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Title: Criminology

Description: quiz study guide

Total Flash Cards: 63

Created: 11/28/2007 21:43:52

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Additional Sociology Flashcards

Cards in this set:

Term
What are the 3 factors structure to commit a crime?
Definition
1. risk of apprehension
2. seriousness of punishment
3. the potential gain 
Term
What is a permeable neighborhood?
 
Definition
areas with a greater than usual number of access streets from traffic arteries into the neighborhood; the areas are more familiar, vulnerable, and have more escape routes
Term
What is an offender-specific crime?
Definition
offender-specific crimes occur when the offenders evaluate their skills, motives, needs, and fears before making deciding to commit a crime
Term
What is a offense-specific crime?
Definition
when offenders react selectively to the characteristics of particular crimes
Term
What is defensible space?
Definition
the principle that crime prevention can be achieved through modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity individuals have to commit a crime
Term
What is meant by diffusion?
Definition
an effect that occurs when an effort to control one type of crime has the unexpected benefit of reducing the incidence of another
Term
What is meant by crime displacement?
Definition
an effect of crime prevention efforts in which efforts to control crime in one and shift illegal activities to another
Term
What is meant by general deterrence?
Definition
people will commit crime in delinquency if they perceive that the benefits outweigh the risks. crime is a function of severity, certainty, and speed
Term
Why does the 3 strikes policy not work?
Definition
1. most 3 time loses are on the verge of aging out of crime
2. current sentences for violent crimes are already severe
3. prison cost would rise even more
4. racial disparity
5. police officers would be at risk because 2 time offenders would violently resist 
Term
What are Jack Katz's seductions of crime?
Definition
immediate gratifications of crime are satifying a personal need for excitement
Term
What are the four biosocial theories of crime?
Definition
1. biochemical: crime is a function of diet, vitamin intake, hormonal imbalance, and food allergies
2. neurological: criminals suffer brain impairment
3. genetic: criminal traits are inherited
4. evolutionary: the traits that have evolved are ingrained and can make people aggressive 
 
Term
What 3 principle traits are aggressive acts usually modeled after?
Definition
1. Family interaction: aggressive children have parents who use similar tactics
2. environmental experiences:  people who live in areas where violence is a daily occurence are more likely to be violent
3. mass media: violence is often portrayed as acceptable behavior (superheros) 
Term
What is a primary prevention program?
Definition
programs that seek to treat personal problems before they manifest themselves as crime
Term
What is a secondary prevention program?
Definition
programs that provide treatment to youth/adults who are at risk for law violation
Term
What is a tertiary prevention program?
Definition
may be a probation requirement, a diversionary sentence, or aftercare at the end of a prison stay
Term
What is the basic arguement of social disorganization theory?
Definition
that when the institutions of social control (schools, family, business) breakdown and can no longer carry out their expected functions, crime rate rise
Term
What is meant by cultural transmission?   
Definition
a process in which subcultural values are handed down from one generation to the next
Term
What is a transitional neighborhood?
Definition
an area undergoing a shift in population and structure, usually from middle-class residential to lower-class mixed use
Term
What is gentrification and how does it affect crime rates?
Definition
gentrification occurs when obsolete housing is replacted and upgraded; crime rates tend to increase
Term
What is informal social control?
Definition
when family, relatives, and peers exert control by awards, criticism, respect, desertion, etc.
Term
What is institutional social control?
Definition
the control effective social institutions (schools, churches, business) have over crime rates
Term
What is collective efficacy?
Definition
mutual trust, a willingness to intervene with children, and the maintenance of public order
Term
What are the effects of collective efficacy?
Definition
kids are less likely to become involved with deviant peers, residents feel a sense of obligation to maintain order and encourage informal social control (such as keeping an eye out for trouble)
Term
What is mechanical solidarity?
Definition
a characteristic of a pre-industrial society, which is held together by traditions, shared values, and unquestioned beliefs
Term
What is organic solidarity?
Definition
postindustrial social systems, which are highly developed and dependent on the division of labor; people are connected by their interdependent needs for one another's goods and services
Term
What are Merton's 5 modes of social adaptation?
Definition

1. conformity: individuals embrace conventional social goals and also have the means at their disposal to attain them

2. innovation: individuals accept the goals but reject or is incapable of attaining them through legitimate means

3. ritualism: individuals reject the goals but embrace the founding traditions; should have the lowest crime rate

4. retreatism: individuals reject both the goals and the means of society (outcasts, addicts, psychotics)

5. rebellion: individuals substitute an alternative set of goals and means for conventional ones; revolutionaries 

Term
What is anomie and when is it likely to occur?
Definition
 it occurs when there is a shift from mechanical to organic solidarity creating turmoil and causing established norms to erode and lose meaning; when personal goals cannot be achieved through available means
Term
What is institutional anomie theory?
Definition
material goods prevade all aspects of American life
Term
What is differential reinforcement theory?
Definition
a theory that combines both differential association and psychological learning theory in an attempt to explain crime as a type of learned behavior
Term
Why are social institutions undermined in an anomic society?
Definition
because the desire to succeed at any cost drives people apart, weakens the collective sense of community, and restricts desires to achieve anything that is not material wealth?
Term
What are the sources of stress/strain according to the general strain theory?
Definition

1. failure to achieve positively valued goals

2. disjunction of expectations and achievements

3. the loss of positively valued stimuli, such as a spouse

4. the presentation of negative stimuli, such as abuse and conflict 

Term
What are the focal concerns of lower class culture according to Miller?
Definition

trouble, toughness, street-smarts, excitement, fate (getting lucky/hitting the jackpot), autonomy

