SOC1500 Midterm #1

What is Criminology?

• Study of crime and deviance, criminals, and victims of crimes

• Criminology is a diverse and multi-disciplinary field

• “Criminology is the study of the making of laws, breaking of laws, and society’s reaction to the breaking of laws” (Sutherland, 1939)

• The term “criminology” was coined in 1885 by Raffaele Garofalo

• Applies the scientific method and relies on empirical evidence

What are the major historical schools of thought?

Classical School (Mid 18th Century )

Positivist School (Late 19th to Mid 20th Century)

Sociological Criminology (Mid 20th Century)

Critical Perspectives (Mid-Late 20th Century)

The Classical School

Origins of criminological theorizing come from The Enlightenment movement (18th century)

• Emphasize rational thought and free will

• Individuals choose to commit crime by weighing the benefits against the costs

• Scholars: Beccaria (1764), Bentham (1765)

Early Positivist School

• “Born criminal”: Aim to determine sources of criminality from measurable physical traits and biological defects

• Scholars: Lombroso (1874), Hooten (1930s), Eysenck (1964)

Sociological Criminology

The Chicago School: Crime is the product of a community’s “disorganized” social characteristics and conditions

• Comparisons of crime rates across different neighbourhoods show consistently higher rates in certain areas over time. So, context matters!

• Scholars: Park & Burgess (1925), Shaw & McKay (1942), Sampson (1990-)

  • Anomie and strain theories: Merton (1957), Agnew (1992)

  • Social learning theories: Sutherland (1939-1966), Akers (1977-1998), Sykes and Matza (1957)

  • Social control theories: Hirschi (1969), Gottfredson (1990)

  • Labeling theories: Tannenbaum (1938), Lemert (1951), Becker (1963)

Critical Perspectives

• Social upheaval in the mid-to-late 20th century led to some scholars rejecting mainstream criminology

  • Conflict theories focus on economic inequality

  • Feminist theories focus on gender inequality

  • Critical race theories focus on racial inequality

Rousseau

Hobbs

Deviance vs Crime

Deviance: norm-violating behaviour (not conforming, not following the rules of order (“norms”))

VS

Crime: violations of laws, a special category of violating formal norms (subject to sanctions by the criminal justice system)

Informal Norms

• Classification of informal norms:

  • Mores = High degree of importance, high severity of punishment

  • Folkways = Low degree of importance, low severity of punishment

• Norms can be formal and codified (e.g., laws) or informal and unwritten (e.g., customs, moral codes, etc.)

Four main perspectives on the deviance question (Subjective to objective)

There are four main perspectives on the deviance question from the most subjective to the most objective

1. Statistical rarity (most objective)

2. Social harm

3. Normative violation

4. Societal reaction (most subjective)

1, Statistical rarity

• Something is deviant if it is rare

• Limitations:

  • Criteria for rare are ambiguous

  • Common things may be unacceptable

  • Some rare things may be acceptable

2, Social Harm

• Deviance is defined by its level of harmfulness

  • Does it cause bodily or emotional harm to others?

  • Cause harm to oneself?

  • Cause harm to the functioning of society?

  • Threaten our understanding of the world and our place in it?

• Limitations:

  • Harm is subjective and varies over time and place

  • Harm can be exaggerated by “moral panics”

3. Normative Violation

Deviance is any behaviour that violates social norms

Limitations:

• Lack of consensus over normative standards

• There can be competing norms

• Not all normative violations are treated as deviance

4. Societal Reaction

• Deviance is defined by the social response it evokes

• Reflects the importance of dominant moral codes in a society (i.e., how many people condemn the act, how strong is their disapproval, how much power do they have?)

