• Creator of classic criminology
• First scholar to develop a systematic understanding of why people commit crimes
• Believed in utilitarianism - people want to achieve pleasure and avoid pain
• Crimes occur when the potential pleasure and reward from illegal acts outweigh the likely pains and punishment
• Punishment must be public, prompt, necessary, proportionate and dictated by law

• Founder of sociology
• Associated with positive criminology
• Stated that societies change and go through stages that can be grouped on the basis of how people try to understand the world they live in
• People in later social stages embrace rational, scientific world views

• Physiognomist
• Studied the facial features of criminals and found that the shape of the ears, nose and eyes and the distances between them were associated with antisocial behavior

• Phrenologists
• Studied the shape of the skull and bumps on the head
• Concluded that these physical attributes were linked to criminal behavior
• Believed that the size of the brain area could be determined by inspecting the contours of the skull and, further, that the relative size of brain areas could be increased or decreased through exercise and self-discipline
• Their theories are no longer applied or taken seriously but they were an early attempt to use a scientific method to study human behaviors

• Associated with positive criminology
• One of the founders of French psychiatry
• Coined the phrase manie sas delire to denote what eventually was referred to as a psychopathic personality

• Positive criminology
• described patients with an "innate preternatural moral depravity"

English physician believed that insanity and criminal behavior were strongly linked

• Biological determinism
• Father of criminology
• Studied cadavers of executed criminals to determine scientifically how criminals differed from non-criminals
• Criminals suffered from atavistic anomalies (head and jaw shapes)

• Sociological criminology
• Used social statistics to investigate the influence of social factors on the propensity of crime
• Discovered that season, climate, population composition and poverty were linked to draw
• First to link crime rates to alcohol consumption

• Sociological criminology
• Crime=normal because the absence of crime is impossible
• Believed that crime was inevitable because people are so different from one another and use a wide variety of ethods and types of behavior to meet their needs
• Even if "real" crimes were eliminated, human weaknesses and petty vies would be elevated to the status of crimes
• Suggested that crime can be useful and occasionally even healthful for society because it paves the way for social change
• To illustrate: offered the example of Socrates, who was considered a criminal and was put to death for corrupting the morals of youth simply because he expressed ideas that were different from what people believed at that time

• Anomie: norm and role confusion

Robert Ezra Park
Earnest W. Burgess

Louis Wirth 

• Sociologists that examined neighborhood conditions and poverty levels that influenced crime rates
• Challenged biological/psychological theories that held reasons for criminal activity

Conflict theory

Critical criminoloy

View that crime is a product of a capitalist system

The economic system produces conditions that support a high crime rate

an act deemed dangerous and socially harmful that is specifically defined, prohibited and punished under law

(remember Karl Marx) depicts society as a collection of diverse groups (such as owners, workers, professionals, and students) who are in constant and continuing conflict. Groups able t assert their political power use the law and criminal justice system to advance their economic and social position

the definition of crime reflects the preferences and opinions of people who hold social power in a particular legal jurisdiction. These people use their influence to impose their definition of right and wrong on the rest of the population.

• Murder
• Non-negligent murder
• Forcible rape
• Robbery
• Aggravated assault
• Burglary
• Larceny
• Motor vehicle theft
• Arson

• Victims
• Officers who discover the infractions
• Other sources

• Sex crimes
• drug trafficking
• Vandalism

• Collects information from victims through survey about their experiences with law enforcement
• Asks victims about their experiences with the CJ system
• Discusses crimes that victims did not report to the police
• Problem: relies on victim's memory and honesty and that it omits substance abuse

 include non-reported crimes, substance abuse and offenders' personal information

relies on the honesty of offenders and omits offenders who refuse or are unavailable (because of incarceration) to participate (and who therefore may be the most deviant)

Most crimes are reported during July & August because of the following:

• Teenagers are out of school, greater opportunity to commit crimes
• People spend more time outdoors, become easy targets
• Vacant homes during summer are vulnerable to burglary

Offenses designed to improve the financial or social position of the criminal

• Theft
• Selling narcotics

• Deteriorating neighborhoods
• Lack of informal social control
• Income inequality
• Presence of youth gangs
• Resource deprivation
• Homicide
• Assault

Gender and Crime:

Trait Differences

Gender and Crime:

Socialization Differences

Gender and Crime:

Cognitive Differences

• Girls are superior to boys in verbal ability
• Boys test higher in visual-spatial performance
• Girls acquire language faster, learn to speak earlier
• Boys do better on standardized math tests

Gender and Crime:

Social/Political Differences

Feminist view in criminality

Girls joining gangs

More women getting arrested 

• Poverty
• Racism
• Hopelessness
• Lack of opportunity

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Flashbacks
• Reoccurring nightmares

• Depression
• Anxiety disorder
• Panic disorder
• Substance abuse disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Victims of crime, especially victims of childhood abuse are more likely to commit crimes themselves

(Victims commit crimes, create victims, in turn they commit crimes, create victims)

• Adult supervision is minimal before, during and after class
• Kids leave valuables in lockers
• Kids congregate in unguarded places, making them attractive to predators who come on school grounds

