1. Crime and Criminal Justice
Chapter 6
Crime and Criminal Justice

2. Norms, Law, and Crime
Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members
Laws are the norms created through a society’s political system.
Civil law defines the legal rights and relationships involving individuals and businesses
Criminal law focuses on people’s responsibilities to uphold public order

3. Norms, Law, and Crime
Crime: the violation of the criminal laws enacted by federal, state, or local governments
Misdemeanors are less serious offenses punishable by less than one year in prison
Felonies are more serious crimes punishable by at least one year in prison

4. The Crime Problem
Most people in the U.S. think crime is a serious problem
Much greater crime problem compared to other high-income nations
more handgun murders than any other high-income country
Fear of crime is itself a social problem, because it limits the things people do and the places they go

5. Crime Statistics
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is a main source of crime statistics providing data on
crimes against property (burglary, larceny-theft, motor-vehicle theft, and arson)
crime against persons (murder and manslaughter, aggravated assault, forcible rape, and robbery)

6. Crime Statistics Problems with the UCR
only includes crimes reported to police…how much crime goes unreported?
only gathers statistics on “street crimes” committed by ordinary people, not the more “elite” crimes (e.g., fraud, price fixing, and toxic dumping)

7. Violent Crime: Patterns and Trends
Crime rate for property offenses is 7 times than for violent crimes against persons
Violent crime rose quickly from 1960 until the early 1990s
After that, the trend turned downward

8. Murder
Most murder victims are males, with African Americans being at especially high risk
FBI data show that nearly half of all murder victims knew the offender
The high murder rate in the U.S. demands that we take a critical look at the role of handguns

9. Forcible Rape
Nationally, only one-half of women who are raped make a report to the police
Rape statistics don’t reflect attempted rape, sex with a minor, or attacks on males

10. Aggravated Assault
Aggravated assault accounts for nearly 2/3 of all reported violent crime
Aggravated assault is very much a male crime, with the majority of both victims and offenders being men

11. Robbery
Robbery involves both stealing and threatening another person, which makes this both a property and a violent crime
This the least likely of all violent crimes to result in an arrest
victims usually don’t know a robber so that identification is difficult

12. Property Crimes Burglary only 14% of cases are cleared
Majority of those arrested are male and under 25
Larceny-theft
includes shoplifting, pick pocketing, purse-snatching
the most common of all the serious crimes tracked by the FBI

13. Property Crimes Motor-vehicle theft only 15% of cases are cleared
2/3 of those arrested are under 25 and male
Arson
the arson rate is holding steady
majority of those arrested are under 25 and male

14. “Street” Crime: Who Are the Criminals?
Age
for all offenses, there is a strong link between crime and youth
Gender
In 1999, males accounted for 70 % of arrests for property crime
For violent crime, men are arrested in 83% of the cases
Women are more often arrested for larceny-theft, fraud, and prostitution
For all serious crimes, the number of women arrested is increasing

15. “Street” Crime: Who Are the Criminals?
Social class
Research shows that people of lower social position are involved in most arrests for street crime
The link between class and criminality depends on the kind of crime one is talking about

16. “Street” Crime: Who Are the Criminals?
Race plays a large part in the crime picture several ways
the deprivation faced by black youths may lead to hostility towards the police and various facets of the “system”
prejudice based on race may prompt people to suspect blacks on the basis of skin color
research suggests that such biases may lead police to arrest African Americans more than whites

17. “Street” Crime: Who Are the Criminals?
2/3 of black children are born to single mothers and may be at a higher risk for criminality
Asian Americans are underrepresented in street crime statistics because
of higher income levels
a strong cultural emphasis on family discipline and honor

18. Juvenile Delinquency
Any violation of criminal law may lead a court to declare a minor “delinquent”
In juvenile courts, the focus is on helping children straighten out rather than simply punish them
in the cases of serious offenses, officials may try a juvenile as an adult
When found guilty, they are held in a juvenile detention center until of legal age, when they are transferred to an adult prison to serve out the rest of their sentence

19. Hate Crimes
A criminal offense against a person, property, or society motivated by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin
Because hate crimes are not always reported, their true extent is probably far greater than criminal statistics indicate

20. White-Collar Crime
Unlawful activities committed by people during the course of their employment or regular activities
Edwin Sutherland pioneered the study of white-collar crime
A recent trend in white-collar crime involves computers - both hackers and thefts
When white-collar offenders are caught, their cases are usually heard in a civil court - and they rarely go to jail

21. Corporate Crime
An unlawful act committed by a corporation or others operating on its behalf (e.g., environmental pollution and gross negligence)
Most of these offenses are tried in civil courts so that no individual is charged with criminal behavior

22. Organized Crime
A business operation that supplies illegal goods and services (e.g., gambling, sex, or drugs)
has a long history in the U.S.
RICO

23. Victimless Crimes
Offenses that directly harm no one but the person who commits them (e.g., gambling and prostitution)
Laws regulating victimless crime vary from place to place

24. Biological Causes of Crime
Cesare Lombroso pioneered theory that criminals were physically different from law-abiding citizens
identified certain traits of lawbreakers: low foreheads, protruding ears, excessive hairiness
His work was flawed because he failed to see that physical traits found among prisoners were also found in the general population