 

focal concerns have evolved to fit conditions in lower-class areas and clinging to them promotes illegal behavior 

Term
What is the differential opportunity theory?
Definition
people in all strata of society share the same success goals, but those in the lower class have limited means of achieving them
Term
What are the 8 principles of differential association?
Definition

1. criminal behavior is learned

2. learning is a by-product of interaction

3. learning occurs within intimate groups; family, friends, and peers have the greatest influence on an individuals deviant behavior

4. criminal techniques are learned

5. perceptions of legal code influence motives and drive; people are exposed to various attitudes of what is right/wrong

6. differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority (age at interaction), and intensity (prestige of the group/individual)

7. learning criminal behavior involves the same mechanisms of any other learning process

8. criminal behavior is an expression of general needs/values, but it is not excused by them. Those same needs/values are just as likely to produce noncriminal behavior 

 

Term
What is meant by differential reinforcement?
Definition
occurs when behavior is reinforced by being either rewarded or punished while interacting with others; AKA: direct conditioning
Term
What are the 5 techniques of neutralization?
Definition

1. deny responsibility

2. deny injury

3. deny victim (the had it coming)

4. condemn condemners (shift blame)

5. appeal to higher loyalties (needs of the group take precedence of the rules of society)

 

these techniques allow people to temporarily deviate from normative society to participate in subterranean behaviors 

Term
What are the 4 elements of the social bond?
Definition

1. attachment: interest/empathy for others

2. commitment

3. involvement: heavy involvement in conventional activities leaves little time for illegal behavior

4. belief 

Term
What was the predicted influence of attachment to deviant parents/peers according to Hirschi's original work?
Definition
the predicted influence was that any form of social attachment is beneficial, however, recent studies found that deviant attachment promotes criminality
Term
What are the 6 stages of the labeling process?
Definition

1. initial criminal act

2. detection by the justice system

3. decision to label

4. creation of a new identity

5. acceptance of labels

6. deviance amplification 

Term
What is meant by the dramatization of evil?
Definition
negative feedback further stigmatizes the offender, making them see themselves as others do; self-fulfilling prophecy
Term
What is primary deviance?
Definition
crimes that have little influence on the actor and can be quickly forgotten
Term
What is secondary deviance?
Definition
when a deviant event comes to the attetion of social control agents, who then apply a negative label
Term
What are the owners of the means of production called?
Definition
the capitalist bourgeoisie
Term

 What are the laborers called?

Definition
proletariat
Term
What are lumpen proletariat?
Definition
the nonproductive members who parisitically live off the work of others
Term
What is the fundamental arguement of Marxian criminology?
Definition
that workers are demoralized by capitalist society, caught up in a process that leads to crime and violence; they have the choice of a slow, starvation death or a speedy one at the hands of the law
Term
What is surplus value and how does it cause crime?
Definition
surplus value is the view that the laboring classes produce wealth that far exceeds their wages and it goes on to the capitalists; eventually, the largest corporations take over the smaller ones, reducing the power of the workers
Term

What is the difference between instrumental Marxism and structural Marxism?

 

Definition

instrumental Marxism views the criminal justice system as only a tool for capitalist to control the poor and impose their standards of behavior on all of society

 

structural Marxism believes that the law is not always working for the rich and against the poor. law is designed to keep the capitalist system operating efficiently 

Term
What is critical feminist theory?
Definition
the view that gender inequality stems from the unequal power between men and women in a capitalist society, which leads to the exploitation of women by husbands and fathers
Term
What is the power-control theory?
Definition
the view that gender differences in crime are a function of economic power (class position) and parental control (paternalistic vs. egalitarian families)
Term
In what type of families will young girls be most delinquent? Why are boys generally more delinquent than girls?
Definition
middle-class, two-parent homes; boys are always granted more freedom
Term
What is the basic arguement of life-course theores?
Definition
that there can be conditions/events that influence the way that people behave
Term
According to Glueck, what was the most important factor for predicting persistent offending and what type of adolescent was most vulnerable?
Definition
the most important factor was family relations; an adolescent raised in a large, single-parent family of limited economic means and education is most vulnerable
Term
What are the 3 distinct paths to a criminal career?
Definition

1. authority conflict pathway

2. covert pathway: starts small and escalates

3. overt pathway: aggression leads to physical abuse and violence 

Term
What are adolescent-limited offenders?
Definition
teens who engage in minor rebellious behavior with friends, but then reduce the frequency of their offending with age
Term
What are life course persisters?
Definition
people who begin their offending career at a very early age and continue well into adulthood; they often are part of a dysfunctional family, have neurological problems, display below average reasoning skills and poor school achievement
Term
What is the social development model? What role do prosocial bonds play?
Definition
a theory that attributes criminal behavior to childhood socialization and social attachments throughout life; the socialized attachment to conventional intitutions/beliefs decrease antisocial behavior
Term
What are the primary causes of desisting?
Definition
marriage and career
Term

What is social capital and how is it related to crime?

 

Definition
social capital is positive relations with individuals/institutions that are life sustaining; increased social capital leads to a decrease in crime
Term
What is the basic arguement of the general theory of crime?
Definition
crime and criminality are separate concepts; people choose to commit crime when they lack self-control
Term

According to control balance theory, when does deviance increase?

Definition

a person's control ratio influences his/her behavior

Term
To what does excess control lead? 

 

Definition

1. exploitation: using others to commit crimes

2. plunder: using power without regard for others

3. decadence: spur of the moment irrational acts 

Term

What are the 3 types of behavior that people use to restore balance?

 

Definition

1. predation: direct forms of physical violence

2. defiance: stopping short of physical harm

3. submission: passive obedience to the demands of others