Crime and Punishment By: Emily, Scott, Zander and Brendan

Vocabulary Crime- Acts in violation of statute law- as including a narrow range of behavior. Criminal Justice System- The system of law enforcement that is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. Deterrence- Uses the threat of punishment to discourage criminal actions. Retribution- A type of punishment intended to make criminals pay compensation for their acts Incarceration- The state of keeping criminals in prison. Rehabilitation- An approach to crime control that attempts to resocialize criminals. Recidivism- The act of returning to criminal behavior.

Green Questions How much crime is there in the U.S.? Greater than it used to be, increased from 1960 to 1990 greatly. Violent crimes are higher in the United States than any other industrialized country. How are crime statistics collected? The FBI department called the UCR (Uniform Crime Reports) What do UCR statistics cover? All uncovered crimes reported by the police are recorded and sorted into a database How reliable are UCR statistics? Highly reliable because they depend on the actual reports of officers Are any other crime statistics available? Surveys are held to account for the underreported crimes to fully complete crime statistics What is the trend in juvenile crime? Juvenile crime has been dropping since the mid 90’s

Green Questions Cont. Why has juvenile crime gone down? Q: Does punishment discourage crime? A.Deterrence approach: uses threat of punishment to discourage criminal actions. There is a debate on the effectiveness of this approach, but research shows that the threat of punishment does deter citizens from committing crime. But because of America’s lack of severe punishment, the deterrence effect is not in effect to its full potential. Q: Do Americans believe capital punishment deters criminals? A.¾ of Americans believe the death penalty IS a deterrent to murder. Also, those who favor the death penalty say they would continue to support it even if evidence arose that proved the death penalty did not serve as a deterrent for murder. Why does the attitude toward the death penalty vary? A.Attitudes vary according to race/ethnicity. Over ¾ of white Americans favor the death penalty, as opposed to the 40% and 52% of African Americans and Latinos, respectively. These statistics account for the fact that people of color are more likely to receive the death penalty than whites. What is retribution? A.A type of punishment intended to make criminals pay compensation for their acts, coming from the idea of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This law only allows designated officials to exact retribution, and anyone without clearance to do so is obligated to answer to society for their actions.

Green Questions Cont. Why does society keep criminals in prisons? A: The idea is that when criminals are off the streets cannot commit crimes. Do prisons rehabilitate criminals? A: 30-60% of criminals released from prison return back in 2-5 years. This return to criminal activity is called recidivism, which is indicative that prison rehabilitation does not work. What are some alternatives to prisons? A: A combination of prison and probation, community programs, and diversion strategies (preventative measures to reduce the criminal’s involvement in the criminal justice system, involving referrals to a community-based treatment program rather than prison) Will any of these alternatives work? A: Generally, the alternative measures have not been sufficiently evaluated in order to prove if they work.

Updated Information Number of violent crimes annually Murder-14,249 Rape- 116,645 Robbery-5,790 -Austin is safer than 18% of cities in the U.S. -In Austin you have a 1-23 chance of becoming a victim of any crime -Austin has a crime rate that is 53% higher than the national average.

Task Assignments Vocab: Scott Green Questions: Emily (in green) and Zander (in yellow) Updated info: Brendan