CRIMINOLOGY

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CRIMINOLOGY

• Sociological Criminology,
• Criminology Cultural Criminology

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What does it mean to view crime from a
sociological perspective?

• For most of its history, almost all criminology
  was sociological criminology

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What does it mean to view crime from a
sociological perspective?

• Criminology was concerned with issues of poverty,
  race and ethnicity
• Also focused on the structure of communities and
  social relationships

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What does it mean to view crime from a
sociological perspective?

• In the past few decades, criminology has moved
  away from a structural focus to emphasize
  individualistic explanations
• Disciplines such as biology and psychology have
  also increased their engagement with the study of
  crime.

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What does it mean to view crime from a
sociological perspective?

• Other disciplines often fail to address questions
  that sociologists view as central to the
  examination of crime

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What does it mean to view crime from a
sociological perspective?

• 1. Why do rates of crime differ across locations
  and over time?

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What does it mean to view crime from a
sociological perspective?

• 2. why do rates of crime differ according to the
  key factors in inequality such as race,
  ethnicity, class and gender?

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What does it mean to view crime from a
sociological perspective?

• 3. How and why is the legal response to crime
  shaped by race, ethnicity, class and gender and
  other extra legal variables?

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The Sociological Perspective

• A sociological perspective stresses that people
  are social beings more than individuals
• This means that society profoundly shapes their
  behavior, attitudes and life chances.

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The Sociological Perspective

• People within a given society growing up in
  different locations and within different social
  networks and under diverse socioeconomic
  circumstances tend to act and think differently

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Emile Durkheim

• Stressed that social forces influence our
  behavior and attitudes.
• Studies of Suicide

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Durkheim

• deviance affirms cultural values and norms
• -condemning something as deviant clarifies
  moral boundaries
• -constructing an act as deviant can unify social
  groups
• -what is constructed as deviant may often be
  reconstructed as a social or commercial good

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Importance of Social Structure

• Refers to how a society is organized in terms of
  social relationships and social interaction
• Vertical and horizontal social structure

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Horizontal Social Structure

• Refers to the social and physical characteristics
  of communities and the networks of social
  relationships to which an individual belongs.

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Vertical Social Structure

• Refers to social inequality or how a society
  ranks different groups of people.

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C. Wright Mills and Social Structure

• Mills emphasized that social structure lives at
  the root of private troubles
• example of employment
• gtfor Mills the ability to understand the
  structural and historical basis for personal
  troubles is an example of the sociological
  imagination

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History of sociological criminology

• For much of European recorded history, people
  attributed crime and deviance to religious forces
• Individuals committed crimes because God or the
  gods were punishing or testing them

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History of sociological criminology

• During the Middle Ages deviance was blamed on the
  devil

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Classical School

• In the 18th century, what is known as the
  classical school of criminology stressed that
  criminals rationally chose to commit crimes after
  deciding that the potential rewards outweigh the
  risks.
• gtscholars then suggested that legal punishment
  needed to be severe enough only to deter
  potential criminals from breaking the law

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Classical School

• From Cesare Beccarias essay, On Crimes and
  Punishment four general principles can be
  identified that typify the classical doctrine
• Equality - All should be treated equally under
  the law.

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Classical School

• Liberty - We have the right to be protected from
  the potential abuses of power by the state.  The
  law cannot be applied retroactively and there can
  be no punishment without law.

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Classical School

• Utilitarianism Because the major goal of the
  state should be the greatest happiness for the
  greatest number, justice should focus on utility
  rather than retaliation and retribution.

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Classical School

• In the 19th century scholars began to investigate
  the causes of criminal behavior through
  scientific investigation

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Adolphe Quetelet

• Gathered and analyzed crime data in France
• Found that crime rates remained fairly stable
  over time and were higher for young adults, men
  and the poor

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Rise of biological explanations of crime

• The interest in the social roots of crime was
  eclipsed by growing interest in the biological
  roots of crime

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Criminology

• Public Opinion, the News Media and the Crime
  Problem

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Has crime always been perceived to be a major
problem??
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Public Opinion vs. Elite Opinion

• Democratic theory assumes that public opinion
  should influence the decisions of public
  officials
• Is elite opinion as important or should it be?

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Crime Myths propagated by Media

• 1. Crime is rampant
• 2. Crime is overly violent
• 3. people of color are more heavily involved in
  crime and drugs and less likely to be crime
  victims
• 4. teenagers are heavily involved in violent
  crime
• 5. crime victims are particularly virtuous

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What are the implications of media images of
crime??
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Measurement and Patterning of Criminal Behavior
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Measuring Crime

• Accurate measurement of crime is essential to
  understand geographical and demographic
  differences in crime rates and gauge whether
  crime is rising or falling.
• How complete is the picture that our crime data
  gives us??

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Uniform Crime Reports

• Nations official crime source and is based on
  police reports of crime to the FBI.
• Problems with UCR
• Many crime victims dont report
• Citizens may become more or less likely to report
  crimes to police
• Changes in how police record crimes may affect
  stats
• Police in different communities may have
  different definitions and understandings of
  certain crimes

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National Criminal Victimization Survey

• Measures the nature and extent of victimization
• Began in early 70s
• Does not cover commercial crime and respondents
  dont always disclose victimizations
• Is it as accurate as the UCR??

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Self Report Studies

• Focus mainly on adolescents and measures the
  extent of their offending
• How have self-report studies helped in the
  development and testing of criminological theory

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Geographic, Climatological and Social issues of
crime
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Who commits the majority of crimes among youth?
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Victims and Victimization
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Victimization

• Study of Victimization limited usually to street
  crime
• Patterned geographically and sociodemographically
• What does data from National Crime Victimization
  Survey Show? (pg 95)
• What increases your chance of being victimized?
• What is the cost of victimization?