Term
| Explain The Sociological Perspective |
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Definition
| People are social beings more than individuals. Society shapes behavior, attitudes, and life choices. |
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Term
| How does perspective inform the defining of criminal actions. |
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Definition
| Crime is behavior that offends against human relationships or in some way injures the existing social system. |
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Term
| What is the difference between consensus and conflict theory? |
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Definition
| Consensus (Durkheim) is agreement over what is and is not criminal. Conflict (Marx and Engels) allows for debate over what is and is not criminal. |
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Term
| Research Methods: Surveys |
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Definition
| Administration of a questionnaire to some group of respondents. The respondents are a random sample. |
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Term
| Research Methods: Experiments |
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Definition
| Less popular in Criminology. Two groups, experiment group and control group. Experiment is administered to both groups. |
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Term
| Research Methods: Interviewing |
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Definition
| Interviewing convicted criminals. |
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Term
| Research Methods: Using Existing Data |
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Definition
| Gathering and analyzing data that has been recorded by other sources. |
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Term
| Research Methods: Historical Research |
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Definition
| Using data gathered by Durkheim, Marx, Weber and other historical figures whose work is still relevant. |
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Term
| Difference between Independent Variables and Dependent Variables. |
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Definition
| IV does influencing, DV is influenced. To determine which variable is which there are criteria to determine causality. |
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Term
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Definition
-IV and DV must be statistically relevant.
-IV must proceed DV in time.
-Relationship must not be spurious. |
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Term
| Correlation does not equal... |
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Definition
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Term
| Difference between crime and deviance. |
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Definition
| Crime is something so harmful, it is banned by criminal law. Deviance is something that goes against the social norm. |
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Term
| Meanings of Crime: Legalistic |
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Definition
| A violation of criminal laws. |
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Term
| Meanings of Crime: Political |
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Definition
| Behavior that threatens interest of those who are politically powerful. |
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Term
| Meanings of Crime: Sociological |
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Definition
| Behavior that offends against human relationships or harms social systems. |
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Term
| Meanings of Crime: Psychological |
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Definition
| Maladaptive behavior that prevents someone from living within social framework. |
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Term
| List some crime myths about minorities, youths and victims. |
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Definition
| Minorities are viewed as drug users, criminals and deviants. Media covers youth offenders disproportionately. Victims are made out to always be innocent, good people. |
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Term
| Effects of Media: Public ignorance |
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Definition
| Not very educated in amount of crime, trends in crime rates and amounts of arrests. |
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Term
| Effects of Media: Public Fear and Concern |
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Definition
| Increases peoples fear of crime. they think they are very likely of being victimized. |
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Term
| Effects of Media: Stereotyping |
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Definition
| The media exaggerates violent criminality among minorities, youth and the poor. |
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Term
| Effects of Media: Perceptions of police |
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Definition
| Coverage of bad police make people think most police are bad. |
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Term
| Effects of Media: Seriousness of crime |
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Definition
| Media plays up the seriousness of crime. This increases publics fear of crime. |
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Term
| Advantages and disadvantages of UCR |
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Definition
Adv - Official stats, standardized crime definitions and shows crime trends.
Dis - No dark figure of crime, Does not show police practices. |
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Term
| Advantages and disadvantages of NCVS |
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Definition
Adv - Info on victims, more accurate picture of crime.
Dis - memory decay, no info on WCC. |
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Term
| Advantages and disadvantages of NIBRS |
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Definition
Adv - Built on both previous models. larger number of categories.
Dis - Not at national level due to increased data entry, not as much info as NCVS. |
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Term
| Advantages and disadvantages of self report. |
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Definition
Adv - Better source of info on offender characteristics.
Dis - People can lie. |
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Term
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Definition
| Crime rates are NOT accurate. |
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Term
| Define part I and part II crimes. |
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Definition
Part I - Serious, rape, agg. assault, murder, burglary, grand theft, etc
Part II - assault, forgery, embezzlement, theft, liquor laws, disorderly intox/conduct. |
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Term
| Crimes usually occur in ___ ______ places, or areas of social disorganization. |
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Definition
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Term
| Do men or women commit more crimes? |
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Definition
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Term
| Do older people(30+) or younger people(16-30) usually commit more crime? |
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Definition
| Younger people, usually in their 20s. |
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Term
| What did the victims rights movement try to do? |
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Definition
| 1970s, tried to show that criminals were getting more rights than victims. |
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Term
| What is the victim lifestyle theory? |
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Definition
| Some lifestyles put people at more of a risk of being victimized. People who spend a lot of time outside of their homes, like at bars, clubs or the streets are more likely to become victims. |
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Term
| What is the victim routine activities theory? |
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Definition
| People who do the same thing often. Like hang out with the same friends at the same places make people easy targets. |
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Term
| Three victimization components... |
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Definition
-Attractive target.
-Likely offender.
-Lack of guardianship. |
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Term
| How do deviant lifestyles and victimization correlate? |
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Definition
| Drinking and drug use increases chances of victimization. As deviance goes up so does the chance of victimization. |
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Term
| Victim precipitation theory. |
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Definition
| In these cases, the victim actively or passively initiates the encounter. For instance, a homicide victim initiates force and is in turn killed. |
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Term
| What is the goal of criminology? |
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Definition
| Develop theories that help us understand criminal behavior and effective strategies to deal with it. |
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Term
| A crim. theory must answer one of these three questions... |
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Definition
- Why some individuals are more likely to commit crime.
-Why some categories of people are more likely to commit crime.
-Why is crime more common in some locations than others? |
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Term
| Italian economist, "On crimes and Punishment", Law should only be punitive enough to deter recurrence, condemned torture, Father of criminology. Who is he? |
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Definition
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Term
| English philosopher, felt the law was more sever than necessary, helped shape the first modern police force. |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
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Term
| Individuals chose to commit crime after weighing rewards/risks, they then chose. Which theory is this? |
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Definition
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Term
| Old school, Size and shape of skull. |
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Definition
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Term
| Old school, less developed beings. |
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Definition
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Term
| Old school, body shapes affect deviance and criminality. |
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Definition
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Term
| People commit crimes because of genes. |
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Definition
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Term
| Chemical substances make people commit crimes. More testosterone, more likely to commit crime. |
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Definition
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Term
| Lack of vitamin B, higher chemical additives, more likely to commit crimes. |
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Definition
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