• The role of power: politicians, scientists, religious institutions, commercial enterprises (“moral entrepreneurs”)

Deviance (defined)

“presumed behavior that defies social expectations that are made and enforced by people with influence (power) and have been applied to particular people or groups in particular situations” (Deutschmann, 1998)

Legal Classifications

• Summary offense = less serious criminal behaviour

  • Criminal Code of Canada enforces punishment as a fine (< $5000) or a short time in jail (< 2 years)

    • E.g., shoplifting, trespassing, vandalism, disorderly conduct

• Indictable offense = more serious criminal behaviour

  • Punishment is more severe (longer imprisonment, up to life in prison)

    • E.g., murder, sexual assault, burglary, kidnapping, arson

Target-based Classifications

• Crimes against persons

  • involve the use (or threat) of force/violence on another individual

    • e.g. homicide, kidnapping, assault, robbery, SA, intimate partner violence, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, etc

• Crimes against property

  • aim to obtain money, property, or some other tangible benefit

    • e.g. theft, burglary, robbery, bribery, arson, vandalism, trespassing, etc

• Crimes against public order

  • disrupt social order and violate society’s prohibition against engaging in certain activities

    • e.g. disorderly conduct, loitering, gambling, prostitution, drug violations, etc.

    • “victimless” crimes

Other crimes (not included in classifications)

• Street Crime

• White-Collar Crime

• Organized Crime

• Political Crime

• Cybercrime

Sources of crime data

1. Police data: Official police records for reported incidents

2. Victimization data: Talking to victims (surveys)

3. Offender data: Talking to offenders (surveys, interviews, field research)

Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)

System used to collect official police data on reported crimes

• United States (1929-): Developed by the FBI to provide police agencies with standardized procedures to report crime data

• Canada (1962-): Administered by the National Justice Statistics Initiative and completed annually by police

• UCR data are considered to represent “official” national and regional crime stats

• Aggregate crime data are reported as counts and percentages at the national, provincial/state, and municipal levels

• U.S. and Canadian UCR initially used a simple “summary” (General information on the prevalence of various crime types).

• Since transitioned to using an “incident-based” reporting procedure (More specific and detailed information on crime incidents)

• Canada’s most up-to-date version (UCR 2.4, 2021) adopted more efficient data reporting and includes new crime types (e.g., cybercrime, hate crimes)

Crime Severity Index (CSI)

• Canada (2009-): Developed to standardize and weight reported crimes in terms of their impact/harm on the community

• Weighting crimes according to their relative severity (based on court sentencing data)

• Crimes with a higher weight (e.g., murder) have a larger impact on the CSI

• CSI increased by 2.15% from 2022-2023, which reflects an increase of more severe crimes reported over the past year

Advantages vs limitations of police report data

Advantages of police report data:

1. Provides nationwide and regional comparative crime statistics

2. Easy to obtain the data

3. UCR data can be linked to other data sources for comprehensive analyses

Limitations of police report data:

1. UCR systems typically place more emphasis on street crimes

2. Underreporting: Many crimes are not recorded in the UCR system

3. “Rate sensitivity”: Official crime rates might be more of an indicator of police and legislative activities rather than actual criminal behaviours

Underreporting

• UCR systems are susceptible to underreporting crime

• There are several steps to recording a crime in the system:

  • 1. Someone must know about the crime

  • 2. This person must report the crime to the police

  • 3. The police must decide if a crime has really occurred and decide what kind of crime it is

  • 4. The police must decide to write a report about the crime

• Crimes that do not pass the final step become part of the “dark figure” of crime

Reasons for not reporting crime (Underreporting)

1. Fear of self-incrimination

2. Fear of revenge by the offender

3. Crime was too minor to bother reporting

4. Cynicism toward the legal system

5. Crime is considered a private matter that requires a private response

Rate Sensitivity

• UCR crime rates may be influenced by police and legislative activities

• Policing-sensitive crimes: Crime rates can change depending on new initiatives or proactive efforts from law enforcement

• Predictive policing can lead to over-policing certain areas or groups

• Definition-sensitive crimes: New laws or modified legislation can impact crime rates

Victimization Data

• Victimization surveys are used to measure the prevalence and impact of crime by talking to victims

• United States (1972-): National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

• Official U.S. government survey run by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (annual)

• Nationally representative sample of U.S. households

• Asks about types of crime experienced, victim characteristics, reporting to police

• Canada (1988-): General Social Survey (GSS) – Canadians’ Safety

• Official Canadian survey run by Statistics Canada (every 5 years)

• Nationally representative sample of Canadian households

• NCVS/GSS data and UCR data typically show different crime rates

Advantages vs dissadvantages of victimization surveys

Advantages of victimization surveys:

