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criminology test 1

Terms

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criminology
science that studies crime and criminal behavior attempts to define, explain, and predict forms of criminal behavior, causes of crime, definition of criminality, societal reaction to criminal activity, and victimology
criminal justice
police, courts, corrections more concerned with practical, applied concerns such as technical aspects of policing and corrections
progression of knowledge
auguste comte theological: religion metaphysical: supernatural or otherworldly explanations scientific: rationality and logical argument scienific stage: combo rational spirit of investigation with the scientific method
deviance and cultural values
deviance: activities that the majority in society may view as dangerous behavior that is outside the range of normal societal tolerance cultural values: practices and beliefs that are prized to be of benefit to the group, protect values by creating norms
folkways, mores, laws
folkways: least serious, refer to traditions and customs (manners, dress style) mores: customs that involve moral judgments (prohibit threatening behavior, lying, stealing) laws: formal modes of control, codified rules of behavior
consensus theorist
what becomes a crime is agreed upon social norms
gemeinschaft
informal social controls primary relationships normative consensus, simple, homogeneous sacred traditions, lack of change, don't need codified laws
gesellschaft
task specific secondary relationships complex, heterogeneous formal controls, codified laws the more pluralistic the more you need laws
MYTHS
elderly and females are the most victimized victims seldom know their offenders typical criminal is either unemployed or on welfare residents of large cities believe that their police are doing a poor job blacks and hispanics are less likely to report personal crimes most residents of large cities think that their neighborhoods are unsafe blacks are overrepresented on death rows especially in the south crime is inevitable accompaniment of complex, populous, industrialized cities white collar crime is nonviolent regulatory agencies prevent white collar crime insanity defense allows many dangerous offenders to escape conviction
basis of society
force and domination NOT consense maintains one groups power over another group's power revolution: laws need to be challenged and violated for change to occur
manifest v latent functions
manifest: intended planned anticipated consequences of introduced social changes or social arrangements latent: unintended or unanticipated consequences
characteristics of criminal law
assumed by political authority, crime against individual and the state must be specific, defining both the offense and the prescribed punishment the law is uniformly applied, equal punishment and fairness for all law contains penal anctions enforced y punishments administered by the state
criminal law
crime is an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law, committed wo defense or justification, and sanctioned by the state as a felony or misdemeanor
consensus model
arising rom agreement among the members of society as to what constitutes wrongdoing mechanism of social control
conflict model
criminal law is originating in the conflict of interest of different groups sees the law as a means of preserving the status quo on behalf of the powerful
felonies
refer to offenses punishable by a year or more in a state or federal prison
misdemeanors
less serious offenses punished by less than a year in jail
considered a crime if
the act is prohibited by law and contains legally prescribed punishments the act must be forbidden by law in advance of the act a criminal act (actus reus the act itself) must take place social harm of a conscious, voluntary nature is required and there must be injury to the state or people act is performed intentionally (mens rea criminal intent or guilty mind) voluntary misconduct must be causally related to the harm. must be shown that the decision or act did directly or indirectly cause harm
actus reus
the act itself or the physical element
menus rae
criminal intent or guilty mind
administrative/regulatory law
enforced by federal regulatory agencies
common law/case law
based on juidical decision, roots in precedence or previous decisions
strict and vicarious liability
strict: rob with a gun accidently killed someone charged with murder automatic responsibility vicarious: hire a hit man, still charged with murder respsonbile for harm committed by another person
conception without perception is blind perception without conception is meaningless
research without theory is meaningless
cause and effect relationship
2 variables spuriousness: false correlation time order
official data v. unofficial data
official: collected by agency of social control: police...police reports are closest to actual crime compared to courts and corrections unofficial: surveys: self reports, victimization
Sellin's Law
the futher the data source is from the crime committed the less useful it is for addressing the 3 questions
according to Sellin's law, which asserts his assumption?
UNofficial, most crimes are not known to police
uniform crime reports
FBI nation stats published annually since 1930s: public info crimes known to police, arrest data
arrest data and crimes known to police, which is best for Sellin's law?
crimes known to police
crimes known to police and arrest data, which is best for info on crimes for delinquents according to Sellin's law?