African-American, western and urban homes most vulnerable to crime

Home owners less likely to be victims of crime than renters

Victim Characteristics:

Gender

• Males are more likely to be victims of violent crime than females (except rape/assault)
• Females more likely to be victimized by someone they know

Victim's Characteristics:

Age

Victim Participation Theory:

Active Participation

Victim Participation Theory:

Passive Participation

The view that victimization results from the interaction of three everyday factors:

1. availability of suitable targets
2. absences of capable guardians
3. presence of motivated offenders

• Victim compensation
• Victim-witness assistance programs
• Victim advocates
• Victim impact statements
• Crisis intervention
• Victim-offender Reconciliation Program

• To be notified of proceedings and the status of the offender
• To be preset at criminal justice proceedings
• To make a statement at sentencing and to receive restitution from a convicted offender
• To be consulted before a case is dismissed or a plea agreement entered
• To a speedy trial
• To keep the victim's contact information confidential

• 1960s economist
• criminals=rational actors
• They behave in a predictable or rational way
• they examine gain of crime vs cost of going to jail

• Political activist
• People who commit crimes
• Unafraid of breaking the law
• value the excitement and thrills of crime
• have a low stake in conformity
• are willing to take greater chances

• Choice of target
• Ability to move products for high net gain
• Low risk of being caught

• Stand good chance of getting caught and  being punished
• Fear the consequences of punishment
• Risk losing the respect of peers, damaging their reputations, and experiencing feelings of guilt or shame
• Risk of apprehension outweighs the profit and/or pleasure of crime

the excitement or exhilaration of successfully executing illegal activities in dangerous situations

the situation inducements of immediate benefits that draw offenders into law violations

a method of crime prevention that seeks to eliminate of reduce particular crimes in specific settings

the principle that crime can  be prevented o displaced by modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity that individuals have to commit crime

a crime control policy that depends on the fear of criminal penalties, convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with crime outweigh its benefits

• Certainty of punishment
• Severity of punishment
• Swiftness of punishment

view that criminal sanctions should be so powerful that offenders will never repeat their criminal acts

confinement in jail or prison

repetition of criminal behavior

Suspect is not given appropriate punishment

Case is dismissed or charges are dropped by victims

the view that placing offenders behind bars during their prime crime years reduces their opportunity to commit crimes and helps lower crime rate

• A deterrent to murder
• Criminal will never commit crimes again
• Murder rate has dropped since the return of capital punishment
• There are issues associated with capital punishment

the view that criminality is a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits

 the view that human behavior is motivated by inborn biological urges to survive and preserve the species

• Behavior traits are inherited
• Inherited behavior traits have been formed by natural selection
• Behavioral traits evolve and are shaped by the environment
• Biological and genetic conditions affect how social behaviors are learned and perceived
• Behavior is determined by the need to ensure survival of offspring and replenishment of the gene pool
• Biology, environment, and learning are mutually interdependent factors

• Personal traits and biological conditions explain behavior choices
• Crime producing interactions involve personal traits and environmental factors

defective intelligence, impulsive personality, abnormal brain chemistry

family life, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, neighborhood condition

abnormal levels of androgens produce aggressive behavior in males

abnormal levels of female sex hormones produce antisocial, aggressive behavior

the study of brain activity

 a pattern of repetitive behavior in which the rights of others or social norms are violated

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

a developmentally inappropriate lack of attention, along with impulsivity and hyperactivity

• Frequently fail to finish projects
• Doesn't seem to pay attention
• Doesn’t sustain interests in play activities
• Cannot sustain concentration on schoolwork or related tasks
• Is easily distracted

• Frequently acts without thinking
• Often "calls out" in class
• Doesn’t want to wait his or her turn in lines or games
• Shifts from activity to activity

if criminal tendencies are inherited, then children are most likely to violate the law

people become deviant when they are influenced by others with whom they are in close contact

Freud stated that human personality is controlled by unconscious mental processes that develop early in childhood

• primitive part of people's mental makeup, unconscious biological drive
• Seeks instant gratification without concerns for others

• personality developed in early childhood that helps control the Id and keep's peoples actions within the boundaries of social convention
• Compensation for the demands of the Id

incorporation within the personality of the moral standards and values of parents

The ability to form an emotional bond to another person

Failure to develop proper attachments cause people to fall prey to psychological disorders

human behavior is learned through a process of social reinforcement (rewards and punishment)

people learn to be aggressive by observing others act aggressively to achieve some goal or being rewarded for violent acts

the process of learning behavior by observing others

the psychological perspective that focuses on the mental processes by which people perceive and represent the world around them and solve problems

theory that focuses on how people process, store, encode, retrieve, and manipulate information to make decisions and solve problem

reasonably stable patterns of behavior, including thoughts and emotions that distinguish one person from another

• Combination of traits, such as
• Hyperactivity
• Impulsivity
• Hedonism
• Inability to empathize with others

• Intelligence is genetic
• Ancestry determines IQ
• Low Q is linked to criminal behavior