1. Ability to study the “dark figure” of crime by asking about crimes that were not reported to the police. Offer more information on some crimes that are underreported in UCR data

2. Provide more information about the circumstances and consequences of the crime from the victim’s perspective

3. Large sample sizes for statistical analyses that allow us to generalize results to the wider population

Limitations of victimization surveys:

1. Self-report data are susceptible to misreporting (e.g., memory decay, telescoping, lying)

2. Refusal to participate in the survey

3. Samples do not capture “non-resident” victims

4. Limited and filtered information about offenders

5. Re-designing and adjusting the survey instrument creates challenges for studying changes in victimization rates over time

Offender Data

• Criminologists can learn about offenders’ behaviours, characteristics, motivations, and rationalizations by talking to them

• “Unofficial” source of crime data

• Quantitative and qualitative approaches to collecting and analyzing offender data

• What are the unique methodological and ethical considerations facing criminologists?

Self-report offender surveys

• Researchers administer questionnaires that ask respondents to report their involvement in deviant or criminal activities

• May be distributed to a sample of the general population (e.g., NLSY) or to a specific group (e.g., schools, prisons)

• Ask mostly closed-ended questions that produce numerical data

• Ask about types of offenses, personal histories, demographics, other individual-level factors, relationships, etc

• Interviews: Researcher talks to the offender and asks open- ended questions

• Ethnography: Researcher observes the offender and sometimes “participates” in their activities (field research)

Advantages and limitations of offender data

Advantages of offender surveys

1. Data are confidential, so there is an increased likelihood of reporting crimes

2. Very relevant source of information – from the offenders themselves!

3. Much more information about the offenders than in the UCR and victimization surveys (+ more flexibility)

4. Can be linked to other existing data sources (e.g., criminal records) for analyses

Limitations of offender surveys

1. Self-report data are susceptible to misreporting (e.g., memory decay, telescoping, lying)

2. Social desirability bias = people may respond in ways they feel are more socially acceptable (+ fear of self-incrimination)

3. Non-national studies may have small sample sizes and sampling biases

4. Limited and filtered information about victims of crimes

Unique considerations associated with qualitative research

• Honesty: Will criminals tell the truth?

• Self-incrimination: How do we protect our subjects’ data? How do we know when we should break confidentiality?

• Safety: How can we protect ourselves in the field?

What is the best source of crime data?

None of the sources are perfect

Even if multiple complementary methods are used

 Even if multiple,
complementary m

backgrounds
“CORRELATES” OF CRIME

• Correlate = a factor that is observed to associate with an outcome of interest

• Various factors can be associated with changes in crime rates without having causal or deterministic implications (correlation ≠ causation)

• It is important to critically examine whether there are alternative explanations for the observed patterns between these factors and criminal outcomes

• A critical lens is needed to challenge arguments about inherent criminality among people of certain backgrounds

• (E.g. age, gender, soceconomic status, race, location)

Age (correlate 1)

Observed patterns:

• Participation in crime generally declines with age

• Age range of most offending = 15-19 years old

• Peak arrest age for property crimes (16) and violent crimes (18)

• Criminal behaviour tends to decline after age 20

What is going on here? Possible explanations:

1. Age-crime relationship may be impacted by our data and methods

• Measurement of youth crime rates is sensitive to legal, police, and media influence

• ‘Youthful’ types of crime may just be more visible or targeted by the CJS

2. Young people have less social power and fewer resources to avoid criminal processing and to resist deviant labels

• There is likely an overrepresentation of young people in crime statistics

What might explain “aging out” of crime? Possible explanations:

1. Decline in health and physical fitness (weak empirical support)

2. Social changes that encourage conformity as you get older: employment, relationships, parenthood, etc.

3. Fewer criminal opportunities for adults

4. Adolescence is a transitional life period in which there is more fluidity in one’s sense of self

Gender (Correlate 2)

Observed pattern:

• Men commit more crimes than women (“gender gap” in offending)

• Gender is the strongest demographic predictor of criminal behaviour

• Men make up over 80% of all arrests in the United States since 2000

• Higher crime rate among men tends to be universal (across time/place)

• Gender differences in crime rates depend on the type of crime

What explains the “gender gap”? Possible explanations:

1. Biological differences between men and women

• High levels of testosterone are associated with more aggression, risk- taking, and criminal behaviours among men (weak empirical support)

2. Gender role socialization and reinforcement of traditional gender roles

• Crime is compatible with masculinity, but not femininity

• Boys learn more violent definitions of appropriate behaviour that are reinforced with parental discipline

3. State paternalism “protects” female offenders and skews our perceptions of gendered criminality

What explains the closing of the “gender gap” in offending?