25. Biological Causes of Crime
In the mid-20th century, William Sheldon found that males with athletic builds (mesomorphs) were more likely to become criminals than fat, round people (endomorphs) or thin, wiry people (ectomorphs)
Results were confirmed by the Gleucks (1950)
They cautioned that rather than a muscular build causing criminal behavior, probably athletic boys become more independent and less sensitive to others

26. Biological Causes of Crime
XYY chromosome theory:
Men with an extra Y chromosome may have an increased chance of becoming criminals
Some geneticists think we may eventually be able to identify criminals before they commit crimes
The evidence linking criminality to any genetic trait is not conclusive

27. Psychological Causes of Crime
Like biological research, the psychological study of crime also focuses on individual traits; in this case, abnormal personalities
Peckless and Dinitz explained delinquency in terms of a boy’s degree of moral conscience
nondelinquent boys felt more strongly about right and wrong

28. Psychological Causes of Crime
One problem with this approach is that many serious crimes are committed by people who are quite “normal”
A second problem is that psychological theories consider only the individual, not how society defines them

29. Structural-Functional Analysis: Crime is Useful
Emile Durkheim: the Functions of Crime
Crime affirms a society’s norms and values
Recognizing crime helps everyone recognize the line between right and wrong
Reacting to crime helps bring people together
Crime encourages social change
Durkheim explains that crime is normal for society

30. Structural-Functional Analysis: Crime is Useful
Robert Merton: Strain theory
Crime is a product of society itself
He suggests that patterns of rule breaking depend on how society’s goals affect different categories of people, who do not all have the same opportunities to achieve those goals
There are five outcomes of this situation – conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion

31. Structural-Functional Analysis: Crime is Useful
Cloward and Ohlin: Opportunity structure
Becoming a criminal depends on the presence of illegitimate opportunity
Patterns of conformity and criminality depend on people’s relative opportunity structure

32. Structural-Functional Analysis: Crime is Useful
Travis Hirchi argues that social ties discourage crime
He identifies four kinds of social ties that operate to control crime:
attachment to other people
commitment to conformity
involvement in conventional activities
a belief in the rightness of cultural norms and values

33. Symbolic-Interaction analysis: Labeling Crime
Focuses on how and why society defines some people who break the law as criminals while paying little attention to others
This perspective - what becomes a crime and who becomes a criminal - is part of a process of social definition that changes from time to time and from place to place

34. Symbolic-Interaction analysis: Labeling Crime
Howard Becker: Labeling Theory
Crime and all forms of rule-breaking results not so much from what people do, as from how others respond to those actions

35. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: Labeling Crime
Edwin Lemert: Primary and Secondary Deviance
Explored how individuals can have their lives changed by the labels others apply to them
Primary acts of deviance (skipping school, underage drinking) may have only passing significance
The reaction of others to primary deviance can provoke secondary deviance - when the individual takes on a deviant identity

36. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: Labeling Crime
Erving Goffman: the Power of Stigma
A stigma is a powerful negative social label that radically changes a person’s self-concept and social identity
Once stigmatized, an individual may find that conventional friends disappear
A criminal prosecution can be a powerful ritual that stigmatizes an individual

37. Social-Conflict Analysis: Crime and Inequality
Karl Marx: Class and Crime
Understood social problems in terms of class conflict
Crime was seen as a product of social inequality
Solution to the crime problem is to eliminate capitalism in favor of a more egalitarian system

38. Social-Conflict Analysis: Crime and Inequality
Feminist theory: Gender and Crime
Socialist feminists believe that the solution to crime begins with eliminating capitalism
All feminists agree that subordinating women to men forces them to look to crime as a means of coping with their exploitation and enabling themselves to make a living

39. The Criminal Justice System
Police make choices about what warrants their attention
In a five city study, Smith and Visher found the following factors guided police in arrest decisions:
How serious is the crime?
What does the victim want?
Is the suspect cooperative?
Does the suspect have a record?
Are bystanders watching?
What is the suspect’s race?

40. The Criminal Justice System
Two changes in police policy have helped bring down the nation’s crime rate
community policing
zero tolerance

41. Courts
In principle, the U.S. court system is an adversarial process by which the prosecutor presents the state’s case against the suspect and the suspect’s attorney presents a defense

42. Courts The reality of justice however, is something much different.
90% of criminal cases are settled through plea-bargaining
While plea-bargaining saves the time and expense of a trial, efficiency doesn’t always produce justice

43. Punishment
There are four justifications for a society punishing its wrongdoers
retribution
deterrence
rehabilitation
societal protection

44. Punishment
In recent years, the greatest debate concerning punishment has centered on the death penalty
the U.S. is one of the few high-income nations that puts convicted offenders to death

45. Politics and Crime: Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions
Conservatives believe that people raised in strong, law-abiding families are unlikely to commit crime
Most conservatives favor tougher laws, more aggressive policing, and harsher penalties as ways to combat the crime problem.
They believe the key to controlling crime is parents teaching children to make the right choices in a world of pressures

46. Politics and Crime: Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions
Liberals believe that many people live in situations that pressure them to break the law
Crime is caused by a harmful environment, particularly living in poverty
To liberals, jobs are the key to a drop in the crime rate

47. Politics and Crime: Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions
The radical left believes the real crime of society is tremendous economic inequality
The radical solution begins with a restructuring of the economic and political system toward a more egalitarian social order that can make a real claim to justice