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Midterm Flashcards

Crime & Society

Terms

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What changes people's perspective/reaction about a crime?
Relationship (between offender and victim) Context (circumstances) Characteristics (of victims and offenders) **Perspective matters!!!!**
Moral Entrepreneurs
People who are passionate about a cause and who use their political, economic, or educational influence to raise awareness about an issue and who work toward making changes in laws. (ex: MADD)
Sutherland's definition of criminology
A SOCIAL phenomenon that includes the process of making laws, breaking laws, and the reacting toward the breaking of laws.
Criminology
An empirical, social-behavioural science that investigates crime, criminals, and criminal justice.
Deviance
Behaviour that violates social norms, including laws
Social Norms
perceived standards of acceptable behaviour prevalent among members of a society
Crime
An act in violation of law that causes harm, is identified by law, committed with criminal intent, and is subject to punishment.
Crime Funnel
Metaphor for the manner in which criminal cases are "lost" or filtered out the further one moved into the criminal justice system; (for example, fewer people are arrested than commit crimes, fewer go to court and are convicted, and fewer still serve a prison sentence).
Consensus Model
A model of criminal lawmaking that assumes that members of society agree on on what is right and wrong and that law is the codification of agreed upon social values. (law-making as the result of communal agreement about what is to be prohibited)
Conflict Model
A model of crime in which the criminal law expresses the values of the ruling class in a society, and the criminal justice system is a means of controlling the classes that have no power. (laws are imposed by those with over over those without power)
Criminal Justice System
Focuses on the scientific studies of decision-making processes, collection of statistics, and justice-related concerns such as the efficiency of the police, courts, and correction systems; the just treatment of offenders; and the need of victims.
Elements of crime and their meaning
1) Actus reus: an act that is guilty, evil, and prohibited 2) Mens Rea: "guilty mind"; awareness of wrongdoing; the intention to commit a criminal act or behave recklessly
The Concurrence Requirement
States that the criminal act must be accompanied by an equally criminal mind
Summary offences
Minor offences such as loitering; cases are heard in a provincial or territorial courts; can result in a fine of up to $2000, a 6-month jail term, or both.
Indictable offences
More serious than summary offences; can result in a more serious punishment if found guilty; they go through a trial by judge or jury (or both); no limitation period on prosecution (time spent in jail)
American way of categorizing offences (3)
1) Felonies: severe crimes; punishment 1+ yrs 2) Misdemeanours: less severe; max. 1 yr in jail 3) Violations: Minor offences; only fines
Reasons for discrepancy (3)
1) Not everything can be proven in court 2) Mistake of fact (a factual error; thought it was my coat 3) Committed an act because he was justified in doing so (ex: self-defence)
Typologies
coherent, rational categories of crimes, for ease of understanding, learning, and finding them in the law books; and for the purpose of studying them from a legal and criminological perspective.
Why measure crimes?
1) Test theories about why people commit crimes; make predictions 2) Enhance our knowledge of the characteristics of various types of offences 3) Criminal justice agencies depend on certain kinds of information to facilitate daily operations and to anticipate future needs
Process of measuring a crime
Theory (a systematic set of principles that explain how two or more phenomena are related) -> Hypothesis (a testable proposition that describes how two or more factors are related) -> Data (facts, observations, and other pertinent information)
Primary Data
Facts and observations gathered for the purpose of a particular study
Secondary Data
Data that was previously collected for a different investigation
Methods of collecting data (5)
1) Surveys (respondents' answers to questionnaires or interviews) 2) Experiments (evaluating the effects of one particular change) 3) Participant or non-participant observation (detailed descriptions of life) 4) Case study (analysis of all aspects of one unit of study) 5) Using available data in research
Sample
A representative subset of a population
Random sample
A sample determined by random selection; each person in the population has an equal chance of being selected
Variable
Factors that may change
Field experiment
Experiments done outside of laboratories and in the real-world
Non-participant observation
Observers don't join in the activity of the group they are studying
Participant observation
Investigators take part in many of the activities of the group they're studying in order to gain acceptance
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
A standard survey used by police departments to collect and report crime-related information to the Canadian centre for justice statistics, which then releases the information to the public.
Crime rates
(# of reported crime/total population ) x 100,000
Why do some crimes not get reported? (3)
1) Belief that police can't or won't help 2) Offender might seek revenge or reprisal 3) Victim might want to deal with it in their own way
Difference between personal and property crimes
Personal: one crime = one victim Property: each individual act = separate offence
Limitations of UCR
1) data is invaluable to researchers because collected on a national basis and in standard format 2) Don't reveal how many crimes have actually been committed because people don't report everything 3) Dependent on the activities of law enforcement agencies (compare D&D now to 40 yrs ago) 4) Methodological problems; obscures detail regarding the extent of harm 5) Only serious crime in one event recorded, others go unreported 6) Aggregate totals for each month are recorded (ex: everything reported and cleared in June, but may not have happened in June) 7) Data suffers from several omissions because reports are only from the police not fire departments, government authorities, etc...
UCR2
Instead of "aggregate-based" data collection its "incident-based" (details of incidents recorded from the initial report until completion) More detailed information (location, weapons, relationships)
"dark figures of crime"
Crimes that are not reported to the police

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