• Intelligence is not inherited
• Low IQ parents do not necessarily produce-low IQ children
• Intelligence is viewed as partly biological but primarily sociological

a condition in which the prevailing emotional mood is distorted or inappropriate to the circumstance

• a pattern of negativistic, hostile and defiant behavior
• Child often loses their temper
• Argues with parents
• Actively defies or refuses to comply with adult's requests or rules

• Hears nonexistence voices
• Sees hallucinations
• Exhibit inappropriate responses

• Affects a person's ability to
• Understand reality
• Think clearly
• Respond emotionally
• Communicate effectively
• Behave appropriately

• This culture is characterized by
• Apathy
• Cynicism
• Helplessness
• Mistrust of social institutions

Segments of the population whose members are at a relatively similar economic level and who share

• People who are grouped according to economic or social class; characterized by the unequal distribution of wealth, power and prestige

disadvantaged economic class position is a primary cause of crime

Swedish economist

• Described a worldwide underclass that was cut off from society
• Lowest social stratum in any country
• Members lack the education and skills needed to function successfully in modern society

those who grow up in low-income homes

• Less likely to achieve in school
• Less likely to complete schooling that affluent children
• Suffer from health problems
• Receive inadequate health care
• Likely to have health problems that impede long-term development

focuses on the breakdown in inner-city neighborhoods of institutions such as the family, school  or employment

sees crime as a function of the conflict between people's goals and the means available to obtain them

anger, frustration, and resentment experienced by people who believe they cannot achieve their goals through legitimate means

sees strain and social disorganization together resulting in a unique lower-class culture that conflicts wit social norms

set of values, beliefs and traditions unique to a particular social class or group within a larger society

values, beliefs and traditions are handed down from one generation to the next

• Chicago sociologists
• Linked life in transitional slums to the inclination of crime
• Saw that Chicago had developed into distinct neighborhoods
• Some affluent
• Some racked by poverty

area undergoing a shift in population and structure, usually from middle class residential to lower class mixed use

• 9 distinct ecological areas tat developed in the city
• Zones in the transitional inner-city had most crime (large numbers of poor people settled)
• Zones farthest from the city's center had lower crime rates
• Found that multiple cultures and diverse values, both conventional and deviant, coexisted in the transitional neighborhoods
• Children observed grown-ups with deviant lifestyle were financially successful (pimps, gamblers, drug dealers)
• Children were force to chose deviant behavior

• crime rates associated with
• Community deterioration
• Disorder
• Poverty
• Alienation
• Disassociation
• Fear of crime
• Deserted homes and abandoned building buildings serve as amgnet for crime
• Slumlords
• Boarded up buildings
• Burned out buildings

• comes from
• Rowdy youths
• Trash and litter
• Graffiti
• Abandoned storefronts
• Drunks
• Vagabonds
• Loiterers
• Prostitution
• Incivilities
• High crime rates

• Relative deprivation
• Feelings of inadequacy
• Siege mentality (sense of powerlessness)

Theory of Anomie (Robert Merton)

• Social inequality leads to perceptions of anomie
• Found that two elements of culture interact to produce potential anomic conditions
• Culturally defined goals
• Socially approved means for obtaining them

Social adaptations (way of coping with inadequate means of attaining success) according to Robert Merton

• Conformity
• Innovation
• Ritualism
• Retreatism
• Rebellion

embrace social goals, have means to obtain them

accept goals of society, but unable or unwilling to attain them by legitimate means; start selling rugs or stealing

gain pleasure from practicing traditional ceremonies, regardless if they have a real goal or purpose (religious orders, feudal societies, clubs)

reject the goals and means of society; escape lack of success by withdrawing mentally or physically through drugs or becoming drifters

substitute alternative set of goals and means for conventional ones (seek radical change in society, call for alternative lifestyles, goals, and beliefs)

envy, mistrust and aggression resulting from perceptions of economic and social inequality

view that multiple sources of strain interact with an individual's emotional traits and responses to produce criminality

Anger frustration and adverse emotions produced by a variety of sources of strain

• Disappointment
• Depression
• Dear
• Anger
• Revenge

suggests that people learn the techniques and attitudes of crime from close relationships with criminal peers; that crime is a learned behavior

maintains that everyone has the potential to become a criminal but most people are controlled by their bonds to society; crime occurs when these bonds are broken or weakened

• Considered a major determinant in behavior
• Parenting factors play critical role in determining whether people misbehave as children and later as adults
• Proper discipline

suggest that parents who support and control their children in a non-coercive way are more likely to raise children who refrain from delinquency

the view that people commit crime when their social learning needs leads them to perceive more definitions favoring crime than favoring conventional behavior

Criminals must learn and master techniques that enable them to neutralize conventional values and attitudes

• Denial of responsibility
• Denial of injury
• Denial of victim
• Condemnation of the condemners (world is corrupt, dog-eat-dog world)
• Appeal to higher loyalties (loyalty to peer group)

Argues that the social bond a person maintains with society is divided into four main elements tat aid in controlling delinquent behavior:

1. Attachment
2. Commitment
3. Belief
4. Involvement