arrest data
part 1 v part 2
part 1: worst crimes (8) part 2: lesser crimes
part 1 offenses
murder and non negligent manslaughter aggrevated assualt forceable rape robbery burglary larsony automobile theft arson
violent crime index
murder and non negligent manslaughter aggrevated assault forceable rape robbery
property crime index
burglary larsony automobile theft arson
3 questions
how much? (extent) what are the crimes? (nature) who commits crimes
national incident based reporting system
every incident recorded, no heirarchy agencies report on the characteristics of each incident and arrest distinguish attempted from completed offenses dstingujish among crimes against businesses, individuals, or households 22 crime categories
official data in relation to the 3 questions
invalid for answering them except they are valid if you are studying police behavior/officials handling procedures
short comings of the ucr
recorded stats represent only a portion of the true crime rate big increase in the crime rate may be explained in part by better communications, more professional, and more efficient police depts and better reporting increased citizen concern and awareness of crime most fed offenses victimless crimes and white collar crimes do not appear changes in record keeping procedures made up primarily of property crimes unweighted index
criem rate
calucation that expressed the total number of index crimes per 100,000 population
dark figure of crime
unknown amount of unreported crimes
victimization's unique feature
reports get the victim's point of view
self report data
problematic in measurement and determining severity reliable, generally truthful
crime clocks
poorest graphic device for analyzing crime change because it fails to control for population growth and uses a constant fixed unit of comparison- time.
classic experimental design
equivalence (equality btwn control group and experimental group) pretest/post test control groups disadvantage: external validity (ability to generalize to larger populations)
issues with victim data
some types of victimization requires large samples in order to turn up a few victims false or mistekan reports can result in error memory failure or decay tends to increase with the distance btwn the actual time of the event and the interview sampling bias may produce an underrenumeration of the young, males, and minorites overreporting in victim surveys involves subjects reporting incidents to the interviewers that they normally would view as too trivial or unimportant to call for police
controlling error in victim surveys
use of panels (ongoing studies of the same group) and bounding (establishing the time period during which events were recalled having taken place) reverse record chcecking reinterviews interviews in significant others
self report measures
attempt to provide an alternative to official stats in measuring the extent of crime by asking individuals to admit to various crimes or acts of delinquency 96% report personal deliquency acts
controlling error in self report surveys
asking people questions about their behavior is a poor way of observing it possibly inaccurate reports, use of poor or inconsistent instruments, deficient research design, poor choices of subjects
crime increase with city size
increase in suburban than rural though burglary is higher in rural south is most dangerous
unemployment increase crime rates
BUT white collar criminals become more employed after jail than blue collar
immigrants
immigrants have lower crime rates than native born next generation immigrants have higher victimization rates
seasons
homocides, rape, breakins, larsony increase in summer increased crime during new yrs and xmas
median and crime
unresolved relationship catharsis theory: media has a tension relieving function parcipitation: media violence encourages acting out esp in juveniles, aggression does not mean crime
arrests
must demonstrate probable cause actions must be reasonable, not correct
4th amendment
probable cause, prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures exclusionary rule: no evidence unconstitutionally gained can be used in court
court cases influenced by 4th amend
weeks v us mapp v ohio chimel v ca terry v ohio berger v ny
weeks v us
made exclusionary rule applicable to federal courts
mapp v ohio
exclusionary rule applicable to all courts
chimel v ca
plain view ruling any evidence in plain view can be seized
terry v ohio
a suspicious looking person can be frisked
berger v ny
electronic eavesdropping prohibited by 4th amend but is permissible under specific situations
5th amend
prohibits double jeopardy and self incrimination
5th amend court cases
miranda v az ny v quarles
miranda v az
miranda rights
ny v quarles
if public safety would be thereatened by delaying question, police have the right to question w/o miranda rights
14th amend
due process, equal protection of all, orders state and local courts to provide protection, forced confession are not permissible
US comparison
US has a higher rate of homocide and robbery compared to any other industrialized country
age
deliquency peaks around 15.5, very high early to mid 20s, most criminal are young and so are victims under 18:most property crimes and robbery 18-34: violent crimes inmateS: property crimes, burglary and public order crimes are most common among younger inmates drug crimes were more prevalent amount inmates 25 to 44
maturation reforms
when juveniles age out of their criminality
gender
crime and males go hang in hand, universally applicable assaults by females have increased
races
most crimes are intraracials african american are the highest rate of crime most studies are not due to police bias highest rates of victimization is experienced by Native americans native americans have higher suicide rates than everyone else
cane studies
laregely descriptive any historical doc
unobtrusive methods
not used often, less of an ethical concern
triangulation
incorporates more than 1 method into one study
police discretion
legal factors are more important than nonlegal seriousness of offense and amount of evidence demeanor: show respect nature of complatant lower class areas are more public and more likely to e patrolled
race threat theory
areas of high proportions of black people have higher arrest rates
benign neglect theory
areas of high proprtions of black people, whites will have higher arrest rates than blacks
watchman
lots of discretion older cities peace keeping political patrongae and machine politics often control policing