• Increase in egalitarian social values in modern Western societies leads to more criminal opportunities for women

• “Role convergence hypothesis” = as women increasingly join the paid workforce and take on similar work roles as men, there will be an increase in female crime

• Over time, criminal behaviour may be reducing among men, while it is simultaneously increasing among women

Socioeconomic Status (Correlate 3)

Observed pattern:

• Higher crime rates among those with low SES

• Pattern may be skewed by the limitations of official UCR crime data

• Proposed bimodal distribution of crime rates based on levels of SES'

The empirical relationship between social class and crime is complex and subject to much debate in the literature

• There are contradictory findings across studies that use self-report data

• Different measurements of SES (e.g., income, education, etc.) tend to predict different crime outcomes

• Some types of offending appear to be associated with higher levels of SES (e.g., cybercrime)

• Common conclusion among criminologists: Lower class individuals are likely overrepresented in the CJS (and in official crime statistics)

Race (Correlate 4)

Observed pattern:

Racial/ethnic differences in crime rates

• Overrepresentation of Black and Latino/a/x Americans in U.S. criminal justice system (CJS)

• Overrepresentation of Indigenous and Black Canadians in Canadian CJS

• Racial differences are explained in numerous ways by criminologists:

  1. Differential offending hypothesis vs. Differential treatment hypothesis

  2. Historical legacy of slavery and oppression

  3. “Trauma transmission model”

Differential offending hypothesis

• Actual differences in offending patterns between racial groups

• Differential treatment hypothesis

• Observed differences in CJS outcomes for racialized groups are a function of structural inequalities in the administration of justice:

  1. Police pay more attention to racial minorities

  2. Police may be influenced by race in the exercise of their discretion and authority

  3. CJS may be influenced by race in the course of law-making and sentencing

  4. Racialized neighbourhoods are subject to greater police surveillance

Historical legacy of slavery and oppression

• Various social institutions in the U.S. serve to enforce racial hierarchies, placing a disproportionate generational burden on Black Americans

• CJS is part of a lineage of punitive “peculiar” institutions that enforce the racial hierarchy: Slavery > Jim Crow laws > ghettos > mass incarceration (Wacquant)

• Argument that racial differences in crime rates are a product of “institutional racism” (critical race theory)

Trauma transmission mode

• There are intergenerational psychological harms associated with historical oppression

• Experiences of colonialism or cultural genocide contribute to “learned helplessness” and subsequent self-blame, low self-esteem, and (sometimes) hostility

• Traumatic memories are passed between generations via inherited predispositions to PTSD, intergenerational violence/abuse, storytelling

• Often used to explain “victimless” crimes like substance abuse

Location (Correlate 5)

Observed pattern: Crime rates differ by geographic regions  UCR data indicates more crime in urban areas with rates increasing as the size of the community increases  Community characteristics may impact crime rates  Increased police scrutiny in “high- risk” neighbourhoods

Intersectionality

A complex combinations of age, gender, SES, and race that produce unique outcomes and experiences with crime and the CJS

• Considers the existence of cumulative disadvantages within the CJS

• Considers the relationship between identity and social power

• Important concept for critical criminologist

Origins of the classical school

The Classical School of criminology emerged from The Enlightenment movement (18th century)  Prominent ideas: Free will, reason, rational thought  Crime violates the “social contract” and harms society  Cesare Beccaria believed that crime results from active choices toward rational self-interests  Fear of punishment can reduce criminal choices by shifting the offender’s calculation about the better outcome between deviance vs. conformity

Punishment should be about crime prevention  Beccaria argued that the punishment ought to fit the seriousness of the crime (“proportionality” principle)  Punishment should only be just severe enough to shift the calculation that crime is a good decision

