Criminology and Homicide Lecture Review

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering sociological concepts, crime categories, homicide classifications, criminological theories, and data sources from Criminology Module 1.

Socialization

The process through which individuals learn and internalize the goals and approved ways of achieving goals in their society, beginning at or before birth and never ending.

Ascribed Status

A social position determined at birth that is not easily changed, such as age, race, ethnicity, or sex.

Achieved Status

A social position that is earned or acquired over time, such as a college degree, job, or parent.

Norm

A specific rule of conduct expected for a given status.

Normative Expectation

A moral judgement regarding what kind of person someone is based on how well they follow social norms or meet expectations.

Definition of the Situation

An individual's understanding of the context in which they are acting, which determines how they label themselves and others and dictates expected behavior.

Deviance

The act of breaking a societal rule or norm.

Culture

The collection of goals, values, and beliefs that a society wants its members to hold.

Social Structure

The repeated or patterned behaviors that individuals perform to fulfill or achieve their culture.

Institutionalized Behavior

An action repeated to the point that it is automatically and mindlessly expected or performed, such as stopping at red lights.

Mala in se

Crimes that are inherently bad, immoral, evil, or unethical, with broad societal consensus.

Mala prohibita

Acts that are defined as bad rather than being inherently bad, requiring moral entrepreneurs to convince society they should be illegal.

Model Penal Code (1962)

A framework developed to create uniform, rational definitions of criminal offenses and consistency for concepts like criminal intent.

Criminal Homicide

An act that purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently causes the death of another human being.

First-degree Murder

Under common law, the unlawful, deliberate, and premeditated (with malice aforethought) killing of one person by another.

Second-degree Murder

An intentional killing with adequate provocation committed in the heat of passion, where premeditation and deliberation are not required.

Felony Murder

A common law offense where an unlawful killing occurs during the commission of another felony, requiring no specific intent to kill.

Year and a Day Rule

A legal rule stating an offender can be held responsible for a victim's death if the victim dies within a year and a day of the causative act.

Mens Rea

The mental state or criminal intent of a killer, used to distinguish degrees and categories of criminal homicide.

Aggravating Circumstances

Factors surrounding a crime that increase the severity of the legal charge.

Mitigating Circumstances

Factors surrounding a crime that decrease the severity of the legal charge.

Consensus Theories of Crime

Theories assuming society agrees on right and wrong and that criminal law reflects the general consensus and interests of everyone.

Conflict Theories of Crime

Theories assuming society consists of diverse groups competing for resources and the power to define what is criminal behavior.

Strain Theory

Sociological perspective holding that strain arises from an imbalance between approved cultural goals and institutionalized social means.

Merton's Adaptations

A typology within Strain Theory categorizing responses to cultural goals and structural means into Conformist, Innovator, Retreatist, Ritualist, and Rebel.

Conformist

An adaptation mode in Merton's Strain Theory where an individual accepts cultural goals (+) and accepts institutionalized means (+).

Innovator

An adaptation mode in Merton's Strain Theory where an individual accepts cultural goals (+) but rejects institutionalized means (-).

Retreatist

An adaptation mode in Merton's Strain Theory where an individual rejects cultural goals (-) and rejects institutionalized means (-).

Ritualist

An adaptation mode in Merton's Strain Theory where an individual rejects cultural goals (-) but accepts institutionalized means (+).

Rebel

An adaptation mode in Merton's Strain Theory where an individual rejects and substitutes both cultural goals ($\pm$) and institutionalized means ($\pm$).

Subcultural Theory

Theory arguing that criminal behavior is learned in interaction with subcultures that approve of crime directly or indirectly.

Social Control (Bond) Theory

Theory proposing that individuals commit crime when their social bonds (attachment, involvement, commitment, belief) to conventional society are weak.

Neutralization Theory

Theory assuming people use specific cognitive techniques to neutralize societal values in their head before committing crimes.

Moral Justification Theory

Theory stating that intimate killers often view their lethal action as upholding a moral good in response to a victim's wrong act.

Cause of Death

The specific injury or disease that directly leads to the cessation of living functions in the body.

Mechanism of Death

The exact physiological reaction in the body produced by the cause of death.

Manner of Death

The overall classification explaining how a death occurred: Natural, Suicide, Homicide, Accident, or Undetermined.

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

A CDC unit that collects vital statistics from death certificates to monitor national health issues and causes of death.

Dark Figure of Crime

The portion of actual crimes committed that remains unknown to law enforcement agencies.

National Incident-based Reporting System (NIBRS)

An FBI reporting system that gathers detailed data on single crime occurrences, including victim and offender demographics, without using the strict hierarchy rule.

Premature Mortality

Death occurring before an individual reaches the statistical life expectancy for their race, ethnicity, and sex.

Confrontational Homicide

A contest of honor between participants in a public setting that escalates rapidly into fatal violence without prior intent to kill.

Homicide as a Situated Transaction

Luckenbill's 1977 6-stage model framing confrontational homicide as an interactive sequence between victim, offender, and audience.

Southern Subculture of Violence

A regional cultural explanation attributing high homicide rates in the American South to subcultural values requiring men to respond violently to personal insults.