers)
- (^) Trait Theory (biological and psychological characteristics intrearct with the environment)
- (^) Social Structure Theory (the social environment controls criminal b.)
- (^) Social Process Theory (they learn from others)
- (^) Critical Theory (it’s due to an unfair economic structure)
- (^) Developmental Theory (multiple forces combine to produce crime)
A Brief History of Criminology
- (^) Consensus View of Crime: the majority share common values and agree on what behaviors should be defined as criminal.
- (^) Conflict View of Crime: criminal behavior is defined by those in a position of power to protect and advance their own self-interest.
- (^) Interactionist View of Crime: those with social power are able to impose their values on society as a whole, and these values then define criminal behavior
Crime Views
- (^) Social goals
- (^) Enforcing social control
- (^) Discouraging revenge
- (^) Expressing public opinion and morality
- (^) Deterring criminal behavior
- (^) Punishing wrongdoing
- (^) Creating equity
- (^) Maintaining social order
Contemporary Criminal Law
- (^) Criminal Law
- (^) The written code that defines crimes and their punishments
- (^) Reflects the values, beliefs, and opinions of society’s mainstream
• The Evolution of Criminal Law
- (^) Social and Economic Conditions
- (^) Stalking
- (^) Gay marriage
- (^) Future Direction of Criminal Law
Crime and the Criminal Law
- (^) Considering the findings of Zgoba and Bachar, would you advocate abandoning sex offender registration laws because they are ineffective? Or might there be other reasons to keep them active?
- (^) What other laws do you think should be the topic of careful scientific inquiry to see whether they actually work as advertised?