Punishment should be about crime prevention Jeremy Bentham (1748-1833)  Jeremy Bentham added that the law should reflect “the greatest good for the greatest many” (utilitarianism)  Like crime, punishment also causes harm, so it is only justified if it prevents greater evil than it creates  Punishment exceeding the amount needed to prevent crime is an indicator of an unjust society  Influential books published in the late 18th century critiqued the law as condoning unjust punishment  Beccaria: On Crimes and Punishment (1764)  Bentham: Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789

Rational Choice Theory

• Crime is the result of an individual calculation that perceives the benefits (pleasures) of crime to outweigh the costs (pains) of getting caught and punished

• All criminal activity derives from rational decision-making (choice)

• Different calculations for different types of crimes'

• Offenders may make different rational calculations when weighing the costs and benefits of crime

• Accounts for situational factors and ethics, perceived opportunity, and social structure considerations

• Policy implication: Increase the costs of crime or make it less attractive than conformity

Deterrence

Deterrence = Choices to engage in criminal behaviour can be discouraged by increasing the fear of its consequences

• Because humans are rational, shifting perceptions of punishment can prevent or reduce criminal outcomes

• Both legal and social consequences can be deterrents

• 3 characteristics of legal punishment that influence the effectiveness of deterrence: certainty, celerity (speed), and severity

Specific deterrence = Personal experience with punishment should prevent repeat offending (recidivism)

General deterrence = Observing punishment sets an example that should prevent others’ future criminal choices

THE “NEOCLASSICAL” SCHOOL

• An approach to crime that is grounded in the concept of rational choice but that views the accused as exempted from conviction if circumstances prevented the exercise of free will

• Classical explanations were challenged by the sociological turn in Criminology, but re-emerged in the 1970s as an opposition to rehabilitation-based criminal justice policies

• This re-emergence is captured within the “Neoclassical School”

• Modern neoclassical theories are pragmatic and suggest policies/practices aimed at changing rational calculations and reducing the availability of criminal opportunities (e.g., Routine Activity Theory)

True or False: All deviant behaviours are
crimes.
a. True
b. False

B

Michael is scolded for chewing with his mouth
open at a family gathering. What type of norm is
he breaking?
a. Law
b. More
c. Folkway
d. Statute

C

Which of the following is NOT a disadvantage of
the “statistical rarity” approach to defining
deviance?
a. It is unclear what is meant by “rare”
b. Many, if not most, deviant acts are hidden from the
public
c. Commonality does not perfectly align with
acceptability
d. It focuses only on violations of obscure or
uncommon rules

D

Which data source is NOT considered a
source of official crime rates?
a. Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
b. Offender interviews
c. Victimization surveys (NCVS)
d. All of the above report official crime
statistics

B

One of the limitations of self-report victimization
data is “telescoping”. What is the definition of
this concept?
a. Recalling victimization experiences that happened to
a family member
b. Falsely admitting to crimes
c. Underrepresenting offenses done by a relative or
partner
d. Recalling victimization experiences from before the
time period in question

D

The “role convergence hypothesis” tries
to explain which of the following gaps?
a. Age gap in crime
b. Race gap in crime
c. Gender gap in crime
d. Gap between one’s experiences as an
offender and as a victim

C

A recent report found that Black and Latino/a/x
drivers in Massachusetts are more likely to be
searched during traffic stops. What hypothesis
do these data support?
a. Differential offending hypothesis
b. Trauma transmission hypothesis
c. Differential treatment hypothesis
d. Power-control hypothesis

C

When deterrence is aimed at reducing an
individual’s likelihood of re-offending,
this is called ______________.
a. Specific deterrence
b. General deterrence
c. Restrictive deterrence
d. Rational deterrence

A

Which of the following is NOT a
situational element included in Routine
Activity Theory?
a. Suitable target
b. Motivated offender
c. Lack of capable guardians
d. Proportional punishment

D

Which of the following is TRUE about the theory
of super-male criminals?
a. It rejects the notion of the “born criminal”
b. It aims to explain why violent crime rates are
highest among individuals with low socioeconomic
status
c. It applies to a large majority of incarcerated male
offenders
d. There is weak evidence that XYY chromosomes
cause violent offending in men