legalistic
emphasis on crime fighting and arrests newer more affluent communities newer cities
service
emphasis on problem solving and settling disputes rural strong community ties purse local concerns bc there is little crime
police corruption
vice area extremely high corruption
meat eaters
pursue corruption aggressively accept drug
grass eaters
opportunity based
police diversity
20% of officers are of color 10% women
police effectiveness
police crackdowns are only temporarily effective no long term effects increased arrest rates dont effect future crimes
bordenkircher v hayes
granted prosecutor the right to create stricter charges if a plea bargain is refused
blacklidge v allison and sentebella v ny
protects defendant's promises by state
brady v us
please bargaining is NOT unconst
convictions
90% of all convictions are results of plea bargains 2% from a jury trial
no le contrende
agrees to commit to sentence but does not plea guilty
jury and prosecutor
if jury agrees with prosecutor: issue an indictment disagrees: issue a no means
sentencing disparities
disproportion of blacks in prison and outside little evidence of direct bias
organization racial bias
race is interconnected disproportionally with disadvantages racial connection with low educated and poor, tend to be black, and those qualities tend to contribute to more crime
race and capital punishment
majority on death row are white if race is an issue, it is the race of the victim, not the offender white victim offender is more likely to get the death penalty little data for whites killing blacks
zero order relations
13% of the population is black but black people constitute almost half of arrest rates
social class bias in sentencing
bias comes in pre-trial release those who can make bail have better success than those who don't may depend on offense minor crimes: class bias street crimes get worse punishment than white collar offenders
gender bias in sentencing
women receive light punishment no bias in prosecution or plea bargaining women responsible for children or how are pregnant may get light punishment
quaker
believed inmate would grow reflect in solitary confinement
auburn model
put prisoners to work instill strong work ethic
us incarcination rate
increase drastically btwn 1980 and 2003 tripled currently number 1 714 per 100,000 imprisoned increase is partially due to public attitude
violation of 8th amend
8th amend: cruel and unusual punishment overcrowding
international variations in crime
cross cultural comparisons of crime statistics are hazardous given the different defs of criminal activity, quality of data, ideological considerations, and the sheer logistical probs of compilation
crime control model
emphasis placed on solving and closing cases with little concern for individual rights or attention to actual guilt or innocence. assumes most of the accused are guilty
due process model
assumes that it is more important that the rights of the innocent or falsely accused by protected. assumes that it is better to let 10 guilty persons go free rather than convict one innocent person
lowest level
LIMITED JURISDICTION magistrate, municipal, police, distric justice, small claims, city handles minor cases
2nd level
GENERAL JURISDICTION circuit, superior, court of general seessions, district, court of common pleas handles felony cases
3rd level
supreme ct, supreme judicial ct, court of appeals enfoce fed law and test the consitutionality of fed and state legislation and lower ct decisions
adversary system
prosecutor and defense attorney operate as opponetns and defend their client's interest. the prosecutor repres the state and victim, defense attorney reps the accused
parole
supervised release of offenders after they have served a portion of their sentence
what works for police
for high crime hot spots: extra police patrols for high risk repate offenders: monitoring by sepcialized units for domestic absurers who are employed: on scene arrests
what doesnt work for police
gun buy back programs communiy mobilization again crime in high crime poverty areas police counseling visits to homes of couples after domestic violence dare: druge abuse resistance education neighborhood watch programs organized by police arrests of juveniles for minor offeneses increased arrests or raids on druge locations storefront police offices police newsletters with local crime info
whats promising in policing
proactive drunk driving arrests with breat testing community policing with meetings to set priorites police showing greater respect to arrested offenders polite field interrogations of suspicious persons mailing arrest warrants to domestic violence suspects who leave the scene high numbers of police officers in cities gang monitoring by community workers and parole officers street closures and rerouting target hardening problem solving analysis unique to the crime situation proactive arrests for carrying concealed weapons fines for criminal acts
what does work in the courts
diversion from court to job training as a condition of case dismissal
what doesnt work in corrections
correctional boot camps using military training scared straight programs shock probation, shcok parole, splti sentences adding jail time to parole home detention while electronic monitoring intensive supervision on parole or probation rehabilitation programs using vague conseling residential programs for juvenile offenders using challening experiences in rural settings
whats promising in corrections
for convicted offenders: rehab prroams with risk focused treatments drug using offenders in prison: therapeutic community treatment programs
what works in corrections
convicted offencers: rehab program
whats promising in courts
drug cts
problems facing the courts
poorly funded public offenders, lack of minorities on juries, and overuse of plea bargaining
police problems
corruption and abuse, racial profiling, and recruitment of minorites
moral entrepenuers
benefit by labeling activity as criminal MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING
law enforcement
local police depts are the most common 50 law agencies that do investigative work Homeland security and the dept of justice
reasons for crime dip
healthy economy crime prevention programs decline in domestic violence incarceration binge compstat and community policing decline in the crack cocaine epidemic legalized abortion

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