D

Social desirability bias

People may respond to offender data surveys in ways they feel are more socially acceptable (+ fear of self-incrimination)

Role convergence hypothesis

As women increasingly join the paid workforce and take on similar work roles as men, there will be an increase in female crime

Differential offending hypothesis vs Differential treatment hypothesis

Differential offending:

• Actual differences in offending patterns between racial groups

  VS

Differential treatment:

• Observed differences in CJS outcomes for racialized groups are a function of structural inequalities in the administration of justice:

  1. Police pay more attention to racial minorities

  2. Police may be influenced by race in the exercise of their discretion and authority

  3. CJS may be influenced by race in the course of law-making and sentencing

  4. Racialized neighbourhoods are subject to greater police surveillance

Routine Activity Theory

Highlights the importance of three elements coming together for criminal activity to occur.

• a potential offender

• a suitable target

• and the absence of a capable guardian

Trauma transmission mode

• There are intergenerational psychological harms associated with historical oppression

• Experiences of colonialism or cultural genocide contribute to “learned helplessness” and subsequent self-blame, low self-esteem, and (sometimes) hostility

• Traumatic memories are passed between generations via inherited predispositions to PTSD, intergenerational violence/abuse, storytelling

• Often used to explain “victimless” crimes like substance abuse

Super-male criminals theory

Hypothesis that violence among men can be explained by having a XYY chromosomal pattern

• “Super-males” have an extra Y chromosome (extra “maleness”) that creates a strong compulsion toward violent crime

• Weak empirical evidence and limited scope of the theory have led to its rejection since it was first introduced in the 1960s
  

Situational Crime Prevention

Cesare Lombroso

The Criminal Man
(1876)

• Founder of positivist criminology

• The born criminal is an “atavism” or throwback to an earlier, more primitive stage of human evolution

• Lombroso looked for patterns in
  the physiological differences
  between soldiers and prisoners
   He aimed to identify the
  abnormal traits common to born
  criminals, which he called
  “stigmata”
   E.g., asymmetrical face/head, large
  lips, twisted nose, long arms, extra
  fingers/toes, other “deformities”,
  etc

Critiques towards early biological theories

Early biological theories were criticized for:
 Promoting eugenics
 Neglecting sociological factors in the commission of crime
 Methodological weaknesses: correlation analyses, selection biases
 Theories are often non-testable and use tautological reasoning
 Discrediting these theories led to a prolonged absence
of biological factors in the criminological literature

Modern biological explanations

Modern biological explanations focus on aspects of
biochemistry, neurophysiology, and genetics

• Neurophysiological explanations hypothesize that brain deficits can serve as risky pathways to crime (mixed support for poor prenatal care and head injuries)

• Genetic explanations hypothesize that criminality may be inherited through genes that lead to traits such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness, impulsivity (moderate
  support)
   Methods: twin studies, adoption studies, molecular genetics
   There is no single “crime gene”
   Evolutionary perspectives on heritability have not been fully tested and there is no concrete evidence that genes causing “criminal” traits serve an evolutionary advantage

Psychological explanations

Psychological explanations of crime argue that the
mind is the root cause of criminal behaviours:
1. Mental health conditions as risk factors for crime
2. Psychodynamic theory: All behaviours, including crime, are based on an interaction between the conscious and unconscious aspects of our mind (id vs. ego vs. superego)
3. “Criminal” personalities (e.g., psychopathy)

Biosocial criminology

Modern movement emphasizing the interplay between
biological and social variables in criminality (nature and nurture)
 Argue that biological factors (genetics) create predispositions to crime that are then activated or not by social or other environmental factors
 Dual hazard prediction = being raised in a neglectful or abusive family is more likely to activate the underlying biological predispositions (growing support)

Dual hazard prediction

The argument that people are most likely to engage in criminal behavior if they …

1. Have traits associated with crime

2. Are raised in environments conducive to criminal behavior

Control Theory

A theory that describes criminal behavior as a natural outcome of people's desire to seek pleasure in the absence of effective social controls

Sociological Positivism

Positivism continues to be a guiding paradigm in
criminology
 Shift from a focus on internal factors to external social factors
 “Sociological positivism” suggests that there are objective qualities of the social world that we can measure and test in our theories